The most dreaded part about owning a Onewheel in Canada is having to put it away for the winter months!
Here is what Onewheel recommends in the manual:
Theres a right and wrong way to do this and heres what I've learned/what I do to store my Onewheels throughout the winter time.
The Don'ts
- Don't leave your board in a cold room such as an un-heated garage, shed, etc... There is a very real reason that the most common repair I have in the spring is a battery replacement. When your Onewheel is dirty, it's just so easy to leave it in the garage, don't do it!
- Don't leave your board charging for the whole winter! This is arguable worse as leaving your board on the charger puts unnecessary stress on the BMS (battery management system) as it will be constantly monitoring/ balancing your battery cells until it cannot anymore.
- Don't leave your board full charged, or even worse, leave your board fully dead while in storage. Lithium batteries have memory and don't like to be stored in one extreme or the other!
The Do's
- Do leave your board at 40-50% charge when in storage for long periods of time (1 month or more).
- Do store your Onewheel in a dry room.
- Do turn your board on and ride it back and forth a few times throughout the winter so that the different components of the board can activate and turn on.
- Do check your board's battery charge every month to make sure it stays between 40-50%. If it dips under 40%, put it on the charger for a bit to get it up to 50% again. Be careful to not forget that its charging while doing this and let it go up to 100% (like I have many many times).
- Do ride your board for its full range before storing it! Charge it all the way up, then ride it all the way down, then up again, and down to 50%. The purpose of this is to remind your battery what it is like to ride for the full capacity. This is especially important if you always ride your board for example from 100% to 70% continuously. If your completing this step and realizing your board only rides to 30% or 40% charge before it dies, it may be time to balance your battery cells. This is super easy, all you need to do is let the board sit on the standard charger for 72 hours. This allows for the battery management system to slowly balance the cells in the battery pack.
Now you're ready to store your board for the winter! Unless you're riding it in the winter.... be careful doing that too! Electronics and water never mix well.
Take care.
Mark
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