Why isn’t this at 100%

[Rudski01]

So I have 2 lithium batteries a battery master, b2b charger and lot of solar, the van is inside so the solar is not doing anything, but it’s on permanent hook up. When I first bought the van the panel used to say 100% charge

Forward on a couple of months and that same panel after being on hook up in my lock up hasn’t gone past 70% and after the mrs had the inverter on for something has dropped to 55% and doesn’t increase even though still on hook up.

If the leisure batteries aren’t getting to 100%
then I’m going to assume that the battery master won’t maintain my starter battery hence why it wouldn’t start the other week.

Why wont they charge back to full capacity, am I missing something? I’ve never had lithium before but can’t understand why they’re not showing as full.

Panel pic for reference

 

[Richard n Ann]

The mains charger must be off. Have you checked it's power supply?

 

[AdrianChen]

You could turn the charger off and after a minute or so then on again to start a new cycle, some stay on float at the end of a cycle which will be very slow to charge, some also have a setting to restart with bulk below a certain battery voltage. Not sure which charger you have, but the on/off thing should start a new cycle

 

[Lenny HB]

Sounds like mains charger has failed.
LifePO4 are fine to be charged to 100% in use but is storage you shouldn't leave them on perminant charge.

 

[Sleeveless]

Disconnect battery leads, check the actual voltage at the terminals, compare against manufacturer spec.

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[Kannon Fodda]

Dies the charger have a lithium profile, and is is set? Lithium has higher voltage than lead-acid. If a lead acid smart charger it may not yet be seeing voltage dropped low enough for it to come off float?

 

[Pausim]

What mains charger are you using? It might well be one as described by AdrianChen where the voltage simply hasn’t dropped low enough to kick start another charging cycle.

I would let the Li battery drop to between 40% and 80% and then turn it off or isolate it. You can then ignore it. A small mains trickle charger connected to the engine battery should look after that.

 

[Rudski01]

This is the set up, charger seems to be powered up, I was leaving it on mains as I thought that once the leisure batteries were charged then it would keep my starter charged.

 

[Rudski01]

The mains charger must be off. Have you checked it's power supply?

No, it’s switched on

 

[headlight]

No, it’s switched on

A battery master, assuming you mean a Vanbitz Battery Master, does not need the leisure battery to be at 100% SOC to work.
It just needs the leisure battery voltage to be 0.75v higher than the starter battery voltage.

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[Rudski01]

Dies the charger have a lithium profile, and is is set? Lithium has higher voltage than lead-acid. If a lead acid smart charger it may not yet be seeing voltage dropped low enough for it to come off float?

It was all set up before I bought it, I don’t mess with anything much electrical as I don’t understand it enough, and if I did I probably wouldn’t be able to get the setting back to where they should be

 

[Rudski01]

A battery master, assuming you mean a Vanbitz Battery Master, does not need the leisure battery to be at 100% SOC to work.
It just needs the leisure battery voltage to be 0.75v higher than the starter battery voltage.

Yes Vanbitz battery master, Ok, well maybe the starter battery is on the way out, looking at access to it I will need to strip the washer bottle and everything out

Although that doesn’t explain why the leisure batteries aren’t topping up to full

 

[Rudski01]

You could turn the charger off and after a minute or so then on again to start a new cycle, some stay on float at the end of a cycle which will be very slow to charge, some also have a setting to restart with bulk below a certain battery voltage. Not sure which charger you have, but the on/off thing should start a new cycle

I’ll give it a go, and unplug from mains if that doesn’t work, see if anything happens, got starter battery on a smart charger currently.

 

[AdrianChen]

I’ll give it a go, and unplug from mains if that doesn’t work, see if anything happens, got starter battery on a smart charger currently.

Yes most Victrons do have a re-bulk setting, normally if the voltage drops a little under the float/storage setting, it kicks in, so Its something else I guess. Cant see what lights are on from the photo.....

Whats the temp on the batteries, if below 5°c they might have switched off charging?

 

[StillGoing]

1. Have the batteries ever got to 100% without any solar power?

2. Can you post a current photo of the Votronic displays. I suspect the one in your first post was when solar was working given you say the battery hasn’t gone over 70% and the picture shows 91% and the solar at 14.4V

3. If you say the charger is on, then my guess is there is a blown fuse between the charger and leisure battery or the charger isn’t working (wrong settings?).

4. Have you got the Victron app on your phone so you can see the charger settings and current status?

5. As some else has said, if the temperature drops below about 5C the leisure batteries may not charge anyway.

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[Gromett]

View attachment 998640
This is the set up, charger seems to be powered up, I was leaving it on mains as I thought that once the leisure batteries were charged then it would keep my starter charged.

There should be a fuse on the charger 12v side. Might be worth looking at that?