How to Test if Your eBike Battery is Dead

Just because your ebike is not working, doesnt necessarily mean you need a new battery. We detail how to use a meter and check if your ebike battery is truly dead.
Timestamps
0:00 Introduction
0:17 The Battery Isn't Always The Issue
0:40 How To Use A Meter To Test A Battery Voltage
2:45 Example Of A Dead Battery

[@DubDTube]

awesome vid man, clean, clear, to the point, bet this will gain traction, more and more devices, vehicles will have their lil battery #troubleshooting issues.

[@h-townautomotivetraining8219]

I bought a 48 v 17.5 AH pathfinder battery charged up installed in Quietkat Apex old battery worked bought battery as a back up to have extra range hunting . Well bike would not power up 51 DC volts + - but bike wouldn't power up . Testing as you have you would have concluded battery was good got a replacement battery under warranty battery worked great . What else could go bad with the failed battery?

[@lavanyasunder6249]

Do you only have to measure voltage? or is load/current/resistance important?

[@wiolettawozniak958]

works and looks wonderful

[@GodDamnFranz]

What setting do i turn the nob to on the multimeter?

[@user-2uf2kr2c]

Hello, can you test the mah on this battery and how? Regards

[@neilmartin1111]

Useless you need to test the battery under load using a load tester?

[@naveedqadri73]

I have E-bike with 6 battery pack of 12 volt each (72volt total). When I charge the batteries full , ebike meter shows 80 volts and bike runs good but when battery level downs to 69 volts ebike speed down to 6/7 km /hr. where the problem is ?

[@bobbieowen6400]

Im sick my Samebike 26A battery is giving me .264 volts no charge and whats weird the lights meter on battery show 2 green lights out of three. 1 year and 3 months after purchase. It was working in June. Any suggestions i wrote to Samebike.

[@20thcenturyfoxyoutube]

Set multimeter to DC

[@jamesdonaghy9777]

You didn’t explain if by testing a discharged battery could still tell if it’s good.

[@renovationnorwich7749]

What should it read when it is turned off? I have 2 bike batteries that show 20v... Seems high for a battery that is '' turned off''.

[@billadmond9450]

The "turn off" suggestion is misleading because not all batteries have a switch off option. I assume your batteries are 36V so 20V could be right but I can't say for sure without knowing any information.

[@MattConquer]

My eBike (48V, 15A) turns off after about 300 meters of riding, and I can only turn it on again after a hard reset (turning the battery Off-On using a key). I decided to measure the voltage on the battery and saw 72 volts. Can you help me figure out what's going on?

[@crazycutz8072]

Broken wire

[@robertmotion]

Great video. Question, I’m testing a bike that I’m gonna fix. Battery is 42v. Multimeter readout is .574, really. dead battery no juice, right? /Bklyn👑

[@TowerEBikes]

Hi Robert, most electric bike systems are 36v, 48v or 52v. If you're testing with a multimeter just make sure the battery is in the on position. A reading of .57 sounds like the battery is turned off. See if there is a switch to turn it on.

[@billadmond9450]

@@TowerEBikes You assume that all batteries have a switch which is wrong. I can tell you that 90% of these batteries don't have a switch unless they have a key which purposely switches the power off and unlocks the battery like for example the silverfish batteries. But there is more, my battery has no switch nor key but it has an internal electric switch off which triggers I think after around 10 minutes of inactivity. I felt like your video could be slightly a bit longer, talk a bit slower and give more details regarding settings on the multimeter, in my opinion you acted like people already know obvious and basic stuff.

[@JohnUsp]

You also need to do a Load test.

[@daveruttman6501]

look into the Reention Dorado housing design A lot less wiggle room.

[@TowerEBikes]

Way less wiggle room on those things. That style of battery is very proprietary, meaning if you need a replacement you're definitely gonna have to go through the same manufacturer as you bought your ebike.

[@markj6984]

That's wat I have. Great lol. I managed to fix it tho. All was due to a loose DC female plug on battery BMW was kicking bike off

[@billadmond9450]

@@TowerEBikes The manufacturer is not a manufacturer so everything is from China and everything is available on Aliexpress, there are even battery manufacturers' representatives on e-bike forums who advise on where to buy this stuff.

[@crazycutz8072]

3:23 3:23

[@markj6984]

so im pissed... i have a 48v battery that has been running perfectly fine for 2 years. i merly tested it because i was board and it reads 38v at full charge. wtf!!

[@TowerEBikes]

Hi Mark, that's strange that it was running perfectly fine at 38v unless it's actually a 36v system. There are voltage ranges for lithium batteries. Still 38v for a 48v system wouldn't give you perfect performance.

[@billadmond9450]

For a 48V battery the standard norm would be a cut off power below ~40V to protect the cells BUT every manufacturer have different settings. After 2 years your battery can loose ~70 of its original specifications depending on cells quality and charge cycles,

[@mytrigger5613]

So just turn it on to any voltage?

[@neilriewer5531]

yes if you have an auto ranging meter. If not, you will set the voltage to the range that is well over the anticipated voltage. on DC volts

[@magicalempire]

Measuring voltage does not solve the issue

[@kervilou5905]

yes

[@noctis008]

I'm getting 44v on my 36v battery. Still wouldnt work on two different bikes.

[@HammerHed13]

That's fully charged voltage.

[@kervilou5905]

not good !!!!! if it is a fuse ????????????????????

[@johnhyunyoon]

😊pl

[@norbertosoto3733]

Not helpful at all because maybe not everybody knows on what setting they should put on the multimeter

[@DELAWAREBOWHUNTER]

Your flailing hands made me quite dizzy

[@stanmitchell3375]

Use less