troubleshooting battery charging w new wall charger in 25-30% of the time required prior

[Shaunpro3]

at 1st, with the charges i used then, when i charged my batt.s all the way it took about 6=7 hours.....
so then i need a new charger and got one.... one practically the same as before. for a 48v battery pack... so this new one is again 48v 2.5 a but yet today, once batt.s died and i plugged in this new charger, about 1.5 - 2 hours later the charge light was off indicating a full charge....??????????
is that possible, or does that indicate a battery maybe dyeing or something else responsible or does it now charge in a 1/3 - 1/4 of the time required before../?????

 

[Shaunpro3]

1 more...lol if a small gas powered generator was used on a bike with no drives directly to the bike only for power, could the cops call it a " motor vehicle " like they did to me using a 49cc helper motor....?

 

[Shaunpro3]

and i must be crazy as i keep thinking there should be am electric motor able to spin a generator using a battery to start spinning the generator and then run on the power produced by generator....self running...?

 

[Elkman]

A shorter recharge time is usually indicative of a failing battery. If a 10 Ah battery is failing and only holds a 5 Ah charge it is going to recharge in much less time. Your initial problem may have been with the battery and not the charger.

 

[Handlebars]

at 1st, with the charges i used then, when i charged my batt.s all the way it took about 6=7 hours.....
so then i need a new charger and got one.... one practically the same as before. for a 48v battery pack... so this new one is again 48v 2.5 a but yet today, once batt.s died and i plugged in this new charger, about 1.5 - 2 hours later the charge light was off indicating a full charge....??????????
is that possible, or does that indicate a battery maybe dyeing or something else responsible or does it now charge in a 1/3 - 1/4 of the time required before../?????

Do you use the battery until it dies before you recharge it?

 

[Shaunpro3]

yes most times...

 

[Shaunpro3]

A shorter recharge time is usually indicative of a failing battery. If a 10 Ah battery is failing and only holds a 5 Ah charge it is going to recharge in much less time. Your initial problem may have been with the battery and not the charger.

ahhh i see, so if i take to advanced auto and test each battery since there tester has a load option, will that tell me or how can i test each battery ? and Thank you !

 

[harryS]

Advanced Auto will test lead acid batteries, but if this is lithium they won't touch it. Did you buy the same size charger.

If you buy a charger with 2x the current, it will charge 2x faster, but there are limits, like too much current will cause damage.

 

[Shaunpro3]

mine are all lead acid and they said 3 need replaced and the charger is the same other than 1 amp more, pretty sure the 1st one was 1.5a and this one is 2.5 that wouldn't be the culprit there would it...?

 

[Shaunpro3]

you know of a way to effectively test these batteries ? imagine i have to buy the right tester....

 

[harryS]

You did the right thing. Took them to a place that can test lead acid batteries. It's free. You don't need a tester.

Lead acid is nice because it's inexpensive and won't easily catch on fire if mis-used. Lead acid is bad because it wears out quick and is quite heavy. There you go.

 

[Shaunpro3]

thank you

 

[PedalUma]

The worst things you can do to a battery are 1) deplete it all the way 2) charge it all the way. Charge to about 90%. Run to about 10% remaining. Batteries like between 80 and 20. Think of it as a living thing that you like such as a horse. If you had a horse would you ride it until if falls over panting? Would you then feed so much that it cannot take another bite? Would you let it overheat in the sun?

 

[mjeds]

mine are all lead acid and they said 3 need replaced and the charger is the same other than 1 amp more, pretty sure the 1st one was 1.5a and this one is 2.5 that wouldn't be the culprit there would it...?

easy to figure out the math. a 10ah battery on a 1a charger from full dead would take 10 hours. 1 amp per hour
a 10ah on a 2amp charger would take half that 5 hours, 2 amps per hour.
a 10ah on a 4amp charger would take ~25% of the time of the 1 amp charger 4 amps per hour = 2.5 hours to charge.
take the battery size divided by the charger amps. that equals the time to charge.

for the lithium batteries it is best not to exceed 4amps for the charger, charging too fast can overheat them and cause them to go boom.

 

[Shaunpro3]

your reply has been the best ! thank you for helping me

 

[Angela M.]

Duplicate thread here.