Frogman82
Contributor
It's been almost seven years since I upgraded my suex with li-ion batteries and since I've been asked about this several times over the years I thought this post might be helpful to others. This is in a way a follow up of this thread Comparison of batteries
Background:
I bought a new Suex Xjoy 7 in 2013. By the time I got mine I had logged many dives using different buddies' SS-scooters, and what made me choose the suex was that it was an affordable way into the DPV world, and it was considerably lighter weight than the SS ones. For me it was the perfect scooter and the only shortcoming it had was the original battery (which I discovered after using it for a while). Almost all my dives are scooter dives, and it's not uncommon for me to be on the trigger for most of the dive. Since I like the option to do two dives in a day I was looking into possibly upgrading the battery to li-ion technology.
Fast forward to 2014 and I had a three month recovery from shoulder surgery and wasn't able to dive. By the time I got back in the water the original SLA battery in the scooter had developed a problem. After 2-3 minutes it would suffer a noticeable power loss, and it was concluded that it most likely was a faulty cell. My battery failed after a year (suex only has six months warranty on batteries), and I decided to modify and upgrade the scooter.
I ordered the battery from bmsbattery.com 24V20Ah Li-Ion EBike Battery Pack
It's a e-bike battery pack that comes complete with a charger. At the time I made my order they offered this pack in two different sizes - I got the size 205x165x70, but a friend of mine upgraded his and he got 115x270x80 and it fits great as well. I'm not sure if they offer different sizes anymore, but it may be available at request. Battery is wrapped in heat shrinkable plastic.
I bought two extra Anderson connectors as the battery is delivered with another type. Had to make an extension as well from the cables on the old battery to get the correct length on the cable in the new one.
By doing this I didn't have to change the plug that goes to the motor.
In hindsight I believe I could have gotten an even bigger battery in the scooter as I have quite a bit of extra space in the battery compartement, but I didn't want to end up with a too big battery pack, so I played it safe.
It was pretty straight forward to swap it out, but you have to fiddle around a bit after to get the weighting and trim of the scooter right. I think I added around 12 lbs as the new battery is much lighter than the original lead acid. I fitted the battery the same way the original was. I attached two small aluminum plates to the battery to make it a little more rigid where the connection screws are. I got some thick lead rope from work and ended up zip tieing it to the two support rods inside the scooter and then covering them with black insulating tape. Then I mounted some folded sheets of lead on the back of those to get the additional weight required.
All in all it was a major upgrade to the scooter. I've had mine for almost eight years, seven of them with the lithium battery, and it was like night and day compared to the original battery. Much more power and thrust. I've not done an actual burn test, but if my calculations are right I should now have around 80 min runtime on high and around 110 min on low setting. That is more than adequate for me.
Background:
I bought a new Suex Xjoy 7 in 2013. By the time I got mine I had logged many dives using different buddies' SS-scooters, and what made me choose the suex was that it was an affordable way into the DPV world, and it was considerably lighter weight than the SS ones. For me it was the perfect scooter and the only shortcoming it had was the original battery (which I discovered after using it for a while). Almost all my dives are scooter dives, and it's not uncommon for me to be on the trigger for most of the dive. Since I like the option to do two dives in a day I was looking into possibly upgrading the battery to li-ion technology.
Fast forward to 2014 and I had a three month recovery from shoulder surgery and wasn't able to dive. By the time I got back in the water the original SLA battery in the scooter had developed a problem. After 2-3 minutes it would suffer a noticeable power loss, and it was concluded that it most likely was a faulty cell. My battery failed after a year (suex only has six months warranty on batteries), and I decided to modify and upgrade the scooter.
I ordered the battery from bmsbattery.com 24V20Ah Li-Ion EBike Battery Pack
It's a e-bike battery pack that comes complete with a charger. At the time I made my order they offered this pack in two different sizes - I got the size 205x165x70, but a friend of mine upgraded his and he got 115x270x80 and it fits great as well. I'm not sure if they offer different sizes anymore, but it may be available at request. Battery is wrapped in heat shrinkable plastic.
I bought two extra Anderson connectors as the battery is delivered with another type. Had to make an extension as well from the cables on the old battery to get the correct length on the cable in the new one.
By doing this I didn't have to change the plug that goes to the motor.
In hindsight I believe I could have gotten an even bigger battery in the scooter as I have quite a bit of extra space in the battery compartement, but I didn't want to end up with a too big battery pack, so I played it safe.
It was pretty straight forward to swap it out, but you have to fiddle around a bit after to get the weighting and trim of the scooter right. I think I added around 12 lbs as the new battery is much lighter than the original lead acid. I fitted the battery the same way the original was. I attached two small aluminum plates to the battery to make it a little more rigid where the connection screws are. I got some thick lead rope from work and ended up zip tieing it to the two support rods inside the scooter and then covering them with black insulating tape. Then I mounted some folded sheets of lead on the back of those to get the additional weight required.
All in all it was a major upgrade to the scooter. I've had mine for almost eight years, seven of them with the lithium battery, and it was like night and day compared to the original battery. Much more power and thrust. I've not done an actual burn test, but if my calculations are right I should now have around 80 min runtime on high and around 110 min on low setting. That is more than adequate for me.
