Do Bosch chargers fail?

Serialnerd

Serialnerd

Member
Hello,

I've had my Gepida mid drive for a few years now with no issues. This morning I go to charge my battery and I plug in the charger and the battery lights don't come on. The battery still has power and seems to work fine but the charger seems to have died. Yes I've tried different outlets, receding connections and plugging directly into the battery same result. Is this a known issue or am I just unlucky?

Thank you,

Bill H.
 
Not that I have heard of but things do fail. I have an extra one brand new I could sell you if you need it. But Bosch may replace it you never know.
 
The real way to troubleshoot is to have a multi meter and measure output current. Mine are 6 years old and no issues yet.
 
Not a Bosch user but did you occur to you to clean the contacts on the battery and the charger plug (unpowered) with a contact cleaner fluid?

I often experience charging issues with my Specialized batteries because of the bad contact of the charger plug and the battery socket. So I clean both occasionally. Besides @Serialnerd: Does your Bosch charger have an indicator LED?
 
Any electrical or electronic device can fail, but outside of lightning surges (which have wiped out stuff for me...) cables seem to be the weakest points. As others have said, start with trying to measure output at the connector, then work from there. If your mains cord is detachable, you might check that too.
 
The cord from the wall to the wart is detachable on 4amp charger and mine can be a little finicky there. I've had several times where my bike failed to charge because the cord wasn't fully seated in the charger wart.
 
fooferdoggie said:
Not that I have heard of but things do fail. I have an extra one brand new I could sell you if you need it. But Bosch may replace it you never know.
Click to expand...
Thank you, that is very kind of you but I just ordered one on Amazon for about 93 dollars should be here Tuesday.
 
rich c said:
The real way to troubleshoot is to have a multi meter and measure output current. Mine are 6 years old and no issues yet.
Click to expand...
I don't have a multimeter here at home but I have one at work and I'll test it then. I'm still pretty sure it's dead now that I think about it we had some power searches yesterday when it was plugged in and I wouldn't be surprised if something got fried.
 
Stefan Mikes said:
Not a Bosch user but did you occur to you to clean the contacts on the battery and the charger plug (unpowered) with a contact cleaner fluid?

I often experience charging issues with my Specialized batteries because of the bad contact of the charger plug and the battery socket. So I clean both occasionally. Besides @Serialnerd: Does your Bosch charger have an indicator LED?
Click to expand...
That's a good idea, I checked the contacts and it looked clean. I do seem to remember it having an indicator light when charging but that doesn't even light up.
 
retiredNH said:
Any electrical or electronic device can fail, but outside of lightning surges (which have wiped out stuff for me...) cables seem to be the weakest points. As others have said, start with trying to measure output at the connector, then work from there. If your mains cord is detachable, you might check that too.
Click to expand...
Yes, I replugged everything multiple times. I guess I'm in that 5% fail rate for electronics on average.
 
BlackHand said:
The cord from the wall to the wart is detachable on 4amp charger and mine can be a little finicky there. I've had several times where my bike failed to charge because the cord wasn't fully seated in the charger wart.
Click to expand...
Yes, that was the first thing I checked. It does seem loose but no matter how much I plug it in and out still no charge.
 
rich c said:
The real way to troubleshoot is to have a multi meter and measure output current. Mine are 6 years old and no issues yet.
Click to expand...
Not with the Bosch charger. It only opens the 42V output after it gets the correct signal
Serialnerd said:
I guess I'm in that 5% fail rate for electronics on average.
Click to expand...
That would be one in 20. Bosch would be out of business if that was true.
Serialnerd said:
I just ordered one on Amazon for about 93 dollars should be here Tuesday.
Click to expand...
Hey, how much do you want for the dead charger (if it is dead)?
 
My 4 amp charger gets quite warm, even hot while charging so decided to try something to keep it cooler. Having an electronics background and knowing heat is a major cause of failures, as an experiment I attached 2 copper heatsinks from computer CPUs to the charger using heatsink compound and added a small fan powered by an adapter (wall wart). The charger now runs much cooler so the experiment was a success. Looks ugly but this will be how I use it from now on.
 
Last edited:
not really I would not worry about it its pretty reliable. been using my daily for 4 years sometimes two or three batteries.
 
Millions of people using it in Europe with no issues. Bosch is the largest automotive supplier worldwide and the biggest in the eBike business in Europe, selling these charges for over 10 years.

You would think they know their business, but no, here comes this one guy with an "electronics background" who knows better.

That made my day today 🤣🤣🤣
 
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