[The Badass Blonde]

Hi all!

Would love to get any feed back on an issue i have with what I think is my battery monitoring system.

With a night of below 0 temperatures I turned my system off and when I turned it back on my battery monitoring system was showing 14.4V but with no + or - amperage just 0.00. After driving for 3+ hours my battery monitor also showed that my battery percentage which was at 60% this morning has not decreased or increased.

Any input on what it could might be? Thanks!!

 

[harryn]

Using information from this thread:

Battery monitor issue

Hi! I just bought a 2018 fully converted ford transit van and seem to be having an issue with my battery. I run my van off of my alternator and solar panels, in which run through my inverter and shoe on my battery monitoring system up front. I have not had any issue until today when I noticed...

www.fordtransitusaforum.com

your van has 2 LiFe batteries.

If a LiFe battery temperature drops below ~ 30 - 35 F, they can be damaged from charging them. That is the big weakness of Li batteries.

In order to prevent this damage, most electrical systems, and often the batteries themselves, will turn off the ability to charge. Often this also turns off the ability to pull meaningful amounts of power out as well.

The deep internal temperature of the batteries needs to be warmed up to ~ 40 F to get them going again. This takes time - it is a relatively slow process - unlike microwave cooking.

Once the battery pack is warmed up, then one way to keep it warm is to keep the van internal temperature above ~ 40 - 50 F. If your van has a fuel heater (gasoline based heater or similar) this is one way to approach it.

Your experience is exactly the trade off van owners face with electrical systems. There are many good reasons to love Li batteries, but cold weather turns them into a useless brick.

This is where the high end AGM batteries have the advantage. This is a common conversation that I have with my customers.

It is the reason that even though I own full packs of both LiFe and AGM batteries for use in my test stands, my own pack is still Lifeline AGM.

It is also why I try to get people to use 24 volt (or higher) battery pack voltages, as they are more immune to these cold weather effects.

 

[harryn]

Using information from this thread:

Battery monitor issue

Hi! I just bought a 2018 fully converted ford transit van and seem to be having an issue with my battery. I run my van off of my alternator and solar panels, in which run through my inverter and shoe on my battery monitoring system up front. I have not had any issue until today when I noticed...

www.fordtransitusaforum.com

your van has 2 LiFe batteries.

If a LiFe battery temperature drops below ~ 30 - 35 F, they can be damaged from charging them. That is the big weakness of Li batteries.

In order to prevent this damage, most electrical systems, and often the batteries themselves, will turn off the ability to charge. Often this also turns off the ability to pull meaningful amounts of power out as well.

The deep internal temperature of the batteries needs to be warmed up to ~ 40 F to get them going again. This takes time - it is a relatively slow process - unlike microwave cooking.

Once the battery pack is warmed up, then one way to keep it warm is to keep the van internal temperature above ~ 40 - 50 F. If your van has a fuel heater (gasoline based heater or similar) this is one way to approach it.

Your experience is exactly the trade off van owners face with electrical systems. There are many good reasons to love Li batteries, but cold weather turns them into a useless brick.

This is where the high end AGM batteries have the advantage. This is a common conversation that I have with my customers.

It is the reason that even though I own full packs of both LiFe and AGM batteries for use in my test stands, my own pack is still Lifeline AGM.

It is also why I try to get people to use 24 volt (or higher) battery pack voltages, as they are more immune to these cold weather effects.

I want to add that this post is arm chair speculation on my part.

It is very difficult to diagnose an electrical problem long distance, but a local marine or RV electrician should be able to help.

Frankly the other thing that it could be is that most RV / van electronics are designed for 3 season use - just in general.

The same thing is true of the laptop and desktop computers that we use every day. They are not designed for use below freezing temperatures.

I am a little bit over the top when it comes to doing what it takes to use components that work down below 0 F, but that is kind of rare in the van conversion world. It also results in electrical systems that are 2 - 3x the cost of ones that are 3 season based. It is annoying but reality.

See if you can warm up the van interior for a few hours - it might all start working.

 

[harryn]

14.4 volts is pretty close to the voltage that you would expect for a "full" LiFe battery.

Sometimes you have to push the "reset" button and hold it to make it indicate that it is 100% full.

 

[richards]

This has me thinking. I purchased the bluetti 150 for simplicity and portability that goes to a lower temperature. However i live between 5k and 7k feet with temps in the teens. To keep from bringing inside and out i am thinking about a low wattage warming blanket that would run off the fully charged pack. An easy thermo shield to protect from the temps Might also work. Perhaps the same could be looked at for your battrey.

 

[Janus9]

FYI, there are lithium batteries available that have built in heaters.

100Ah 12V LiFePO4 Heated Battery Kit - 1 Battery

This 100Ah 12V Heated Battery Kit provides you with a low draw heating solution to help you get out there and stay out there in cold weather!

battlebornbatteries.com

 

[RidingRoadsAndTrails]

Hopefully, I'm not going too far on a tangent here.

I've been looking into low temperature solutions for lithium batteries for my next van. I addition to the Battle Born referenced above, there is Lithium Battery for Low Temperature Charging | RELiON and Buy 12 Volt 125Ah Lithium Deep Cycle Battery LithiumHub | Free Shipping that offer heating and cold temp protection.

These newer smart lithium batteries may be incompatible (or maybe just non-optimal) with some charging systems. For instance, I have the RedArc Manager30 and AGM batteries in my current van. The Manager30 has a low-temperature cutoff to protect the batteries from being charged when the ambient temperature is below freezing. This cutoff is not overridable. The Manager30 does not take into consideration that the internal temperature of the battery and the ambient temperature may be significantly different when the battery is self-heating. This results in the internally warm batteries not getting charged when the ambient temp is below freezing. I've suggested to RedArc that they add a "heated lithium" battery profile that trusts the smart battery and ignores its own low temp cutoff. They don't seem interested in addressing the smart lithium batteries. As much as I love the RedArc in my current van, I'll have to do something else in the new van since I plan to use one of the smart lithium battery variants in the next van.

 

[The Badass Blonde]

Using information from this thread:

Battery monitor issue

Hi! I just bought a 2018 fully converted ford transit van and seem to be having an issue with my battery. I run my van off of my alternator and solar panels, in which run through my inverter and shoe on my battery monitoring system up front. I have not had any issue until today when I noticed...

www.fordtransitusaforum.com

your van has 2 LiFe batteries.

If a LiFe battery temperature drops below ~ 30 - 35 F, they can be damaged from charging them. That is the big weakness of Li batteries.

In order to prevent this damage, most electrical systems, and often the batteries themselves, will turn off the ability to charge. Often this also turns off the ability to pull meaningful amounts of power out as well.

The deep internal temperature of the batteries needs to be warmed up to ~ 40 F to get them going again. This takes time - it is a relatively slow process - unlike microwave cooking.

Once the battery pack is warmed up, then one way to keep it warm is to keep the van internal temperature above ~ 40 - 50 F. If your van has a fuel heater (gasoline based heater or similar) this is one way to approach it.

Your experience is exactly the trade off van owners face with electrical systems. There are many good reasons to love Li batteries, but cold weather turns them into a useless brick.

This is where the high end AGM batteries have the advantage. This is a common conversation that I have with my customers.

It is the reason that even though I own full packs of both LiFe and AGM batteries for use in my test stands, my own pack is still Lifeline AGM.

It is also why I try to get people to use 24 volt (or higher) battery pack voltages, as they are more immune to these cold weather effects.

Extremely helpful, thank you. I have a heater trying to warm them up now.