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watts asked

Is this new IP22 charger faulty and could it damage my battery?

Update: I've now tested charger in Power Supply mode set to 12.8A, with battery disconnected from system. The charger isn't capable of delivering 30A before output voltage drops unacceptably low. For 23A load charger voltage is 11.41V.

I'm sure now the charger is faulty, however I'm unsure if it's safe to use on my battery.


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I have recently purchased a range of new Victron equipment and reputable 100Ah lithium battery for a campervan 12V system upgrade. After testing I suspect the new IP22 30A charger may be faulty.

Attached are smart shunt trends showing Li-Ion profile Bulk charge from 20% SOC starts at 30A as expected, and then unexpectedly reduces to a~20A after ~10 minutes.

Once steady at 20A I introduced load to the system to test if charger output increased up to it's 30A rating, but it did not. The trend shows introduction of ~20A load followed by a ~5A load.

If I stop the charge briefly it re-commences at 30A for a short time then reduces again to ~20A

To eliminate external causes I have tested the charger connected directly to the battery and witness similar behavior

If I set charge rate to 15A max I see similar behavior, with charge starting at 15A then reducing to ~10A.

I have charged battery fully, discharged to 20% and repeated test charge with same results.


Does the behavior indicated and tests conducted confirm a fault with the charger?


Could the abnormal charging damage my battery, or other components in the sytem (500VA pheonix inverter, 500A smart shunt, 75|15 smartsolar ).


Regards,

voltage-trend.jpg


soc-trend.jpg

battery charging
soc-trend.jpg (161.2 KiB)
voltage-trend.jpg (160.4 KiB)
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klim8skeptic avatar image klim8skeptic ♦ commented ·

Some voltage measurements would be helpful.

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watts avatar image watts klim8skeptic ♦ commented ·

I've now added voltage trend for same period.

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2 Answers
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watts answered ·

Closing this out as I've now had the charger replaced and new one is performing as expected.

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klim8skeptic answered ·

I dont see anything particularly bad with those 2 charts.

The charger seems to be doing its best to get the battery voltage to 13.5v, both acceptable voltage to float/storage LiFePO₄ batteries.

Your BMV shows that the battery is still accepting charge @ 13.5v.

RTFM and update the firmware as needed.

And let the charger go through a full charge cycle, even if you have to monitor. (weekends are good :D)

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watts avatar image watts commented ·

Thanks for the reply.

The manual states that Bulk charge is at max charge current (30A) until absorption voltage is reached. It does not mention rate reducing for any reason during bulk charge like I’m seeing.

Just to clarify, the charger and app indicated Bulk mode for the duration of the trend and well beyond. I let this cycle complete full charge from 20 to 100% soc, with the expected ~80Ah going in. No issues other than the charger unexpectedly limiting its output

If for some reason the battery only wants 20A then I would expect charger to be capable of delivering 10A to other loads while maintaining 20A charge. It does not,


Unit firmware is up to date.

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klim8skeptic avatar image klim8skeptic ♦ watts commented ·

Page 20 of the manual gives details about the history details of your battery/charger.

This is interesting and useful..

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