I have recently bought a Swish SW02 Electric Scooter from eBay. The tech spec says that the bike should be able to do around 30 miles on a single charge however I am struggling to get 6 miles out of it! The bike is about three years old so I'm guessing that I've been had and that the batteries need replacing. It has eight batteries and on them it says 'Greensaver Battery for 500W (48v) Brushless Motor Only 12v 20AH / 2HR SP20-12'. They are 108mm x 75mm looking down with contacts on top. They are 107mm deep. They are silicon gel batteries. I have tried to find a supplier for them but haven't been able to so far. I have contacted the company direct and they have quoted more than £400 to have them imported to the uk and that doesn't include import duty and I need to find an importer who is willing to receive them.
My question is are there any other batteries that I could replace them with that are available in the UK? And also how would this effect the charging of them? Would I need to buy a new charger? Would I need to charge the batteries differently than I currently do? (I just plug an IEC cable from the charger into the bike and leave it.)
If anyone could advise me I would be very grateful as I would like to use the bike to get to work and back instead of it just sitting in the garage waiting to go to the scrap heap!
Many thanks,
Andy Hall
Hi Andy,
congrats on your purchase. Yeah, the batteries are getting old.
Firstly, I think the Swish was a Mountain Chen import in the UK, after Baroni ceased to sell their EFV. So effectively you have a 1500 or 2000w Baroni EFV or any number of other names for it here. AKA the XM_2000.
1st, why don't you make contact with Swish in UK? http://www.swishbikes.com/contact_us.htm. That would be a good start. Perhaps they can give you upgraded AH battery packs that will fit your battery bay.
2nd, remember that your charger is suited to the chemistry of your current battery set-up, which is sealed lead acid. Essentially, you want to be looking for 12V batteries with the same physical dimensions as your current batteries.
3rd, if you can find someone competent with automotive electrics, you can have batteries sent to you easily in the UK and there are a large number of suppliers of suitable battery types.
I think other readers here will not be surprised to see 20AH batteries in your SW02. They should be rating higher than that though. That is a flaw across all of the early own-branded Mountain Chen / erato (now erider) scooters.
You should get plenty of advice on here. Try brands like Sonnenschein e.g Sonnenschein GF12025Y Gel (12V 28AH Gel) which is €100 per battery delivered in Ireland.
Try Andy Firth @ www.Verteci.co.uk, who stocks a range of batteries. See here for your needs.
Get your measurements right, get plenty of advice here on possible upgrades, be prepared to fork out a nice bit of cash, and you will have a reliable scooter for the life of those newly bought batteries hopefully.
All the best.
There is now a UK-based electric motoring forum where you will find some links to SLA battery suppliers:
http://electricmotoring.forumup.co.uk/
Wookey
Sakura s50 (Efun A)
You haven't been "had." It would be extremely rare to find a 3yr old scoot with full capacity batteries.
Now, the size you give is suspect. You are saying:
Long 108
Wide 75
Tall 101
Total volume 866.7CC
The standard 18AH form factor (some high capacity versions at the same size have 20AH) is shown at:
http://www.batterywholesale.com/battery-store/proddetail.html?prodID=377
That adds up to
Length 181.102
Width 76.962
Height 166.878
Total volume 2325.9 CC
You're showing about 1/3 the volume from your dimensions, and I don't see how they could squeeze in 20AH in a third the volume. (The 20 on the side could refer to the rate; batteries are generally rated on the amount of current they can produce if is takes 20 hours to discharge them. The overstates the usable capacity by ~30%)
That said, all you really need to worry about are the overall dimensions. The "Greensaver" batteries are just another SLA, and your existing SLA charger will work with any similarly composed replacement. A few AH less won't make any difference.
Mark
Hi guys,
thank you for your replies I have measured the battery again and I have indeed been stupid! They are 178.5mm by 74.9mm by 168.9mm it seems I must have written the zero in the wrong place twice!
RedKing73 - I have contacted Swish UK and they sent a reply back saying that they don't supply the replacement batteries and they don't know where to them in the uk! They were very helpful indeed!
mf70 - What I meant by being 'had' was the fact that the guy selling the bike said that it still did 30 miles and indeed he had used it to get to work and back, 15 miles each way. Thank you for your suggestions for the battery, I will search for those on a UK site and hopefully will be getting to work in a much more eco friendly way!
Cheers guys
If you don't mind making somewhat more of an investment now you can upgrade to Lithium batteries instead. It's very easy to replace your 48V SLA batteries with a 48V LiFePO4 pack. You can even get away with using the same charger with a suitable BMS (The goodrum/fechter design) (they have the same charge profile and very similar voltages).
Have you got a 500W or 1500W motor? I suspect the latter, in which case Ping batteries will be a bit too weedy, but Foxx or Headway are the next cheapest options. I am currently trying to find a UK source to save large shipping costs from US or China.
Lithium batteries are much more expensive than SLAs. A new set of SLAs will cost you £130-200 odd. A new Lithium Iron Phosphate pack will be more like 600 quid (and up), but it should last 6-10 years, rather than 1-2 so is cheaper in the long term.
Wookey
Sakura s50 (Efun A)
I would not recommend Ebay for Lithium from the far east. There is a money back guarantee, but there will be endless small problems (probably) - lower than stated ah, faulty BMS etc, lots of hassle. Search for threads on each to be sure.
Ideally buy something locally as possible so as to get some kind of return deal.
The amperage used by these bikes is often very high, and SLA batteries are not tested at these levels and can burn out very quickly. I would go for some kind of amp limiter to get the most of your set up.