36v LiFeP04 charger blew up. Will a 36v SLA charger work?

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khammo01
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36v LiFeP04 charger blew up. Will a 36v SLA charger work?

Hi. I got a 36v LiFeP04 "duct tape" battery on eBay (which works great) but it came with a cheap 36v charger. The charger worked once and then reported zero volts on the charging terminals. I took it apart and found the fuse was blown. I soldered a new fuse in place and it blew up when I plugged it in.

I'm not going to be a happy camper when the battery drains. Instead of paying international shipping, I would like to source a charger locally but the only 36v chargers I can find are for electric scooters with lead acid batteries.

Will I damage my Lithium Phosphate pack if I charge it with a SLA charger for 36v batteries, that reads 47v at zero load, and is rated at 3A (the same rating as the cheap Chinese one that blew up)?

Thanks for any advice...

dogman
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Re: 36v LiFeP04 charger blew up. Will a 36v SLA charger ...

An sla charger that puts out the same voltage as the other one was supposed to will work fine. For my duct tape battery from ping, 46-47 volts is the ideal voltage. If all you can find is a lower voltage charger, many are set for 44-45v on a 36v sla charger, It won't harm the battery charging, but the battery could become unbalanced, so you would have to monitor that while using the lower voltage charger.

Be the pack leader.
36 volt sla schwinn beach cruiser
36 volt lifepo4 mongoose mtb
24 volt sla + nicad EV Global

andys
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Re: 36v LiFeP04 charger blew up. Will a 36v SLA charger ...

LIFEPO4 will charge with sla charger. Should to be a smart charger though. Only thing is, the dedicated LIFEPO4 chargers are usually set for a few more volts than the corresponding sla chargers, so you may lose a bit of capacity on a full charge.

khammo01
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Re: 36v LiFeP04 charger blew up. Will a 36v SLA charger ...

Thanks guys.

I didn't measure the output voltage of the old charger before it blew up. The battery website says to charge at "<45v" ... I guess 1-2 volts difference shouldn't make too much difference... My concern was whether the BMS would burn out or not.

Thanks for your advice. I'll buy the locally available 36v charger and see how it goes. It is a smart charger so things should be fine.

dogman
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Re: 36v LiFeP04 charger blew up. Will a 36v SLA charger ...

The round cell 36 volt packs seem to spec 45v, in general. My stock sla chargers were 44.5v, close enough for you. The prismatic cell Pingbattery packs need a few volts more, like 46 or 47. So you should be able to find a good charger to use cheap, without worrying about having to get one that the voltage can be adjusted on.

Be the pack leader.
36 volt sla schwinn beach cruiser
36 volt lifepo4 mongoose mtb
24 volt sla + nicad EV Global

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