Batteries loosing power quickly....worked fine for 3 months

[Wildman13]

Hello group,

I have a Growatt 24v 3k AIO and two SoK 206ah Lithiums in series. I have a battery monitor hooked up via shunt and a battery balancer from watts24/7. Everything has been working fine for about 3 months. As of yesterday the battery monitor said I used about 60% battery power in 1 day. My normal usage is 20-30%. I did charge a few RC truck batteries so I thought maybe that was it. Today I used my generator to charge back up to 100%. Paying more attention tonight I saw the batteries were at 84% after charging the RC truck batteries again. I thought maybe that it was actually pulling a good bit. I monitored the battery monitor every half hour as we watched TV. Just the Growatt, TV and wifi router pulling any power and I was loosing about 5% every 30 minutes which is nuts. It's currently reading 26.2 and 66% on the battery monitor with everything off other than some LEDS. The batteries haven't settled as the TV and inverter were just on.

I disconnected and tested each battery and got 13.12 and 13.13 so they appear to be in balance as I thought that might be the issue as first.

Any ideas on what's going on with the batteries? I can normally watch TV for 4-5 hours and only loose 10%.

EDIT: On a side note I just moved campsites. I did notice the following. I turned on the Radio while I was setting up. When I used the power jack on the tongue it would turn the power to the radio off which I thought was odd. I had never turned the radio on during set up before so this was new. Is it possible there is a loose wire somewhere on the RV that is bleeding power even though nothing is connected?

TIA

 

[sunshine_eggo]

What battery monitor? Are you certain it's 100% setup properly and synced to the battery? You're using this as your primary gauge for claiming there's a problem. It's important that you know it's reliable. If it's not programmed for the correct size shunt, it will report incorrect SoC.

How are you using the generator to charge the Growatt to 100%? The Growatt AC charger doesn't do absorption. It simply turns off the instant the voltage is reached, so getting any battery fully charged on the generator/grid can be tricky and almost impossible to get to true 100%. If you're charging to less than 29.2V, there's no way you're getting reasonably close to 100%.

You should be looking at the actual LOAD the inverter reports rather than just what you think is being powered subjectively.

Your battery has a 5274Wh total capacity, thus 527W/hr will consume 10% of the capacity.

 

[12VoltInstalls]

possible there is a loose wire somewhere on the RV that is bleeding power even though nothing is connected?

That the radio shut off while running jack tells me that you do have a connection issue somewhere. Lithium batteries shouldn’t bog like that.
Lead- maybe. Not lithium.

And the oem converter (sic) is disabled right?

 

[Wildman13]

What battery monitor? Are you certain it's 100% setup properly and synced to the battery? You're using this as your primary gauge for claiming there's a problem. It's important that you know it's reliable. If it's not programmed for the correct size shunt, it will report incorrect SoC.

How are you using the generator to charge the Growatt to 100%? The Growatt AC charger doesn't do absorption. It simply turns off the instant the voltage is reached, so getting any battery fully charged on the generator/grid can be tricky and almost impossible to get to true 100%. If you're charging to less than 29.2V, there's no way you're getting reasonably close to 100%.

You should be looking at the actual LOAD the inverter reports rather than just what you think is being powered subjectively.

Your battery has a 5274Wh total capacity, thus 527W/hr will consume 10% of the capacity.

Here's the battery monitor.

LNEX Portable Battery Monitor with Shunt, 500A Automotive Car Battery Monitor for RV Battery 10V-120V, with High and Low Voltage Programmable Alarm and 26ft Shielded Wire​

I programmed this and have been using it as the primary source for 3 months and it's worked just fine.

I used the generator yesterday to help the panels get the batteries to 100% according to the battery monitor anyways. However I didn't check the voltage it was just a quick glance at the % as I didn't think there was a problem at that time. I have 740 watts of solar and the monitor read 100% around 2pm in full sun.

My growatt settings are 29.2v charge and 27.6v float.

I am thinking the battery monitor got thrown off somehow. I was at a campground to dump and fill 2 days ago and plugged into shore power, maybe that did it somehow or the jack. We had bad weather and my batteries lasted 6 days with minimal sun the week before and the monitor was working just fine there.

Today I will monitor the actual voltage and see if if it's a simple monitor reset.

 

[Wildman13]

That the radio shut off while running jack tells me that you do have a connection issue somewhere. Lithium batteries shouldn’t bog like that.
Lead- maybe. Not lithium.

And the oem converter (sic) is disabled right?

The OEM converter is disabled, first thing I did. The jack wiring has nothing to do with mine and my wiring is completely separate other than where it ties into panel. Which of course now links it up. There is a power on/off switch for the old battery set up which goes to the jack. My wife is also back in town now so when we move camp tomorrow I can have her help me troubleshoot the "jack" thing and see if anything else flickers etc.

 

[12VoltInstalls]

help me troubleshoot the "jack" thing and see if anything else flickers

The green scotch brites and the nasty fluidfilm after assembly can restore “bad connections” and protect them afterwards.