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BMS123 gen3 from 123electric

NorwegianOffgrid

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Joined
Feb 7, 2022
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I have an off-grid cabin here in Norway where I last summer installed the BMS123 onto a LiFePo4 battery bank.

I also installed the 123 smart-relay in order to stop charging when batteries are full or temperature is too low (less than 1 degrees C).
This system was working perfectly during summer and autumn when temperatures was above 0 C.

The batteries are installed indoors, and since this is an off-grid cabin, it gets really cold inside during winter. So on my first trip to the cabin this winter, with indoor temperature of -7 C I discovered :

- When arriving, one of the BMS123 between-boards was not blinking as it should. I had to disconnect its minus and re-connect to make it work.. Also at the same time, the BMS123 app showed strange values.
- The charge relay was ON (Terrible to have charging active when batt temp is < 0 C)
- After heating up the cabin I noticed moist/water condensation on the battery cells and on the BMS boards that is mounted on the battery. The BMS boards are NOT protected for this condition.

Above lead to several issues with the BMS... leaking currents, charge relay flipping back and forth... etc. invalid temperature readings on cells....

The BMS is designed to work between -40 C and +85 C according to the manual. Thus in my opinion it should handle such situations. I see a similar BMS system, designed in Australia, they have protected their cell boards just because of this!

And of course gwl.eu and 123electric does not accept this as a warranty condition.

Anyone else with experience on BMS123?

For now, I will not recommend the BMS123 for cold conditions! This really needs to be addressed by 123electric asap!
 
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