Valence batteries not lasting long at all

[Russ]

I recently purchased 2 Valence 138 ah batteries with 300 or less cycles that were used in electric vehicles. I have both in parallel and use a 4 amp battery tender connected.
When charged they go to either 14.5 or 14.7 and then slowly drop to 13.38 which I have verified correct. Green lights are flashing. An example of their performance in about 3 hours they dropped to 10.7 volts and the transfer switch went to grid as it should. I did not have 3 amps or over 300 watts load on the batteries and the amps and watts would drop below this many times. The batteries were at 12.5 or 12.7 and dropped to 10.7 that fast as measured at the transfer switch and Renogy Adventurer battery charge set to LI . I have a Pure Sine Wave 3000-6000.
All cables are over sized. The batteries are now charging back up quickly. Have done this with BMS cables attached and detached.

Any Ideas

 

[SolarRat]

I'm not familiar with Valence, but with a typical "car" battery (lead acid, six 2v cells), when it quickly drops from "normal" voltage to ~2v less it usually means a bad or intermittent and soon to be bad internal cell. Charging it would quickly bring it right back up over 13v, but it won't last, and after a while the bad cell will go dead completely. The other cells are usually fine and the whole thing operates as an awesome 10.3v battery, but...

I know your battery has very little to do with lead acids, but the symptoms sound the same. How recent was this purchase and is there a warranty?

 

[Russ]

No warrant I bought them off Ebay.
I need to get some software to test them. Valence has the software but I think you have to buy their BSM board.

Someone posted a while back some software that tested all battery types for about 225.00. I think it was CBD or something like that. Think it was a ham radio site

 

[SolarRat]

Have you seen this post? https://www.diysolarforum.com/index...onnection-via-12-12-and-a-surface-pro-6.1206/

or https://www.diysolarforum.com/index.php?threads/valence-software.1224/

 

[Russ]

Yes that is the Valence software you need the BMS board for but using software is the only way to diagnose problem for sure I am thinking

 

[morth]

You don't need the External Valence BMS for a setup like this. You do need the software to see what is going on in the battery. It sounds like you have a dead/dying cell dragging down the pack. Separate the the batteries and run the load on each battery by itself. The Valence software will show you the voltage for each cell so it should be easy to see if there's a bad cell. It will also show you the current drain on the battery so you can verify how much actual load is on the battery.

 

[Mac6792]

If I'm not mistaken you bought the 12 volt mpp? If so you're running them in parallel. You also reported you had one battery that was blistered/ bulging? Take that out of the mix and see what happens

 

[Russ]

I am only using 1 battery now starting about 30 minutes ago.

How do you connect to the batteries physically to connect to the pc. Is there a USB cable of some sort that will connect the 2.

 

[Russ]

One of the batteries does have a blister on top and someone said a cell going bad or something got hot. I posted pictures. I noticed this from Day 1.
No returns of course

 

[Russ]

If I'm not mistaken you bought the 12 volt mpp? If so you're running them in parallel. You also reported you had one battery that was blistered/ bulging? Take that out of the mix and see what happens

Good memory

 

[Russ]

OK I found what I need to connect them and ordered what someone listed to get. Just got a different USB connector since the one suggested was out of stock

 

[Russ]

I'm not familiar with Valence, but with a typical "car" battery (lead acid, six 2v cells), when it quickly drops from "normal" voltage to ~2v less it usually means a bad or intermittent and soon to be bad internal cell. Charging it would quickly bring it right back up over 13v, but it won't last, and after a while the bad cell will go dead completely. The other cells are usually fine and the whole thing operates as an awesome 10.3v battery, but...

I know your battery has very little to do with lead acids, but the symptoms sound the same. How recent was this purchase and is there a warranty?

Purchased about 2 to 3 weeks ago and no returns. They said I am protected by Ebay but not sure what that means. Hope I have 30 days at least to file a claim if necessary. The hardware to test the batteries should be here Sunday

 

[Russ]

Have you seen this post? https://www.diysolarforum.com/index...onnection-via-12-12-and-a-surface-pro-6.1206/

or https://www.diysolarforum.com/index.php?threads/valence-software.1224/

No I had not seen them so a big thanks on the link!

 

[Russ]

I hooked my Vmax 125 amp battery and it is easily out performing the Valence batteries. Something is definitely up. Will recharge the Valence without the blister on top and see how it does. I hope there is not a reason this guy was selling them for 325.00 plus shipping and yes he did sell out. Coming out of a EV car or truck with less than 300 cycles and 80% to 90% .... hmm... Fact or fiction will find out soon I hope

 

[Ped]

My big fear on pulling the trigger on used batteries

 

[Russ]

I usually would not have purchased a used battery but everyone was having such good luck with them. Will find out soon if there is a problem

 

[Steve_S]

I hooked my Vmax 125 amp battery and it is easily out performing the Valence batteries. Something is definitely up. Will recharge the Valence without the blister on top and see how it does. I hope there is not a reason this guy was selling them for 325.00 plus shipping and yes he did sell out. Coming out of a EV car or truck with less than 300 cycles and 80% to 90% .... hmm... Fact or fiction will find out soon I hope

As I understand it, the Valence Batteries are intended for Medical Equipment and the vast majority are coming from hospitals going through update maintenance cycles. You said those came from an EV, which is odd, maybe already recycled from Hospital to EV and now to you.

 

[morth]

As I understand it, the Valence Batteries are intended for Medical Equipment and the vast majority are coming from hospitals going through update maintenance cycles. You said those came from an EV, which is odd, maybe already recycled from Hospital to EV and now to you.

There are a couple types of Valence batteries available on the used market. There's the 40ah, U1-12xp that is typically used on medical carts. Then there is the U27-12xp, which is a 132ah, group 27 sized battery that is commonly used in electric vehicles.

 

[Kevindaw]

Following

 

[Ped]

Any updates?

 

[Russ]

No. Nothing has changed. I need to take a break from it a little bit

 

[Cliffman]

My test didn't work out good either and I was perplexed is to why until I found this chart. This is Battle Born's chart. As you can see your batteries MUST be at 13.6 to get 100% DOD. When I did my test of 62 amp continues discharge my batteries were at 13.13 per Valence Software. That's only about 50% SOC. Get the Valence software, make the cable and KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING to your batteries and KNOW the exact voltage and SOC. Everything you need is right here. https://www.brewskynet.com/valence/. Charge them up to 13.8 THEN do your test. It took several hours to get all 4 of my batteries all hooked in parallel up to just 13.34. My Charger (Go Power IC-3000) started the float charge at 31 amps and over several hours dropped to 0 and per my Valence software my charge voltage is sitting at 13.34.

 

[Cliffman]

No warrant I bought them off Ebay.
I need to get some software to test them. Valence has the software but I think you have to buy their BSM board.

Someone posted a while back some software that tested all battery types for about 225.00. I think it was CBD or something like that. Think it was a ham radio site

You don't need the esternal BMS to use the Valence software

 

[Russ]

Fantastic info. I know this battery is not fully charged. I will connect my Battery Tender to it and fully charge it.

 

[Cliffman]

Fantastic info. I know this battery is not fully charged. I will connect my Battery Tender to it and fully charge it.

What is the max amps of the Battery Tender?