Question about chargers.

[deacon]

Okay I'm not always too bright so I'm going to see if I can tap the collective brains of the group. I bought a generator specifically for biking. So I used it once to test a battery charger nothing exploded so I plan to use it. I also used it to operate a 6.5 amp electric lawn mower. Did i mention how I hate to try to work on gas lawnmowers these days. but I digress.

So the generator will run a 1.5 amp battery charger with enough amps available to run 3 more at least. So I'm wonderin, since I have a power supply on/off switch and can disconnect th3 batteries from the controller without removing it from the bike, would there be any harm in adding a second 1.6 battery charger in parallel to the battery pack. I am all wired up for it. Would the batteries charge twice as fast and require the generator to run half as long. Secondary question is would the batteries shut off each charger when they had a full load on.

Does anyone know or am I going to have to start up the old generator, with some extra batteries to test it out.

Thanks for any help.

 

[deacon]

Since no one has an opinion I think I might try and experiment. I might just separated my battery pack and put a charger on each 12ah circuit. That should shorten the time it takes to bring it back to full charge.

It would be much easier to put two charger in parallel circuit to create a three amp charge once in a while when I needed a quick charge so I might do some more research before I do it.

 

[deacon]

Since it is raining I can't run down my bike's batteries but I have tested the two chargers a bit.

I know that they don't short each other out. I didn't think they would but I couldn't be sure. The charging voltage did not go up, when I added the second charger. I also didn't have to split the battery pack if my math is right.

According to my math and the information from the net, I could use an 8amp charger to put the pack to full charge but that is too much to do a float charge. Which seems to be why the chargers has so few amps.

So I think I can use both chargers to get it to full charge, then turn one off to keep the float charge up. That should cut my charge time in half. I don't want to leave them both on all night, but I wouldn't need to leave them both on if I had a long time to charge up.

Anyway it fulfills my need to do something on a rainy day.

 

[n3glv]

Ok, I may have missed some details.
Chemistry of batt? (I will assume SLA)
Capacity of batt?
If you wanted to get max life out of SLA you would charge at 1/10th C
ie 10ah pack would charge @ 1A for about 10.5-11hrs (some loss in the
system)
Charging at higher rate will shorten the life (number of charges)
You can find a 24v@3A charger or even higher from many sources
they are used for just about any scooter or wheel chair.
Btw, sucking the kind of current an ebike can suck (my currie "450w" bike pulls 35A under full load.. do the math, 35 X 24v)
SLA are just not happy at these kinds of current.
Expect 300 recharges..
I swapped out dual 10Ah 24v packs that I ran in parallel for a 40ah LiFePO4.
I get sick range, even with Pittsburgh Hills.... 40mi+ and on paper it should run over 60mi WOT on the flat