Goal Zero Yeti 150 Charging

[Daedalus]

Hi all,

Owner of a GZ Sherpa 50 and a Yeti 150. recently replaced my yeti's battery for a new AGM/SLA 15ah unit as per GZ website. Checked battery status sitting at 40% ( GZ advises to top up when it hits this state) Noticed when charging it the battery was emitting a sizzle but quietly, popped the cover off, battery wasnt hot. Was the first full charge since installing battery into unit. Previous battery had badly swollen through previous owner. No red lights on port switches, all ports work and put out volts. all looks good. Using the GZ 15v 1.5A power brick which came with it (have identical brick for my sherpa) just checking as the noises usually suggest over amps charging but the brick isnt adjustable.

Anyone have similar experiences?

 

[Ely]

The 150 is an old unit (I‘m using still some 150 for difference purposes) and sometimes the charge controller gives a silence noise. It‘s a normal behavior.

 

[Daedalus]

yeah the old Yeti 150 is small but i dont need much at present. it was bought for modding primarliy, i do prefer my sherpa's for sheer portability. Hindsight i should have gone for 400 instead of 150.
Thats good to know that its normal usage (sounds like white noise you get out of a telly if that makes sense). Just worried i was cooking battery, but the AGM wasnt even warm,
previous battery before it expired did emit some wonderful smells and was proper toasty, hence the worry the internal board or brick was faulty. would be good to see if anyone has schematics to repair board issues.

 

[Daedalus]

Update: Left the questionable unit at 80% post its little misadventure making the odd noises. Put back on charge to try to get a video for the GZ team. No noises ( may have been new battery excesses) and it climbed to 100% (full) and was behaving..... will keep an eye on it. may end up volunteering it for Lithium upgrade.....
Seen this whilst trawling YT. Using Lithium packs with BMS
Lithium packs into Yeti 150

 

[Ely]

There are some LiFePo4 on the market they are a perfect replace (measures and Wh) to the 150‘s AGM.

 

[Daedalus]

thats good to know as that was my initial concern on drop in replacements for the AGM cell converting it to LiFePo as they are not forgiving of over-voltage compared to AGM. Also the circuit is AGM calibrated so key item is the BMS which the dropins have.

One concern i do have is whilst weight benefits of LiFePo the 15ah unit compared to an AGM 15ah is still the same. No capacity benefit. ive not seen any LiFePo units that sport a bigger capacity (as lithium does) in the same form factor as AGM. example 15AH AGM vs say 25AH LiFePo in same footprint.

 

[Daedalus]

Hello, I have recently replaced the battery within the 150 to a 12v 15AH AGM deep cycle. Ive noticed post replacement that the battery keeps dropping to 60% on the display, reconnecting the charger brings it backup to 80-100% fairly quickly. Just looking to see how accurate the LCD display is on the 150's. anyone else on here have similar experiences?
Can you share the voltage cut-off and what each % band should equate to on the display to voltage in the cell? Just trying to understand if cell is bad or the charging circuit in yeti. May end up having a push to measure readout somewhere underneath case to verify volts are good.
Thanks in advance,

 

[Daedalus]

There are some LiFePo4 on the market they are a perfect replace (measures and Wh) to the 150‘s AGM.

any links?

 

[Ely]

any links?

For example search VISION LFP1215 (in Germany) or if you are in the US a quick search gives me this or search for Himax 12V 15Ah LiFePo4.

 

[Daedalus]

Thanks for that, will check them out. when i searched i was only finding 12ah LiFePo units not the larger 15ah so the AH was same.
There was a guy on youtube who did bioenno LiFePo, but not seen any report on how well the LiFePo cell fared over time. Will defo look to swap out the AGM cell as im finding the unit is leaching volts when connected and it is a brand new cell. seems to drop to 60% so its either a bad board or a track is shorting somewhere i cant see.
TBH i find the sherpa more useful than the yeti as it has the laptop function.