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diy solar

diy solar

Litime 12v 200A Plus

Semp

New Member
Joined
Jan 19, 2025
Messages
13
Location
MISSOURI
I bought two of these batteries a year ago, and they have been in storage, waiting for my solar system to be built. I pulled him out of storage during the holidays to use them and they are bricks. I can't get them to charge up. I'm getting very little customer support from Litime, who advertises on their battery, that they have 24 hour customer support.

When I use a 12V 20A LifePo4 battery charger it stays in standby mode. When I connect directly to solar or through a charge controller it doesn't wake up the BMS. When I try to use a 12V, 40amp, Litime battery charger the numbers on the digital display bounce around. Same result with the multimeter while charging.

It takes a day or 2 to get a response from the manufacturer, and then they give me a task or a test to perform. And then I have to wait another day or 2 get around response.

Nothing they have given me has worked. Perhaps this forum is more valuable, then their customer service.
 

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LiTime has been very responsive for me, but the emails come from China so there's usually a 24hr turnaround. How long are you leaving the chargers connected?

FYI, these batteries were shipped with about 50% SOC, and then they lost ~36% to self-discharge while in storage, so they're down to 15% SOC at best. But the LiTime chargers are supposed to be able to recover them.

What voltage do you measure , without a charger connected?
 
There are several ways to wake a battery. Try putting a regular charger on it charge it, low setting of 2 amps. Of it wont pass current, put a small 12v load on them... a fan, a light, something in the neighborhood of 20w...

There are others with litime battery bms that have posted before with this problem.
 
LiTime has been very responsive for me, but the emails come from China so there's usually a 24hr turnaround. How long are you leaving the chargers connected?

FYI, these batteries were shipped with about 50% SOC, and then they lost ~36% to self-discharge while in storage, so they're down to 15% SOC at best. But the LiTime chargers are supposed to be able to recover them.

What voltage do you measure , without a charger connected?

Thanks for the reply and intel.

Responsive yes, 24hr availability not as advertised. Today's response was, "sorry for the delay but it was the weekend here" Also, website now shows hours as 1700-2400PST. I am just providing this feedback due the question posted by Will a few days ago regarding customer service and support.

I measured 4.93V
 

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There are several ways to wake a battery. Try putting a regular charger on it charge it, low setting of 2 amps. Of it wont pass current, put a small 12v load on them... a fan, a light, something in the neighborhood of 20w...

There are others with litime battery bms that have posted before with this problem.

Thanks for the response and the insight. I put a regular charger on it with the lowest amp setting of 3A. I chose the correct battery configuration. And as soon as I connect the cables to the battery, it says full. Although the voltage reads 4.93.

I'm unable to connect my 12V Inverter as it wont even power it on.

I did do a search on my issue before posting, but wasn't able to find anything to help.
 

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How long have you left the chargers connected to the battery? It may take some time to wake the battery up, but I don't know how long - could be hours. But you need a charger that will keep charging voltage applied and not switch off. Do you still have a charging voltage output when the charger shows full?

Also, which LiTime 40A charger do you have? I don't see one on their website with a display.
 
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How long have you left the chargers connected to the battery? It may take some time to wake the battery up, but I don't know how long - could be hours. But you need a charger that will keep charging voltage applied and not switch off. Do you still have a charging voltage output when the charger shows full?

Also, which LiTime 40A charger do you have? I don't see one on their website with a display.

Sometimes support has asked me to put it on there for 10- 30 minutes and see what happens? Other times i've left it on there for a few days.

the one I bought was on amazon, see attached pic
 

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Sometimes support has asked me to put it on there for 10- 30 minutes and see what happens? Other times i've left it on there for a few days.

the one I bought was on amazon, see attached pic
OK, I found that one on the LiTime website. Just double-checking that they say it will wake up a BMS-protected battery and it does. My earlier questions still apply, to make sure the thing is working as expected...
1. While the charger is connected to the battery, and it is displaying "full", can you still measure a charging voltage at the battery terminals? If the charger is switching off, it will never wake up the battery. You should be able to read a value higher than the battery's very low resting voltage, but probably not as high as ~14V.
2. After the charger has been connected to the battery for a long time (at least an hour) is there any change at all in the battery's resting voltage, or is the battery stuck at 4.93V? If the charger is really trying to wake up the battery, you should see that 4.93V value slowly increasing.

FYI, with the battery in this disconnected protection mode, my understanding is that the method for waking it up is to slowly trickle charge the battery until it is brought back up to operating voltage, i.e. >12V. Once the BMS sees >12V it will wake up and allow a full charging voltage/current. For that 200Ah battery the trickle phase may take a long time. Most chargers simply switch off when they detect a battery is full, which means they don't keep a voltage applied to let the dead battery trickle charge. I wouldn't trust the LiTime charger is working in "wake up" mode without measuring it. With the BMS in disconnect mode, the charging current will be near zero and the charging voltage will jump to 14.6V, which will trick a normal charger into thinking the battery is full. The LiTime charger may simply not be detecting a wake up situation and is switching off, so it needs to be checked.
 
Something that occurred to me.. putting a small load on the battery while the charger is connected might keep it working long enough to wake the battery.

And after all else has been tried can always pop the top and charge each cell individually with a bench supply.... or start a warranty claim since they come with 5 years warranty
 
Something that occurred to me.. putting a small load on the battery while the charger is connected might keep it working long enough to wake the battery.
That's a good idea if you find out the LiTime charger is shutting down. But be careful not to pull the battery any further into the dirt. Figure out a way to connect the load and the charger at the same time.
 
OK, I found that one on the LiTime website. Just double-checking that they say it will wake up a BMS-protected battery and it does. My earlier questions still apply, to make sure the thing is working as expected...
1. While the charger is connected to the battery, and it is displaying "full", can you still measure a charging voltage at the battery terminals? If the charger is switching off, it will never wake up the battery. You should be able to read a value higher than the battery's very low resting voltage, but probably not as high as ~14V.
2. After the charger has been connected to the battery for a long time (at least an hour) is there any change at all in the battery's resting voltage, or is the battery stuck at 4.93V? If the charger is really trying to wake up the battery, you should see that 4.93V value slowly increasing.

FYI, with the battery in this disconnected protection mode, my understanding is that the method for waking it up is to slowly trickle charge the battery until it is brought back up to operating voltage, i.e. >12V. Once the BMS sees >12V it will wake up and allow a full charging voltage/current. For that 200Ah battery the trickle phase may take a long time. Most chargers simply switch off when they detect a battery is full, which means they don't keep a voltage applied to let the dead battery trickle charge. I wouldn't trust the LiTime charger is working in "wake up" mode without measuring it. With the BMS in disconnect mode, the charging current will be near zero and the charging voltage will jump to 14.6V, which will trick a normal charger into thinking the battery is full. The LiTime charger may simply not be detecting a wake up situation and is switching off, so it needs to be checked.

Based on a post from @robbob2112 I moved the the battery to a slower charger. It's been on this charger (see pic) for at least 6 hrs and is now reading a voltage of 9.xx - 8.xx (bounces around alot). When I disconnect the charger the voltage drops quickly in real-time.

This charger reads incorrectly as well by showing FULL and all the light indicators are off. Nonetheless, it seems like we are making small progress with it set to its lowest Amp.

The charger I am now using is called a smart charger, and it is used for 12 and 24 volt ⚡️ and three battery types. Lithium, lifepro4, AGM/Lead.

Thanks for all the valuable knowledge!!
 

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Based on a post from @robbob2112 I moved the the battery to a slower charger. It's been on this charger (see pic) for at least 6 hrs and is now reading a voltage of 9.xx - 8.xx (bounces around alot). When I disconnect the charger the voltage drops quickly in real-time.

This charger reads incorrectly as well by showing FULL and all the light indicators are off. Nonetheless, it seems like we are making small progress with it set to its lowest Amp.

The charger I am now using is called a smart charger, and it is used for 12 and 24 volt ⚡️ and three battery types. Lithium, lifepro4, AGM/Lead.

Thanks for all the valuable knowledge!!
Do you have a clamp-on DC ammeter or some other way to confirm how much charge current is flowing? Unless charge current is flowing you're wasting your time.

Voltage readings in your situation is akin to a tachometer on a car. The tachometer may show the engine is running (providing the "potential" to move), but only the speedometer (i.e., clamp-on ammeter or equivalent) tells you if you're actually moving or going anywhere (i.e., charging the battery).
 
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With the voltage climbing still you should be back up in a normal range by tomorrow.

If you have a clamp meter that is best, but if you have a regular meter with 5 or 10 amp input you can use the 3 amp charger to see what is going on. The red lead moves to the unfused input and you put one on the battery terminal and the other on the charger clamp.

WARNING- if you exceed the meter max amps it will fry meter.
 
Do you have a clamp-on DC ammeter or some other way to confirm how much charge current is flowing? Unless charge current is flowing you're wasting your time.

Voltage readings in your situation is akin to a tachometer on a car. The tachometer may show the engine is running (providing the "potential" to move), but only the speedometer (i.e., clamp-on ammeter or equivalent) tells you if you're actually moving or going anywhere (i.e., charging the battery).

Just bought this little guy yesterday. Is this what we are looking for?
 

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You put the clamp around 1 of the two wire...red or black makes no difference...

The symbols... the wavy line means ac power... the straight line with dots under it means DC.... from the look of your meter it doesn't do DC amps.

Just above where the display it says "AC Clamp Meter"

You need one to read DC amps. That one won't tell you anything.
 
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With the voltage climbing still you should be back up in a normal range by tomorrow.

If you have a clamp meter that is best, but if you have a regular meter with 5 or 10 amp input you can use the 3 amp charger to see what is going on. The red lead moves to the unfused input and you put one on the battery terminal and the other on the charger clamp.

WARNING- if you exceed the meter max amps it will fry meter.

It's actually stuck and hasn't changed voltage since my last post. Fluctuates between 9.xx and 8.xx!!
 
You put the clap around 1 of the two wire...red or black makes no difference...

The symbols... the wavy line means ac power... the straight line with dots under it means DC.... from the look of your meter it doesn't do DC amps.

Just above where the display it says "AC Clamp Meter"

You need one to read DC amps. That one won't tell you anything.

Bummer, will find the correct one tomorrow. Good eye!! 👍
 
Bummer, will find the correct one tomorrow. Good eye!! 👍


I have a few meters in my answer thread
 
. . . FYI, these batteries were shipped with about 50% SOC, and then they lost ~36% to self-discharge while in storage, so they're down to 15% SOC at best . . .
To clarify, are you saying the OP should expect, "at best", a 35% drop in SOC/capacity with their LiTime battery after a year of storage? If you are, that's a wicked amount of parasitic loss. Are you experiencing that kind of loss with your LiTime?

I've found lifepo4 cells, all by themselves, have extremely low internal parasitics when stored---nothing even remotely close to 35% a year. If I was experiencing this (with healthy, balanced cells), I'd be measuring the BMS parasitic current. We've stored a few of our 4s 200-300ah lifepo4 battery packs for 6-8 months at a time several times. Never experienced more than a slight loss in capacity (maybe a 25-50mv drop, if that). The majority of this loss was probably due to BMS parasitics and not the cells themselves.
 
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To clarify, are you saying the OP should expect, "at best", a 35% drop in SOC/capacity with their LiTime battery after a year of storage? If you are, that's a wicked amount of parasitic loss. Are you experiencing that kind of loss with your LiTime?

I've found lifepo4 cells, all by themselves, have extremely low internal parasitics when stored---nothing even remotely close to 35% a year. If I was experiencing this (with healthy, balanced cells), I'd be measuring the BMS parasitic current. We've stored a few of our 4s 200ah lifepo4 battery packs for 6-8 months at a time several times. Never experienced more than a slight loss in capacity (maybe a 25-50mv drop, if that). The majority of this loss was probably due to BMS parasitics and not the cells themselves.
It's not parasitic loss (to me the term parasitic means external loads, e.g. the parasitic loads in an RV that's sitting unused), but yes.

LFP has a self-discharge rate of about 3% per month. I've measured and confirmed it over short-term tests lasting no longer than 2 months* with three LiTime units, but this isn't unique to LiTime brand batteries. Any time I see the self-discharge of LFP batteries being discussed, the rate of ~3% per month is what I see stated most often. How much of that is LFP chemistry self-discharge, and how much is BMS consumption, I have no idea.

*my characterization tests have been methodical, but not lab-grade measurement quality. Basically using a parallel bank sitting in an idle RV, disconnected, and then using a retail-grade shunt monitor to measure how much re-charge capacity was returned to the bank after 2 months.
 
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It's not parasitic loss (to me the term parasitic means external loads, e.g. the parasitic loads in an RV that's sitting unused).

LFP has a self-discharge rate of about 3% per month. I've measured and confirmed it over short-term tests lasting no longer than 2 months. This isn't unique to LiTime brand batteries. Any time I see the self-discharge of LFP batteries being discussed, the rate of ~3% per month is what I see stated most often. How much of that is LFP chemistry self-discharge, and how much is BMS consumption, I have no idea.
Parasitic loss can be caused or sourced from any kind of electrical component or device. In any event, I did qualify my statement by saying "internal" parasitic loss in the cells themselves.

Yes, I see 3% mentioned a lot. I wouldn't take it as gospel. Lotsa variables. We have a 200ah lifepo4 cell that's been stored in our basement for almost 3 years. Nothing connected to the terminals. Resting voltage at the time it was placed in storage was 3.300v. Measured the voltage yesterday: 3.293v. Same VM used to make both voltage measurements. If it was discharging at 3% a month it would have been dead long ago. As I mentioned, we have a number of 4s 200-300ah lifepo4 battery packs we've stored for 6-8 months at a time and only experienced at most a 25-50mv drop in battery voltage. This is nothing near 3% a month.

My point was to get a clarification on what you posted. If you're experiencing 3%, then this would indicate to me the BMS in your LiTime battery has extraordinarily high parasitic current.
 
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Parasitic loss can be caused or sourced from any kind of electrical component or device. In any event, I did qualify my statement by saying "internal" parasitic loss in the cells themselves.

Yes, I see 3% mentioned a lot. I wouldn't take it as gospel. Lotsa variables. We have a 200ah lifepo4 cell that's been stored in our basement for almost 3 years. Nothing connected to the terminals. Resting voltage at the time it was placed in storage was 3.300v. Measured the voltage yesterday: 3.293v. Same VM used to make both voltage measurements. If it was discharging at 3% a month it would have been dead long ago. As I mentioned, we have a number of 4s 200-300ah lifepo4 battery packs we've stored for 6-8 months a time and only experienced at most a 25-50mv drop in battery voltage. This is nothing near 3% a month.

My point was to get a clarification on what you posted. If you're experiencing 3%, then this would indicate to me the BMS in your LiTime battery has extraordinarily high parasitic current.
Understood.

But is the LiTime loss extraordinary? Or is it typical for a commercial 4S 100Ah package?
(note: my models don't have Bluetooth)
 
So what's the news on the battery's resting voltage this morning? Did it go up at all, or still near 4.9V?

Same, no change at all. Stuck bouncing around 9.xx- 8.xx with charger on. Take charger off and drops like a rock. 😡

Slows down at 5.19, .18, .17...
 
Same, no change at all. Stuck bouncing around 9.xx- 8.xx with charger on. Take charger off and drops like a rock. 😡

Slows down at 5.19, .18, .17...
Sounds like it's time for a warranty claim.

But the 8~9 volts seems odd. Are you sure you're getting ~14V out of that charger? Can you measure it disconnected from the battery, if it will turn on without a connection? I would go back to leaving the LiTime charger on overnight before giving up. That charger has a low-current mode for waking up a battery.

With the BMS in disconnect mode, I expect you to read the full charger voltage at the battery terminals, i.e. around 14V. If a charger is truly putting out ~14V and you only read 8~9V at the terminals, that sounds like the battery has an internal short rather than being in a normal BMS disconnect state.
 

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