robby
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YES!! Why don't they come on the forum with one of their 8 accounts and tell people straight up if they are Grade A cells or Grade B Telecom cells.
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Eg4 Lifepower4 battery is ticking on start
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Solar Guppy
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That is good to hear and matches what I wrote earlier. You can't have an inverter powered with ANY loads and use a resistor to supply the power, not enough energy.
I wonder if the pre-charge contractor is welded closed.
robby
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The obsession is based on watching the issues that occur when the cells are not balanced.
If my EG4LL pack is at 54.5V and I have cells in the Eg4LL that are at 3.67V and some that are 3.30V and a few in the middle at 3.4V what happens is that the Sol-Ark reads 100% SOC but the moment I load up the battery the 3.67V cells drop off real quickly to about 3.45V and the 3.3V ones remain pretty much the same. Within minutes the pack level voltage drops to 53V and my SOC is down to around 75%. Since all my TOU slots are based on SOC values the Inverter will cut out much earlier because I have reached 20% SOC.
In a normal situation where the EG4LL is in parallel with my eFlexs the problem is that the unbalanced EG4 will drop it's voltage level fast and the eFlexs will start trying to charge the EG4LL thereby wasting even more power.
So I end up losing a lot of the expected capacity at night if the EG4LL cells are not balanced. That is why I must always keep the cells in balance.
Just to help with the request for photos. . .
I've attached 2 photos from my packs, they are EG4LL 12volt packs from Signature Solar.
A close up of the QR code to show an actual cell, and 2 others just to demonstrate it's really the same pack.
I believe the 24v with no screen and even the 48V use the exact same cells with different connections so the cells should be the same, they are just configured for different pack voltages.
Mine are setup in an RV as (3) 12V packs connected shared to (2) Magnum MS2818 inverters.
The 12V units do not include the precharge resistor so I can't help with that aspect.
But, I HAVE had the BMS go into alarm mode when initially powered up and directly connected to the inverter.
I have not had any issues with nuisance trips of the BMS under regular use.
My fix for alarm on power up is simple, I turn all 3 packs on at the same time, and that gives enough headroom for the inverters to charge up and start working. We've spent about 5-6 weeks on the road since they were installed, and they have worked fine other than the power up alarms.
I settings on the BMS need to be adjusted but no one at Sig Solar seems to have the password or be able to supply it.
Just being able to make a few adjustments would probably fix all of these issues.
If it becomes a problem down the road, I'll just swap the BMS for something I can adjust to work in the system.
It is frustrating to not be able to get access from Signature Solar to make small adjustments. I get the possible impact to warranty claims, but if they can't supply the correct settings, we should get the opportunity to fix it ourselves.
I've attached 2 photos from my packs, they are EG4LL 12volt packs from Signature Solar.
A close up of the QR code to show an actual cell, and 2 others just to demonstrate it's really the same pack.
I believe the 24v with no screen and even the 48V use the exact same cells with different connections so the cells should be the same, they are just configured for different pack voltages.
Mine are setup in an RV as (3) 12V packs connected shared to (2) Magnum MS2818 inverters.
The 12V units do not include the precharge resistor so I can't help with that aspect.
But, I HAVE had the BMS go into alarm mode when initially powered up and directly connected to the inverter.
I have not had any issues with nuisance trips of the BMS under regular use.
My fix for alarm on power up is simple, I turn all 3 packs on at the same time, and that gives enough headroom for the inverters to charge up and start working. We've spent about 5-6 weeks on the road since they were installed, and they have worked fine other than the power up alarms.
I settings on the BMS need to be adjusted but no one at Sig Solar seems to have the password or be able to supply it.
Just being able to make a few adjustments would probably fix all of these issues.
If it becomes a problem down the road, I'll just swap the BMS for something I can adjust to work in the system.
It is frustrating to not be able to get access from Signature Solar to make small adjustments. I get the possible impact to warranty claims, but if they can't supply the correct settings, we should get the opportunity to fix it ourselves.
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robby
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You need to get your money back. That is not good. No battery should ever do that. That battery is defective. What is your capacity test results? Let me know how they respond and what proof you provide.
robby
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The first thing I did was let Signature Solar know that the cell voltages were all over the place and that three of the cells had a serious issue. The response I got from James was that they do not warranty voltages only the capacity.
I pretty much threw up my hands at that point because under normal circumstances (The cells are balanced) I have no doubt the capacity will be fine.
As mentioned before I Do Not have another 48V Inverter to do a battery capacity test and my Sol-Ark is powering my whole house 24/7. I have no doubts it will pass so long as the cells are in balance. It's the pain in the rear problem of dealing with lots of cloudy and rainy days that makes this an ordeal. It only takes two consective days of bad weather and low PV and the EG4LL cells are totally out of balance.
Bluedog225
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I don’t think anyone is going say you should cancel your order. You have to evaluate the customer service comments and make your own decision. I went with 4 SOK 48 volt batteries. I’ll probably buy 4 more. I also went with Battle Born for my 12 volt batteries. I sleep well.
YYYYEP, I recommend to cancel now. bought 2 on July 15, delivered Thursday, paper weight worth. opened support ticket they take days to respond (just responded today asking for photos) others are spending couple of month of troubleshooting, it's a hit or miss. Not sure how they handle shipping refunds, but for me it's over $200 each way, and they have a policy of 40% restocking fee if u change ur mind
My suggestion, order something from Amazon, if you are not satisfied, throw it to ur neighbor backyard, and u still get ur money back
Also check out that thread, and enjoy the 50 pages of troubleshooting!
Schneider xw pro 6848 not powering up with eg4 lithium battery
I recently purchased 4 of the eg4 lifepower batteries to replace my 48v crown cr430 flooded lead acid setup. I installed the four batteries in the rack made for these batteries and checked voltage on each module before paralleling. All modules showed 52.8 volts. I set all of the dipswitches as...
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Bluedog225
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That was a fun thread.
robby
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I particularly like how @Koldsimer got Drunk and Passed out after he finally won and got his batteries replaced.
The poor guy slept for 36 hours
robby
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You know this is one of the reasons why I dislike this company. Has anyone ever come across a return policy this shitty?
I mean one that favors the Seller in every possible way!
40% Restocking fee and on top of that you have to pay shipping!
Basically on a $1500 battery that you already paid $200 to get shipped to you, the end result might be:
$200 lost on the purchase shipping. $600 Lost of Restock Fee. Another $200 lost on return shipping.
That is $1000 lost on buying a defective $1500 Battery.
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To get a better BMS, I would order the SOK knowing what I know today but the 2 eg4 batteries have been working for my inverter. I just need to document the shutdown and startup procedure a little better for someone else that may come across my system in the future.
I would give them the benefit of the doubt for the restocking fee, it's saying up too, i hope they just want to have some leverage and deter abusers.
My issue with them is how slow their support is. and How they dodge nailing the problem in a good faith troubleshooting like i have seen with the OP who reported his issue 2 month ago and others in similar threads.
I'm not a battery expert. I might even have screwed up my setup and it's completely my fault for the battery not working. But i requested help Sunday night, and, only today they started responding to me via email that they need more photos to forward to the tech who will review. Why that was not requested when i got the first reply on Monday that my support / return request has been forwarded to the techs!!
Another thing i feel is they are overwhelmed. They know there's an issue but they can't just recall 120lb each battery. Richard was out until yesterday and there's not word from him other than they are working on multiple fronts to figure out the problems.
robby
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Absolutely! First of all you almost never see a post complaints about the battery, most people are praising it.
For the few people that have had some sort of issue, you see a lot of praise about how fast they resolved the issue and the fact that they stayed in contact with the customer until it was resolved.
Can you document it here please, what works for you?. Thanks.
replacing with reconditioned if it arrived defective (not damaged) is absurd, specially it was reported within couple of days.
If the item is not as described it makes sense to give the customer the option to return or exchange. That's if they care about their reputation.
I just have to turn on breaker of skybox inverter first, turn on one of the two eg4 battery breaker and precharge will engage. Once skybox is booting up, I can turn on the other breaker for the eg4 pack in parallel. I don’t have big surges on my backup loads panel so I can’t test if each pack can handle more than 30a surge or not. I have 60a surge capability in theory. That is in theory is 3kw surge out of the 5kw skybox.
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