An epensive battery charger anyone?

[trappermike]

I paid for delivery of a 48v-3.5ah battery chargher.Cost me $150 from Soniel Chargers,. Its suppossed, I think
it to be super high quality,I'm tired of the cheapo chargers that die. But I wonder if a "High Power"charger is reliable?
Did I overkill,or is a "High power" 48v charger much better?

 

[youreaspeedemon]

I paid for delivery of a 48v-3.5ah battery chargher.Cost me $150 from Soniel Chargers,. Its suppossed, I think
it to be super high quality,I'm tired of the cheapo chargers that die. But I wonder if a "High Power"charger is reliable?
Did I overkill,or is a "High power" 48v charger much better?

How many cheap charges have you already gone through? I think the Soneils would be more cost effective in the long run.
I bought 2 24v Soneil chargers, I run 4 18ah sla's in series but charge in 24v parallel, I got the 2408CAA 24V 4A for charging at home and to maintain my second pack (I rotate them out every 10 cycles), and the 2416SRF 24V 8A for charging at work they are both constant current chargers that taper the charge and then float so you don't have to worry about over charging them plus the bigger one charges pretty quick. They work great, I've only been running them for about 4 months but they do work well and the quality certainly looks like it's there. I'm not familiar with the 48v charger but I would imagine it will perform the way that you expect it to. They also claim to reduce light sulfation, if they do even better. I think it is worth the extra money to buy a quality charger especially if you don't have to baby sit them. I like the fact that they have cooling fans, even with the fans they still get warm, I don't how hot the little cheap plastic ones get but I'm sure that heat is probably one of the contributing factors to them failing.

 

[mvadventure]

I use a 8 amp 48 volt lithium charger. The only real hassle is the sixteen leads as the BMS is in the charger so the battery had to be rewired. That took a couple of hours as the terminals on my LiPO4's are aluminum and several broke which meant a little engineering challenge. But, I can ride 20 miles, have >52 volts showing, plug it into the charger and in less than an hour it's done.

The charger only has numbers on it, I can't figure out what brand it is but it's very well made and works great. Zane from Aten Energy provided it. I've got pictures of it somewhere on the forum. (http://www.atenenergy.biz/Foxx.htm)

Mike

 

[E=IR]

I have used a Soneil 36V charger for 3 or 4 years and now that I am moving to a 48V system, I was very disappointed that I could not find a 48V 2amp Soneil charger. The charger has been very reliable and has been run constantly for months at a time in an unheated workshop with a lot of dust. It has fallen on the cement floor a few times and still works fine. I didn't want to pay for the 3.5amp Soneil charger so I bought a no name for half the price of the 3.5amp Soneil, it is on the way. I probably made a mistake because a reliable charger is very worthwhile.

Your charger should give you many years of good service and fast charging is a benefit too. Many times I have had a lot of fun riding around and wished I could ride some more the same day. Fast charging is worth it.

 

[Johnbear]

I have a soniel and I have had alot of cheap chargers die, but the soneil keeps ticking. It's a great charger.Worth every penny.