Best LiFePO4 Battery Charger 12V, 24V and 48V

If you are in a rush, here are my recommendations. If you have a little more time, I recommend reading the entire article.

Best Lithium Battery Chargers

Litime 12V 20A Battery Charger

This battery charger is solely made to charge lithium batteries. Its 20A charging current will charge your 100Ah battery in 5 hours.

Advantages

• 20A is a decent charging current for a good price
• Solely made for 12V LiFePO4 batteries
• Comes with ring terminals
• Available in 10, 20, and 40A
• Good feedback from customers
• Budget option

Disadvantages

• The anderson connector might add some more resistance, but is negligible.

 

Progressive Dynamics 12V 60A charger

This LiFePO4 battery charger is perfect if you want to charge your batteries quickly. For example, you have a big battery bank and want to charge it overnight at a campground. This 60A charger will charge a 12V 500Ah battery in 8 hours.

Advantages

• Reputable brand
• Good feedback from customers
• Solely made for LiFePO4 batteries
• High charging current
• It can take up to 4AWG wires

Disadvantages

• Doesn’t include leads or alligator clamps
• Expensive

 

Victron Energy Blue Smart 12V 30A Charger

I have used this charger in a van solar system. It’s an excellent charger with minimal noise. Perfect if you want to put it under your bed and charge your battery at night.

It comes with a Bluetooth app for remote monitoring.

Advantages

• Great company reputation
• Low noise
• High charging current
• Comes with Bluetooth monitoring

Disadvantages

• Expensive

 

Victron Bluesmart 24V 12A LifePO4 charger

This is the same charger as the previous one but suited for 24V batteries.

The advantage of this charger is that it charges with the same amount of power than the 12V 30A version. This will result in even lower noise and the same charge time. A 24V 100Ah battery will take 8 hours to charge.

 

EG4 LiFePO4 Battery Charger 48V 18A

This battery charger is the go-to for charging 48V lithium batteries. 100Amps at 48V will deliver 5,000W (5kW) of charging power. A standard server rack of 48V 100Ah (5kw) will charge in 1 hour.

 

I won’t bore you with the explanation of a LiFePO4 battery charger, but I will get straight to the point.

You need to consider a few factors while purchasing a lifepo4 battery charger. These are:

• Voltage
• Charging current

I will explain more about these crucial factors you need to consider in detail.

Voltage of the Battery

Is your battery 12V, 24V, or 48Volts?

Ideally, your battery should have a high voltage. Why is that you might ask?

Pricing of battery chargers depends on the current they will provide. Let me explain with an example.

A 12V charger delivering 10A has a charging power (watts) of 120W.

12V * 10A = 120W

The same 10A charger on a 48V battery can deliver 480W.

48V * 10A = 480W

The price of a 12V or 48V charger will be around the same at 10A. But the charging speed is 4 times faster!

To reduce the cost of your battery charger, increase your battery voltage.

Charging current

As I have already mentioned in the previous chapter, the current of the charger is what will determine its price.

But how much current should you charge your battery with?

LiFePO4 generally has a C-rate of 0.5C. This means that the maximum charging current should be multiplied by 0.5 and the battery capacity. Let me explain with a 12V 100Ah battery.

100Ah * 0.5C = 50A charging current

In this example, 50Amps is the max charging current. You can always go lower than this, but not higher.

There is no minimal charging current for a lifepo4 or lithium battery. If you drop the current, the charging time will be longer. Choose a low-current charger if you don’t mind the longer charging time. This will save you money.