My Victron 12/25 smart charger is going into storage mode at 50% charge on lithium battery!! (at 13.3v)
Just got an SOK 206ah 12 volt battery yesterday. It was at 35% charge and I put it on the 12/25 smart charger.It was charging at 12 amps.....
Then at 50% charge (according to the SOK Bluetooth BMS) the charger went into storage mode and is now charging at only 2.3 amps!!!
This is not acceptable. Why doesn't Victron have a decent help resources?
Thanks
Joe
What is the battery voltage?
Did it reach the programmed bulk/absorption level? Have you customised it for your battery specifications?
There is help in the manual.
Thanks for all the replies. I am going to try and answer all of them here.
I am using the Victron Smart Charger 12/25.
I am using the same configuration that I have used for years with my Battle Born Lithium batteries, which it charges without issue.
The only spec for battery charging I got from SOK is to charge then at 14.6v. Nothing else is specified.
This 206 AH battery has been on the charger for 2 days. Is at 80% and is only charging at 1.5 amps.
It went into storage mode at 13.3v and a 50% charge according to the SOK BMS where it dropped from 12 amps to 2.3 and then down to 1 amp.
I have it jumped with jumper cables to my current system.
Unbelievably the response from SOK was that this was normal!
I am going to go look at your responses again and see if I am missing anything.
Thanks again.
UPDATE:
I disconnected everything and the battery at 80% charge and 13.54 v is now charging at 13.65 amps.
I have the charger set at 25 amps and am wondering why this battery has never charged at more than 14 amps.
I have never done anything but choose the default lithium charge.
*** In response to one of your questions I went into the expert mode to see what those defaults were.
It says absorption voltage is 14.2v
and storage voltage is 13.5v
Makes little sense to me. I hope someone understands it. :-)
Also make a screenshot from the main screen.
What charger do you have exactly? IP22? IP65?
How is it connected to the battery?
The morons at Victron don't bother to put any identification on the charger other than blue smart charger 12/25. I believe it to be the IP67
Here is the main config screen:
I would also like to know why the charger has never put out anything close to 25 amps!!!
hey... please be nice.
You are the one who bought/installed the device, you have to know that...
You could use the Victron site to show us what device you have or just make a picture.
https://www.victronenergy.com/chargers
How is the charger connected to the battery?
The charger has gone into storage mode AGAIN at 93% charge without ever coming close to 14v!!!
I reset the charger again to get it into absorption (constant current) mode.
It has not put on anywhere near 25 amps with this battery.....
If you dont want storage mode, choose and edit the preset for lifepo4. (Drop down box by li ion)
There on expert mode you can set all the voltages to the same level.
And even save your new profile with the name sok.
Setting all the voltages to the same level sounds like a Sure fire way to destroy a battery it sounds like a workaround for a poorly designed defective product to me if that is the only fix.
I left my battleborns on this charger for 3 years and it did not damage them if I change those voltage settings I'm going to destroy my batteries if I forget and leave it on the charger I certainly don't want to do that if possible.
I appreciate your help I'm just frustrated beyond belief by companies that sell you things but they sure as hell don't want to offer any support worth a s***.
I created the alternate profile and loaded it the storage voltage changes were made but the God damned profile name Remains the Same it's as if the software were designed to destroy your f****** batteries
No matter which profile I load it keeps the same name at the top of the page it does not reflect that the new profile was loaded but the changes to take effect this is the buggiest most piece of s*** software I've ever seen in my life I am beyond frustrated and pissed off at this charger and it's software
Going to say unfortunately sounds like user error, as i have a charger like yours and dont have the same issue. I have about 5 different profiles saved as i swap batteries over all the time and saved profiles.
There is a walk through video.
And SOKs own reply to your email should tell you that the battery is not being ruined as this is normal and (by definition) expected behaviour for their batteries.
The li-ion default charge profile should be fine. Not charging at a high rate means the internal resistance is high, the battery quite simply wont/can't.
Typical SOK battery. Stick with the quality, reputable made lithium batteries. Not the first SOK to behave this way. Victron smart charger software is well designed. Your battery is the issue, not the charger, as you’ve seen for yourself charging your other batteries for years.
