Eg4 LiFePower4 not charging right

[Cdilts1]

I am running two Eg4 6500exs in split phase with a battery bank of 6 LiFe Power 4s. After a string of grey days and extra power usage around the holidays, my battery bank got empty enough that I shut it down overnight a few days ago (it would have entirely emptied out overnight anyway, I figured it was just better to put some ice in the fridge and save what charge I had for the morning). Over a few days of mixed sun and clouds, five of the six batteries filled up again no problem. But the sixth battery in line won't seem to charge up. Whenever I turn battery #6 on, the incoming PV amperage plummets to around 0.3a. It seems like when I have this sixth battery on, not only is it not charging, but it is blocking my other batteries from accepting a charge, and forcing my household to run on battery power rather than incoming PV power. What can I do? I am looking into getting a Chargeverter, but they are backordered for a few weeks

Thanks for any help you can offer

 

[marionw]

What are the Make/Model of your EG4 LifePower4 batteries? V1 or V2

 

[Zapper77]

I am running two Eg4 6500exs in split phase with a battery bank of 6 LiFe Power 4s. After a string of grey days and extra power usage around the holidays, my battery bank got empty enough that I shut it down overnight a few days ago (it would have entirely emptied out overnight anyway, I figured it was just better to put some ice in the fridge and save what charge I had for the morning). Over a few days of mixed sun and clouds, five of the six batteries filled up again no problem. But the sixth battery in line won't seem to charge up. Whenever I turn battery #6 on, the incoming PV amperage plummets to around 0.3a. It seems like when I have this sixth battery on, not only is it not charging, but it is blocking my other batteries from accepting a charge, and forcing my household to run on battery power rather than incoming PV power. What can I do? I am looking into getting a Chargeverter, but they are backordered for a few weeks

Thanks for any help you can offer

you need to isolate #6 and charge is separately to an equal voltage as the other 5.

 

[Cdilts1]

Could that be as simple as setting it as the host battery and turning the other five off for a while on a day of full sun? Or would I need a 48v battery charger?

 

[robby]

Could that be as simple as setting it as the host battery and turning the other five off for a while on a day of full sun? Or would I need a 48v battery charger?

If you do that then make sure to limit the charge current from the SCC to no more than the one Battery can handle.
I suspect based on your post that you are going to need to connect the Battery to the App and check the Cell voltages.
In the end I think you have cells in there that need to be manually charged.

 

[Cdilts1]

Would manual charging mean buying a 48v charger? I see a lot of 17 or 18 amp 48 volt chargers for less than $200, such as this Aims one. Is something like this a worthwhile purchase or do I need something with higher amperage?

 

[robby]

You could buy a charger like that but I would not recommend it until you know what the problem is.
Can you hook it up to a PC and see the individual cell voltages?
If the problem is one or two cells that are completely out of balance then you would need a bench top power supply to charge the individual cells.
I suggest that you isolate that pack off of the system and see what the BMS software is showing. Post screen shots of the cell voltages.

 

[Cdilts1]

Unfortunately my only PC is a slightly older laptop and the disc drive no longer works, all my other computers are Macs with no disc drive and I don't think they would run the software even if I could get it loaded. I might be able to borrow a PC to run the software.

 

[marionw]

Unfortunately my only PC is a slightly older laptop and the disc drive no longer works, all my other computers are Macs with no disc drive and I don't think they would run the software even if I could get it loaded. I might be able to borrow a PC to run the software.

There is a MAC version as the software is developed with QT. Others on this forum have installed the software on a MAC (ugh).