Soneil International Chargers at Econogics

Last updated 2010.05.12

Customer First

We don't just mean our customers come first – everyone that retails says that. What we mean is that we were Soneil customers before we chose to become distributors for their line of compact, intelligent, affordable battery chargers.

We have used electric vehicles, on-road and off-road, for over three decades, and we found one thing even more limiting than the limited energy storage of lead-acid batteries for most of our applications: the lack of an affordable charger sufficiently intelligent that we could plug in our vehicle, and then just walk away and not worry about the charger cooking the batteries, or under-charging them, or a range of other quirks we came to know and dislike over the years (additional watering, the hydrogen-sulphide smell, vehicles not ready for operation when needed, etc). We spent a lot of time looking for a smart, affordable charger.

We were fortunate to discover the Soneil line when we needed a charger to keep our tractor charged at a remote location, where we could only attend to it about once a week. With the factory charger, this essentially guaranteed an extra 3 hours for each trip as we did a top-up charge on arrival and waited for that to complete prior to operation. The Soneil 3610SRF changed that. Just plug in on departure, and the tractor was fully charged and ready to go on next arrival. We put that charger through a year of Canadian operation (including winter), and were so satisfied with it, we wanted to bring it to other EV'ers. So we became a distributor. What more can we say? We liked the product so much, we wanted to share it with others. This is the first product from another company that Econogics elected to carry.

We could wax ecstatic about these smart battery chargers, and put lots of information about them on our site, but we think it's better that you see the story from the manufacturer. The specifications sell the chargers. We do not provide an automated means of selling the chargers from the website. That's intentional. We want to communicate with you prior to the transaction to ensure that you are getting the charger that is appropriate to your application, including the right connector(s), when we make a sale.

Link to the Soneil website

Our prices and service will make you smile.

Econogics Price and Soneil Product List (prices in Canadian dollars)

Our Recommendations on Applications

12 Soneil 1212SR chargers in our electric car conversion (6 behind bumper, 6 on bulwark wall)
Close-up of mounting of 2 chargers and power bar that shares one circuit to all 12 chargers)
Front bank of chargers viewed from above
Close-up of one charger showing green (charged) LED)
Energy meter showing AC voltage at 120 volts (top line), and current draw for 12 chargers (batteries all charged) at 0 watts (second line).

Please note that the Soneil 1214S is not recommended for use in charging batteries in a series string. Soneil has recently (2009.05.05) updated their application note on series and parallel charging. We have posted their new application note here. (To date (2009.05.25), Soneil still has the July 2003 version posted on their Web site.)

Electric-Assist Bikes

We love electric bikes; in fact we successfully campaigned to get them legalized in Ontario. (A 3-year pilot project was announced on October 4th, 2006, which covers most electric assist bikes, provided you are 16 years of age or older, and wear a bicycle helmet.) On most electric bikes, the objective is to have a small, light battery pack to drive the electric motors, but not exhaust the rider. So why use a bulky, heavy charger? The Soneil chargers are small enough and light enough to bring along on the commute, so you can recharge the pack at work as well as at home, and smart enough not to overcharge the batteries with the additional charging opportunities. Of course, you might find them so affordable, you'll have two. With one at work and one at home, no need to carry the charger with you. Which charger will be most appropriate will depend on your pack voltage (e.g., 12, 24, 36, 48 or 72 volts), desired recharge rate, and budget.

We have a Soneil 3602S for our home-built 36-volt electric bike. Affordable, and it can recharge the 7 amp-hour pack in about 7 hours, ideal for charging at both ends of a commute.

Unfortunately, with many electric bikes, the charger that is supplied with them is the cheapest thing that will push electrons. If you want to protect your battery investment, or if your OEM charger fails, consider getting a Soneil charger as a replacement.

If you have a Schwinn electric bike that's a couple of years old, and this spring it doesn't have the get-up-and-go you remember, it might not be the battery pack - or at least not completely. We are seeing a number of charger failures on these machines, especially the 24-volt models (such as were sold by Canadian Tire). If you are having this problem, we recommend either the Soneil 2409SR (for bikes getting a lot of use or needing relatively fast charging) or the 2404S (for less demanding charging requirements). (Please keep the battery connector from your existing charger for re-use as we have not yet found a source for the odd plugs used by Schwinn on those machines.)

Of course, we also have 36-volt models (like the 3605S and 3602S) for bikes using that voltage, be it lead-acid, nickel-metal-hydride, or even LiFePO4 packs.

Electric Tractors and Golf Carts

Most of these machines are 36-volt nominal. For these, we recommend the Soneil 3610SRF charger for reasonably fast charges (overnight), while eliminating the guesswork of setting timers, and reducing gassing and the need for watering. (You can keep your existing bulk charger for faster charging and the occasional equalization charge. We have used our Soneil 3610SRF in parallel with the OEM bulk charger for even faster charging of our electric tractor on occasion.)

Here's what one long-time, repeat customer wrote to another electric tractor owner with a charger problem:
"The EGT100 charger, like all the charge of the period, is actually not very good - so this my be a blessing even better it an easy fix -- replace it with a Soneil!!! I would recommend very very highly this charger from a Canadian company unit Soneil model 3610SRF. The unit is about 5''X3"X2" and weight just over 500 grams. If you are handy you can mount the unit on the EGT100, but it could also be as simple as connecting two spring clips to the 36-volt pack. It also only draws about 5 amps a full charge may take a little longer than with the old one, but it will still full charge overnight, and it is smart - in fact you will want to have it connected whenever the tractor in not in use. With the Soneil and a little bit a battery care your battery life could be decades.

"Don't let the size fool you this is an amazing unit --- it very smart and almost completely fool proof, I have several units. But I have many many tractors. They run $180, a cool thing is that being Canadian you have no duty or tax issues and they are small enough to be shipped Canada Post.

"Check out http://soneil.com/ and buy it from http://www.econogics.com/index.html

"Hope this helps. You can fix the old charger but they are so hard on the battery pack it not worth the trouble and unless it is just a wire the cost of parts and repair will set you back around $100. in the end you will still have a crappy battery "boiler" charger."

I could not have said it better.

Another option is to use three 12-volt chargers or six 6-volt chargers for modular charging of the batteries. (The ACI/Soneil 604CC 6-volt charger is appropriate for charge-finishing and charge-maintenance, but not for bulk charging of large batteries.)

For units with a 48-volt system, we recommend the Soneil 4808SRF or Soneil 4812SR. Some of the new electric tractors are using 48-volt systems (e.g., the Ariens AMP Rider).

Battery-powered Yard Tools

In recent years, a number of companies (Ryobi, Canadian Tire) have introduced lines of yard tools like lawn mowers and rototillers that run on batteries. Many of those batteries are lead-acid composition and in 24 and 36-volt configurations (e.g., Brill Accu, Epic EP21H, Earthwise, Hudson Star, Recharge riding mower, Sears Craftsman, Sunlawn EM-2, Worx Eco). Some of the more recent entries (e.g., MTD, Troy-Bilt Model 188, White Model 188) are introducing 48 volt versions. However, owners are learning that in some of these units, the charger is the weak link with these products. Our guess is that the manufacturers have elected to use low-priced chargers to keep their costs down, knowing that when those chargers kill your batteries, the warranty will have expired. With luck, they'll even get to sell you the replacement batteries. Depending on what product you have, 12-volt modular chargers, or 24-volt (e.g., Soneil 2409SR), 36-volt (e.g., Soneil 3605S) or 48-volt Soneil chargers (e.g., Soneil 4804SR) may be appropriate replacements. These may give some new life to your existing batteries, but will definitely improve the lifespan of your replacement batteries.

Unfortunately, most of the manufacturers have used unusual and proprietary connectors, so please keep the old battery connector from your old charger and use it with your new Soneil charger to facilitate the connection.

Earthwise & Homelite Cordless Lawn Mowers

We have had several people contact us about getting better chargers for their Earthwise 60120 and Homelite UT13122 24-volt mowers, as the original chargers have failed, or are not charging the batteries properly. After a fair bit of work to deduce their wiring, we have successfully mated up a Soneil 2409S to the original charging cable, so you can have a superior charging solution for your Earthwise or Homelite cordless mower. We sell the Soneil 2409SR for $81. If a longer (slower) charging option works for you, we also have the Soneil 2404S for $46. For a small additional fee, we'll attach a connector or modify your charging cable. (If the original batteries are damaged due to overcharging, a new charger will not be able to recover them - they will have to be replaced, along with the charger.)

Don't let your clean-air mower sit idle just because of the inadequacy of the original charger. E-mail us about a better charger solution.

YardWorks

Specifically regarding the YardWorks line of tools using the 24-volt, lead-acid batteries, our family has found the chargers for this line to be thoroughly disappointing. They have uniformly overcharged (cooked) the batteries to death, in same cases within a matter of months. Some of the batteries have been deformed as a result of the degree of overcharging. We have arrived at the following solution. We have replaced the original batteries in the battery case that were destroyed by the original charger with new units of known brands (presumably better quality). Then, we replaced the original charger with a Soneil charger (usually a 2404S, but in one case a 2409SR for faster charging). We can replace the batteries and include the intelligent Soneil 2404S charger together for just a bit more than the price we were quoted to replace just the battery pack from the manufacturer (slightly over Cdn$100). Based on our experience, we estimate we can do the battery replacement including the Soneil 2404S charger for $115 (plus taxes and shipping in both directions). If you include the charger (or at least the yellow plastic battery connector and wire) we will mate it to the Soneil charger. If this option interests you, or you desire more information, please e-mail us.

High Current / Fast Charging Applications

We are pleased to announce the recent addition of high current chargers to the Soneil product line for 12-volt (up to 50 amps constant current), 24-volt, 36-volt (up to 30 amps constant current) and 48-volt (up to 20 amps constant current) lead-acid battery systems. If your application demands high current, fast charging, these units deliver it, with an intelligent charging algorithm, in a small, lightweight package. (The constant current ratings apply to the initial bulk charge phase. Current during the charge maintenance phases is lower as appropriate to the stage.)

12 volts
1224SR - 12 amp constant current
1230SR - 15 amp constant current Specifications Charging Curve (others similar)
1240SR - 20 amp constant current
1260SR - 30 amp constant current
1280SR - 40 amp constant current
12100SR - 50 amp constant current

24 volts
2424SR - 12 amp constant current
2430SR - 15 amp constant current
2440SR - 20 amp constant current Specifications Charging Curve (others similar)
2450SR - 25 amp constant current
2460SR - 30 amp constant current

36 volts
3620SR - 10 amp constant current
3630SR - 15 amp constant current
3640SR - 20 amp constant current
3650SR - 25 amp constant current Specifications Charging Curve (others similar)

48 volts
4820SR - 10 amp constant current Specifications Charging Curve (others similar)
4840SR - 20 amp constant current

Special Requests, Handling, Shipping

We provide most conventional connectors as requested by our customers as a standard feature (e.g., ring terminals, quick disconnects – male or female). Unusual connectors, Gerbing connectors and Anderson connectors incur an extra charge. For XLR connectors (male on the charger), please specify your pin-out connection requirements. We normally ship expedited postal delivery (three or four business days delivery), but will ship whatever way you want. We will try to accommodate any special shipping or handling requests. All shipping charges are extra. All applicable taxes are extra. Canadian residents pay GST. Ontario residents pay PST until June 30, 2010 and HST thereafter.

For your convenience and confidence, we accept payment via Interac E-mail Money Transfer and PayPal. (We still want to talk to you about your application first, so we don't allow for Soneil chargers via the shopping cart. Instead, once we agree on what you should be getting, we will send you a PayPal invoice or Interac payment instructions.)

We also accept corporate purchase orders, cheques, money orders and bank drafts.

We charge extra to accept wire transfers to offset bank charges.

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