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KS16B 680Wh: Normal range during winter?


cm16600

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Hi ,

I newly purchased  a KS 16B 680Wh, i live in the north of Sweden and i am commuting to work 8 km/5 miles one way. I am riding on snow and ice in a temp range varying from -10 C/14 F to +3C/37 F.

if i  do not recharge at work i do have  between 15 and 20% battery left when i am at home. I do not see any difference in range between the temp span that i mentionned. I am a bit surprised that i can only run so Little with that battery capacity. I understand that cold weather is affecting the range but i did not expect that. I am a beginner and have started to ride in January so i cannot compare with other weather conditions. I thought i would need to recharge every other day but now this is for  every ride. My weight is 85 kg/187lbs , average speed is 20kmh /12.4mph

My question to you guys is does this seems normal? will i have amuch  greater range above 10C/50F?

Thank you for your inputs.

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Hi,

Is your KS inside (room temperature) when you leave home and your job? If it is so, I think the battery will not get very cold in 8 km ride.

I think you should get more range with 680Wh?

ps. I have GW mcm4 680Wh but I do not ride it during winter. Summertime I can ride more than 30km...

 

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Hi Pasi,

Yes the unicycle is at room temp when i leave for a ride. I bought it used but it only had 315 km / 195 miles total and now about 515km/320miles.The unit was in absolut new condition and so do not think the user stressed the unit  during the time he owned it.

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@cm16600 do you have any app which can show you temp inside the KS (board temp)?

Hope some one how knows KS better answer you. 

I think it should generated some heat during your ride, at BMS and battery too, so it can not get very cold inside the euc when you leave inside.

btw I have a cheap energy meter I connect between the wall outlet and the charger. I can see quite precisely how much energy (Wh) I can charge in one time.

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Yes, that seems kind of low, but remember, battery percentage stat is an approximation, not an absolute measure. It is, I believe, the percentage of your reduced battery capacity / shrinkage due to cold weather, so I don't think 20% of a battery in -10º means the same thing as 20% of that same battery in +3º.

I also find that the farther away from ~43ºF / 6ºC, the more any Lithium battery capacity seems to shrink, and this is more evident if there is a lot of wind.

Since the EUC was used, you might want to retrain the battery too (bring the battery all the way down to 0% then do a full recharge) in order to recalibrate the full battery percentage range.

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Just don't try to go too fast towards the last 10-15%, and I would do it when the weather is more mild, not in extreme winter. As you approach 0, the wheel should increasingly tiltback to the point where you can no longer ride it.

You shouldn't do this regularly, as continually riding the battery down below ~25% is a tremendous stress to Lithium batteries and will reduce battery life / cycle count.

But the occasional re-calibrate from 0 back to 100 is okay for this explicit purpose, recalibration.

I only mention this because you say the wheel has been used and the battery condition is unknown.

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5 hours ago, cm16600 said:

Thanks for your quick replies guys, @Pasi i ordered acharge doctor so i'll be able to know a bit more later on.

@houseofjob isn´t there any risk for the battery to drain it to 0?

 

 

 

I have done today 12 km ride -6 C in Poland, battery was nearly full at start. After finish 73 % left. The Ks 16 taken from worm place ~23 C. Quite fast ride, 70 % 25-28 km/h. Many cross roads, so accelerations. The light on - dark.

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@Robi Bobi Thanks for the feedback, if you are in the same weight range as I am there is definitely something strange with the battery range on my EUC. I think I would try to recalibrate it if it is possible as @houseofjob recommended. The other alternative is that this is not a 680Wh battery,the application though is showing 50+ kilometers range when  charged.

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I'd look inside that wheel and see if there are really two 340 Wh packs in there, and if both are operational. The range you get lets me guess you're battery has around half, maybe a bit more of the capacity it should have.

Maybe the preowner spoiled the battery by deep discharging or storing at full charge for longer time? How old is the wheel?

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Hard to imagine that the battery suffered that much in such a short time. Milage is not the important factor here, 315 km should be less than10 discharge cycles. However, time passed with extreme high or low charge stress the battery the most. Temerature extremes under load are also a major factor. But as I said, hard to imagine that someone reduces the capacity of the battery just by neglect that much, but not entirely impossible. Open the wheel and take a look if something is wrong in there. Anything else is just stabbing around in the dark.

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I have made around 15 km yesterday though the smog in Krakow at -2 C, with around 70 % left.  Starting from full charge warm room around 20 Celsius.  With medium fast ride 20-28 km/h battery temperature stayed almost the same - around  25 Celsius after the ride.  When fully equipped for winter conditions I am around 90 kg.

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11 hours ago, Robi Bobi said:

I have done today 12 km ride -6 C in Poland, battery was nearly full at start. After finish 73 % left. The Ks 16 taken from worm place ~23 C. Quite fast ride, 70 % 25-28 km/h. Many cross roads, so accelerations. The light on - dark.

My weight is 100 kg, I had fast drain with my daughter wheel ( 16 cells pack ),  There was least 1 cell out of normal parameters, (mean 4,05 V at full charged) that mean without the BMS other cells get more than 4.2 V per each. That state gonna brake your battery very quick. I don't know is the BMS ptotect against that? (Over charge every each not broken cell)

If the wheel get some water before, there can be unwanted conection in battery packs?

BTW I own my KS 16 Panasonic betteries since November 2016 , done 675 app km. Keep battery mostly full. Don't see any bad issues about battery conditions.

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Charged the battery with charge doctor from 0 to 100% i had 615 Wh so i guess i really do have a 680Wh battery in there. Rode an other 8km to work this morning at -2C and the battery level is a 70%, same as yesterday. It seems i will have to continue measurments during spring time when there is no snow to see if there are  any differences and maybe consider a battery replacement.

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seams a bit low....thats right! But beside the temperature, which definitly brings down range:

what does your commute way look like? If you have to break and accelerate a real lot or have some hills this still are normal numbers.

if you just drive around at continuos 20kmh on a round flat sport facility, that range can/will be more...

Is the charge doctor reporting about 67,0 or 67,1 Volt at the end?

 

As your CD reports 615wh your batterie seams to be pretty ok...so i would not point to a batterie problem...will be more the circumstances of weather, way and so on...

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@KingSong69  my commute is a mix of flat and low  slopes elevation is 25 m on the 8km commute. It is snowy and there is ice on the trail so i do need to accelerate and brake now and then. The charge doctor was reporting 67,2V after full charge. An other factor that could maybe impact the range is that after every ride there is quite a lot of snow packed under the wheel.Appart from the extra friction that the snow is providing i was thinking that maybe it is chilling the plastic housing and eventually the battery, that is only a supposition. I Guess i will have to be patient and wait untill spring to really see how the range is affected.@EUC Extreme, you are  riding in similar conditions if i recall ,have you expericed significant range decrease between seasons  I made a quick calculation and i am consuming about 25wh /km.

 

 

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