I’m not all down on electric cars but until the batteries become much better and much cheaper they’re not going to make economic sense.
Nor for electric mowers. Just over four years ago I bought a Bosch rotary with a 36v 4.0aH battery, and the other week foolishly forgot to recharge it for a few days after it had run down. Now the charger just flashes its red light and all sources advise a new battery - a three figure sum !!!! (yes, I've tried deep freezing it). Should've stuck to petrol.
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I’m not all down on electric cars but until the batteries become much better and much cheaper they’re not going to make economic sense.
Nor for electric mowers. Just over four years ago I bought a Bosch rotary with a 36v 4.0aH battery, and the other week foolishly forgot to recharge it for a few days after it had run down. Now the charger just flashes its red light and all sources advise a new battery - a three figure sum !!!! (yes, I've tried deep freezing it). Should've stuck to petrol.
Same here. I bought a Cobra mower. Battery life in cold weathet (Autumn to Spring) stinks. Charging takes ages. A second battery costs as much as a petrol mower. One battery barely custs my lawn in summer despite the unrealistic claims by the maker.
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What are these mower batteries made of, you could buy a battery powered cylinder mower donkeys years ago, basically a medium sized car/leisure battery which even these days only costs about £50/70 for a good quality known make, no special battery chargers needed because the one you use for your car battery is entirely suitable.
The eternal issue with these things is not to let them go flat during the off season, i lost a good and expensive Varta on my not presently used old Merc, it was plugged in to the CTEC and as happens too often the charger died unbeknown to me and so did the battery, sadly i've found the CTEC's to be about as reliable as the Lidl jobbies in smart charging, i can forgive the Lidl offerings due to costing about a third of the CTEC equivalent, i'm back to using my real old school charger which isn't frail.
Edited by gordonbennet on 08/09/2019 at 11:19
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What are these mower batteries made of, you could buy a battery powered cylinder mower donkeys years ago, basically a medium sized car/leisure battery which even these days only costs about £50/70 for a good quality known make, no special battery chargers needed because the one you use for your car battery is entirely suitable.
The eternal issue with these things is not to let them go flat during the off season, i lost a good and expensive Varta on my not presently used old Merc, it was plugged in to the CTEC and as happens too often the charger died unbeknown to me and so did the battery, sadly i've found the CTEC's to be about as reliable as the Lidl jobbies in smart charging, i can forgive the Lidl offerings due to costing about a third of the CTEC equivalent, i'm back to using my real old school charger which isn't frail.
They are lithium ion batteries, costing £50 to £100+ depending on capacity. They are very robust and will last ~500 charges.
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They are lithium ion batteries, costing £50 to £100+ depending on capacity. They are very robust and will last ~500 charges.
Well, mine isn't. It has been re-charged far fewer times than an average of once weekly over the past four years. On opening it up (eight screws) it reveals a number of Li-ion cells surmounted by a delicate-looking printed circuit board, onto which are soldered a number of electronic components about which I have absolutely no knowledge at all. Sadly, I made the mistake of buying something I don't fully understand, can't diagnostically test, and even if I could, couldn't repair.
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John F.
It's possible that your battery is OK. Unfortunately the circuit board you have seen is basically a computer which needs power (from the battery). So it can't communicate with the charger. If you can feed the battery with a trickle charger (36V probably means a bench power supply) it may wake up.
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Thanks for the suggestion. Although 'dead' it still shows 36 ish volts on the voltmeter. Perhaps not enough power to activate its computer or charger? Sadly, I have no access to 36volts. I wonder whether to gamble £14 on a simple 36v bike battery charger?
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Was reading an article in the i paper a couple of weeks ago. The journalist was lent a VW Golf [E]? to go from west London to Cornwall.
He admitted that he forgot to charge it the night before his journey but he had to charge 4 times in total on the trip down, which took 9 hours [instead of the anticipated 6 hours] and had a squeaky bum for the last 5 miles!!
Suppose he was lucky that the charging points were working/ not in use?
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Perhaps he could try the same trip next year in the forthcoming VW ID.3 electric car to see how things might have improved! Or if he can't wait that long, try a Tesla Model 3. The eGolf isn't known for a long battery range.
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According to an article in What Car magazine on the 'actual range' of electric cars, the Golf e will do 121miles (vs a claimed 186). Not sure where in Cornwall the Journo was going, but even Penzance is just over 300 miles, so not sure why 4 charges would be needed one way?.
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According to an article in What Car magazine on the 'actual range' of electric cars, the Golf e will do 121miles (vs a claimed 186). Not sure where in Cornwall the Journo was going, but even Penzance is just over 300 miles, so not sure why 4 charges would be needed one way?.
It all depends on how he drove it as well. Giving it full beans to accelerate up to speed would surely help deplete the battery at a faster rate?
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It's all about battery capacity and charging time.
First 80% : fast charge
Last 20% slow slow
So all the talk of a real 121 miles range is really in real life - if you need to charge on a journey - only 96 miles and a bit - assuming you wait for 80% charging..
The journalist probably timed his stops to cater for meals/toilet breaks and mobile use.. so probably charged 50% at times..
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It all depends on how he drove it as well. Giving it full beans to accelerate up to speed would surely help deplete the battery at a faster rate?
I think that is the point in real world range tests, to see how far an electric car will go while being driven in a manner likely by the average driver. This is not going to be thrashing the car mercilessly, as very few people drive that way, but presumably will include overtaking, accelerating up to mototway/dual carriageway speeds etc. The net result of which, to me, means that it could go further (though maybe not an extra 65 miles!) on a charge if being driven deliberately to maximise the range.
Granted, those 4 charges might have been to do with where charging points were available as opposed to actually needing it, but i'd have thought in such a heavily populated area there wouldn't be a shortage of charging points?. Going on the Zap-Map website certainly seems to suggest a huge selection of charging points in between London and Cornwall.
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It's all about battery capacity and charging time.
First 80% : fast charge
Last 20% slow slow
So all the talk of a real 121 miles range is really in real life - if you need to charge on a journey - only 96 miles and a bit - assuming you wait for 80% charging..
The journalist probably timed his stops to cater for meals/toilet breaks and mobile use.. so probably charged 50% at times..
It's not even as good as that - the experts recommend you don't use the last 20% of battery capacity as doing so repeatedly will shorten battery life - so the real practical range is 100-20-20 so just 60% of quoted range.
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