Community Forums

Flyboydanny · 08-09-2020, 03:42 PM

I recently installed a new Battle Born Lithium Iron 12v battery along with the Victron BMV-712 battery monitor. Everything looks to work great and the Bluetooth app gives me status of the battery.
The problem is that when plugged in to shore power it doesn't seem to charge the battery. To test I disconnected shore power and turned a bunch of lights and stuff on and left it until the monitor showed the battery down to 70% charge. Then I plugged back into shore power. But the voltage was still showing over 13.2v and the battery was continuing to discharge. I read at the Kz owners manual and it appears that the stock power converter only charges the battery when the voltage drops below 12.7v.
Am I right to conclude that shore power will never fully charge my new battery? Will it charge it at all? What are my options?
I am planning to add a couple of solar panels and a Victron mppt charge controller, so when charging from solar it should fully charge. But I would like to charge the battery when plugged into shore power, and it seems that might never work. What am I missing?
Cheers,

Florida Rang · 08-09-2020, 03:51 PM

Your camper must have a Lithium battery charger. Most campers do not come with this type charger, you must install it yourself or have it done...

computerguy · 08-09-2020, 03:54 PM

That's why they say to check your equipment BEFORE you buy lithium batts. Not all equipment (converter/chargers) will be compatible.
To your question, I don't know what charger you have so can't say whether or not it will charge. But if you have on good authority your charger will not charge unless the voltage goes below 12.7v then well, your BB battery may not charge on that system.
Your charger has no way to change the settings?

Flyboydanny · 08-09-2020, 04:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by computerguy

That's why they say to check your equipment BEFORE you buy lithium batts. Not all equipment (converter/chargers) will be compatible.
To your question, I don't know what charger you have so can't say whether or not it will charge. But if you have on good authority your charger will not charge unless the voltage goes below 12.7v then well, your BB battery may not charge on that system.
Your charger has no way to change the settings?

As far as I can tell from the owners manual, the converter considers 12.7v a fully charged battery.

jcussen · 08-09-2020, 04:04 PM

Check your converter, some newer ones do have a lithium [constant voltage] setting, if not, you can buy a kit to convert them. Lithium has a different charging profile than lead acid, and your present converter will never fully charge them. Best bet is to call Battleborn and give them your converter model, they will tell what you have to do.

1361 · 08-10-2020, 03:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jcussen

Best bet is to call Battleborn and give them your converter model, they will tell what you have to do.

This is what I would recommend as well. The investment into those batteries isn't worth messing around with. Do what it take to get it right.

vsheetz · 08-10-2020, 03:47 PM

Here's a pretty good article on the care and feeding of Lithium batteries.

https://www.solacity.com/how-to-keep...tteries-happy/

vsheetz · 08-10-2020, 03:49 PM

The BMV712 won't provide accurate SoC % until you get the charging worked out.

jcussen · 08-10-2020, 03:56 PM

This is partial list of converters and inverters compatible with BattleBorn lithium. In my sprinter have Progressive Dynamics 4060 k converter and it has the ability to charge lithium by changing a jumper pin setting on the board.

https://battlebornbatteries.com/char...ibility-table/

T Money · 08-10-2020, 08:54 PM

I upgraded to Battle Born as well. I had to swap out the power converter. I bought the Progessive Dynamics one that Battle Born sells. Took me an hour to swap it out and my electric skills are zero.

01tundra · 08-13-2020, 11:28 AM

We use a Progressive PD4655L Wildkat converter from bestconverter.com.

It's only the converter section so your factory fuse panel stays in place, super easy to install and it does a great job charging our BattleBorn batteries.

Once thing to mention, if storing (not using) the batteries for more than a couple weeks it's better to keep the SOC at around 90%. I use a battery disconnect switch to keep the batteries turned off and resting at 90% SOC while sitting at home plugged into our shore power pedestal.

Flyboydanny · 08-14-2020, 11:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 01tundra

We use a Progressive PD4655L Wildkat converter from bestconverter.com.

It's only the converter section so your factory fuse panel stays in place, super easy to install and it does a great job charging our BattleBorn batteries.

Once thing to mention, if storing (not using) the batteries for more than a couple weeks it's better to keep the SOC at around 90%. I use a battery disconnect switch to keep the batteries turned off and resting at 90% SOC while sitting at home plugged into our shore power pedestal.

Thanks for the tips. I mostly resolved the issue. It turns out the breaker for the onboard converter had tripped at some point. Once I reset the breaker the BB battery is charging just fine, although the stock converter will only charge it up to 13.7v. I realize that in order to fully charge the battery up to its 14.6v potential I will need to do what you did and swap out the converter. I too installed a shutoff switch similar to yours for when the system is sitting idle for extended times.