Cold Weather Storage and Charging Questions Answered

[doates625]

Since I've got a couple of weeks to wait before I can ride, I'm leaving mine in stand by so I can measure what the battery drain is like. It will be interesting to compare results.

Though ultimately, I hope none of us have to sit around and not ride these things for too long.

You've not been riding?

 

[Chaconne]

I had my Stark in a mostly unheated garage from mid December to early March that got as cold as 15-20F. I left it at 60% when stored and occasionally ran a space heater on the very cold days and got the room temperature up to about 25-32F when I could. And I did start my bike about every two weeks while on the stand.

The battery stayed at rock solid at 60% the entire 2 1/2 months unchanged. I rode last weekend for the first time this season (there was still a few icy spots on the trails) slow charged to 90% and all was good.

Since I live in a Condo and the garages are attached it is not really that safe to leave larger draw devices plugged in unattended (at a minimum there is a shared circuit breaker). I could rescue myself in a power outage (or even a fire since I have extinguishers), but most of the other folks in this complex could not.

 

[joer]

I had my Stark in a mostly unheated garage from mid December to early March that got as cold as 15-20F. I left it at 60% when stored and occasionally ran a space heater on the very cold days and got the room temperature up to about 25-32F when I could. And I did start my bike about every two weeks while on the stand.

The battery stayed at rock solid at 60% the entire 2 1/2 months unchanged. I rode last weekend for the first time this season (there was still a few icy spots on the trails) slow charged to 90% and all was good.

Since I live in a Condo and the garages are attached it is not really that safe to leave larger draw devices plugged in unattended (at a minimum there is a shared circuit breaker). I could rescue myself in a power outage (or even a fire since I have extinguishers), but most of the other folks in this complex could not.

Did you do a hard shutdown or did you leave it in stand by? If it was the latter, then they’ve really fixed that vampire drain issue the bikes originally had!

 

[Chaconne]

Did you do a hard shutdown or did you leave it in stand by? If it was the latter, then they’ve really fixed that vampire drain issue the bikes originally had!

I always leave my bike in hard shutdown mode. I don't leave my computers in standby mode for long periods unattended either. Plus, I don't need Stark going into my bike when it is unattended --any updates I might need I manage myself.

Last, personally I don't see any reason why trickle discharging a battery would be better for it than leaving it at a modest charge say 50% in hard shutdown mode. I know Stark recommends standby mode --but that they had to "fix" vampire mode alone give me reason to pause on that recommendation (since it obviously went into production without thorough testing).

 

[joer]

I always leave my bike in hard shutdown mode. I don't leave my computers in standby mode for long periods unattended either. Plus, I don't need Stark going into my bike when it is unattended --any updates I might need I manage myself.

Last, personally I don't see any reason why trickle discharging a battery would be better for it than leaving it at a modest charge say 50% in hard shutdown mode. I know Stark recommends standby mode --but that they had to "fix" vampire mode alone give me reason to pause on that recommendation (since it obviously went into production without thorough testing).

Above on this thread, it was mentioned that the VCU has its own battery, and that is kept charged by the high voltage battery when in stand by. The concern is that if you leave it in hard shutdown mode, the VCU battery could discharge and then you cannot power on the bike at all.

There’s some pictures of a guy that had pulled apart a failed VCU and he tested the small battery. It was dead.

It’s hard to say how big of a danger that really is. I obviously was fine for 5 months of storage. But did I degrade the VCU batter? Dunno.

FYI: according to Stark when I had them on the phone for a service call, they cannot tap into the bike unless it’s fully powered on. I guess the cellular modem is only powered on then.

 

[Chaconne]

Above on this thread, it was mentioned that the VCU has its own battery, and that is kept charged by the high voltage battery when in stand by. The concern is that if you leave it in hard shutdown mode, the VCU battery could discharge and then you cannot power on the bike at all.

There’s some pictures of a guy that had pulled apart a failed VCU and he tested the small battery. It was dead.

It’s hard to say how big of a danger that really is. I obviously was fine for 5 months of storage. But did I degrade the VCU batter? Dunno.

FYI: according to Stark when I had them on the phone for a service call, they cannot tap into the bike unless it’s fully powered on. I guess the cellular modem is only powered on then.

Generally CMOS type batteries hold charge and last a long time in cold mode, and at least in my experience, "wear" from charge/discharge cycling more so than from cold static storage (extremes acknowledged). And my guess is a dead one was probably defective from the start rather than "worn" from use or non use (I could be wrong just going from my experience).

And if I was going to store my bike for a year or two and I had my choice of standby or hard shutdown I am taking my chances with hard shutdown. I have stored computers for years in cold garages and successfully booted them up and I can only remember one dead CMOS battery ever and that was a very old 386 from the 90s.

And TBH as soon as I see something like an EG25-G I am going with my hunches . I haven't worked on Stark electronics but I have a good amount of computer and telecom experience and off-the-shelf-parts look very familiar to me.

 

[joer]

Just as a data-point, the most recent firmware for the bike (1.0.218) doesn't really seem to solve the vampire drain of leaving the bike in stand-by mode. I left mine for 9 days and it went from 36% to 22%. I don't think it's feasible to leave the bike in standby for off-season storage unless you can leave it connected to the charger and leave the max SOC to like 40% or something.