Can someone recommend an economy Lifepo4 charger

[jso123]

I am building an electric skateboard with my son. Made the board, salvaged a MY1016 from an old scooter and picked up a 24v 30Ah Vpower Lifepo4 battery second hand. I still need to reconstruct the battery to fit under the mountainboard - but that's another story.

I see that Vpower sells 24v Lifepo4 chargers for about $50, but many in the forum seem to have had bad experience with them. I am trying to do this project economically. Are there any practical alternatives ? I didn't want to spend over $100.

Thanks

 

[mwkeefer]

I sent ya a PM but I thought you had 40AH - if your at 30AH capacity LiFePo4 the customized charger would provide you a CC rate of 6A still but would charge in 5 hours at most

Again see my PM, the other information is not for public consumption yet

-Mike

 

[StudEbiker]

I have been happy with Batteryspace.com.

Here are the chargers they offer in the 8s 24v variety:

http://www.batteryspace.com/smartchargerfor256v8cellslifepo4batterypacks.aspx

 

[dogman dan]

I've done lots and lots and lots of charging with the cheapest avalialble sla charger I could find with my ping 36v battery. Should be able to find one on ebay for about $30 including the shipping.

But you can find them pretty cheap for lifepo4 on ebay nowdays too. Ideally not shipped from china, but from where you live. Or batteryspace is another good source.

 

[Russell]

This is a nice charger ( I have a 48V version) that can charge an 8-cell LiFePO4 pack at up to 7A.

http://cgi.ebay.com/EBike-240W-Char...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item1c0c3bfe7d

Here's another one you could get faster and cheaper though it's only 3.5A (I have a 15 cell version);

http://cgi.ebay.com/Intelligent-3-5...tery-Pack-/390050511609?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0


-R

 

[dogman dan]

I have two of those, from ping. At least they look the same... Great chargers, and that's a great price. How's the shipping time? that's from china right?

 

[Russell]

I have two of those, from ping. At least they look the same... Great chargers, and that's a great price. How's the shipping time? that's from china right?

If I recall the charger from ecitypower took about 5 weeks because they forgot to ship it! After 3 weeks they finally did ship it and it took 2 weeks to get here. In the meantime I bought a charger from All-Battery and it took a few days and they ended up arriving on the same day. :? Now I use the fixed voltage (54.6V) Tenergy "smart charger" from All-Battery every day and the charger from ecitypower (set to 55.5V) from time to time when I want to balance my 15-cell pack with the BMS plugged in. I do like the King Power charger from ecitypower better however because it is adjustable and the voltage stays high at the end of the charge cycle whereas the Tenergy (too smart for my liking) from A-B drops a few volts at the very end to effectively cease charging.

-R

 

[jso123]

Thanks guys - this is a great forum!