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Will blasts Chargery

Will Prowse said:
It's not that hard to use. The Chargery is just a low quality and poorly manufactured product. With poorly designed software.

The main website shows that it is made for ebike batteries. That is probably why the cell voltage difference cut off exists, for lipoly high c rate ebike applications. Would help to show that internal resistance of one cell is not up for pushing large induction loads. I had to do this in my drone racing days. Not a feature you will need or see in a solar specific BMS.

Instant rice society? People can set up a Batrium, Orion, SBMS, Small bms much easier than the chargery. The fact that you cannot program a resistance value for a shunt is plain silly. The fact that the menu is three settings in a single line, with a time sensitive variable, is a bad design. It should have 2 options in the menu. One for manual resistance value, and a second for automatic calibration. Then the automatic calibration should have 3 separate menus for calibrating the charging/discharging/zero current situations.

These do not need to be "plug n play" but they should have good software. The software in the chargery setup menu is an absolute joke.

The graphics look like a 5 year old was on MS paint. Compare them to the electrodacus or batrium.

Also, you can take any FET based common/separate port BMS and control a relay like the chargery does. Besides the 1.2A balance current and beeper/led notification, what is the benefit of the chargery?
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Will Prowse said:
Yes, a software update would fix nearly all of these issues. It seems to be a fine BMS.

I promise that this BMS would sell like hot cakes if it was more user-friendly.

Also, the default settings for lifepo4 should work for most people. Having the voltage deviation cut off on a lifepo4 system at low c rates is pretty pointless.
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I disagree. High deviation can be used to detect poor connections.
 
What I'm interested in is to understand the permanent current drain of the chargery SSR holding coil. I suspect this might be a couple of hundred milli amps, I'd like to avoid permanent drain in a RV application. This would be my rejection criteria for this system.
Keeping this in mind I can't understand why Chargery doesn't offer a BMS kit with some decent latching relays to overcome the permanent current drain issue.
In Will's video, in case the chargery SSR is working according to chargeries spec, I'd assume that the heat disipation comes from the permanent coil heat up. Heat generated by the power contacts with a 50 Amps flow would be any good at all.
 
Mine DID NOT come calibrated - had to research how and calibrate myself. I do really like this BMS, personally.

Bob B said:
I think if you order the shunt from Chargery along with the unit that it comes calibrated for that shunt.
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koolmodee said:
Mine DID NOT come calibrated - had to research how and calibrate myself. I do really like this BMS, personally.
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Interesting, that’s disappointing to hear. That’s the reason I ordered one with the shunt (at twice the price of what the shunt could be purchased for alone). I am aware of the calibration, but thought I could avoid it.

Once my batteries get here and I assemble, I will report back on if this shunt was calibrated in mine. Thanks for the heads up!
 
Walef said:
What I'm interested in is to understand the permanent current drain of the chargery SSR holding coil. I suspect this might be a couple of hundred milli amps, I'd like to avoid permanent drain in a RV application. This would be my rejection criteria for this system.
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It may be poor business judgement for Chargery to offer these relays. Those relays are a disaster for our applications and leave a bad impression of the company. I installed the Chargery BMS in my (larger) RV, and now in process of installing a second BMS in my smaller RV. I would never use those "big-amp" relays in a RV. There are smarter ways to disconnect solar or the alternator dc/dc charger, or the 2500W inverter. There's no need for 100A (or more) disconnects. I would rather disconnect the inverter where I'm dealing with mill amps than 200A.

Just because Chargery offers "junk" relays, doesn't mean their BMS is substandard. By no means are those relays a requirement to purchase their BMS.
 
After watching this review, the biggest red flag for me is the DC-contactor heat dissipation. The continuous drain aspect isn't ideal, nor is the fact it's running hot. It's under half the price of the SBMS0 (which I own) and certainly contends despite it's convention and UI.
 
Will Prowse said:
The Chargery is just a low quality and poorly manufactured product.
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Please elaborate on this statement. Show me an equally priced bms with similar features that comes in an anodized aluminum case.
Besides the 1.2A balance current and beeper/led notification, what is the benefit of the chargery?
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For us DIYers with remote monitoring needs beyond the range of BlueTooth, it's the only BMS in its price range with an auxiliary serial port. There's several of us on this forum that have taken advantage of this feature.

I get it, this isn't the best BMS for your solar shed, but that doesn't mean it's not a good fit for others on this forum.
 
After 2 months of searching I finally go with a chagery unit and then this review happened lol. I agree having a whole seperate unit for display just to have a have a crappy quality display is ridiculous. I'm banking on some successful solid state relays as the consumption of the offered relays was the only downside for me. With that being said I've never seen someone so disappointed in options before.
 
UPDATE FROM CHARGERY

I sent all of the points issues in a condensed format to Jason, extracted from this thread as well as comments on YT.
Jason just responded that they are looking into it BUT they are shutdown till Monday as there is a labour day holiday on today. Jason said he would coral the dev guys on Monday and go through it to see what / how things can be addressed.
 
jrcleveland1990 said:
After 2 months of searching I finally go with a chagery unit and then this review happened lol. I agree having a whole seperate unit for display just to have a have a crappy quality display is ridiculous. I'm banking on some successful solid state relays as the consumption of the offered relays was the only downside for me. With that being said I've never seen someone so disappointed in options before.
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I have been really close to pulling the trigger on the Chargery but was really waiting for a review on it. Has me rethinking my plan.
 
chevymike said:
I have been really close to pulling the trigger on the Chargery but was really waiting for a review on it. Has me rethinking my plan.
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It appears Will was comparing Chargery to units similar to Orion Jr. That's a $600 BMS! You don't even get a display. Plus, you have the exact same issue choosing a relay.

Will's criticism of the Chargery BMS haven't really been an issue with me. I do have some issues with the two units I possess, but not those mentioned.
 
Cal said:
It appears Will was comparing Chargery to units similar to Orion Jr. That's a $600 BMS! You don't even get a display. Plus, you have the exact same issue choosing a relay.

Will's criticism of the Chargery BMS haven't really been an issue with me. I do have some issues with the two units I possess, but not those mentioned.
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Go ahead and get your issues documented here so Jason and the Chargery developers can see all our concerns.
 
I was hoping for some clarification on the usage of the relay outputs in general the back of the manual states do not let the BMS do all the work as far as connecting and disconnecting is that due to the stress that the relays cause would I still have the same issue if I use the relay output to control inverter directly as my main source of disconnecting curious as to what the actual issue is with using it to connect and disconnect
 
jrcleveland1990 said:
I was hoping for some clarification on the usage of the relay outputs in general the back of the manual states do not let the BMS do all the work as far as connecting and disconnecting is that due to the stress that the relays cause would I still have the same issue if I use the relay output to control inverter directly as my main source of disconnecting curious as to what the actual issue is with using it to connect and disconnect
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I seriously do not see a problem if you are just outputting a signal. I've had mine going durect to midnite classic and samlex for 6 months without any problems
 
Bob B said:
Go ahead and get your issues documented here so Jason and the Chargery developers can see all our concerns.
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1. I have a 300A BMS in my RV. The RV has a quiescent current of 0.3 to 0.7A (7 to 17 AH/day). The BMS does not register this current, nor does it reduce Watt-hrs on the display. The BMS should have a detailed specification, listing voltage and current accuracy. I personally would rather see a AH display than the Watt-hrs. After all, the battery is rated in AH.

2. I use Com 3 (RS232) to log data. The data stream does not appear to be that stable. The calculated check sum does not equal the packet check sum on some packets.
 
Ok .... Kinda seems like you are determined to not like it. Sometimes a bad first impression kills things for you.

I do agree that I don't like that relay .... Using an SSR seems like the best option ... and the Chargery does that just fine.

On most of the other stuff, I think you are being too nit picky .... but that's just my opinion,
 
jafo said:
Checking this follow-up video I feel it comes down to simplicity and user friendly. I still believe the first video review was point on. I'm still interested to see if any changes are made and more updates follow.
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Just finished watching myself and I agree... other than validating the coil voltage was regulated to 12V, there's no change to the power dissipation problem which is a fail (IMHO). This can be mitigated by SSR or just interfacing to your inverter shutoff. Also, no change to any of the "subjective" objections Will made of the unit either, and I agree that while priced right and perfectly functional, the overall user experience is reflective of said price.
 
@Will Prowse is doing what he has always done..... giving us his honest opinion based on his experience with the product and knowledge of the field. He does not shy away from saying he does not like something.... and that is why I value his videos. I know I am getting what he believes.... not what he needs to say to appease some vendor or his followers.

The other thing that I like about Will is that he is willing to change his mind as he learns more. The relays are a great example... Over time he has become less of a fan of using relays..... and he admits it. He is taking us along on his journey.

I don't always agree with what Will says, but I always value his point of view because I know it is an honest, experience based point of view. The interesting thing is that were I am not aligned with Will's thinking, it often changes to alignment over time. Either Will drifts more to my way of thinking or I drift more to his way of thinking.
 
FilterGuy said:
@Will Prowse is doing what he has always done..... giving us his honest opinion based on his experience with the product and knowledge of the field. He does not shy away from saying he does not like something.... and that is why I value his videos. I know I am getting what he believes.... not what he needs to say to appease some vendor or his followers.

The other thing that I like about Will is that he is willing to change his mind as he learns more. The relays are a great example... Over time he has become less of a fan of using relays..... and he admits it. He is taking us along on his journey.

I don't always agree with what Will says, but I always value his point of view because I know it is an honest, experience based point of view. The interesting thing is that were I am not aligned with Will's thinking, it often changes to alignment over time. Either Will drifts more to my way of thinking or I drift more to his way of thinking.
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In general, I agree with your assessment.... but there are specific things I disagree with in Will's assessment.

For instance .... I think the display is perfectly functional and I don't want to pay more for the Chargery because it has an upgraded display. The data and settings I want to see are available and I don't have trouble reading it. On one hand, Will says that he is not a fan of data logging .... but then shows how much better the Electrodocus is because of all the fancy color graphs.

I still think the error condition when a cell is too far out of range is a GOOD feature.

I think Will spent too much time concentrating on the hot relay and not enough time showing how a SSR relay could easily be used instead.

I don't really care that it was originally designed for use with EV. We've known that all along. A passing comment would be sufficient .... Jason has already done a lot to help us use it for our purposes,

I guess I'll stop complaining .... I'm guessing we aren't going to change each others mind.
 
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