Thermal Battery Jackets Protect Your Electric Bike Battery

Whether headed on a late-season hunt or a relaxing winter ride, it's important to protect your electric bike battery. Bakcou fat-tire electric bikes are built to handle the elements. One area we want to take an in-depth look at is keeping your bike running optimally during extra cold rides.

Winter Riding

Like any machinery, your electric bike is going to be affected by the temperature that it is operating in. It can be crucial to keep the weather in mind when you set out on a winter adventure.

Without getting too deep into the finer details of the chemistry of lithium-ion batteries and how they're affected at different temperatures, it’s necessary to keep in mind that you don’t want to run a cold battery. When you ride at colder temperatures, the temperature of the lithium-ion cells can vary. There could be some cells at a high temperature and some that stay at a lower temp. The battery management system (BMS) sees this variation in temperatures as an internal issue and shuts the electric bike battery off to protect the cells.

Electric Bike Battery Protection

Being an unavoidable issue in colder temperatures and knowing that a large portion of hunting season falls in the winter months, our team at Bakcou knew we had to develop a solution to ensure the cold weather won't slow our riders down. Enter the Bakcou Thermal Battery Jacket.

The Thermal Battery Jacket is an insulated battery jacket with a heating element that wraps around your battery. Electric bike batteries should maintain a core temperature of 50-75°F for optimal performance. The battery jacket helps keep the battery from malfunctioning at lower temperatures by helping maintain the temperature of the individual lithium-ion cells.

You may be wondering how the Thermal Battery Jacket works. The battery jackets are pretty straightforward, and setup is a breeze. As previously mentioned, the heating element works to maintain the temperature of the internal lithium-ion cells within an optimal range of 50-75°F. Because of the water-repelling fabric, the Thermal Battery Jacket protects your battery in wet conditions.

How to Use Thermal Battery Jackets

To give power to the battery jacket, you can plug it into a small, portable power bank, like the Bakcou Battery Bank, or plug it directly into the USB port on your electric bike battery. We recommend the smaller battery bank to preserve the power level of your bike battery.

For optimal performance, turn the jacket on about 10 minutes before leaving to give the battery time to warm up. The goal of the heating element is to warm up the battery. We don't recommend powering on the jacket while riding, except for the first few minutes of your ride until the battery reaches an optimal operating temperature. When the outside temperature drops below 50°F, we recommend leaving the Thermal Battery Jacket on the battery in a powered-off state. Remove the battery jacket when the outside temperature rises over 50°F. If spending a day in the field on a cold day, we recommend keeping the battery jacket on the battery with the heating element on the lowest setting.

If you plan on using your Bakcou eBike during the colder winter months, we highly recommend a Thermal Battery Jacket. This small upgrade will protect your electric bike battery and keep you riding all winter long. Thermal battery jackets protect your battery against lower temperatures that can cause a drop in battery efficiency. As a result, protecting your electric bike battery will also help maintain the battery longevity. Bakcou has solved the issue of low-temperature impacts on lithium-ion batteries with our Thermal Battery Jackets.

For full details on the Thermal Battery Jacket, check out the video below.

Conclusion

Before you head out for your winter ride, we recommend checking out How to Ride Your eBike in the Winter. This blog is full of great insights to help you prepare yourself and your bike for a cold winter ride. 

For full details on the Thermal Battery Jacket, check out the video below. To purchase a Thermal Battery Jacket, check out the product here.