Trouble With New Vatrer 12V 200AH heated

End of February 2024 I purchased two 12V 200Ah heated batteries #LM12200 off Amazon, mfg. at the end of November, close to $1300. Haven't used them yet but in testing am having a problem with one of them. It will discharge down to anywhere between 90 and 70% then jump to zero SOC. I've been in contact (email) with Vatrer about half a dozen times (3 weeks) so far. Charging will bring it back to some random amount and then hitting it with about 16V it jumps to 100%SOC. At their request I'm charging, discharging, sending screenshots, over and over. Now I see they are currently not available with no expected availability date. Not looking for suggestions, just want to make everyone aware of my situation with this particular battery and manufacturer.

Need to test for actual capacity that soc percentage could be based on pure Fantasyland especially the first few charges.

My point is that I can be using it for 1/2 hour with a light load and suddenly it drops to 6%, sometimes 0%. Different BMS apps give the same numbers. So how much is left really? I'll see what Vatrer has to say on Monday.

The internal BMS is not accurate for SOC% as it looks to be voltage based.

Do you have access to the cell voltages? I'd bet one cell drops below the low voltage cutoff and the BMS cuts out.
This does not explain how charging makes it jump to 100%. But why are you hitting it with 16V?

I don't have access to the individual cells, other than what shows in the BMS. Looking at those numbers they are all very close, .007V. I've been in contact with Vatrer every day (it's getting ridiculous). 27 emails and counting. Try this, try that, run it down to zero, charge it fast, slow, take screen shots. It doesn't seem to matter if I run it down slow or fast (high load/low load). At some point it will take a huge drop, like from 90% to 21%. Sometime to 50%, sometimes 21%, sometime 6%. Then charging it will climb for a few hours then stop with no current shown. If I let it sit on the charger nothing changes, it stays at the number it stopped at. If I put it on an old non-smart charger it will start charging after a few minutes. I disconnect it and go back to the smart charger. 5 or 10 minutes and it jumps to 100%. They want me to run it down again to zero and charge it back up AGAIN. BMS app is 1.5.1.

Again, if you're relying on the BMS SOC% to be accurate, it's not. You need a shunt if you want a more accurate SOC%.

I have several BMS apps and they all show the same numbers. The latest that Vatrer wants me to do is start at 100%, run it down to zero and charge it up again. I did as instructed. It discharged to 68% and stopped there, then it jumped to zero with no current flowing. I've been trying to now charge it. Went from zero to 51% and stopped. The current shown on the BMS is only about 2% different from my ammeter. Doing the same experiments with my second identical battery. We'll see how it goes!

I have that same app for my battery and my soc is very accurate as compared with a shunt monitor.
I think OP 's battery crapped the bed.

Well it appears Vatrer is going to replace the bad battery. Some things of note: The converter I was using is specified as 55A. The bad battery would only draw or charge at 24A. My other good battery draws up to 54A and a much shorter charge time. The posts on the bad battery would get up to 150F (too hot to touch), the good battery 100F from totally empty. I will let you know if and when the new battery arrives! EDIT: 4/19/24 I have a FedEx tracking number so we are on the way.

Got my new replacement Vatrer 12V 200AH battery yesterday (1 week to arrive). Seems to be working fine. Charging and discharging numbers are in line with recommended criteria. Has a 7 year warranty so I'm hoping it will last that long. Who knows what battery types may be available in 7 years!

UPDATE: the latest battery (number three) appeared to be working OK for a while. Both are now doing the same thing as the other 2 did. They are fully charged at 100%. I’ll be using them for a little bit and they may drop down to 98 or 99%. Suddenly, they’ll show some odd numbers such as 6%. It’s not the actual number that matters. It’s the fact of what the charger does relative to that number. We use these batteries in our camper while Boondocking and it’s important for us to know what we have left in battery power. The BMS is not very useful if the information that it’s giving you is not correct. I am using an ammeter and volt meter to tell me what is actually happening, but obviously there’s a lot more information being given to me by the BMS that I cannot get (or set) through the ammeter or voltmeter.

JeromeS13 said:

Again, if you're relying on the BMS SOC% to be accurate, it's not. You need a shunt if you want a more accurate SOC%.

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I'll suggest again, you need a shunt.

I have a shunt. If I’m not mistaken, the shunt will not allow me to change or monitor parameters. If you know otherwise please let me know.

JimHanus said:

I have a shunt. If I’m not mistaken, the shunt will not allow me to change or monitor parameters. If you know otherwise please let me know.

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What shunt do you have? It should allow you to customize all of the parameters to your setup.