anyone have a Di2 battery life problem? mine seems to not be holding a charge for long now?
it used to hold the charge for ever… now it didn’t hold the charge while it sat on the bike hanging on the wall for a week?
just ordered a new one since i don’t have time to deal with Shimano and any warranty issues with a race coming up next weekend.
Tim
I use mine (Dura Ace) for more than 1000 miles before recharging again and I only recharged it because I have a long race and don’t want to run out of juice in the middle of the race. After the Ironman (summer last year) I’ve only recharged it once again and it has held up fairly well to now. I do follow a certain protocol for all rechargeable batteries in my family’s portable electronics (phones, itouch, nanos, Garmins, cameras, etc.). We recharge these items but only when they are … a l m o s t … out of juice. And I don’t “overcharge” them too and I leave them on the charger for only 2 hours at most. If it shows full charge, then I remove it. This policy has kept our rechargeables in good shape.
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same here for previous battery life. i would only charge it once in a blue moon (mostly before a big race, and only sometimes then)
this seemed to happen rather quickly. i don’t ride my TT bike much (mostly road) so it just hangs on the wall and “shouldn’t” be draining… i hope there isn’t a short in something again…
tim
A short or water ingress. or storage in cold or hot environment possibly.
Batteries do have a do have a finite life. It is unlikely that you have one through anywhere near enough cycles to kill it though. I understand that lipo cells may die from not being exercised, just to complicate matters.
I hope the new battery works. It could be he charger - just a thought.
garage isn’t thermally regulated… so there is a weather change, but most other battery powered items live pretty well out there, so i’m not thinking that’s the culprit just yet.
the water issue is a big one for sure! i sweat like a fountain… the terminals are usually wet when i take the battery out, so i clean/dry it out.
on this last ride it was weird. it was shifting fine, then just stopped and would only barely move the rear derailuer, not enough to shift… so i left it alone for a couple miles and tried it again and it shifted fine.
on tuesday i was planning on riding this bike and when i put it in the stand to do a quick once over before hitting the road, it did what i just described above, shifted then barely moved the RD… i put it on the charger for a few minute (just to give it a small charge) plugged it back in and it shifted fine. i figured it was a dead battery and put it on the charger and took a different bike. when i got home a few hours later i slapped the battery in and all was fine.
i just rewired this thing after i had a water/sweat corrosion issue in one of my poorly sealed junctions. i fixed that, and sealed it to avoid that issue again. all has been working fine in regards to that project so i don’t suspect it’s really the culprit either. (though admittedly i’m always second guessing my work even though i did a good job)
i did develope a short in a FACTORY WIRED PLUG during the first process of wiring. i hadn’t even unplugged it from the RD previous to the short but was able to trace it back to that point and replaced the plug and all was fine. this has me not entirely trusting the product 100% either. (shimano was gracious enough to try and sell me another wireing harness for $200+… so thankful for that)
here’s hoping it’s just a battery issue and the one i get next week will solve it.
tim
I get more than 2000 miles out of mine, only charge it once a year , then replace w/ new bike 3 years in a row the same thing,… charge it once and dont charge it again till I sell the bike at end of year, I may need to charge it twice this year due to increased time on my road bike.
I was told by shimano rep 3000 hours per charge
I would think multiple charges and or multiple years of use would reduce battery life per charge , for optimal battery life per charge, replacing semi annually would seem reasonably normal to me. I would not expect to use more than 3 years w/ out replacing.
that’s what i ‘expect’ out of it…
not a good sign at the moment.
my LBS just sent me confirmation :" At this very moment, beautiful blonde babes of scandinavian decent are carefully picking and packing and caressing your battery at a secret location in Wisconsin while happy holstein cows make organic cheese in the background"
gotta love those bike shop owners…
Tim
might sound stupid but did you adjust anything else on your bike? I thought I had a battery problem but it was a pinched wire that made the system go in & out.
Given the ‘barely shifted’ description you give, it sounds like your DIY wiring efforts would be the first thing to inspect.
Di2 should warn of a discharged state by stopping front shifting And then not shifting at all. No halfway house. What did the battery level Indication LED say? A plausible cuase is that there is a poor or unreliable connection to the battery.
Given the ‘barely shifted’ description you give, it sounds like your DIY wiring efforts would be the first thing to inspect.
Di2 should warn of a discharged state by stopping front shifting And then not shifting at all. No halfway house. What did the battery level Indication LED say? A plausible cuase is that there is a poor or unreliable connection to the battery.
i want to say it’s my install too… trust me it hurts to admit that. i also just can’t see at the moment where there is an issue.
i was more interested to know if anyone has had any battery failures (as it seems/seemed like the culprit at the time of posting)
the battery indicator is in the nosecone and outta sight so i don’t/haven’t checked it in some time.
i will dig into it a little more tonight.
Tim
When you said nose cone, that made me think you are talking about a trinity advanced.
If so, note the that the cables can get pinched at the junction between the basebar and the nose cone inetface.
I had a similar issue with a build from my LBS. I was lucky to notice and found pinchig of my di2 cables.
Good luck with battery issues.
It sounds cable related for what its worth.
Reviving this thread as I am having issues with my internal battery holding charge. It’s about 1.5 years old and will only last 75-100 miles before it is completely dead. Been caught out on 2 rides now. Have a HIM coming up and would like to get it sorted before then. Any help is appreciated.
I think replacement is the only real option. There are things you can do to prolong the life of a battery but once the damage is done it’s pretty much irreversible.
Edit: I have heard of incorrectly set limit screws discharging batteries quickly.
I will check the limits but nothing has changed on the bike since I installed a year and a half ago. Worked great one day then started giving me issues. Thanks for the feedback
I use mine (Dura Ace) for more than 1000 miles before recharging again and I only recharged it because I have a long race and don’t want to run out of juice in the middle of the race. After the Ironman (summer last year) I’ve only recharged it once again and it has held up fairly well to now. I do follow a certain protocol for all rechargeable batteries in my family’s portable electronics (phones, itouch, nanos, Garmins, cameras, etc.). We recharge these items but only when they are … a l m o s t … out of juice. And I don’t “overcharge” them too and I leave them on the charger for only 2 hours at most. If it shows full charge, then I remove it. This policy has kept our rechargeables in good shape.
Lithium ion batteries don’t have the “memory” issues that went with ni-cad batteries so you can charge mid-cycle. Most of the time they are pretty durable. As for over-charging - phones don’t matter so much because they toggle charging off/on after they are full, but with other devices it’s good to remove them from the charger.
What really ends them is leaving them completely discharged for a long span of time. They won’t hold a charge for very long after that.
I would think multiple charges and or multiple years of use would reduce battery life per charge , for optimal battery life per charge, replacing semi annually would seem reasonably normal to me. I would not expect to use more than 3 years w/ out replacing.
It would surprise me if this were true. Think about how many charge cycles you get out of any other device (phone, laptop, whatever) – we’re talking hundreds. The Di2 battery is ridiculously large for its use case. Even if you biked 10k miles/yr, you shouldn’t be fatiguing that battery at all.
If it suddenly goes bad I’d suspect a bad seal / water / corrosion / short.
When I initially switched do Di2 I had similar issues and for the life of me couldn’t figure it out. Turns out my D-Fly connection to my Garmin Edge was draining it, after rides / workouts I often inadvertently forgot to power down my headunit which resulted in a drained Garmin and a drained Di2. Now I simply turn off the Edge the moment I finish riding, issue solved. Di2 lasts me weeks to months.