Relion 100HP 3 years later!!

[Alshymer]

Hi
I have been delighted with my Relion lithium battery which I bought following Phil’s video.
However 3 yrs in, the battery has failed and will not charge so hopefully the 5 year guarantee will kick in but I won’t hold my breath.
The only problem is that I am in France and without the battery are a bit stuck!!
How long are others finding the lithium batteries are lasting?
Kind regards

 

[trevskoda]

I find that with power tool lith batts, one day they work and the next day dead, I must have gone through a dozen or so and ended up with electric drill units with batts I can no longer get, and not always worth the cost of opening them up and making a new pack inside the old shell.

 

[Admin]

Hi
I have been delighted with my Relion lithium battery which I bought following Phil’s video.
However 3 yrs in, the battery has failed and will not charge so hopefully the 5 year guarantee will kick in but I won’t hold my breath.
The only problem is that I am in France and without the battery are a bit stuck!!
How long are others finding the lithium batteries are lasting?
Kind regards

Can I ask what you are charging it with?

 

[Nabsim]

Was going to say mine is just four years old but not certain, suppose it could be three.

 

[wildebus]

I think folk are a little bit seduced with Lithium on how long they will last, propogated by people like Will Prowse who bangs on about how they can do n thousands of cycles and how that is so much more than Lead, and how they can get even better by doing certain things, but totally ignoring the fact that while the cells might do these cycles, the bit inbetween the cells and the system is a bit of cheap chinese electronics, built down to a price and likely will fail way before those charge cycles are reached. And when THAT fails, the battery is toast as far as the typical end-user is concerned.

In contrast, a Lead Battery has nothing complicated between the acid filled cells and the system it is supporting.

(off-topic, but that is why, IMO, talk about part-charging and part-discharging lithium batteries to get even more charge cycles out of them is false economy as be lucky to get to the standard use count, let alone some extended life cycle count. Other people will have different opinions, which is fine )

I find that with power tool lith batts, one day they work and the next day dead, I must have gone through a dozen or so and ended up with electric drill units with batts I can no longer get, and not always worth the cost of opening them up and making a new pack inside the old shell.

Yup, I have a few Ryobi Li-on batteries that match that description, and failed well before they should have

 

[Alshymer]

Can I ask what you are charging it with?

Hi.
Normally charged by solar and engine, occasionally hook up.

 

[Wully]

That thing about charging them below a certain temperature is also true if the batteries are stored in below zero temp when low on charge. we use rechargeable tools for our work and have had loads of nearly new batteries pack up because of the way they were stored in the back of works vans. Now we take the batteries off and if it’s gonna freeze I take them in at night it seems to be working not had one pack up in over a year and I have about 10 some are expensive 54v flex batteries.

 

[Wully]

Sorry meant to say. I’ve got two Rellion batteries roughly the same age as yours I also love how they work. Sorry you’ve had a problem with yours hope it’s a charger problem. watching with interst

 

[Admin]

Hi.
Normally charged by solar and engine, occasionally hook up.

Have you tried removing the battery and connecting to a different lifepo4 charger?

The charger MUST supply power even if it does not sense voltage! (most intelligent chargers, B2Bs and MPPTs don't)

The RB100 does not supply power to the terminals if it has gone into protect mode for low voltage. Your charging circuits may only work if they sense power in the battery. Sometimes you need to "jump-start" them by connecting them in parallel with another 12v battery so that the chargers start.

 

[Alshymer]

That thing about charging them below a certain temperature is also true if the batteries are stored in below zero temp when low on charge. we use rechargeable tools for our work and have had loads of nearly new batteries pack up because of the way they were stored in the back of works vans. Now we take the batteries off and if it’s gonna freeze I take them in at night it seems to be working not had one pack up in over a year and I have about 10 some are expensive 54v flex batteries.

 

[Alshymer]

This is not the case as I have a low temperature charge cut off set at 6 degrees.

 

[Alshymer]

Have you tried removing the battery and connecting to a different lifepo4 charger?

The charger MUST supply power even if it does not sense voltage! (most intelligent chargers, B2Bs and MPPTs don't)

The RB100 does not supply power to the terminals if it has gone into protect mode for low voltage. Your charging circuits may only work if they sense power in the battery. Sometimes you need to "jump-start" them by connecting them in parallel with another 12v battery so that the chargers start.

No I haven’t as I don’t have access to another charger.
Thanks

 

[Alshymer]

A strange thing has happened!!
After 3 days of charging from the mains the Victron which has shown no power for 4 days has miraculously jumped into life and now showing 99%!!
How does one account for that?

 

[jagmanx]

It looks good.
I expect you will be monitoring closely.
Deep sleep ?
Now Sleeping beauty ?
I have had similar with lead acid ehu/solar conundrums.
Again sorted by ehu for a couple of days !

 

[wildebus]

A strange thing has happened!!
After 3 days of charging from the mains the Victron which has shown no power for 4 days has miraculously jumped into life and now showing 99%!!
How does one account for that?

One great (or really not so great) feature of the Victron BMVs are if they lose connection to the battery, when it is re-established, the SOC is reset it 100%. This can be very misleading, like possibly in your case if that happened. I usually change the behaviour in the settings so instead of resetting to 100%, it resets to "- -". At least that way you know the SOC is no longer accurate and needs attention.

The voltages look pretty good and would suggest a pretty well charged battery and not a near-dead one.

PS. Ref the charger and it running with a battery that might be dead/0V, if you have a Victron IP22 Mains Charger, that is one smart charger that will run regardless of whether the battery is very low or not. You can also, if it is a Blue smart (Bluetooth enabled) version, go into the app and set it to be a Power Supply rather than a Charger. This can be useful sometimes as it will act as a 12V power source (so doing the same job as Admin was suggesting by connecting a 12V battery in parallel). The other Victron Mains Chargers probably will do the same thing but I can't say for sure as not tried them.

 

[Wooie1958]

Apologies for hijacking.

Is the Smart Battery Sense better connected to the side or the top of the battery

 

[Alshymer]

Apologies for hijacking.

Is the Smart Battery Sense better connected to the side or the top of the battery

The top. No worries.

 

[Alshymer]

One great (or really not so great) feature of the Victron BMVs are if they lose connection to the battery, when it is re-established, the SOC is reset it 100%. This can be very misleading, like possibly in your case if that happened. I usually change the behaviour in the settings so instead of resetting to 100%, it resets to "- -". At least that way you know the SOC is no longer accurate and needs attention.

The voltages look pretty good and would suggest a pretty well charged battery and not a near-dead one.

PS. Ref the charger and it running with a battery that might be dead/0V, if you have a Victron IP22 Mains Charger, that is one smart charger that will run regardless of whether the battery is very low or not. You can also, if it is a Blue smart (Bluetooth enabled) version, go into the app and set it to be a Power Supply rather than a Charger. This can be useful sometimes as it will act as a 12V power source (so doing the same job as Admin was suggesting by connecting a 12V battery in parallel). The other Victron Mains Chargers probably will do the same thing but I can't say for sure as not tried them.

 

[Alshymer]

Just to point out that the photo of the Victron was taken hooked up.
It is very strange as the percentage has been showing zero for days!!

 

[Alshymer]

Just to point out that the photo of the Victron was taken hooked up.
It is very strange as the percentage has been showing zero for days

One great (or really not so great) feature of the Victron BMVs are if they lose connection to the battery, when it is re-established, the SOC is reset it 100%. This can be very misleading, like possibly in your case if that happened. I usually change the behaviour in the settings so instead of resetting to 100%, it resets to "- -". At least that way you know the SOC is no longer accurate and needs attention.

The voltages look pretty good and would suggest a pretty well charged battery and not a near-dead one.

PS. Ref the charger and it running with a battery that might be dead/0V, if you have a Victron IP22 Mains Charger, that is one smart charger that will run regardless of whether the battery is very low or not. You can also, if it is a Blue smart (Bluetooth enabled) version, go into the app and set it to be a Power Supply rather than a Charger. This can be useful sometimes as it will act as a 12V power source (so doing the same job as Admin was suggesting by connecting a 12V battery in parallel). The other Victron Mains Chargers probably will do the same thing but I can't say for sure as not tried them.

How do you change the setting to - - -?