Kept charger plugged in after full

[Peteyditty]

I accidentally kept my charger plugged into my new EUC for several hours after it was full, is this bad ??

[UniVehje]

No. It’s actually good. You have balanced the cells, which is very important. 

[Paul A]

Maybe overcharged though?

[OldFartRides]

The bad part was that the charging was done unattended. 

[Tawpie]

Several hours, or even a few days won't be noticeable over the life of the wheel... it is true that in order to max out your battery life you want to spend as little time at full charge as possible (charge, then ride), but you'll have tens of thousands of kilometers of enjoyment on the wheel before you'd notice that the capacity is lower than it might have been. If you leave your wheel on the charger 24/7 and rarely ride it, you battery will be noticeably degraded in a year or two... but if you're not riding it, do you really care?

You DO however, ALWAYS, want to charge to green-light plus 1-2 hours when you do charge so the pack will balance—a perpetually unbalanced pack will be evident in a few thousand kilometers. Because an unbalanced pack can result in damage to individual cells, allowing your pack to remain unbalanced does increase the fire hazard. You do not have to charge every time you ride, Li Ion batteries don't care. Charge when you need to.

The least stress way to approach this is to ride your wheel. When you're done, store the wheel without recharging somewhere you'd be comfortable hanging around for a few hours in a light weight jacket. Not too hot, not below freezing. Plan ahead a bit, and before your next ride if you need more charge, charge the wheel to green-light plus an hour or two. If you're only planning a short ride and you've plenty of % to cover it, don't bother charging. Again, do the charging somewhere you yourself would be comfortable temperature wise—batteries are happiest at the same temperatures that people like.

I'm probably wrong, but I don't recall incidents where a wheel has caught fire while charging, most seem to happen when the wheel is just sitting there or is being ridden. But it's still a good idea to keep an eye on the wheel when it's charging just in case. Kind of like locking your doors is a good idea. The things that fall into the do-not-ever-do category are charging a frozen battery, or one that is baking hot, or one that you suspect might be damaged (super bad crash, physical damage, battery suddenly changes its behavior etc.).

[meepmeepmayer]

This is good.

You should do this regularly, it balances the cells (it levels tiny voltage differences between the individual battery cells). Balancing only happens near/at full battery with the current battery packs used in electric unicycles. Balancing prevents uneven wear on the cells, which would slightly lower the battery's life span or even cause failure if it gets extreme (really really unrealistically extreme).

So you should do this like every 10 charge cycles or once a month or so (1 cycle = charging a total of 100%, like charging from 30% to 80% twice), it keeps your battery healthy.

There's no such thing as overcharging, the battery stops the charging eventually. If it didn't, it would go up in flames, you would have noticed that

-

In general, people worry too much about their batteries and how to treat them. Don't worry, enjoy the ride - but balancing occasionally isn't bad either.

[Paul A]

This Nikola caught on fire while charging.

The wheel Gotway Nikola 100V, 1800 Wh, release of november 2019 used for 9 months, mileage 5000 km. Сaught fire during charging in my house, the wheel was pulled out by me into the street, from the moment the fire started, until the moment when I reacted to it, it took about 7 seconds, 7 - 10 seconds took the process of pulling out. immediately after that, the wheel began to explode, no design changes were made to it, there were no shocks or moisture ingress, the original charger was used.

 

 

[.....]

If you didnt smell anything VERY odd, and it rides fine. Don't worry. As mentioned, MOST chargers won't allow overcharging anyhow. If you DID overcharge it, you'd know as the smell is strong and very unique. I've forgotten mine on chargers now and then. My house still stands, my wheels still ride.

[Peteyditty]

Thank you all!! What charger do you recommend for Begode rs 1800 speed? I heard someone mention a variable charger?

I kept it unattended because I charge it down stairs. I have a 4 story skinny house where each level is basically a room and I dont want to lug it all the way to the 3rd floor. I feel it would be safer on the bottom floor in case of a fire the firefighters can get to it easily.

[Tawpie]

32 minutes ago, Peteyditty said:

What charger do you recommend for Begode rs 1800 speed?

The stock charger will work fine! But if you want to charge faster, there are many many choices.

32 minutes ago, Peteyditty said:

I heard someone mention a variable charger?

The 'variable' chargers you hear about refer to being able to change the maximum amount of current the charger will output during the constant voltage portion of the charge cycle and being able to change the point at which the charger will stop charging. I purchased a 'fast' charger from eWheels that has output current adjustable between 1 and 5 amps, and will stop charging at 80%, 90% and 100%. It was expensive but it fits how I want to charge my wheel. I purchased from eWheels because they'll stand behind their products, but this means I paid 2x or more for the charger. They're widely available on Amazon, Ali and other market places.

As I mentioned, I ride, then charge before I ride aiming to finish charging (green light + 1-2 hours) right near the time I intend to go ride again. This means I want to charge as quickly as I can, so having the ability to push 5 amps cuts my charge time considerably. Keep in mind that the higher current capability is only used during the constant current portion of the charge cycle. Once the constant current cycle is done, the charger switches to constant voltage mode to finish the charge and during this phase the current drawn from the charger goes down as the battery nears full charge so having a charger capable of more current is moot during this phase.

I had never intended to use the ability to stop the charge at 80 or 90% charge because doing so would mean the pack wouldn't get balanced but recently, to shorten the day-of-ride charge time, after a long ride (under 50% remaining—I pretty much always charge when it gets below 50%) I've been letting the wheel cool down for an hour or so then I plug in the high power charger set to stop at 80%. My 16X is drawing about 1.6A when the 80% cutoff happens, we're pretty well into constant voltage. The next day, I plug in the stock 1.5A charger to finish the charge cycle (including balance) before I ride. I could turn the fast charger to 100% and use it to finish, but the stock charger has no fan and is much quieter. What's kind of nice about this is if I don't ride the next day and the next, the wheel is still pretty well charged and only needs to finish and balance before I ride. I don't feel bad about leaving it sit for a week at 80%, but if I broke my leg or something and wasn't going to be riding for months I'd store it at 40%.

Lots and lots of words, I apologize. I got this fancy new keyboard and...

34 minutes ago, Peteyditty said:

I have a 4 story skinny house where each level is basically a room

Just be sure not to block your exit!

[Peteyditty]

On 10/24/2021 at 2:17 PM, Tawpie said:

The stock charger will work fine! But if you want to charge faster, there are many many choices.

The 'variable' chargers you hear about refer to being able to change the maximum amount of current the charger will output during the constant voltage portion of the charge cycle and being able to change the point at which the charger will stop charging. I purchased a 'fast' charger from eWheels that has output current adjustable between 1 and 5 amps, and will stop charging at 80%, 90% and 100%. It was expensive but it fits how I want to charge my wheel. I purchased from eWheels because they'll stand behind their products, but this means I paid 2x or more for the charger. They're widely available on Amazon, Ali and other market places.

As I mentioned, I ride, then charge before I ride aiming to finish charging (green light + 1-2 hours) right near the time I intend to go ride again. This means I want to charge as quickly as I can, so having the ability to push 5 amps cuts my charge time considerably. Keep in mind that the higher current capability is only used during the constant current portion of the charge cycle. Once the constant current cycle is done, the charger switches to constant voltage mode to finish the charge and during this phase the current drawn from the charger goes down as the battery nears full charge so having a charger capable of more current is moot during this phase.

I had never intended to use the ability to stop the charge at 80 or 90% charge because doing so would mean the pack wouldn't get balanced but recently, to shorten the day-of-ride charge time, after a long ride (under 50% remaining—I pretty much always charge when it gets below 50%) I've been letting the wheel cool down for an hour or so then I plug in the high power charger set to stop at 80%. My 16X is drawing about 1.6A when the 80% cutoff happens, we're pretty well into constant voltage. The next day, I plug in the stock 1.5A charger to finish the charge cycle (including balance) before I ride. I could turn the fast charger to 100% and use it to finish, but the stock charger has no fan and is much quieter. What's kind of nice about this is if I don't ride the next day and the next, the wheel is still pretty well charged and only needs to finish and balance before I ride. I don't feel bad about leaving it sit for a week at 80%, but if I broke my leg or something and wasn't going to be riding for months I'd store it at 40%.

Lots and lots of words, I apologize. I got this fancy new keyboard and...

Just be sure not to block your exit!

Thanks so much! Really good info. You all are awesome, a newb like me would be totally lost. Thanks for the advice, the exit was blocked so I moved it to a different location.

[duanew]

I use EUC World's charging controller to monitor my charging and manage charge level on my KS 16x.  I don't get to ride during the week, so I usually charge to 80% on Sunday.  On Friday, I finish charging and balancing.  It also shuts off the charge after sufficient time for balancing to finish. I have added EUC world to my tablet so I dont have to make sure to keep Bluetooth to my phone.  I have also used the graphs generated to help figure out why one of my other large external batteries that I use with my Onewheel wasn't balancing correctly. It is very usefull.