Semi-integrated battery fuse replacement

[Adams]

Thanks to everyone for the solid information on this thread.  I finally tore into mine this morning and lucked out  - it has the replaceable 10 amp fuse.

The fuse is deeper in than I expected.  To get better access to the fuse I ended up pulling off the other side as well, loosened up the silicone holding the assembly in place and pushed the assembly out a bit.  I still cannot believe what a bad design this is.

But I had success - the battery is currently charging away!

Thanks everyone.

[Kkjw357]

Thanks Everybody for all the pictures and information. I just did mine and it took about 15 minutes. I only had to takeoff the charging side and with the pictures you put up I found the fuse on the first try. The needle nose went in and plucked it out nicely. I resealed the hole with 10 mill tape and put it back together.  It?s on the charger now and will be good to go in a few hours.   

[cappysdad]

Thanks everyone for the methods and photos.  I just went out to our garage to remove our RadCity 5 Plus batteries and moving fast due to it being really cold accidentally shorted the charge port on my wife's bike.  Thanks to your help hope to have it back up this afternoon.

[Dawg7579]

Just received a pack of 10A surface mount fuses to test with. If anyone has a dead battery that has the soldered fuses (battery serial numbers will start with CAP) let me know. I?d be willing to try a repair at no cost (just cover the shipping to WI, USA)

Rory

were you able to repair one of the new ones
I have 2 nonfunctioning batteries, the original one that came with bike, Rad replaced that with another battery that didnt work. They sent me a 3rd battery that works.  I checked with Batteries +.  They declined repair.

[RickEH]

Turns out I was able to replace my fuse with ease.
Thanks everyone!

Rick
Might be looking for a second battery if any one has one for sale that needs a fuse... in Ontarto

[Goosecreek]

I will be adding a fuse and a small torx to my repair kit just incase.  Thanks

[Valentina]

Dear Rad community, thanks for your  instructions and comments on changing the fuse.
My story is not new: the battery key touched the charging port, a spark came, the battery was not charging.
Radpower support sent out an offer for a new battery for 650 euros including shipping to Germany (I anyway could not complete an order as when I clicked on the invoice, it said ?sold out?!).
Two reputable bike stores in our city (we?re in Bavaria) refused to help saying they didn?t really know about RadPower bikes (although RadPower bikes are widely used by Flink, a major company to deliver groceries)?.
Luckily I have found this forum and now we?re back on track!

[JimInPT]

Dear Rad community, thanks for your  instructions and comments on changing the fuse.
Luckily I have found this forum and now we?re back on track!

That's great to hear; have you completed the repair? 

I still don't understand why Rad decided to specify that battery fuses on the new bikes have to be buried and inaccessible without serious effort and tools, or even a soldering iron on some designs.  The older battery design on my MiniST has two rubber flip-up covers on the bottom side with standard automotive blade fuses contained and waterproofed underneath, so I carry both as spare in my underseat toolkit.

[jfkuehn]

I have a RadRover 6 purchased in February of this year.  The battery port looks slightly different.  Do you believe the fuse is in the same location?
Thanks!
John.

[Adams]

I have a RadRover 6 purchased in February of this year.  The battery port looks slightly different.  Do you believe the fuse is in the same location?
Thanks!
John.

What letter string does the battery?s serial number start with?

[jfkuehn]

Thanks!  Here's a picture.
John

[BriainO]

Stop and think before lifting the flap

[Naranja_CT5+]

This is a two part post.
It seemed the chatter regarding this issue has died down (the last post was May 2023). So has RAD Power Bikes resolved this issue? Just the same, once my bike arrives. I think the first thing I would do is cut a one inch tape and tape it over the charging port. This is to remind me that I am putting something in the wrong hole. Electric tape are cheap compare to blowing your fuse.

Secondly, if the issue has not gone away. I'd like to revive it because it's good and very helpul thread that could save a lot of people money.

I have read from page 1 to 8 and it seemed RAD Power Bikes insulted a lot of RAD owners. Instead of listening and made changes. They did the opposite made life more difficult for the owners.

I thought adding a circuit breaker style fuse like what you see on household powerbars is a simple solution that doesn't require redesigning the battery.

[tagsoup]

It seemed the chatter regarding this issue has died down..... So has RAD Power Bikes resolved this issue?

I thought adding a circuit breaker style fuse like what you see on household powerbars is a simple solution that doesn't require redesigning the battery.

I think Rad fixed it. Today I thought my battery was toast so I took it down to the retail outlet. Actually, inadvertently, I'd activated the "ship" mode, and I needed to depress the battery button for ten seconds to turn the thing on again.  The manager at the store said that Rad had changed things such that a mistaken key placement or connecting to a charger wrong will no longer burn out a fuse. I'm not going to test it to see if I have one of the new style batteries but I'd think the issue will come up with much less frequency as the old batteries reach the end of their lifespan or get fried.

I'm putting a little flap of inner tube over the charging hole, one more impediment to wrong key placement, and I'll forever more be plugging everything with a charger first into the charger then into the outlet.

[DickB]

It seemed the chatter regarding this issue has died down..... So has RAD Power Bikes resolved this issue?

I thought adding a circuit breaker style fuse like what you see on household powerbars is a simple solution that doesn't require redesigning the battery.

I think Rad fixed it. Today I thought my battery was toast so I took it down to the retail outlet. Actually, inadvertently, I'd activated the "ship" mode, and I needed to depress the battery button for ten seconds to turn the thing on again.  The manager at the store said that Rad had changed things such that a mistaken key placement or connecting to a charger wrong will no longer burn out a fuse. I'm not going to test it to see if I have one of the new style batteries but I'd think the issue will come up with much less frequency as the old batteries reach the end of their lifespan or get fried.

I'm putting a little flap of inner tube over the charging hole, one more impediment to wrong key placement, and I'll forever more be plugging everything with a charger first into the charger then into the outlet.

It took them long enough.

As I pointed out two years ago, Rad added protection diodes to the Standard Battery BMS that prevents reverse current flow through the charge port. For some reason, they dropped them again in the Semi-Integrated Battery. Simple, cheap protection from shorts.