Burnt to a Crisp: Name and Fame for E-Bikes Aflame (Open Thread of E-Bike Fires)

[m@Robertson]

Worst chargers I’ve owned and the most returned product they sell.

Which mirrors what I have seen Luna themselves post on their own forum. They try to find reliable manufacturers, but the effort is flawed at its heart. There's no fixing that market channel.

I see I wrote this article in 2019, and by the time I did I had already been using these chargers for over a year. So from 2018 and perhaps a bit before, I have had zero failures with these chargers after 5+ years of daily use. I just put my third one into a bike as an onboard weatherproof charger. All I have to do is plug the bike into the wall and it starts charging. I've already plugged this new bike in at a park pavilion to get some juice while having a snack en route somewhere. And over the years, I've had it save my bacon when something unexpected has happened and I needed a mid-trip charge.

But the real benefit is to never worry about a charger failure due to an inherently superior design, with no moving parts to fail, specifically meant for long term and often-outdoor reliability. Dependable, reliable and adjustable charging is half the battle insofar as battery safety is concerned.

An Ultra Reliable Ebike Battery Charger…

How about a charger – quickly adjustable for voltage and current – that is rated for hundreds of thousands of hours of use before it typically fails?

talesontwowheels.com

 

[PedalUma]

A Sur Ron owner wanted support today. I said that I do not work on unlawful motorcycles.

 

[tomjasz]

But the real benefit is to never worry about a charger failure due

Sadly a tough sell when nearly every manual, news story, and most forum "experts" will suggest that battery owners should only use the charger that came with their battery. Sadly many n))bs are very confused by voltage ratings and capacity differences of cell packs.

The manufacturer used by that goof is pretty much known as a loser in the industry. Tha and the roll-out of the expanded features included products with very little testing and that were very cheaply built

 

[m@Robertson]

Sadly a tough sell when nearly every manual, news story, and most forum "experts" will suggest that battery owners should only use the charger that came with their battery.

Amen to that x 100. People who are clueless should not experiment, but they also shouldn't be giving advice on chargers. Something I have pointed out more gently elsewhere within the last few days when I saw that exact advice unintelligently given.

 

[Slaphappygamer]

A Sur Ron owner wanted support today. I said that I do not work on unlawful motorcycles.

The rider was a 16 year old kid? I see that is most of the owners in my area.

Also, yes. The included chargers with most batteries are s*it. Solid plastic brick, with no venting, that will eventually melt. Got to have an aluminum case with a fan and exhaust vent. I have 2 and both work just fine. Running nice and cool.

 

[tomjasz]

Solid plastic brick,

I have a few known reliable Chinese manufacturers "bricks" as backups. Honestly, they've been amazingly reliable.

I wanted to sort new connectors on two fanned chargers and when I opened them up to solder in a new longer lead there was a fuse, but the fuse holder was never soldered into the circuit.

It's a scary world out there and the reason I'm now all Satiator and Meanwell. The Satiator in my mind pretty much proves a fan isn't needed. If those that so freely use the word paranoid ever opened up a dozen or so different makers' batteries and chargers and reviewed them I'd be more likely to second-guess myself.

Until then others have pretty much baseless opinions. TO ME.

My house, my garage, my family, and my life. Years ago directing a horticulture department with many high-risk jobs I learned that safety came first. Every one of those seemingly goofy OSHA fines was the result of some dullard or misuse of a device. It's a rare event until YOUR house is gone...

 

[PedalUma]

I often use 'brick' chargers. I put them on edge for air flow and on a flat rock as a heatsink.

 

[Slaphappygamer]

I was amazed at how hot they get. I had a 12v fan pointed directly at the brick.

 

[tomjasz]

I was amazed at how hot they get. I had a 12v fan pointed directly at the brick.

Mine get hot but not enough to melt or burn. But a heat sink and fan can help a lot.

 

[PedalUma]

Himiway wants $70 for theirs. I just sold a charger to a Himiway owner. The lion sleeps tonight - a himiway, a himiway, a himiway, a himiway, a himiway, a himiway, a himiway, a himiway!

 

[nublar]

Onyx Motorsports Shock Services on Instagram: "Not a good way to start the day"

284 likes, 30 comments - onyx_shock_service on February 28, 2023: "Not a good way to start the day".

www.instagram.com

 

[tomjasz]

I just sold a charger to a Himiway owner.

So many of those OEM direct eBikes have $10 chargers, with nothing but grossly inflated prices. Thieves

 

[m@Robertson]

Also, yes. The included chargers with most batteries are s*it. Solid plastic brick, with no venting, that will eventually melt. Got to have an aluminum case with a fan and exhaust vent. I have 2 and both work just fine. Running nice and cool.

You want the brick, but you don't want the fan. If there is a fan, it means the charger's components heat up past the point where passive cooling is sufficient for survival. So the manufacturer adds a 2-cent fan to keep the thing from committing suicide. And the 2-cent fan is a common point of failure (next is the components within that still got too hot and die; which is how mine went).

The best chargers are alloy bricks that have no moving parts, more substantial internal parts and rely entirely on passive cooling. Yes they get hot but they are designed for it; radiating sufficient heat so its not a problem. The Grin Satiator is regarded as the best charger on the market, and it has no fan and gets hotter than a $2 pistol. I added heat sinks to the top of mine, which is something you can do to make yourself feel better and maybe do some good.

The Mean Well units I linked to earlier are the same unit in a different skin. Just a ridged alloy brick. but the 185w unit is rated to a MTBF of about 197,000 hours. Restated: one hundred ninety seven thousand hours. Not such a shock they are so reliable as they are made to stick inside of a municipal street light or a commercial sign and run all night every night for years on end, in any kind of temperature and maybe with some moisture to boot.

 

[PedalUma]

Thieves

The first thing they look for is a charger! This guy had the key to the battery.

 

[Asher]

Onyx Motorsports Shock Services on Instagram: "Not a good way to start the day"

284 likes, 30 comments - onyx_shock_service on February 28, 2023: "Not a good way to start the day".

www.instagram.com

Brand is AOSTIRMOTORS. Onyx is some aftermarket car parts brand, not the emoto company.

 

[Slaphappygamer]

https://www.instagram.com/p/CpNqKik...bImPghhU9z6TW0JZW_Gcf4qf2WaDcmh8iXBgYRaE[/URL

http://

You want the brick, but you don't want the fan. If there is a fan, it means the charger's components heat up past the point where passive cooling is sufficient for survival. So the manufacturer adds a 2-cent fan to keep the thing from committing suicide. And the 2-cent fan is a common point of failure (next is the components within that still got too hot and die; which is how mine went).

The best chargers are alloy bricks that have no moving parts, more substantial internal parts and rely entirely on passive cooling. Yes they get hot but they are designed for it; radiating sufficient heat so its not a problem. The Grin Satiator is regarded as the best charger on the market, and it has no fan and gets hotter than a $2 pistol. I added heat sinks to the top of mine, which is something you can do to make yourself feel better and maybe do some good.

The Mean Well units I linked to earlier are the same unit in a different skin. Just a ridged alloy brick. but the 185w unit is rated to a MTBF of about 197,000 hours. Restated: one hundred ninety seven thousand hours. Not such a shock they are so reliable as they are made to stick inside of a municipal street light or a commercial sign and run all night every night for years on end, in any kind of temperature and maybe with some moisture to boot.

The ones you linked to. I don’t see where they say they are for lithium ion charging. I saw the designation when looking at 12v chargers. Some were for SLA and some for lithium ion. Is the real difference only in output voltage of the charger? I know 12v SLA and 12v l-ion charge to different voltages. Other than current, since that is also adjustable in your linked chargers, is that the only difference? Seems like yours are just power supplies and not a designated charger. Maybe they can be the same, as long as they are set properly?

 

[John from Connecticut]

Plenty more of that going on

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1623832347551358978

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1625306198231638016

Thank you for posting

Notice the paper signs on the door 'Zelle' and cash only... That should tell you something.
This is whole thing is so incredibly scary, but it's The Big Apple. I'd hate to be a Firefighter.

John

 

[m@Robertson]

The ones you linked to. I don’t see where they say they are for lithium ion charging. I saw the designation when looking at 12v chargers. Some were for SLA and some for lithium ion. Is the real difference only in output voltage of the charger? I know 12v SLA and 12v l-ion charge to different voltages. Other than current, since that is also adjustable in your linked chargers, is that the only difference? Seems like yours are just power supplies and not a designated charger. Maybe they can be the same, as long as they are set properly?

Believe it or not, a li-ion charger is nothing more than a power supply that delivers power with CC+CV mode.

CC (constant current) mode provides the amperage (current) level you set... lets say its 2 amps. Then as battery builds up a charge, the target voltage is approached. At a certain point near the set voltage, the charger switches to CV (constant voltage) mode. In that mode, it slowly dials back the amperage so the target voltage is crept up to at a decreasing amperage rate... Sound familiar? Its what is commonly called "smart charging" in layman's terms (there is a little more to it than this but what you see here is close enough to understand the root process).

But its just a power supply. They all are. The Grin Satiator is well-known as a charger, and its internals are ... a CC+CV led driver, to which they have grafted in some memory, buttons, a graphical interface and a $300 price tag.

In another thread here there is discussion of using a particular brand of lab power supply for a charger. Same deal there. It has automatic CC+CV, and a very nice graphical display, with coarse and fine knobs to dial your volts and amps ... down to three decimal places if you want to badly enough. Those lab power supplies are super convenient and user friendly, but they cost more and lack the bulletproof innards the Mean Wells have (which, btw have been widely used as chargers for many years - I didn't come up with the idea).

 

[Slaphappygamer]

Believe it or not, a li-ion charger is nothing more than a power supply that delivers power with CC+CV mode.

CC (constant current) mode provides the amperage (current) level you set... lets say its 2 amps. Then as battery builds up a charge, the target voltage is approached. At a certain point near the set voltage, the charger switches to CV (constant voltage) mode. In that mode, it slowly dials back the amperage so the target voltage is crept up to at a decreasing amperage rate... Sound familiar? Its what is commonly called "smart charging" in layman's terms (there is a little more to it than this but what you see here is close enough to understand the root process).

But its just a power supply. They all are. The Grin Satiator is well-known as a charger, and its internals are ... a CC+CV led driver, to which they have grafted in some memory, buttons, a graphical interface and a $300 price tag.

In another thread here there is discussion of using a particular brand of lab power supply for a charger. Same deal there. It has automatic CC+CV, and a very nice graphical display, with coarse and fine knobs to dial your volts and amps ... down to three decimal places if you want to badly enough. Those lab power supplies are super convenient and user friendly, but they cost more and lack the bulletproof innards the Mean Wells have (which, btw have been widely used as chargers for many years - I didn't come up with the idea).

I understand, now. Thank you very much for explaining this.

I really like the idea of having the charger built onto the bike. That’s very convenient. Though, I don’t think I’ll need it due to my use case. I just go to, and from, work.

 

[m@Robertson]

I really like the idea of having the charger built onto the bike. That’s very convenient. Though, I don’t think I’ll need it due to my use case. I just go to, and from, work.

It really is nice to just plug the bike into the wall and it takes care of itself. But also if I am on a long ride, I can stop at a public park picnic pavilion (they have outlets here), have a sandwich and gain back some range. Its actually my 4th bike I have done this to. On my adventure bike, I have a 480w unit mounted to the front rack that is capable of pumping 8a into that bike's 32ah pack. That thing is way too big for most bikes, but necessary there cuz I ride it on beaches where, if I get caught out when the tide comes in, consequences ensue. The little 185w units are good for 3a and are very light weight.