I've purchased a Renogy 60A DC to DC, what's with the temp probe?

[Wellfooled]

So, I now own and am installing a Renogy 60A DC to DC charger. Yea!
All of a sudden, up pops ads for a Renogy Battery Temp Sensor RTSDCC. OK, it isn't a heck of a lot of money, but what does it do? Do I need it? Should I have it? Can I live the rest of my life without it? These are questions that now fill my "should be sleeping" hours. Somebody throw me a rope for God's sake.

 

[blammo585]

So, I now own and am installing a Renogy 60A DC to DC charger. Yea!
All of a sudden, up pops ads for a Renogy Battery Temp Sensor RTSDCC. OK, it isn't a heck of a lot of money, but what does it do? Do I need it? Should I have it? Can I live the rest of my life without it? These are questions that now fill my "should be sleeping" hours. Somebody throw me a rope for God's sake.

What kind of batteries do you have? LifePo batteries should not be charged at 32 degrees F or below. If your batteries have low temp charge protection then you don't need the temp sensor in the controller. I went with a cheaper battery without temp protection so I went with a controller that has a temp sensor.

 

[RV10flyer]

From Renogy website:

“The charger needs to select the charging mode according to the battery voltage. By utilizing the DC-DC temperature sensor, this charger is able to protect your battery from high or low temperature by giving -3mV/°C/2V compensation so that the charger recognizes the voltage more accurately and assures stable and constant charging to the battery.

Please note the temperature sensor is not included and it cannot use with Lithium batteries.”

Google is my friend.

 

[blammo585]

From Renogy website:

“The charger needs to select the charging mode according to the battery voltage. By utilizing the DC-DC temperature sensor, this charger is able to protect your battery from high or low temperature by giving -3mV/°C/2V compensation so that the charger recognizes the voltage more accurately and assures stable and constant charging to the battery.

Please note the temperature sensor is not included and it cannot use with Lithium batteries.”

Google is my friend.

Why can't a temperature sensor be used with a lithium battery? Isn't that one of the best use cases?

 

[TomC4306]

Why can't a temperature sensor be used with a lithium battery? Isn't that one of the best use cases?

The temperature sensor plugged into this particular DC to DC charger alters the charging voltage depending on the temperature. That functionality is not necessary with lithium. That functionality IS necessary with FLA.

 

[Wellfooled]

Got it. And yes, I should have either more extensively read my user's manual or done a bit more googling. Thank you gentlemen. I shall now scuttle back to my corner.