Battery charger noise

[Eastwood]

I was just charging one of my 72v batteries and the charger is making a strange static sound. It was almost like a crackling noise, but more of a static sound like you hear on AM/FM radio. What could this be??
The charger port on the charger was getting hotter than normal as well but the battery temperature is fine. I noticed this yesterday too, so I stopped using it, but figured I would test one more time to confirm that’s where the noise was coming from.

I’ve had this charger for over two years and has definitely never made that sound so somethings not right.

 

[harrisonpatm]

The sound you're describing sounds like a spark making its way across a small air gap. A contact loosened, separated a tiny bit, and the voltage is high enough to cross the gap? Just a guess.

Intermittent noise that goes away, or constant?

At least its not the battery.

 

[Eastwood]

The sound you're describing sounds like a spark making its way across a small air gap. A contact loosened, separated a tiny bit, and the voltage is high enough to cross the gap? Just a guess.

Intermittent noise that goes away, or constant?

At least its not the battery.

It didn’t sound like sparking, but more of a radio signal static but I don’t know..

Used the charger for about 30 minutes today and when I moved it while charging is when the noise started. Yesterday I was checking the temperatures on the wire and when I moved the wire is when heard it yesterday. So this static like noise seemed to start when the charger was moved.

 

[Eastwood]

OK, possibly found the issue. I examined the charger port coming from the battery and I noticed that there was corrosion. I have two exact 72 V batteries in parallel, which have their own charger port. I’m now charging the batteries through the other charger port and will pay close attention to see if that static like sound comes back.

I think the corrosion was creating resistance, which makes sense of why the charger port was getting much warmer than ever before because of the corrosion. I’m thinking that’s what was causing the charger to make that noise. These batteries have been connected in parallel for a couple of years, but I typically only use the charger port on one of them, but will switch to the other side to see if that fixes the issue. I would say if the charger port doesn’t get hot after charging for a few minutes. That’s probably was the issue was just the corrosion.

 

[Eastwood]

You can see inside hole number 1 there’s corrosion.

The other charger port from the other battery that’s in parallel looks brand new. Been charging for about five minutes now with no noise and the charger port is still cool not even warm. that must’ve been it

 

[99t4]

OK, possibly found the issue. I examined the charger port coming from the battery and I noticed that there was corrosion.

Was going to say "corrosion" or bad connection when you described the hot charger port. Glad you got it figured out!

 

[E-HP]

You can see inside hole number 1 there’s corrosion.

The other charger port from the other battery that’s in parallel looks brand new. Been charging for about five minutes now with no noise and the charger port is still cool not even warm. that must’ve been it

View attachment 336269

How did that connector get so dirty? From the bike?

 

[Eastwood]

Glad you got it figured out!

Thanks! Me too
If someone else has a similar issue, hopefully this thread could help

How did that connector get so dirty? From the bike?

Yeah, it’s because I didn’t have the charger port/connector securely in place, one time when I was riding it slipped out and got mud on it. Those are the batteries that were in my bomber clone frame. I should’ve made a stationary port for the charger, but always pulled the cord in and out from the bottom of the bike to charge.

I won’t make that mistake again with my RMZ conversion!