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New SOK Battery Dead :(

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bmiller039

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Bought a SOK battery around two months ago, and threw it in my four wheel camper...plug-n-play with the plan to add a DC DC charger, AC/DC charger, and some other stuff over time (possibly solar charger, not sure...).

Fast forward to two weeks ago and I noticed the battery wasn't charged, at all. BMS showed cells having a charge of 2.xx V. That's quite a bit below the BMS low voltage disconnect of 10.4v, so no clue how it got so low. Hooked it up to an Victron IP22 charger in an attempt to revive, and so far I'm not seeing much.

Any ideas?

EDIT: found this youtube video, which is an idea. Hesitant to do this, and also curious if the battery is damaged being this low. YouTube

Thanks,

Blake



BMS.jpgCharger.jpg
 
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The cells might be slightly degraded from going below the 2.5v mark, but I had an individual loose cell a few weeks ago down all the way to 250mV, and after charging at .1a for almost 24 hours, it holds a charge and works fine. Definitely some lost capacity, but still works.
 
Following to see if this works out. Others who know more than me will be along.

What are your charge parameters on the camper? Or was it not hooked in yet?

And who was your seller?
 
It's strange that the IP22 doesn't wake the battery. Are you sure your connections between the two are good? Are you seeing 14v at the battery terminals when the charger is on?
 
sollap said:
It's strange that the IP22 doesn't wake the battery. Are you sure your connections between the two are good? Are you seeing 14v at the battery terminals when the charger is on?
Click to expand...
Seeing 14v at terminals when charger is on
 
Bluedog225 said:
Following to see if this works out. Others who know more than me will be along.

What are your charge parameters on the camper? Or was it not hooked in yet?

And who was your seller?
Click to expand...
AC/DC charger in camper is not adjustable and setup for lead acid. My understanding is that I wouldn’t get a full charge from it, and over a long period could see battery damage which is why I bought the IP22 and am looking to upgrade. Certainly wouldn’t think 2 months would hurt the battery.

Solar charge controller is overland solar (looks to be victron oem), and parameters are set per recommendations by connected current website.

Seller was connected current.
 
MisterSandals said:
Can you turn on the C MOS control?

Can you turn off the protection state to get it charging?
Click to expand...
Not sure how to do that. Figured IP22 would wake battery up and start the charging process.

Might try the video method above to get some juice into the battery.
 
The Cmos and Dmos sliders are greyed out due to the protection state, so you won't be able to change them. I thought that PROT state slider was just an indicator, but it wouldn't hurt to try sliding it off. If that doesn't work, I would call support before doing anything inside the battery. While the direct charging of the batteries may work, the solution might also be to disconnect one leg of the BMS from the batteries then re-connect it so it can reboot and get out of it's hung state. They would know what's best.
 
Thanks for the tag!

Looks like the battery was fully drained and left dead for a long time, so that's what would have caused the original issue. In the future, remove all loads and fully charge battery before long term storage.

I don't think the cells would be destroyed at this point, since they aren't totally flat on their face.

This video I made should get you back up and running - you can use your IP22 charger in place of the power supply I used:


EDIT: If you purchased through us and need further support / warranty, feel free to reach out, info@currentconnected.com or 725-699-0100 M-F 9AM-4PM PST
 
The cells are definitely damaged once they are idling below 2.5v, now the question how bad is the damage. Once you charge it up, do a capacity test and see what you get. Good Luck.
 
Alkaline said:
The cells are definitely damaged once they are idling below 2.5v, now the question how bad is the damage. Once you charge it up, do a capacity test and see what you get. Good Luck.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't say definitely, rather, potentially...but in our experience it's immeasurable in nearly all cases.

edit: and if it is, thats what our 10 year warranty is for
 
Cells below 2.5v are in the danger zone, and below 2.0v are permanently irreversibly damaged. Unless I'm mistaken all lithium chemistry use copper foil as the current collector for the anode, at these low voltages the copper atoms will actually start to bond with the anode of the LFP cell effectively reducing battery capacity and accelerate dendrite formation and ruining the battery.

Not only cells below 2.0v low in performance/capacity, they are actually dangerous. Its nice you have a warranty but if the battery catches fires (yes I know its rare in LFP) due to battery damage from copper platting of the anode the vendor may be liable for suggesting it was OK to use.

Seen plenty of RC car fires back in the day, this was a common problem, after a race, the chap forgot to disconnect, well they went to 0 volts, then came back next week, same bad bad batteries, and Poof explosion at the charging station.

I used to 2S LFP packs in my traxxas slash 2wd, even raced in Boulder City track near Las Vegas, yes did the same thing left packs plugged in and they were "meh" afterwards.
 
Alkaline said:
Cells below 2.5v are in the danger zone, and below 2.0v are permanently irreversibly damaged. Unless I'm mistaken all lithium chemistry use copper foil as the current collector for the anode, at these low voltages the copper atoms will actually start to bond with the anode of the LFP cell effectively reducing battery capacity and accelerate dendrite formation and ruining the battery.

Not only cells below 2.0v low in performance/capacity, they are actually dangerous. Its nice you have a warranty but if the battery catches fires (yes I know its rare in LFP) due to battery damage from copper platting of the anode the vendor may be liable for suggesting it was OK to use.

Seen plenty of RC car fires back in the day, this was a common problem, after a race, the chap forgot to disconnect, well they went to 0 volts, then came back next week, same bad bad batteries, and Poof explosion at the charging station.

I used to 2S LFP packs in my traxxas slash 2wd, even raced in Boulder City track near Las Vegas, yes did the same thing left packs plugged in and they were "meh" afterwards.
Click to expand...
I didn't know they made LFP packs for RC cars? I've been out of that industry for a while.
 
Whether there is damage aside, i’m curious whether the BMS was supposed to stop excessive discharge? I’ve got the same battery from cc.
 
Can the BMS protect the cells from itself? I'm assuming it's what finally drained the cells the rest of the way down.
 
Yes, the BMS does protect the cells, but there is also the factor of self-discharge of the cells with a micro-draw coming from the BMS itself. We're talking very little draw here, but the curves are very steep at this end of the spectrum.
 
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