Any better chargers available for 13s 48 volt packs?

[millstheskills]

Bought a 48v pack from Insat. Arrived quickly and range seems good. It came with a very generic (and light) Chinesium charger. I'm a bit distrustful of cheapo generic mains electrical products from China as I don't believe the quality control or the standards are there.

Are there any alternative chargers on the market? I don't mind Chinese per se as long as it's a genuine brand such as my ISDT lipo charger. It would be excellent to be able to set final voltage as 90% of the time I won't need the full capacity and could reduce charging cycle stress a little bit.

 

[anotherkiwi]

How are you going to balance the cells?

Most of us have cheapo Sans Chinese chargers and from time to time someone has a problem but not very often.

 

[millstheskills]

The Chinese charger only has two pins so can't be balancing itself. I assume the BMS inside the pack does the balancing.

 

[Benjahmin]

The Chinese charger only has two pins so can't be balancing itself. I assume the BMS inside the pack does the balancing.

Yes it does, but only when the battery gets to full voltage. So if you were to charge to only 90% there wouldn't be any balancing on that cycle. That's why AK asked the question.

 

[wheeliepete]

EM3EV sell an aluminium cased fan cooled 48v 90/100% switchable charger, but around £75 with postage.

https://em3ev.com/shop/em3ev-ebike-battery-packs-clearance-sale/

 

[Baboonking]

Since I started using meanwell led drivers as chargers I've not looked back to the bad old days of chinesium . Controllable current and voltage, waterproof, no fans and very well engineered. Normally 10v varience but I've seen them adjustable from 12v to 60v. There are too many different models list. If you're prepared to look through the different product numbers you can often find them cheap second hand on ebay or gumtree but a new 150 watt model will cost around £50. You'll need to buy basic a watt meter to add to the output end to see what the voltage you're selecting is and when you've finished charging. I've heard it's a bad idea to leave the batteries plugged in with the power off as they can act as a drain on the battery.

For example, one of many 48v 150 watt power supplys

https://www.tme.eu/gb/details/clg-150-48/led-power-supplies/mean-well/?brutto=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAmO3gBRBBEiwA8d0Q4pBXoN_o990-gUH9OXqHIh_QfLCJvWm-IGU1pLkteH1qXfFdfDJFWRoCyscQAvD_BwE

 

[Nealh]

I use a Meanwell from HLG range heavy good quality with some current & voltage adjustment, select one that suits your needs. It depends on the charge current you require, HLG for about 2.28a or CLG if greater charge current needed.That said I use China ones Sans and the like with no issues.


Rather then the charger swap the bms for a smart Bluetooth one then you can monitor all cell groups and set charge, discharge & balance voltage etc, etc.


Some of the guys on ES treat/ use 18650 like lipo and run without bms and say balance isn't necessary with good brand cells and that if a pack is built well with equal current share they only need to balance once a year and then it isn't needed as the cells hardly wander.

 

[anotherkiwi]

I use a Meanwell from HLG range heavy good quality with some current & voltage adjustment, select one that suits your needs. It depends on the charge current you require, HLG for about 2.28a or CLG if greater charge current needed.That said I use China ones Sans and the like with no issues.


Rather then the charger swap the bms for a smart Bluetooth one then you can monitor all cell groups and set charge, discharge & balance voltage etc, etc.


Some of the guys on ES treat/ use 18650 like lipo and run without bms and say balance isn't necessary with good brand cells and that if a pack is built well with equal current share they only need to balance once a year and then it isn't needed as the cells hardly wander.

Last charge as an experiment I didn't plug in the balance wires - I never use balance charge just plain vanilla LiPo charge. Graphene pack came off the charger as per usual. Multistar had cells that had drifted off balance by 0.07v!!!

https://www.speedict.com/ for the high end BMS

 

[millstheskills]

Thanks a lot, this is exactly the kind of advice I needed.