i2 batteries slowly dying?......

[drmarty]

As Ryan points out you are not running them to zero. You are reaching the cutoff for these packs and that is all the farther we can make them go. With Lithium cobalt oxide technology when you run them significantly lower than 3.0v per cell supposedly you get a structural change where the cathode shrinks and pulls away and you cannot recover from it. So you never go below 3v per cell. I am fairly sure the Lithium iron phosphate cells we use are similar. There may a few tenths of a volt difference in the values.

So the electronics in the pack prevent them from ever going too low. (They also prevent overcharging etc.) But the only way they tell us to calibrate the infokey is to run them down. I think doing it occasionally is OK and maybe even good. Occasionally. I wouldn't do it every month. I would do it only to verify whether the cells are going bad or ? once a year just for maintenance.

I am a doctor so I will make the analogy to getting xrays. OK occasionally and especially if you need them but don't get them just because. You know like the new wave of whole body scans. Glow in the dark scans. If you want one in your late forties or fifties OK but not every year.

good luck.

Marty

[JIO]

I went out gliding yesterday in 58 degree weather, and everything was fine. When I started the i2, it showed 8 bars, and after 6 miles it only lost 2 bars. Everything seems normal again. It's gotta be the cold weather that kills the batteries.

Thanks for all the comments.