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Silverfish (Ecoride)

  • aka Rod Battery
  • Brands: EcoRide, Rawbike, Kringla, x Trading, Elhoj, Evobike, Nakto, Zet, Orion, etc

This article is about the EcoRide version from ca 2009-2015.

Ecoride is by far the biggest swedish brand for ebikes in sweden. Founded in 2008 they have a massive 20-25% share of the marked in sweden where we have about 100 brands. Except for a ebike kit (rear rack mounted) they sold a short while in the beginning they battery has been looking almost identical since the beginning.

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Its a generic Chinese ebike with a rod type battery inserted under the sadle with a controller below. The battery is from AE battery Power with polymer pouches but in ca 2015 they switched to another supplier which made packs with 18650 cells. The claim they have Panasonic cells but they are more likely using Sanyo cells (a company owned by panasonic).

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The earliest version had a red on/off swish (ca 2009-2010) and a inverted XLR plug for charging. They quickly changed it to a key ignition and a correct XLR port. However the key had to be in place when riding (and could easily be forgotten in the battery when parked). Also the indicator on both versions only worked if the battery was turned on. Depending on the model of the ebike it came in either in metallic och black.

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For some reason the battery case got slightly taller over the years. However the they did NOT increase capacity at all so the taller ones where simply filled upp with adhesive or padding.

We have taken apart countless Ecoride batteries and even if they look similar on the outside. There are at least 10 different variations!!! They changed the inside of the battery sometimes several times a year! The only thing they have in common is the use of Lipo cells. However whether they are 10 very long cells, 10 short cells split in 2 parts, or 20 cells split in two parts varies a lot! Even if you bought two batteries at the same time they might be manufactured differently! The most common variance is the BMS. Some more generic and some over complicated 4 layer stuff with loots of overkill.

Too solve the problem with the indicator not working when the battery is of they added a large capacitor to the circuit. However its not large enough to hold current more than 1 second so the indicator still does not work properly. We now think the reason for the capacitor is so that there is not a spark that occurs when inserting the charging cable and the charger not beeing powered up but there could be other reasons. They also vary a lot in the number and placement of different heat sensors. But in the end the problems with Lipo batteries cannot be solved so they did like almost all vendors did in 2014, they swished to 18650 cells.

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When lipo cells get old or loose capacity they swell up!! Internal gasses turns them into balloons and if you puncture them (while they stil hold a charge) they will went, rapidly, and most likely catch fire!

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The Ecoride case however does not have any rubber seals (a plastic seal was added in 2014, but it hardly stopped any rain, it only made the battery 2 mm taller) and is poorly protected against rain. Small amounts will simply drip through the case (and corrode the bottom contacts)  but in large amounts it will enter the casing and short circuit the terminals. Here we have a horrible example of what happens when rainwater enter the cellterminals. Where did the blue heat shrink go? Well it burned up!! In image 2 we can see that OPEN FLAMES had their go and in the third picture the adhesive has burned and fused with the solder. A really scary example and this can happen to any battery that is exposed to heavy rain.

We deal with Ecoride batteries weekly and have made a lot of improvements to the inner design. We always replace the electronics and only use top quality 18650 cells with all necessary safety predations (and more). We also stock all spare parts for Ecoride batteries and we can also upgrade them to 17ah! We also have complete cases with bike mountings if you need a battery for your ebike kit! We can also built it it other voltages, install a on/off switch instead of key swish and install the indicator correctly.