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[Specter]

Im glad you got your battery issue sorted out, and better yet THEY picked up the tab.
Battery probs like that tend to be batch related, so there is a good chance that pretty much all those bikes are going to be affected sooner or later.  The fact that it is a well known problem, and they are replacing them FOC, kind of implies this as well.  Still though, even with it being covered by warranty, the Bike manu is still taking it in the shorts.  He still has to pay the labor charges to the bike shop to remove / install the battery, not to mention the terrible PR this causes them as well.  Then there's the shipping / disposal of the bad battery, yah it can get expensive fast.

Too bad they don't have a viable recycling program for these batteries.  I get sick and tired of constantly hearing all over the news about how rare lithium is (bullshit), and how expensive the batteries are because of that, (more bullshit), when we throw away thousands of tons of processed lith in the form of dead batteries annually.   So you mean to tell me that with all the amazing tech we have and all the new stuff that shows up every year, nobody has yet to figure out how to freeze these batteries, so they stop reacting, then chop them up and recycle them?

While it's not the most efficient operation and all, Ive been recycling LiPo's by essentially the same thing.  THe lith I keep under oil so it don't react, and those things are very heavy in copper as well which I take straight to the scrap yard.  The BMS boards get recycled as well once I recover the gold / Pd out of them.   If some backyard dork like me can do it, why can't this be done on an industrial scale?

Aaron

[princec]

AIUI Zero were quietly replacing every single one of the 2019 and 2020 14.4s here in the UK as every single one eventually exhibits the problem.
I got mine done a couple of months ago but alas the belt snapped again on the way home and I haven't had the heart to ride it again I just don't trust the bastard not to leave me stranded, and now I'm wondering what to do about it.

Cas

[Specter]

Cas, not to hijack the thread but how are you snapping belts like that?  Something has got to be wrong for that to keep happening?
Hate seeing someone with a bike they are afraid to drive when the solution may be simple.

Aaron

[Curt]

Too bad they don't have a viable recycling program for these batteries.

Obtaining lithium from recycled batteries is apparently 5x more expensive than mining it. At least that's down from 7x a couple years ago. (source: Wikipedia Battery_recycling)

[Specter]

But if it is getting so rare to find now, the way they act when they jack the price to the moon, why NOT the batteries.  It's not THAT hard, the Chineese use slave labor anyways for what they pay them, so what's a few people doing it more manual than by machine?

ill have to find the article but there is someone who is working on a process to freeze them, shred them when frozen so they don't combust, ie the chemical reaction is all but inert, then separating the stuff and doing what they need to.  Apparantly they got way past the price barrier.  I wish I remember where I seen that.

Aaron

[princec]

Cas, not to hijack the thread but how are you snapping belts like that?  Something has got to be wrong for that to keep happening?
Hate seeing someone with a bike they are afraid to drive when the solution may be simple.

Aaron

It snaps every time anyone else adjusts it

Cas