Winter storage battery tips?

[artfull dodger]

Neither my wife or I ride thru the Indiana winters. Bikes are kept in a cold shed. I am guessing remove the batteries(both fully charged right now) and store them in the house till above freezing temps return next spring?

 

[ElHegpah]

First, DO NOT STORE THE BATTERY FULLY CHARGED! Permanent damage will result. Store at approx 60% of charge.

Definitely store indoors away from freezing temps.

Now, the tricky part. The BMS in the battery is a parasitic drain, and not easily disabled. VERY, VERY small drain, but unfortunately, all of it on just one cell group. Over 2, or 4, or 6 months, this can totally drain that cell group past the point of no return and totally destroy your battery, requiring replacement or rebuild.

Ideal solution would be a variable charger you can set to a 60% charge, (expensive, and you would ideally also a BMS with a controllable balancing voltage threshold), next best do a full charge then ride down to 60% every couple months, (not super feasible in winter, and that controllable BMS would help), or, every couple months charge for approx 1/2 to one or more hours, ratio of amp rate of charger and total of battery AH rating, and a judgement call. The fancy BMS would help here, too. But, they are rare, almost unknown on commercial bikes, most folks do not understand the value, may be common some day but not today.

Then, when riding season arrives, do an overnight charge to give balancing function time to bring the low cell group up to full charge.

You can get more data on best procedure for your individual case by partially disassembly of battery, and DVM testing on the individual cell groups at the sense wires after removing the plug from the BMS, but most folks will not dig that deep.

 

[artfull dodger]

Not sure how we will get them down to 60%. Maybe we will get some warmer days to ride but the days that are warm, its raining. Typical Indiana fall weather. Along with me working 2nd shift and she works day shift so we dont see each other and ride thru the week. Bikes are Mokwheel Basalt.

 

[Hoggdoc]

Not sure how we will get them down to 60%. Maybe we will get some warmer days to ride but the days that are warm, its raining. Typical Indiana fall weather. Along with me working 2nd shift and she works day shift so we dont see each other and ride thru the week. Bikes are Mokwheel Basalt.

Indeed a reliable way to discharge batteries sure is needed , yet no one has stepped up with a solution. Not only would there need to have a device to discharge through, but adapters for all the various types of connectors on the batteries.

 

[ElHegpah]

You can connect a lightbulb or a number of other ways.

Ideally, the OP would have made themselves aware of storage requirements BEFORE winter arrived, But there is a reason RTFM is a joke.