ebike battery charging via inverter

Scouter66

Guest
We have a 1000w inverter on our MH which normally fulfils all our off grid requirements. However having recently purchased an e bike the inverter does not seem to like the load. I'm not sure if it simply overloading the inverter or if there is an inherent problem with inverters and this type of load. I am loathe to get a larger inverter if this will not solve the problem. Does anyone charge e bikes via inverter out there? Thank you.
 
we use a 300w pure sine wave which works albeit slowly................
 
Yep, we use our 1500w pure sine wave to charge two bike batteries. I tend to try to confine myself to charging them under way, thus not using the battery capacity if possible.
 
I had a modified sine wave inverter which would not work with either of my ebike chargers, Both of which were 240v only chargers ie not switch mode power supplys.
I tried a 110-240v charger on the inverter and it worked ok, So clearly transformer type chargers dont work with modified sine wave inverters.
I bought a pure sine wave inverter and both ebike chargers work fine so I suspect your inverter is a modified sine wave and you need to change it.
 
We have 2 inverters, a modified sine wave and pure sine wave one. Whilst the msw is twice the power, the psw one is the only one that will charge our leccy bikes
 
Last edited:
If of interest, I will probably be selling my Victron Pure Sine Wave 500VA (400W) Inverter as just changed to a different model. (still has nearly 4 years warrantly left)
 
My elderly and cheap 150w MSW inverter happily charges a single Kalkhoff battery, but it isn't powerful enough to manage two at a time.
 
Thank you all. Very useful feedback. Looks like I need to check out my current inverter to see if it a PSW & take it from there. Thanks again
 
Our £20 Ebay 1500W (3000W Peak) Modified Sine Wave inverter happily charges both our 36v 10Ah lithium batteries at the same time - not particularly quickly, but then they don't charge all that quickly on mains electricity. I've never carried out a direct comparison.

In the winter I only charge when on the move, but in the summer the solar copes with it no problem.
 
How do the bike batteries compare to mobility scooter batteries? I have a 12 volt charger for my scooter but it needs a long slow charge same as on the mains. I haven't done the math but I think the 12v charger actually uses more power than if I used an investor and the 240v charger. I put it on charge at RAF Burtonwood and forgot about it til almost tea time and it really dropped my battery bank down. My scooter has two 17Ah batteries fitted

Edit: just checked the mains charger and output is 24v 2.0 amp
 
Last edited:
Scouter66 said:
Thank you all. Very useful feedback. Looks like I need to check out my current inverter to see if it a PSW & take it from there. Thanks again
Click to expand...
When you check your inverter be aware there is square wave, stepped wave, modified wave and pure sign wave, I have now purchased a multi-meter that should show the wave form type, about £30 on ebay. Fluke version several £100's. Not tried it out yet, (well I did but didn't read the manual so have to try it again), but sellers on ebay giving all sorts of incorrect information on what they are selling. I suspect they don't know themselves and then there is the change in language from Chinese to English, French, German etc, that they have to deal with.
 
chas142 said:
When you check your inverter be aware there is square wave, stepped wave, modified wave and pure sign wave, I have now purchased a multi-meter that should show the wave form type, about £30 on ebay. Fluke version several £100's. Not tried it out yet, (well I did but didn't read the manual so have to try it again), but sellers on ebay giving all sorts of incorrect information on what they are selling. I suspect they don't know themselves and then there is the change in language from Chinese to English, French, German etc, that they have to deal with.
Click to expand...
Did it work OK? If so, can you share a link to it?
 
Yes it worked, not sure it worked as well as I expected it to or if the pure sine wave inverter that I purchased is PURE pure sine wave. It's VERY very close. The screen clearly shows the difference between the square and sine wave but it is jagged, like modified stepped sine wave, but so is the wave form coming out of the mains, but not quite so much, so the screen can't show the wave form as they show it in the advert picture, not at close up in any case. I will sort out the pictures and find a link to an explanation of invertor wave forms and post that.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Upgraded...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who viewed this discussion (Total:0)

Back
Top