Experience with eBike conversion Bafang 750W motor and UPP 13AH Battery.

I paid about $2.2k including tax to have Schwinn Hybrid bike converted to eBike in May 2020. Battery pack weight was about 9lb and motor was about 8lb vs the bike weight about 23lb (Aluminum body).

With a throttle only max speed 28mph on flat road. I used it mostly for weekend rides 10 miles round trip 800 to 1000ft elevation gain. Battery was 48V 25A rated 13Ah with USB outlet. I used the USB just once for my phone in 15 months. After riding about 150 miles on inital charge it showed about 25% battery after I used an average of 10% pedal power assist which is 2.5A and 48V or 120W. I barely compensated for the extra weight and did not really use Pedal Assist to make biking easier. I used max pedal assist or throttle only when I was riding 2 to 4 miles round trip tennis courts about 2 to 3 times a month depending on weather.

Suddenly the battery died and will not charge. Green light indicated that battery was fully charged. I took it to the same place which did conversion. They asked for $435 for the battery. Their labor rate is $90 per hr. So I assume that they would have charged me 525 plus tax about $570 but warranty on the battery was only 1 yr even though "expected lifetime" is 5yrs.

I contacted 5 local bike shops. 3 do not service eBikes. 1 did not respond and 1 said they if I buy the battery, they could install for $50 to $100.

I looked and found a 10Ah battery without USB Hailong battery plate, without USB $270 including delivery on eBay. A light USB battery pack I have will do the job for the rare case. For my usecase a larger battery was only more weight. This one was about 2lb lighter and range is still probably lot more than I need. Manufacturer's instructions interestingly suggested that I charge the battery fully and discharge it 3 to 5 times initially to make sure that I get max capacity. I guess I have to use the throttle or max pedal assist just to drain the battery. The instructions also called for not exposing the battery to over 113F or below freezing temp which may happen anywhere in the US in a garage. They suggest bringing the battery inside on such extreme days. They also suggested that I charge it to at least 60 to 80% once in 3 months regardless of use.

All I needed was a hex wrench and a heat gun or hair dryer and a 1/2 inch heat shrink wrap for $2.50 at Harbor Freight. I just removed the old battery by unlocking it with the key, cut off the old shrink wrap and disconnected the plus and minus Anderson connectors, removed the battery plate with hex wrench and installed the new plate, slid the shrink wrap over the power cable, connected power and used heat gun (also $10 at Harbor Freight but any hair dryer would do the job). In 5 min $272.50 I was back in business.

A friend of mine bought a brand name eBike and he too had to have the batery replaced. Luckily for him it was under warranty but otherwise brand name ebikes with propreitary battery would probably cost a lot more.

I looked at the instructions in the manual of the battery. Chinese manufacturer. I asked a friend of mine who is in the business of building solar and battery backup solutions if it is worth paying a 50 to 60% premium for battery buit using 18650 cells by Panasonic, LG or Samsung. He told me that premium is not worth it because the warranty is still 1year even with those and the premium is not worth it because they by no means last 50 to 60% longer. Tesla uses CATL Chinese cells in many of their cars.

Is it worth replacing the a dead cell? It takes about 30min perhaps to open the battery pack and check each of the parallel cells. 10Ah battery I bought is made up of 13 3.7V cells in series to add up to 48V, 2.5Ah each 4 cells in parallel 10.5Ah. I would have to open it and check 13 of the parallel cells to determine how many are bad. Then the entire parallel set of 4 have to be removed and replaced with cells of the same voltage as the rest. Even then I would have a mix of old and new. A professional service would charge about $200 to do this. Still warranty would not get extended. DIY requires investing $60 in a low cost spot welder, $10 for nickel strips, $12 minimum for 4 cells retail price and 2 hrs total labor perhaps. So spending $82 vs $272.50 for a new battery pack 1 yr warranty and 5min of my time was easy decision.

I looked at many videos on youtube on eBike DIY including how to replace the battery, install the motor, sensors for speed, gear change, throttle. You could buy a kit for about $1100 with parts and tools including tax and shipping vs $2.2k I paid to convert my bike. I think it takes max 4hrs to do it. There are lots of videos on youtube. If you are a DIY person, give it a shot. I told my friends that if they or their friends want to convert their bikes to electric or replace battery, I can help at no cost as a community service.

Hope this helps someone save time and money. Happy riding!

Rover Dog sitter does not do any vetting of dog sitters

 We tried River dog sitter where we left our dogs with dog sitter.

2 out of 4 times, there were too many dogs at the same time handled by just 1 person and we had injury to deal with while abroad. Luckily our son was in town and he took dogs to the vet. It took 2yrs for Rover to disqualify that dog sitter.

We interviewed 2 others taking care of dog sitters. One was accepting big dogs in downtown area with a very small yard. That person should not have been allowed to dog sit even a single big dog let alone 2. One was a teen ager on a tourist visa visiting her sister with no dog experience and legally allowed to work in the US.

We hired a dog sitter to stay in our house and take care of the dogs. 2 times the dogs were fed 3 hrs late and we had to call a neighbor to help. 2 times, the dogs almost left out compound because of damaged fence panels not noticed by dog sitter before letting the dogs out and once when gardener would come from a side gate and dogs should not have been allowed outside. On a hot day dogs were left in the back yard all day. When we came home we found that both dogs lost a lot of weight because they were underfed. This dog sitter was barely in the house and rushing to her parents house for food and shower. She was just not equipped to stay in our house and take care of the dogs. She actually complained to Rover that we were rude to her when we almost lost our dogs due to her and 2 times they were exposed to high heat and hunger.

Rover gave us no compensation and no phone call either.

APPASO Touchless Kitchen Faucet with Pull Down Sprayer, Motion Sensing Activated Hands-Free. Replacing IR sensor.

 Summary:

It works but very poor customer service.

https://www.appaso.com/pages/home

https://www.amazon.com/Touchless-Kitchen-Dalmo-Fingerprints-Resistant/dp/B07SRB12MD/ref=asc_df_B07SRB12MD/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=385178072563&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=7889088171146804546&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9032008&hvtargid=pla-820815725179&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=78829232096&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=385178072563&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=7889088171146804546&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9032008&hvtargid=pla-820815725179

Details:

Feb 4 21     

Item received and installed in 20min and worked. I did my own install.

Mar 25 21  

Stopped working and replacing batteries did not help. Sent seller message.

Seller insisted on video showing failure but no way offered to upload video to seller other than review on Amazon or sharing on google drive.

Mar 29 21

Seller sent IR sensor and replacement controller tracking number with 5 to 14 day delivery time. Luckily the faucet was working without controller in manual mode.

Apr 3 21

Received IR sensor and replacement controller with no instructions and no video on Youtube or their website. Controller is external and needs just water to be shutoff and 3 hookups but that did not solve the problem. The IR sensor needed replacement. Sent message to seller but got reply next day (sun) that office is closed and they would respond next week.

Here is what it took to replace the IR Sensor.

1. Completely uninstall the faucet.

2. Twist open a big ring and inside it pop out a plastic piece holding the hoses and wire.

3. Remove hot water hose and mixer hose to get access to the IR sensor inside the faucet.

4, Remove a bolt holding the IR sensor inside.

5. Remove the IR sensor and replace it with the new one.

6. If you do not have a magnetic screw driver, it is a pain to put the bolt back.

7. Reconnect the hot water hose and the mixer hose into the faucet.

8. Close the big ring holding the hoses and wire. Ignore the plastic piece holding the hoses and wire. It really does nothing

9. Re-install the faucet and hook up the controller.

10. Turn on the water valve for hot and cold water and test.

It worked but took me over 2hrs with no instructions or help from the Appaso.

I guess other touchless faucets are similar and I hope this helps someone. Best to ask for replacement faucet and not try to replace the IR sensor inside the faucet. It is trivial to replace the controller box. If you were call a plumber, you probably would be advised to get new faucet and get charged once for visit and 2nd time for the install.