Hello community, I looked through many of the threads here and learned a lot (thank you!), but did not manage to find exactly a solution to the situation I am currently facing. The most similar thread being this one:
But in that thread, neither solar charging nor wall charging works, which seems plausible. In my case, one of the two works, the other not.
I have the following setup:
- Inexpensive LiFePo4 100Ah battery with BMS
- Victron IP65 12/10 blue smart charger
- Victron BMV712 smart battery monitor
- Inexpensive solar panel with PWM charge controller
In the beginning, everything worked well and I did a full charge/discharge/charge cycle with the new battery (it performed well, 104Ah drawn). But since some time now, the battery does not seem to charge any more. It sits around 13.1V-13.2V volts and works fine when used with 12V loads as well as with a 1000W inverter no problem. Charging from solar seems to work good enough, during wintertime 1.5A-2A charging current and I brought it from 13V to 13.2V. But the problem is loading from a wall socket. No matter what I do, the charging current is 0A.
The IP65 12/10 charger quickly jumps from bulk to absorption charge, the voltage stays at 14.2V, but the current stays at 0A. Checking with the BMV712, it also shows 14.19V and 0A current. When I unplug the charger, the battery voltage quickly drops back to 13.1V-13.2V. When I connect the charger again, it quickly goes to 14.2V / 0A.
I tried a different, cheaper charger, with the same situation - the charger tries to charge for a very short time (goes to 14.2V), but then after split second thinks the battery is full and goes to 0A and stops charging (back to 13.2V).
So my question is, I guess: is the battery broken? Or am I understanding something fundamentally wrong on how charging is supposed to work?
I really don't understand why solar charging works, but wall charging doesn't. Any input is highly appreciated!