How long for Bulk charge?

[brassmonkey001]

I just swapped my FLA battery for a Valence U27-12XP last night and changed the settings on my charge controller to the default LiFePO4 settings and today it seems it's been on Bulk charge for six hours now, does that sound right? It's not a very nice day TBH, overcast & rainy. Panels are showing circa 70W, 60v and 1.2A.
The battery was around 80% SoC when I connected it up.
Is it purely because it's not a nice day or is there something wrong?

Current set up: 2 x 265W Astroenergy Poly Solar Panels in series, Victron Smartsolar MPPT 100/50 Charge Controller, Victron BMV 712 battery monitor, 1 x Valence U27-12XP LiFePO4 battery

 

[somewhereinusa]

I had the Victron dealer initially program Multiplus. They set up for max 8 hrs on bulk. The only thing I have changed so far is I lowered Max current charge from 110 to 100. My 4/0 cables were getting a bit warm at 110A and don't seem to at 100. LiPoFe batteries will suck a lot of amps. I also have the ability to control how much of the incoming AC amps I am using. When on a 15A circuit 7.5A seemed to work about right.

 

[RandyP]

I just swapped my FLA battery for a Valence U27-12XP last night and changed the settings on my charge controller to the default LiFePO4 settings and today it seems it's been on Bulk charge for six hours now, does that sound right? It's not a very nice day TBH, overcast & rainy. Panels are showing circa 70W, 60v and 1.2A.
The battery was around 80% SoC when I connected it up.
Is it purely because it's not a nice day or is there something wrong?

Current set up: 2 x 265W Astroenergy Poly Solar Panels in series, Victron Smartsolar MPPT 100/50 Charge Controller, Victron BMV 712 battery monitor, 1 x Valence U27-12XP LiFePO4 battery

Seems odd. New setup and all, maybe soc % has not yet settled in for new batt. If you have 14.4 v on a lipo batt and the charge current is low the batt should be at 100% soc. Perhaps use the BMV and reset the soc to 100% now. Let the solar controller go to maintenance charge voltage about 13.x volts and call it good.

 

[peanut]

Hey guys. I got this from the user manual for the Valence batteries. Shouldn't we be charging at 14.6? I understand some may be charging a little less for various reasons. From the manual:

Example for Charging 12 U-Charge® Batteries: Charge to 175.2V = (14.6V x 12 batteries in series) and hold. · When voltage reaches 175.2V, the battery is approximately 90% charged. · Allow the current to naturally decay when voltage is reached. · When the current drops below 2A for U1, 3A for UEV, 5A for U24, and 6A for U27, the battery is considered 100% charged. · Float at 165.6V = (13.8V x 12 batteries in series) and hold. · It will not hurt the battery if the voltage is continuously present, even after 100% SOC is reached.

 

[brassmonkey001]

One of my batteries only shows SoC of 16% on the laptop. I had it connected up to solar and brought the voltage up to 13.4v but it still said 16% SoC. So I took it off and connected it up to the fridge in the garage to drain it to see what would happen to the SoC reading. It was running for 3 days until I decided not to discharge it any further and disconnected it at 13.1v. SoC still read 16%. So I put it back in the van to charge up again. 11 hours 45 minutes bulk charging yesterday and 8 hours 51 minutes bulk charging today, no absorption or float for either day.
Absorption voltage is set to 14.2v, absorption time 1 hour, float is set to 13.4v, charged voltage is set to 14.1v on my MPPT controller.
Battery voltage is currently reading 13.34v and SoC still reads 16%!
Is the internal BMS duff? I suspect it probably is because the temperature readings are well off the mark as well.

 

[somewhereinusa]

Capacity Learning
Valence modules continuously learn their own capacity. A periodic discharge to 20% SOC followed
by charge complete cycle will optimize this process

This is from the Valence manual. I suspect it is why we see such differing SOC readings between our battery monitors and the software.

 

[brassmonkey001]

It's quite sunny so far today so hopefully that should charge it up fully.

 

[timmbo]

Hi
The App from my LifePO4 Battery shows 100% but the VE MPPT 100|30 stands at Bulk and its set to Position 7(LifePO4).
The Voltage is 13.5.
Is that quiet right, or did i make something wrong?

Bye
Timm

 

[brassmonkey001]

It's been sunny all day today and I've had 2 hours bulk, 1 hour absorption and the rest float. Battery is at 13.4v but still reads 16.08% SoC so I think the BMS is knackered!

 

[brassmonkey001]

Hi
The App from my LifePO4 Battery shows 100% but the VE MPPT 100|30 stands at Bulk and its set to Position 7(LifePO4).
The Voltage is 13.5.
Is that quiet right, or did i make something wrong?

Bye
Timm

Hi Timm, what is the app for your LiFePO4? Perhaps it needs synchronising?

 

[timmbo]

Hi brassmonkey

The App is this from Wattstunde/Life Blue.
But this evening when i was coming home, i´ll see that my VE MPPT charger was also in the Absorption Mode for 2h, and the Battery is 99% charged.
Why this time and not before?
My Battery is still in the first cycle.

Thanks
Timm