My ebike is made by "Rize" and uses a proprietary charger and connector. It's a 52 volt battery but I'm leary of the black box green light only charger. It gets quite hot during charging. I do run a fan on it while it's in use but I can't help but think at some point it will fail. Others with Rize bikes have bought satiatiors and have been unable to get them to charge the Rize batteries even after they use the correct connectors. Should I just buy another charger to keep as a spare? Advice?
How often do "green light" ebike chargers fail?
- Thread starter aileron
- Start date
Chalo
100 TW
Keep a spare. I've had some crappy plastic chargers last for years, but that's not the average outcome for the ones I've had
Seeing how quickly some ebike sellers go out of business, that sounds like a sound plan. Nothing would be worse than having the bike and no way to charge the battery unless someone has cracked how to get a satiator to charge their packs. I'm sure running a fan helps a little but heat kills electronics.
The fanless plastic shell chargers do run hot as a rule. My OG 2016 Radwagon charger is like that. However, Rad Power Bikes must have spec'd them well as they do not fail often, even as they run hot. Not all rebranded similar chargers may be that quality level, so YMMV.
For the cheaper ones with internal fans, the major failure mode by far is:
Agree about keeping a spare charger on hand.
For the cheaper ones with internal fans, the major failure mode by far is:
- Fan fails (poor bearing/bushing quality)
- Causing other components to overheat and fail.
Agree about keeping a spare charger on hand.
I believe earlier Rize chargers had a fan but the latest ones do not. Maybe they had too many failures of the fans. I run a fairly powerful fan over the charger when it's in use but I'd really like to get some air INSIDE the charger, I'm not brave enough to drill any holes in it though. Cost of a new charger w/ shipping was almost $100 USD, not insignificant but money well spent if Rize goes out of business or my current charger ever fails.
gromike
10 kW
If you don't need a proprietary charger, and you know the cell chemistry and series count you just shop a charger for that charge voltage.
Does yours look like this? Or this?
If so, it's almost certainly not proprietary, and even if it has an unusual plug, it's probably still just standard two-wire charging.
The first one is the only charger sold on their website; the second is an aftermarket charger sold to work with these bikes.
Sans is a brand of chargers I've seen for several bikes, including Cemoto, and every one of them is a generic "standard" charger; most of them use the common barrel plug like the second image, though I've seen one that had a two-pin male plug on it with the pins side by side and a plastic wall between them (didn't get to see the battery-side connector it mates with). It was still just a normal charger, though, and cutting that cord off of it and splicing to a replacement generic worked fine.
Charger looks like the second pic, it's a three pin connector. Someone tried a satiatior with the correct plug and the charger registered 15v even though the 52 volt battery was nearly fully charged. They assumed there was some proprietary circuitry that wouldn't allow the satiator to charge the battery. I'm assuming one pin is pos, another neg. and the third pin would be signal but what signal is it giving?
Easy to test:
First use a multimeter set to DCVolts, black lead on charger ground. Red lead on each of hte other two, with charger not connected to battery.
Then repeat this on the battery's charge connector.
Then repeat this with the charger plugged into the battery, both during the charge process and when it is complete. (you'd have to open up either charger or battery, or cut into the cable (less desirable)).
Once you ahve those readings, some guesses about what's going on can be made, and further tests can be suggested.
EDIT:
I found this thread
whicht sounds like it might be what you ar ereferencing. In that htread (which the OP never bothered to reply to with the results of suggested tests so we could help them), the OP probably had a battery problem, not a charger problem, based on their stated low value of "full charge" and the charge port reading low (which usually means it's turned off to prevent charging a battery that has an internal fault so you don't end up with a fire).
They didn't have the origianl charger, but you do, so youc an still do the tests, and find out if there is indeed anything unusual about the cahrger other than the number of pins.
(there have been chargers that used the old 3-pin XLR that didn't use the third pin--they just used it becuase it was a tough connector and couldn't be plugged in backwards. ). (the satiator actually uses a 3 pin XLR, and though the thrid pin *can* be used fora thermistor or serial communications, it's not used in the vast majority of charging applications it's used in).
First use a multimeter set to DCVolts, black lead on charger ground. Red lead on each of hte other two, with charger not connected to battery.
Then repeat this on the battery's charge connector.
Then repeat this with the charger plugged into the battery, both during the charge process and when it is complete. (you'd have to open up either charger or battery, or cut into the cable (less desirable)).
Once you ahve those readings, some guesses about what's going on can be made, and further tests can be suggested.
EDIT:
I found this thread
Rize Secondary 52V battery charging and using for other ebikes
I have secondary rize battery 52v, purchased separately, this is an addition not the main one, It was in storage for about 6month and it was never used. My plan was to use this rize battery for another ebike project that I am working on. However i discovered that rize use their own plugs, which...
endless-sphere.com
They didn't have the origianl charger, but you do, so youc an still do the tests, and find out if there is indeed anything unusual about the cahrger other than the number of pins.
(there have been chargers that used the old 3-pin XLR that didn't use the third pin--they just used it becuase it was a tough connector and couldn't be plugged in backwards.
). (the satiator actually uses a 3 pin XLR, and though the thrid pin *can* be used fora thermistor or serial communications, it's not used in the vast majority of charging applications it's used in).
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Thank You amberwolf. I do have a voltmeter but need to buy small leads for it in order to use it on the charger and the battery. The leads on it are just way too big. I'm assuming I can find a generic charger for less than half what Rize wants for one.
Got any wire laying around? Strip an inch of insulation from it and spiral that around your exisin gmeter lead tips, then tape in place with electrical tape or use a rubber band. Strip just 1/4" or so of inlsulation off the other end of the wire and use that as a probe. If the wire is too thick and is multistranded, cut off strands until it is just enough ti fit into whatever you need to probe.
Or use a needle or straight pin, inserted into the non-probe end of the wire. Etc.
Possibly, but usually the cheaper it is, the cheaper it is....
In my general expereince, the metal-cased cahrgers are slightly better than the plastic cased ones, when going for the cheap ones. Kingpan has been a decent brand for the most part.
(keeping in mind that brands are not guarnateed to be "real" these days; so many stuff is clones of clones of clones and stickers for every brand imaginiable are placed on stuff that never came anywhere near the brand-maker's facotries :/ ).
Youc an isntall fans in chargers that don't have them, if you're willing to cut into the casing. Before cutting, I'd reocmmend opening i tup to see where the parts are that will get hot, then put the fan at the *ohter end* and install it to suck air out of the charger, and open up the air-source end as much as possible while only opening the fan end enough for the entire fan inlet to fill the hole. Might have to use a 5v fan and then use an old USB charger to power it, as there may be no usable power source inside the charger other than it's main output. (some fanless chargers still have a place to connect one and the parts to power it, some never had them). Bigger fans running slower make less noise. Fans with no safety grills make less noise. fans blowing out usually make less noise than those bloiwing in because of turbulence (same as no grills).
Are you buying an extra battery too?
I probably should buy a new battery too but that would break the bank right now. Thanks for the advice amberwolf. I'll use it to make leads for my multimeter but I'm not going to install a fan in my charger. I follow the 80/20 rule w/ the battery and store at 50% DOD so hopefully the battery lasts many years. If it fails and Rize is no longer in business, I'll look for a battery rebuilder
Lot's of cheap chargers on amazon that appear to have the correct plug. https://www.amazon.com/Verified-Electric-Scooter-Charger-Nanrobot/dp/B0D5QF3KNL/ref=sr_1_18?crid=1MXTEFVS8KOKD&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.OBO7tWealUJb1AyuRuDwXFeAA-INeAL_MwllGwvqPwSFSMO6mRPo6FIKJOmubCVAoNwWccVzrXyMZsiXinVL0HeY3_1MT2diXrbbuVaUFbqpriHXnsXJULj9a8d9sh6I4ip-gTV6HPt5XpWtz7a84R-gN6sY8W0rAIWkH6ZFuSkedtK8Pt20pruKoGLKKNuHCJVsmQs2L_vYqeCqt5wUhgVddiPqQ_R8NB068BYZ7dcPBXFQX3O4P1feNDsK32MWKdL0bFqDsGZAunFJa5eWqdn9D31GxKhmsDg9f5zuWew1G8fT0XeMugSLXSjlGaFCfOF_b6QG0x4n6GoNM4cc-Pg2hvmNZYHC7uPu7eAwlk9UlDEauzungoocoJa7Kr4CPzteYGkjLlxcnhduSkmGurnk9CBowfq9EjmH_SmSQMd-hbPWeyZtP2OBotRRcAub.J56yDb7rsaXn2iVTU_4FWQDwOeW8nZoEA9MUSjLHVBk&dib_tag=se&keywords=52+volt+ebike+battery+charger&qid=1742224763&sprefix=52+volt+ebike+battery+charger,aps,349&sr=8-18 Not sure if they are trustworthy
65 bucks left over to go to the spare battery budget !!
Just use "wife" math. If you buy 11 chargers, you save enough money that it's like getting the battery for free!!Ah, then use their other technique. Buy it, put it in the closet for a while, then tell her you bought it a long time ago on sale.
FWIW, your link has the fairly common two-conductor barrel plug, not a three pin as you said yours has, so it wouldn't directly work; you'd have to change the plug to the same as yours.
Without seeing your connector I couldn't tell you which of the many it might be (if it's one I've seen); the Rize site and aftermarket ones don't show the connector (except for ones that show the common 2-conductor barrel).
Oh geez, well I definitely need the three pin connector and I saw some of those on Amazon. Thanks for the heads up. THIS is what mine looks like https://www.amazon.com/Charger-Lith...12-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9tdGY&psc=1
Yes, heat and making sure an aftermarket charger will actually charge my battery. I was all set to buy a grin satiator but have read none of their plugs work w/ my battery. I don't mind buying $30 dollar cheap green light chargers w/o a fan but I would not want to have to buy $100 chargers from Rize that also don't have a fan. So far my external fan solution seems to work. For sure when I buy a second charger, I'll probably never need to use it.
