Button batteries/Cateye comp in the winter fails.

[night cycler]

I am blaming the cold batteries after a recent fail part through a ride.

Now I bring the cateye indoors after a ride. It slides out easy enough. Currently it is on the radiator (on top of some cloth material so it does not melt). I did ponder the idea of trying to fabricate some sort of shield around it in the cold. But my creative side has not come up with anything yet. Ideas welcome

 

[Moodyman]

I am blaming the cold batteries after a recent fail part through a ride.

Now I bring the cateye indoors after a ride. It slides out easy enough. Currently it is on the radiator (on top of some cloth material so it does not melt). I did ponder the idea of trying to fabricate some sort of shield around it in the cold. But my creative side has not come up with anything yet. Ideas welcome

Batteries charged in a warm environment drain quickly in a cold use environment. It’s recommended you charge the battery in a cold place - garage or shed. This is because batteries, particularly Nimh battteries in bike lights, have a memory.

Charged in the cold they last longer when used in the cold.

 

[albion]

Cold increases resistance so I would think the batteries would fail faster charged cold.
20 Centigrade is probably best.

 

[N0bodyOfTheGoat]

The other day I was curious as to whether you can get neoprene covers for ebike batteries, so that you charge them inside at ~20C, before fitting the cover to go for a ride outdoors in the cold...

Indeed you can!

Now I just need to find a suitable one for the downtube integrated one on my ebike, ~20cm circumference iirc, just in case I go out on it over winter.

Must be something similar available for bike lights, although you might not want to cover the illuminated bit.

 

[presta]

Are you saying that your computer stops when it's cold and then works again when you warm it up? That's normal. All batteries work better when warm, so if you have one that's on its last legs it will show up first when it's cold. With a good battery in, my Cateye computer worked fine in temperatures cold enough to freeze the water in my bottles. New battery time.

 

[a.twiddler]

Is this the start of a trend -knitting socks for ebike batteries?

 

[Dadam]

Batteries charged in a warm environment drain quickly in a cold use environment. It’s recommended you charge the battery in a cold place - garage or shed. This is because batteries, particularly Nimh battteries in bike lights, have a memory.

Charged in the cold they last longer when used in the cold.

Memory effect was a real property of nickel cadmium cells. Not so much with NiMH. There is a minor voltage depression effect fixable by a full discharge/charge cycle.
But as a generalisation with modern batteries, it is largely a myth.

In general the recommendation is to avoid charging batteries of any chemistry in cold conditions.

 

[albion]

Conversely I read that charging Lithium at much elevated temperatures increases capacity but decreases longevity.

 

[night cycler]

Batteries charged in a warm environment drain quickly in a cold use environment. It’s recommended you charge the battery in a cold place - garage or shed. This is because batteries, particularly Nimh battteries in bike lights, have a memory.

Charged in the cold they last longer when used in the cold.

I did not know that there was rechargable button batteries. How long they been available.

 

[Moodyman]

I did not know that there was rechargable button batteries. How long they been available.

Yeah, I missed that bit. Ignore what I said.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Are you sure the charge level wasn’t already very low? Batteries lose capacity when cold, but unless seriously sub zero should still function.

 

[cyberknight]

on a similar vein my edge 130 battery life is dire in winter , i need to charge mid week whereas in summer i can squeeze a week of commuting out of it in summer.