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Old 05-12-13 | 03:56 AM
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CigTech
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Joined: Feb 2006
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From: Ohio

Bikes: Schwinn Empire XL

The answer is yes, no, and mabye if you have a LIpo Battery. But the If Bionx battery is a nickel metal hydride then NO.

First of all, we'd need more information on what's in the battery box. They have a 24v nickel metal hydride or a 36V Lithium Ion battery pack.. If you hvae the LIPO4 then only if it has a BMS in i. It you have a Lithium Ion battery then NO because most Lithium Ion battery do not have a BMS in the pack. If you have the nickel metal hydride then NO because of no BMS as well. Some have charged bms equipped lifepo4 with a BMS with sla chargers for months with no damage

Bottom line, if your SLA charger undercharges your pack, you are likely to be ok with it. If it overcharges it, it might ruin it.

The main difference with a lithium charger is that when done, it shuts completely off. Later, when the bms (if present) works to drain down high cells, it might be capable of turning back on again, and bringing up the lower charged cells.

An SLA charger will go into a float charge mode. It never shuts completely off. It will provide a very small trickle of power at a constant voltage, designed to keep a lead battery topped up. Lithium batteries don't need the top up, and might be damaged by overcharging. In the case of the SLA charger I was using, it finished about 2v undercharged, so there was little chance of it overcharging my lifepo4. If it began to, the bms would start slowly draining any overcharged cells.

Last edited by CigTech; 05-12-13 at 04:20 AM.
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