New Li Time battery put on charger overnight and voltage dropped

[cjcl]

I just purchased 2 - 100ah Li Time batteries. I checked them both upon receipt and they were both at 13.11V. I put them, one at a time, on a
Victron IP22 12/30 charger, set it to Li ion, left it on there for about 12 hours and the voltage dropped from 13.11 to 12.88, why? Did I do something wrong?

 

[50ShadesOfDirt]

Not familiar with that charger, so I'll hazard a guess that Victron charging setup effort for your battery type isn't finished yet.

When I hook up a "smart charger" (LiFePO4) to a set of new LiTime batteries, they'll increase in charge up to near what the vendor says they should hold. I have several, but one such charger is the NOCO, with a LiFePO4 selection on it's front panel. By the next day, they'll drop by some hundredth's, as measured by multimeter. I assume the BMS is eating some power for whatever it does.

That didn't seem important at the time, as my goal was to get the batteries ready for battery-bank use, per the LiTime manual:

1. charge each battery to within a few hundredth's of *each other*.
2. parallel them for 24 hours (final balancing by the internal bms boards)
3. then throw them into battery bank, not exceeding LiTime's rules on how many can be in serial, etc.

And after that, hopefully your battery-bank will be doing what you expected, as it's being charged by the other solar gear. That's been my experience so far, with both AmpereTime and now LiTime batteries ...

Hope this helps ...

 

[cjcl]

I also have a NOCO charger, I'll give that a try and see what happens. Thanks for the input.

 

[Tomthumb62]

I just purchased 2 - 100ah Li Time batteries. I checked them both upon receipt and they were both at 13.11V. I put them, one at a time, on a
Victron IP22 12/30 charger, set it to Li ion, left it on there for about 12 hours and the voltage dropped from 13.11 to 12.88, why? Did I do something wrong?

I have that very same charger. This sounds strange. If you open VictronConnect. select your device (you need to be within bluetooth range), then scroll to the History tab. What does the history tab say or can you upload a screenshot?

 

[mberding]

I've seen this same behavior on a new Li-Time 100ah battery. Got it fully charged (which is another story), then it appeared to go into over-voltage protection mode. At that point, the voltage dropped to 12.8 or 12.9. I finally got it to "wake up" by attaching a 12v socket and plugging in a Jackery (having it charge the Jackery via 12v). To me, it seems the BMS in this battery is a little strange.

 

[Benjamin Yang]

Make sure that the charger settings are correct. Sometimes an improperly selected charging mode may result in an abnormal voltage. Check the settings of the Victron charger again to make sure that the correct settings for Li-ion batteries are selected.

 

[Abby Luo]

If you use the right charge suit for you lithium, for12V lifepo4 battery,charge it full, the end-off voltage would be 13.32-13.36V ,if they drop the voltage , it means they have self discharge.

 

[mikefitz]

left it on there for about 12 hours and the voltage dropped from 13.11 to 12.88, why? Did I do something wrong?

No.
The battery has unbalanced cells and, as sugested, cell overvolts caused the BMS to shut down the charge path.

You have a IP22 12 volt charger, via rhe app you can see the charge put into the battery.

Set a lower charge voltage, 13.8 volts and a long absorbtion period. The NOCO charger is useless compared to the Victron.

The issue you are having is common with many low cost batteries, use normally with the lower charge voltage, after a time balance will improve.

Once the battery has entered protection under charge, applying a load should cause recovery. The reduced voltage you are seeing is due to volt drops across the BMS, once recovered you will see the 'real' battery voltage.

Mike

 

[cjcl]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I'll try discharging it, running a couple of diesel heaters, and then re-charge and see what happens.

Really appreciate everyones help!

 

[cjcl]

Almost forgot, I did connect my NOCO Genius 5 overnight and same results, battery is at 12.88/89 volts. So I'll do the discharge, re-charge and see what happens.

 

[brucemayer]

I just purchased 2 - 100ah Li Time batteries. I checked them both upon receipt and they were both at 13.11V. I put them, one at a time, on a
Victron IP22 12/30 charger, set it to Li ion, left it on there for about 12 hours and the voltage dropped from 13.11 to 12.88, why? Did I do something wrong?

I have two of the same batteries and have noted this voltage drop as well. The batteries do indicate 12.8 volts in a large decal on side of battery . I have charged and discharged several times and one of my three chargers is Li Time 20 amp. The resting voltage always returns to 12.8 volts.
This voltage drop would seem intentional and could be part of the above average surge capacity of these batteries. I suspect some of the available voltage has been leveraged to increase amperage output.

Then again.....I could be entirely wrong. (this does happen from time to time).

*The batteries do perform very well and the Black Friday pricing was exceptional. ($269 each and free 20amp charger with purchase of two)

 

[mikefitz]

resting voltage always returns to 12.8 volts

What is the voltage when there is a load of a few amps?
Unless the BMS is in protection a 'full' battery should have a voltage of around 3.4 volts.

 

[brucemayer]

What is the voltage when there is a load of a few amps?
Unless the BMS is in protection a 'full' battery should have a voltage of around 3.4 volts.

I typically will see voltage jump up to 13.3 under load. This is a Li Time brand BMS and it seems to be very involved in these trolling batteries output.

 

[mikefitz]

see voltage jump up to 13.3 under load.

That's the true battery volts at near full charge.
When you charge to absorbtion volts, ( 14.2 for Victron default), the BMS enters protection due to cell overvolts on the inbalanced cells. The protection mode introduces a small volt drop across the BMS thus you see a lower volts than actual.

You will find using a lower charge volts, down to 13.8 volts if necessary will prevent protection occurring. Using this lower voltage with a long absorption period will give time for balancing to take place for longer, hopefully getting the cells into better balance.

 

[brucemayer]

Thanks for the information. I will have to try one of my other chargers and monitor voltage. The the charger that came with the batteries Does not pair well with this b m s. It just clicks on and off on it off. Endlessly, until my wife asked me what's going on over there. It has a rather Loud relay

 

[brucemayer]

That's the true battery volts at near full charge.
When you charge to absorbtion volts, ( 14.2 for Victron default), the BMS enters protection due to cell overvolts on the inbalanced cells. The protection mode introduces a small volt drop across the BMS thus you see a lower volts than actual.

You will find using a lower charge volts, down to 13.8 volts if necessary will prevent protection occurring. Using this lower voltage with a long absorption period will give time for balancing to take place for longer, hopefully getting the cells into better balance.

The AIMS charge is the only one of the 3 pictured that I have that will not drive the BMS into overvoltage protection. I will leave this on charge overnight and see where we end up and do the same with my second battery tomorrow