flummox1234 t1_iuexp97 wrote on October 30, 2022 at 8:28 PM

People commenting really should read the article. There is a certain measure of preventability here that isn't being done.

Many, if not most, of the fires in New York involve e-bike batteries owned by restaurant delivery workers, who work long shifts, traveling dozens of miles a day.

The longer the batteries are used, the more time it takes to fully recharge them, and it can take up to 8 hours. That in turn makes it harder for owners to keep on eye on their batteries the whole time they are plugged in, which is key for safety.

A lot of guys have four, five, six bikes in their apartment and they swap out chargers for different bikes when it doesn't belong to that bike,

MaybeCuckooNotAClock t1_iufr4ou wrote on October 30, 2022 at 11:55 PM

I listened to the story on my local NPR radio affiliate this morning- that was definitely an underlying factor that they emphasized.

winelight t1_iuh5eep wrote on October 31, 2022 at 8:38 AM

So I guess that sort of situation could only arise if manufacturers are producing cheap/clone batteries and chargers: you can't generally swap chargers or overcharge batteries, because the charger plug is unique to the brand, and genuine chargers contain the necessary protection circuitry.

flummox1234 t1_iuiv6cv wrote on October 31, 2022 at 5:42 PM

It could just be the same connector type, e.g. I once plugged in a 9V charger into a 5V port that had same connector. Poof. Fried that electronic device.

arosiejk t1_iuhpks5 wrote on October 31, 2022 at 12:47 PM

As someone who isn’t up on the different specs for bikes that seems like it could compromise a lot of batteries. We got a slightly different model that had been changed to fit Black and Decker yard tools. Over the course of a year the charger got so loose on the old an new battery that it wouldn’t transmit a charge. The failure there was at least on the end of what transmitted the charge, rather than what stores the energy.