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SOK Warranty Issues

N

N7QX

New Member
Joined
May 4, 2024
Messages
13
Location
Arizona
First post here, but long Tim reader.

own 3 SOK 206 AH batteries. One of the BMS stopped working and shows 0 charge and a continuous 22 Amp current drain.

I asked SOK to repair the battery, replace the battery, replace the BMS or fix the BMS. Nothing unreasonable.

I have received nothing but a run around.
They tell me everything is fine and the ABC application is the issue.

If I isolate the battery, the power is 0% by morning and shuts down. After recharging, the same issues occur.

Anyone have any suggestions?

I am getting ready to buy 48v server rack batteries for a new project, but. in all honest, I think unless something changes i am done with SOK.

Very disappointing.

Mike
 
Thanks for the tag, but on the 12v batteries, we are limited to helping with batteries purchased through our store, simply because that's the only way we have the ability to go above and beyond to ensure customer satisfaction. If that's the case, please feel to reach out to me directly and I'd be glad to help.

Unfortunately, my team has learned in the last few months that the manufacturer's warranty is truly at their discretion, and they have been trending toward being far less lenient as prices drop and margins thin. I've had a few cases recently where I feel something should be covered under warranty, have tried to get it covered with the manufacturer on the customers behalf, and they deny covering it or suggest trying something silly (such as replacing a BMS for a faulty cell or leaving a battery with a faulty BMS on a charger for a week). We refuse to leave customers stranded or give them the run-around so we just foot the bill to make things right and take care of things on our end. I can't say it's a smart decision to purchase directly from these manufacturers though, because they could disappear tomorrow and leave you stranded.

Back on topic, in the USA, the 48v rack batteries are exclusively distributed by my company & team, so you can be assured that there is support leading back to us no matter which vendor you choose to purchase through. We are proactive and inspect each batch to make sure there are no surprises. But if it is still concerning to you, we carry many brands and we can still make sure you are taken care of and treated right at the end of the day, no matter which direction you choose to go.
 
Last edited:
N7QX said:
First post here, but long Tim reader.

own 3 SOK 206 AH batteries. One of the BMS stopped working and shows 0 charge and a continuous 22 Amp current drain.

I asked SOK to repair the battery, replace the battery, replace the BMS or fix the BMS. Nothing unreasonable.

I have received nothing but a run around.
They tell me everything is fine and the ABC application is the issue.

If I isolate the battery, the power is 0% by morning and shuts down. After recharging, the same issues occur.

Anyone have any suggestions?

I am getting ready to buy 48v server rack batteries for a new project, but. in all honest, I think unless something changes i am done with SOK.

Very disappointing.

Mike
Click to expand...

Is this a heated battery, can you disconnect the heater to see it stops? I know of a local person who had to do this what we found is that the Mosfet that controls the heating burned out and would just run the heater non stop no matter what. removing the heating pad stop the issue but no more low temperature heating...
 
As promised, here are images of my two 12v 206 ah SOK batteries.

The second image is of the problem battery, the BMS reports a current drain of -23.1 A. The SOC shows 100% and the clculated capacity now only shows 0%. Cell balancing looks ok

The first image is the good battery.

IMG_5104.PNG



IMG_5105.PNG


What is really weird is that my Victron Shunt shows the batteries at 100% and aside from the screwy ABC-BMS data, they do appear to be working.

Also, in regard to Current Connected, I am very impressed with the candid explanation and their desire tro go above and beyond. This is very rare in this day and age. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me to see some of these battery manufacturers hit with some type of legal action if they continue to arbitrarily fail to stand by their warranty.

Someone asked for images or wiring info. My solar system is a small 12v system ruinning my office in my house and utilizes Victron components.

IMG_5106.jpg

Thanks all.

PS......My intent is to convert my system to 48v over the next 6 months, hence the Victron components.

Mike.
 
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on the second battery, disconnect the cable from it, go in the app under basic settings->password 200010-> idle calibration. That should reset the current measurement issue.

Although your SOC will never be accurate as your smartshunt (when wired properly*)

That appears to be 12awg wire on your solar controller. For 70A you should have 6AWG with an 80A fuse in the lynx.

also, your lynx shunt isn't going to do anything setup like this - loads need to be connected on the right hand side of the lynx shunt otherwise power in/out of the battery will not be measured.
 
Hello Dexter.......

Thanks for the info on resetting the BMS. Will do today.
The wiring to the solar controller is #10 stranded THHN. I will change to #6, just need to get some ferrules.
Will move the shunt to the left side of the Dist. box.

Have a great day.
Thanks
 
N7QX said:
Hello Dexter.......

Thanks for the info on resetting the BMS. Will do today.
The wiring to the solar controller is #10 stranded THHN. I will change to #6, just need to get some ferrules.
Will move the shunt to the left side of the Dist. box.

Have a great day.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Sounds good, just connect your batts to the shunt directly from there.

MPPT manual may call for no ferrules but my memory is weak. @sunshine_eggo
 
Again, thank you to Dexter and everyone else. I reset the Idle Calibration and now both batteries (ABC-BMS) reflect the current draw for each battery with the total matching the shunt reading. The one battery still shows a capacity of 0.0 ah, but all other parameters are correct and all cells are balanced.

I moved the lynx shunt to the left end and c connected the batteries there. Wires were changed to #6 stranded (no ferrules). However, I am not completely sure that the compression screw down fittings are any safer without the ferrules. Be that as it may, and that is a discussion for another day and time, I sincerely appreciate everyones assistance.

I low that SOK batterie4s are well regarded as are others, but man, it just seems that there is so much inferior quality gear available. Coming from the commercial building industry were I designed and constructed backup systems for corporate headquarters and TV Studios, high voltage switch gear and UPS equipment seems much better constructed.

Be safe.
 
After a few days or so. the BMS has once again become unstable and inaccurate.

After four or five emails with SOK and a request to replace the BMS, the told me to go out and buy a shunt.

I am done with SOK. Will never buy another product from them. A warranty issued by SOL us useless.

Time to move on. Life is too short to deal with shady and bad business practices.

Buyer beware.

From: SOK Battery

This soc and capacity incorrect on this app.
You could leave it alone .This app for checking 4 cells voltage and PROT statue.If you need check SOC and capacity, you need install a shunt and read on the shunt.
Regards,
Min
https://www.us.sokbattery.com
If you have a question, get support from here:
https://www.us.sokbattery.com/contact
Follow us on Youtube to learn more about SOK battery
https://www.youtube.com/@sokbattery
Click to expand...


 
You can replace the BMS with a JBD and add an active balancer, for the active balancer you can attach a little slider switch to turn in on/off as needed to make sure they stay balanced.

My JBD bms had very accurate shunt. I have done this before to a 206 and it works fine, I also routed the bluetooth dongle to the outside of the case to get better reception.
 
Alkaline

Thanks for the suggestion. I may very well replace the BMS.

Appreciate the help.
Mike
 
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N7QX said:
Will do. I’m out for a short trip but will post images.

Yes ABC BMS.
Click to expand...
www.us.sokbattery.com

How to read and set the ABC-BMS app. | SOK Battery

Update on August 25,2022. How to read the Protection State on the new version Bluetooth app. The BMS protects the battery's cells from potentially damaging situations like short circuit, over or under voltage, and discharging or charging during extreme temperatures. The SOK Bluetooth app now indi
www.us.sokbattery.com www.us.sokbattery.com
 
sunshine_eggo said:
Curious. Then why would you choose to include them in your offerings?

View attachment 216930
Click to expand...

Yes - well my standard version was based on the bogart engineering controller.

The guy that I built that for insisted on a victron controller and I could not talk him out of it.

It is 400 watts feeding into a 24 volt system, so pretty far away from the 30 amp rating of that unit.

It honestly annoys the heck out of me to have that photo of it installed in his trailer with the V solar charge controller, so I put masking tape over it to hide the branding - obviously not sufficiently. And I don't know how to photo shop - so it is what it is.

At the end of the day, I have to cover the rent on my little off grid hobby space somehow, so sometimes I have to do things that I would rather not, but I am not going to showcase their stuff either.
 
UPDATE:
After e bit of discussion (I am being kind) SOK finally agreed to send me a new BMS. They claim that their new BMS design may also be suspect (I am being kind again) and the new BMS will not correct any issues.

On May 22, 2024, at 9:34 AM, Sok Battery <sales@sokbattery.com> wrote:
in fact, new version BMS still have the SOC issue.
We think this BMS software can not calculate the correct SOC....
If you install replace a BMS, we could send you.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

These responses just don't give me that warm and fuzzy feeling.

Are there any manufacturers of LifePo4 batteries, BMS hardware and software that are of sufficient quality and good engineering to mitigate these issue?

As a design professional, I have over 30 years of designing corporate headquarters, office buildings, medical facilities and retain centers. The electrical system switch gear we specify has proven to be of high quality and sustainable. I just don't understand the perceived lack of quality in the low voltage solar market.
 
This is the problem I see far too often - product designers want to incorporate too many features. SOK made AMAZING batteries when they first hit the market. Never a single issue, they just worked. Then they tried to make the battery a battery PLUS a battery monitor - it's not quite perfect, but it gives the impression of a battery that may not be as robust as they used to be. This is why I kept buying and offering the non-bluetooth models for years after the bluetooth model came out.

I think monitoring the SOC of a battery within the battery is simply stupid. At the end of the day 90% of systems use multiple batteries, and no one wants to sit there scrolling through each battery...it's not like they report to a central system (like Victron) anyway. Plus, you can't meet the accuracy of a precision ground shunt for a price range that is anywhere close to being competitive in this market.
 
HarryN said:
At the end of the day, I have to cover the rent on my little off grid hobby space somehow, so sometimes I have to do things that I would rather not, but I am not going to showcase their stuff either.
Click to expand...

LOL... you can't hide that shape from a Smurf.

You made the customer happy.

I'm a happy Victron customer, and there seems to be a lot of them.

You're free to hate them as much as you like!
 
sunshine_eggo said:
LOL... you can't hide that shape from a Smurf.

You made the customer happy.

I'm a happy Victron customer, and there seems to be a lot of them.

You're free to hate them as much as you like!
Click to expand...

He was just dressing it up for a night out on the town, maybe going to a ball
 
Last edited:
sunshine_eggo said:
LOL... you can't hide that shape from a Smurf.

You made the customer happy.

I'm a happy Victron customer, and there seems to be a lot of them.

You're free to hate them as much as you like!
Click to expand...

I try very hard to purchase items made in the US / North America. Our trade deficit with the far east is already high enough.

If they made their products in the EU or NA, I would not mind using them - and I do use them on occasion when there are no domestic options for the task.
 
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