Added 2nd lithium but solar stuck on float (1 Viewer)

[MichaelT]

I added a 280ah fogstar battery to my 200ah ks one. Ks was 100% but fogstar only about 82% charged so I expected solar to kick in and start charging it then once at 100% go to float etc. then I could reset shunt to 100%.

Both shunt and solar are victron with 400w panels, it's cloudy but I would expect about 5 to 8 amps normally.

Do I need to somehow reset the solar controller to recognise the 2nd battery or something?

 

[Otter Spotter]

Someone with more experience than me will answer soon, but I didn’t think you should’nt mix different capacity batteries, but whether that would cause your problem I don’t know !

 

[MichaelT]

Someone with more experience than me will answer soon, but I didn’t think you should’nt mix different capacity batteries, but whether that would cause your problem I don’t know !

You can with lithium according to some videos I've seen and Advice on here but lead acid should be the same.

 

[Outdoors Dad]

Maybe the new fogstar will settle down after a few charges and it may sync with other hardware better.

 

[Steve N Tracy]

I have found if my Victon is on float, turn off the charging in the app and then switching it back on makes it revert to bulk charging.

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[MichaelT]

Maybe the new fogstar will settle down after a few charges and it may sync with other hardware better.

Yes I think it's going to need a few cycles but just want to get it full for now.

 

[The Wino]

I added a 280ah fogstar battery to my 200ah ks one. Ks was 100% but fogstar only about 82% charged so I expected solar to kick in and start charging it then once at 100% go to float etc. then I could reset shunt to 100%.

Both shunt and solar are victron with 400w panels, it's cloudy but I would expect about 5 to 8 amps normally.

Do I need to somehow reset the solar controller to recognise the 2nd battery or something?

Id have thought if the batteries are wired in parallel that they would gradually move to the same charge state the regulator won't know the charge state of the batteries separately . Hopefully someone on here who has done similar will answer soon

 

[MichaelT]

I have found if my Victon is on float, turn off the charging in the app and then switching it back on makes it revert to bulk charging.

Thanks just did that and it kicked into life, not much sun so not much coming in so will check tomorrow.

 

[Just smiffy]

Did you turn the solar off when you added the battery..? You have to let the controller “see” the batteries before the solar…

 

[MichaelT]

Did you turn the solar off when you added the battery..? You have to let the controller “see” the batteries before the solar…

I pulled the 40a fuse to stop any charge coming in.

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[Lenny HB]

A few people have had this with first use of Lithium's.
I expect it will eventually settle down but probably better to disconnect the other battery, run the Fogstar down then recharge a few times.

My two 230ah Fogstar's charged up OK first time, I did them individually.

 

[MichaelT]

A few people have had this with first use of Lithium's.
I expect it will eventually settle down but probably better to disconnect the other battery, run the Fogstar down then recharge a few times.

My two 230ah Fogstar's charged up OK first time, I did them individually.

Now up to 100% 305a, just needs to float now and then I'll try running them down a bit and see if they go down equally or individually

 

[MichaelT]

So all charged OK and both batteries went to 14.2 each day on solar. So today I'm testing the discharge to see if my careful planning and connections worked to equalise the discharge between the 2 batteries evenly.

Put air fryer on (1000w) and shunt showing just under 70a discharge, checked each battery BMS and looks to be roughly even over the batteries 37-38a on fogstar and 32a on KS, will monitor more as I want to try and get the fogstar to cycle a few times.

 

[MichaelT]

Interesting that when the load from air fryer drops to 6 or 7 amps most is taken from the fogstar and the KS one starts to get charged from the little solar there is today so I think it's still pretty even just.