I have an e-bike using a 36 volt-9 amp battery pack.Can I use the same smart charger if I increase the capacity to 48 volts-9 amps?
Probably not. It might work the other way around though. A 48V charger might work OK for 36V packs since each cell is charged independently with a smart charger. Most often smart chargers are designed for a specific cell configuration. Many have unique balance connectors that will only fit a battery pack with a matching connector. A 36V pack is likely configured 10S (10 cells in series) while a 48V pack is 13S (13 cells in series).
Would not topic which charger you buy, in the event you let your battery's go absolutely useless you have got ruined them, depending on how your battery's are configured as in six 6 volt battery's in parallel or three 12 volt in parallel you will be in a position to save lots of them, just now not with a standard 36 volt charger, you'd desire a desulfator, and the knowledge to rejuvenate them, unluckily lots of the retailer bought desulfators will simplest do 12 volt, and would assume a 36 volt desulfator would on no account be low cost, so you'll have got to smash them right down to 12 volt banks, and many of the retailer boughts wont do a thoroughly useless battery, so you can ought to give them a surface charge from a common 12 volt charger to get them started, or if you happen to had been fairly handy just build a Bedini SSG charger desulfator, where case with just a little of residence work you could tweak that to do 36 volts, even though just a little time consuming as you are going to need to cycle the battery's once or twice, as in cost discharge them, you can bring them back to higher than new, you probably have a single 36 volt lithium battery and now not a financial institution of gel or sealed lead acid parallel batterys you might be out of luck, as wholly draining a lithium is a demise sentance for it.