The only Ebike Charger you will ever need
The Satiator is an ingenious ebike charger which promises to charge any ebike battery, and act as both a slow and a fast charger. It has the capability to double your battery life, and it will give you information about your battery’s health, so you know if your ebike battery is living up to its full amp-hour rating.
Why spend $300 on a charger???
Let’s get straight to the chase. This charger has one major drawback and that’s its price. I don’t think anyone will argue that it is an awesome charger, I don’t think anyone would argue it is the most awesome ebike charger ever. But is it worth its high price tag?
My answer in short is absolutely YES, and this review will try explain why. I have no allegiances to ebikes.ca and did not get a free charger for this review.
Just for its convenience factor, functionality and safety features alone this charger is worth $300. But a lot of ebike guys are cheap skates and they won’t even look at it, considering they can nearly buy a decent battery for $300 now that Lunacycle.com is in town. But if you are the type to spend big money on your ebike battery with premium cells…or you have multiple batteries around….this $300 spent on the Satiator is a solid investment. Why? This charger has the capacity to double the life span of your expensive battery. Depending on how expensive your battery is or how many batteries you have the Satiator can prove to be a worthwhile investment that will actually save you money. Also consider this….your ebike battery will degrade and eventually go bad. The Satiator has the capacity to be the only ebike charger you ever buy. When you start looking at it this way the Satiator is a worthy way to spend $300.
Multiple Voltage chargers in one unit
As an electric bike enthusiast, chargers have been somewhat of a nightmare for me. I have chargers of different voltages everywhere with different output plugs, and I never can seem to find the right charger for the right pack. For a guy like me with multiple electric bikes around with different types of charge adapters, the Satiator is a saving grace. Lithium ebike chargers are expensive, and I could easily sell all my old 48V, 52 volt, 36 volt chargers on ebay, pay for a better more powerful charger, and get rid of the rats nest of chargers I have around my house. The Satiator is capable of charging any voltage battery 10-60 volts of almost any chemistry. Basically almost any ebike battery I can think of except for large voltage batteries that are for maniacs anyway.
One caveat is the Cycle Analyst comes with only one charge plug which is for an xlr connector. So to charge other battery packs you have to make your own battery connectors (read our article on connectors) which might require soldering. The folks at ebikes.ca expect that everyone loves to solder and knows how to solder, but…in reality most people don’t.
Justin Elmore and Ebikes.ca
To speak of the Cycle Satiator I should speak first of its originator who is very respected in the ebike world. Justin Lemire Elmore is the leader of ebikes.ca and inventor of the Cycle Analyst. For those who don’t know what it is, the Cycle Analyst changed the DIY world by finally creating an ebike dashboard that works properly. Remarkably, even though the Cycle Analyst is an expensive popular product, it has not been replicated by the Chinese.
In the last few years I have seen Justin and his team of engineers walking around with new hub motors and controllers he is prototyping….but it was a product as simple as a charger that I could feel he was most excited about. He worked for several years on this charger. Justin and his team was on a mission to create the greatest ebike charger ever, and I can confidently say after honestly reviewing this product is they did it. They made an awesome charger.
Here is a picture of the ebike.ca team celebrating the launch of the Cycle Satiator at the end of last year. These engineers indeed have something to celebrate….they created something really awesome.
The Satiator…Above all else it has quality construction:
It is really refreshing when some new product comes out for ebikes and it is not engineered in China and it is not made of the cheapest components possible to get the price as low as possible. The Satiator is expensive because it is made with very high quality components.
What this accomplishes is you get a really powerful charger in a small package. And because the internal parts are such high quality it does not need a fan to run cool. The fact that the Satiator is the first silent high amperage ebike charger I have seen is already a big accomplishment.
To top off this achievement in ebike hardware, the Satiator uses top notch software created by the ebike.ca team.
Reducing the Rats Nest
The ebike world currently is being overrun by too many wires (read our story). The chinese can’t help but making there ebike products with tons of wires. The Satiator brilliantly cuts back on wires, by elminating the need for more than one charger per household. You no longer need a box of chargers for your various ebikes or batteries…one charger, and one set of wires can do it all. The Satiator in that way really reduces ebike clutter. I can tell you as an ebike enthusiast it gets tiresome trying to keep track of all the different chargers for all the different vehicles.
Charging at different Amperages
The Satiator promises to charge any ebike battery up to 60V no matter what its chemistry is, how large it is, who makes it etc. You will need to make adapter cables to fit all your different batteries. (we recommend you change all your batteries to use the same charge connector) So once you have adapter cables for every charger you own the next step is what amperage do you want to charge at. When I first got into ebiking I thought the faster more powerful charger the better. For example a 6-amp 48 volt charger can charge a 48 volt 10-Ah pack in less than 2 hours. However charging this fast to full charge definitely has one giant draw back, it drastically reduced your battery life. When you charge at 7 amps you can feel the battery get warm or sometimes even hot to the touch…this is a sign you are charging too fast. After this realization is made most ebike enthusiasts such as myself end up having both fast and slow chargers around for each voltage.
Sometimes you are in not such a rush and don’t need to charge this fast, and if all you have is a 6-amp charger you are stuck charging fast anyway. The Satiator has the incredible feature of being able to vary from 1 to 7 amps to control how fast you charge…so its like having multiple chargers around in one tight neat package.
Charge to 80 percent
We learned a lot from automobile manufacturers and the nature of lithium batteries. We now know that it is not good to charge your batteries to maximum capacity and doing that every time you charge will greatly hurt your batteries life expectancy. The engineers at Ebike.ca noticed that no ebike chargers on the market were doing partial charges and decided they would make the ultimate charger with this as the key feature.
The Satiator gives you a choice to charge them to 80 percent or whatever percent you choose for that matter. The Satiator senses how much amp hours is left in the battery based on the battery profile that you have entered in, it then charges it to roughly 80 perecent. This feature along can double the life of your battery if you use it at times you do not need a full charge on your next ride.
When you are planning a long ride you can go ahead and charge to 100 percent.
Also if you plan to store your battery for a long time, or ship your battery across the country, it is best if it is 50 percent charged. You can easily set your Satiator to do this.
Double the Life of Your Batteries
Doubling the life of your lithium batteries is a hard statement to quantify, sort of like range claims on an ebike, and ebikes.ca is not a company about making boisterous claims. But a battery charger such as this could easily double the life expectancy of your battery pack, maybe even more or maybe less, depending on how fast you are charging your batteries (what amperage) how often you are using them, how often you run them down to 0 charge etc. I would say for the average user this battery charger will double the life of your lithium batteries over a standard 5 amp charger if you utilize the charge to 80 percent feature half the times you charge . So even though this is a $300 charger, it is a very good investment that could save you money if you ride ebike frequently.
A big charger in a little package
A 7 amp charger is a big charger in power…this one fits in a very tight form package. This feature in itself is awesome. The Cycle Satiator is designed so that you can pack it in your bike on long rides and do guerrilla charges on the go. It has a nice look to it… its the best looking ebike charger I have every seen. Looking at it in my hand I would guess its a 3amp charger. This baby is a 7 amp full featured powerhouse.
Built To Be Taken On Board
Because of its small size and its slim profile the Satiator is designed to be easily carried in a pack or even mounted on a bike. The first time I saw the Satiator was when Justin and one of his engineers Robby rode all the way from Vancouver Canada to San Francisco on their ebikes with giant ebike batteries on tow. They had two Satiator chargers which did not take much space that did all their charging for them. Of course with an epic trip like that you also need your Satiator to be reliable and it does seem to be that.
Canadian Engineered Reliability
I have sold 100s of Satiators through my store LunaCycle.com and can testify to their reliability. Out of hundreds sold only one has been sent back with a defect. This is a testament to how solid this charger is. Chargers are by far our most returned item…and with the Satiator it has the nice feature of being able to sell it and forget it …a blessing as a dealer.
A Super Smart and Safe Charger
Large lithium batteries like the ones used on ebikes are potential fire risks. By far the riskiest and most dangerous phase of ebike battery use is charging. To make charging even more dangerous most people charge their lithium batteries in their house unsupervised. We really recommend that all ebikes batteries be charged separate from the house if possible. Also you want your charger to be a “smart” lithium charger meaning it monitors the voltage of the battery while charging and will automatically slow down and eventually shut down as the battery reaches its peek. This is essential for safety in case the bms in the ebike battery fails you do not start a fire. The Satiator is not just a smart charger, it is super smart…. programmed by people we really trust to make their product as safe as it can be. The Satiator knows your battery pack and will shut down if it notices anything is wrong adding an additional layer of protection (your batteries bms is its primary protection).
The Satiator is one of the few ebike chargers on the market that is UL listed.. meaning its extra safe.
When it comes to safety, especially fire safety there is no reason to mess around. When you buy a Satiator because of its advanced hardware and software you are buying the safest ebike charger money can buy.
Amp hour meter
This is one of my favorite features of the Cycle Satiator. After a ride and you are charging your battery , the charger will tell you exactly how many amp hours the battery is taking in, and at the end of the charge let you know how many amp hours your battery took total. This feature is a blessing if you dont have the Cycle Analsyt (made by the same maker of the Satiator) or some other watt meter that tells you exactly how much juice your battery is putting out.
Most important you will know right away if you are gettting the amp hours that you paid for in your ebike battery or commercial ebike. You can also see how quickly the battery life degrades.
In our shop we use this feature to test batteries. We run them down to empty using a long string of light bulbs (crude but it works) and then plug it into the Satiator and see how many amp hours it holds. The Satiator is an excellent tool for testing batteries.
As an owner of just a few batteries you will be blessed with keeping up with how many cycles your battery has had, and how many total amp hours it has held in its life span. This is a super neat feature which really allows you to monitor the health of your battery.
Time to check up on your Ebike Manufacture Claims
No big ebike company offers an amp hour guage on their bike even though it would be easy for them to do so. That is because they don’t want an amp hour gauge on their probably low quality battery pack because the customer would know immediately how many amp hours their battery was putting out, and if that capacity was degrading before the warranty. The Satiator allows you to charge any commercial ebike without tampering with any of the ebikes wiring (maybe voiding your warranty). Once you have the Satiator plugged into your commercial bike you will know exactly how many amp hours your battery is sucking in. This Charger is an absolute no brainer for people who have invested big in a big money ebike such as the Optibike. The Satiator is a perfect guage to mae sure you are getting all the precious amp hours you paid for. The ebike battery is the most expensive component on your commercial bike, and montioring its health with the Satiator is not a bad idea.
And with an amp hour guage such as this one you will be able to make a warranty claim if you battery degrades by more than 60 percent of its amp hours while still under warranty.
For people who spent thousands on their commercial ebikes the Cycle Satiator is an awesome investment. Not only will it probably double your batteries life span as described above, but it will also make sure your investment is holding up, and make sure the ebike’s battery is living up to the warranty you paid so dearly for.
Future Proof
The Satiator has easily upgradeable firmware….annoying that you have to buy a 20 dollar programming cable and 10 dollar connector to update it but you can. This mean that the Satiator can always be improved with time and it is unlikely it will ever become outdated.
That being said if you are into ultra high voltage batteries (over 60 volts) on super fast ebikes, Grin Technologies is expected to release a Satiator for higher voltages later this year. So if you see a high voltage pack in your future you should wait for the new high voltage Satiator before jumping on this one.
Annoying Extras
For a $300 charger I was hoping this baby would come with everything you need. It doesn’t . If you want a programming cable, you will have to buy a $10 proprietary cable plus a $10 connector.
The Satiator comes only with a xlr connector, which is not a very common plug for US users to use for charging, so you will have to buy or solder your own adapter to make it work with your ebike battery. For an extra $10 you can buy an adapter so that you can charge both xlr and anderson.
What would have been nice is if the Satiator came with a nifty charge converter harness, with the most common ebike connectors on it. Even as This would have been very cheap for the folks at ebikes.ca to provide and would make the charger super convenient. I know the folks at ebikes.ca and they expect every eibke user to know how to solder, and making a connector should be no problem….but i really feel they should have done the right thing and provided a multi-connector with this charger. Because I think most Americans hate the idea of spending $300 and having to solder.
As is be prepared to build your own connectors if you buy this charger. To help facilitate this I suggest you get a source of xlr female plugs preferably with pig tails. Pig tails will make wiring your own connectors less painless.
Also consider changing all your ebike battery connectors to the same one. I suggest the xt-60.
Requires an Instruction manual to operate
The Satiator is not as intuitive to program as i would prefer. It is bit easier if you invest in the programming cable because at-least then you can use your computer keyboard and screen instead of the awkward interface built into the Satiator. You will not be able to get this charger to work with your battery intuitively. This is one of the few ebike products ever that really requires an instruction manual to figure out. We wish it was a bit easier to set up and use.
Read the instruction manual here.
Our Shop Charger – The Satiator
I have an ebike shop (lunacycle.com) and the Satiator has proven itself to be an incredible blessing. Normally with as many electric bikes and batteries as I have around you need to label which charger goes with what vehicle. The Satiator literally will charge every battery in my shop and I have over 50 different types of batteries around. We use it for ebikes, escooters and even on an electric motorcycle. “Where’s the Satiator? I something that is said so much at our shop that we decided to open a 2nd Satiator because one is not enough.
We also love selling the Satitor with our batteries. The Satiator lets the customer know that they got all the amp hour they paid for. I also feel good knowing our batteries are being babied. Our customers have the capacity to slow charge when they
Alternatives
There are alternatives if you dont want to spend $300 on a charger. The only point would be to save money. You can buy an RC charger which will put out as high of amperage as the Satiator and actually provide more functionality. It will charge every imaginable battery at any amperage. They are even more programmable than the Satiator and cost less than $200 and as low as $100. You need to get a charger for higher voltages such as the Hyperion pictured above. So what is the problem with RC Chargers? FIrst of all they are made to be field chargers for RC packs that connect to 12 volt batteries, so you will need to wire a power supply/convertor separately which makes them a real pain in the ass. And talking about pain in the ass they are really hard to program and operate. Chinese software is super hard to understand and to use, and RC charger interfaces will leave most people frustrated.
Another problem is just how messy and wirey they become (see picture above). I am a strong believer that the wirey rats nest of wires is one of the things that has held back the ebike revolution. (read my story on reducing the rat nest)
Another good alternative is offered by Paul at EMV3 offers chargers with a 3 position switch so that you can charge to 50 90 or 100 percent… you have to buy a charger for each voltage you charge at (for example 36, 48, or 52 volts) so this is a good solution if you only have one battery or one voltage of battery you charge. The charger is fairly cheap $60 but you will also have to pay an excessive shipping from China charge.
Lunacycle.com is also promising their own charger by the end of the November 2015 that will have 3 position switch plus adjustable amperage and other features for under $100. Join the Luna Cycle notification list to be updated when this charger comes to market.
Conclusion
The Satiator charger is one of the most exciting new ebike products of 2015 and is making a surprisingly small splash. Grin Technology is a company very much run by engineers and is not big into advertising or marketing and they hope that word about their brilliant product will gradually spread naturally. They don’t believe in pushing things. This product deserves to be pushed. Its amazing to me that this product has been out almost a year and this seems like the first significant review written about it. That is a travesty. This charger deserves to be cherished and written about.
The Satiator is a breath of fresh air in an industry full of cheap chinese innovation that is getting better and cheaper but nobody is thinking out of the box and making something completely different. Here we see Canadian ebike engineers take a simple component, a charger and make it as good as it can possibly be. Of course this comes at a price $300 which is the downside. But i would argue it’s worth every penny, and is going to a good company who is at the forefront of ebike promotion and innovation.
This is a charger that is better than all ebike chargers and will off you years of service and make your ebike life a lot less hassle free especially if you have multiple chargers around. Also since this controller is so versatile and firmware upgrade able you will be future proof, and very well may never need another ebike charger again.
This is one of the best ebike products I have seen hit the market in the last 5 years.
Pros
- The most versatile highest quality ebike charger ever
- Actually has the capacity to save you money by doubling your ebike battery life
- Can charge almost any battery between 12-60 volts of any chemistry.
- Totally Silent
- Safest ebike charger on the market
- Can charge at different amp levels, being a slow charger or a fast charger 1amp to 7amp
- Very compact for a charger capable of charging at 7 amps
- Can automatically determine how much juice is in your battery and charge you to 80 percent, which will lengthen the lifespan of your battery
- Easy to use interface.
- Can connect to your pc via programming cable for even more powerful features such as email notification when your battery is done charging.
- Amp hour meter tells you exactly how much charge you used on your last ride.
- Designed and supported by one of the most respected companies in the Ebike World… Ebikes.ca
- Future proof with upgrade able firmware
Cons
- Expensive $300 retail
- Geeky interface can be hard to program etc
- Requires some time with an instruction manual
- To get the added benefit of computer connectivity you have to buy a proprietary cable
- Only comes with one xlr connector. To connect to other types of batteries you will need to buy or sodder your own adapter.
Written By Eric Hicks / Electricbike.com Editor