Battery sparks when I plug in charge

[Prodecocharlie]

Hi I'm a newbie. I have a prodeco oasis 48 volts that is 6 months old,from day one there Is a spark when I plug in the charge,most times it's a small spark but other times it's a large spark. The spark happens at the charging port.has anybody else had this problem from 48 volts prodeco bikes.

 

[friendly1uk]

Are you connecting it with the charger switched off? That often makes a frightening crack

 

[Prodecocharlie]

The charger is unplugged when I connect the battery

 

[BVH]

I have the same bike. Plug in the charger first so the capacitor inside the charger will get charged up by house power instead of from the battery. You may still get a spark at the charger 120V plug when plugging it in but it is the lesser of the two evils.

 

[Prodecocharlie]

What I don't understand is I bought my wife the stride 500 at the same time, that bike came with 36 volt battery and has never sparked. While the 48 volts sparks all the time.

 

[Ykick]

As volts go up so does the propensity to jump air gap. In the electrician world there is/was a question along the lines of: "what's the difference between 600V & 250V fuse?" The answer: "about 2 inches". Higher volts/potential generally create more spark in these situations. Also, the capacitors and other design features may be different enough between the 36/48V chargers to vary connection spark intensity.

However, I'd suggest you always get in the habit of powering on the charger and then connecting the battery to be charged. As somebody pointed out, this would create much less differential and spark. But powering on the charger 1st and then connecting the battery will also put less stress on the charger.

 

[Prodecocharlie]

Thank you for your help, I will do this.

 

[dnmun]

@ykick, there are also chargers which can isolate the output until the battery is attached.

they use a pchannel mosfet on the output and the mosfet will only turn on if the polarity of the attached battery is correct.

 

[USAEBIKECO]

Have you tried calling Prodeco? What do they say for you to do?

 

[Prodecocharlie]

Prodeco is being wonderful, I have been talking to them and now I just have to take it to a local dealer. The dealer has been notify and he is to exchange it for a new one