Dublin Bikes Battery Recall

Tzardine

I got an email to say that Dublin Bikes are recalling the battery packs which they use for their electric bikes service.

There are some potential issues with the pack when it is charging and there is a very small chance that it could short-circut. They say in the email that the occurrence rate is 0.003 per thousand.

I have one of the packs - I signed up just under a month ago. It works remarkably well - I was very skeptical at first, but it is a good system.

Here is the rub - you have to send your pack back to them in France. They will make some hardware and software changes and send it back. There is no indication how long this will take - but I suspect it will be months as the batteries are also used in other countries and they are also being recalled.

Dublin bikes have not mentioned anything about refunds or credit for months that the service is not available.

I expect a call from them in the coming days to arrange to send back the battery, but I am not going to do so. I will continue to use it.

At an occurrence rate of 0.003 per thousand (I just double-checked, that is correct) I am not worried about any fault developing.

There are just 400 batteries in Dublin. Dublin bikes should be sending out the updated batteries to customers while the old ones are sent back IMO.

What do you think?

Inquitus

Tzardine wrote: »

I got an email to say that Dublin Bikes are recalling the battery packs which they use for their electric bikes service.

There are some potential issues with the pack when it is charging and there is a very small chance that it could short-circut. They say in the email that the occurrence rate is 0.003 per thousand.

I have one of the packs - I signed up just under a month ago. It works remarkably well - I was very skeptical at first, but it is a good system.

Here is the rub - you have to send your pack back to them in France. They will make some hardware and software changes and send it back. There is no indication how long this will take - but I suspect it will be months as the batteries are also used in other countries and they are also being recalled.

Dublin bikes have not mentioned anything about refunds or credit for months that the service is not available.

I expect a call from them in the coming days to arrange to send back the battery, but I am not going to do so. I will continue to use it.

At an occurrence rate of 0.003 per thousand (I just double-checked, that is correct) I am not worried about any fault developing.

There are just 400 batteries in Dublin. Dublin bikes should be sending out the updated batteries to customers while the old ones are sent back IMO.

What do you think?

For the sake of only 400 people impacted it would if they could get the supplier to agree be the least hassle way to proceed!

magicbastarder

0.003 per thousand *batteries* or per thousand *charge cycles*?
that might explain some of their concern if the latter - which in theory could lift the rate from 0.003 per thousand to 1 per thousand in a year, for example.

Tzardine

magicbastarder wrote: »

0.003 per thousand *batteries* or per thousand *charge cycles*?
that might explain some of their concern if the latter - which in theory could lift the rate from 0.003 per thousand to 1 per thousand in a year, for example.

0.003 per thousand charge cycles.

I charge the battery once per week, so 52 times per year.

It would therefore take me 19 years to charge it 1000 times, at which point there is a 0.003 chance of it shorting out.

So I really am not concerned at all and won't be sending it back.

magicbastarder

yeah, not much concern for you, but for them, it makes sense to issue the warning/recall i guess.

wench

Tzardine wrote: »

0.003 per thousand charge cycles.

I charge the battery once per week, so 52 times per year.

It would therefore take me 19 years to charge it 1000 times, at which point there is a 0.003 chance of it shorting out.

So I really am not concerned at all and won't be sending it back.

That is really not how probability works.
Every time you charge it, there is a small chance it will short circuit.


For the sake of a month's inconvenience now, send it back and have done with it.

Tzardine

Tzardine wrote: »

0.003 per thousand charge cycles.

I charge the battery once per week, so 52 times per year.

It would therefore take me 19 years to charge it 1000 times, at which point there is a 0.003 chance of it shorting out.

So I really am not concerned at all and won't be sending it back.

It could of course happen the next time you charge it...

Tzardine

I am aware of how probability works, and I calculate that rounded down, there is approximately a 1 in 4000 chance that it will fail each time I charge it. This does not change the more I charge it as the chance of failure is not related to the amount of times the battery is charged. It is a random probability as far as I can tell from the media reports.

So yes of course there is a chance that it could fail, but the odds are it will not.

As it happens I just got a call from somebody 'working on behalf' of Dublin Bikes - I take it that it was a JC Decaux person. They called to arrange the return of the battery. Very nice woman on the phone. I explained that I was happy to hold onto the battery and they are happy for me to do so. It is clear that they are not actually worried about the risk of this happening, but from a corporate responsibility point of view they have to recall them.

I did ask how long they would have the battery - she said she did not know. I said would it be a month and she said that she expected it would be longer than that.

And of course if the battery does fail they will have to replace it anyway - you dont buy the battery. You basically rent it at €60 per year.