Want to check the total capacity of your e-bike battery? You can always visit a dealer, where you’ll find someone happy to help. But you can also test your battery by yourself at home.
To do so, you’ll need a digital multimeter, which is a measuring device with several measuring ranges. The device should also have a capacity monitor, which makes it quicker and easier to read the battery’s total capacity.
First, remove the battery from the e-bike. When the energy-dense Li-ion (lithium-ion) batteries came onto the market, they were mostly attached to the downtube of the e-bike to ensure good balance. Nowadays, though, there are more and more solutions that integrate the battery almost invisibly into the downtube.
After removing the battery, place it on a table. This makes it easier to see the negative (−) and positive (+) terminals on the battery connectors. In order to measure the voltage and other electrical values accurately, the digital meter must be correctly set up and connected. There are different controls and connections available for this purpose.
The so-called measuring leads are used to connect the measuring device to the object to be tested. The sockets of the measuring device are usually clearly labelled to prevent incorrect connection of the measuring leads. If you’re in any doubt, read the enclosed operating instructions in detail.
Note that in order to measure its capacity accurately, the battery has to be fully charged.