question

lennon avatar image
lennon asked

Victron Quattro 12/3000/120 turns off occasionally

Hi,


Ive had the Victron Quattro 12/3000/120 for about 3 years now. I bought it togehter with AGM batteries back then. Ive never had any issues.


I recently upgraded to LiFePO4 batteries and starting having an issue where suddenly at random without any warning or errors the 240 electricity goes off and when I look at the DMC all lights go off. This lasts for a couple of seconds and then everything turns on again like nothing ever happened. This happens like once or twice in a week. There is nothing specific that I suddenly turn on or off.


Any ideas what might be causing this?

Thanks in advance.

MultiPlus Quattro Inverter Charger
2 |3000
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1 Answer
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snoobler answered ·

Some LFP batteries behave erratically if single cell over-voltage protection (OVP) is triggered. It's very common for new LFP batteries to have imbalanced cells where one cell hits peak voltage before the others. This triggers over-voltage protection.

Try reducing your absorption voltage to 13.8V with a 2 hour absorption period. This should still allow you to get fully charged, but it should reduce/eliminate any OVP events.


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lennon avatar image lennon commented ·
Hi Snoobler,


Thanks so much for your quick reply! that sounds logical indeed. The LFP manufacturer stated absorbtion volt should be at 14.4. Should i lower that all the way to 13.8 then?


Thanks!

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snoobler avatar image snoobler lennon commented ·

If I'm right, yes. Absorption at 14.4V requires almost no absorption time... maybe 15 minutes. Absorption at 13.8V will still get to 100%, you just need more time at that voltage - 2 hours. If you find you're still charging with significant current at the 2 hour mark, increase to 3-4 hours.

This increased absorption time will also give the BMS more time to balance the cells.

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lennon avatar image lennon snoobler commented ·
Alright im going to try that tomorrow (its 39 past midnight where i am so time to hit the sack actually). The absorbtion right now keeps going past 100% indeed, way past even to the point that the OVP indeed turns on as you say, its visible in the BMS that it is on. was wondering why the inverter would continue absorbtion charging then as i had set the absorbtion time in the inverter to the minimum i think its on 1h atm. but ill try to 13.8v setup tomorrow!


thanks again for the quick help.

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snoobler avatar image snoobler lennon commented ·
If you're observing OVP in the BMS, then I would conclude it's the cause. It SHOULDN'T, but on some brands there's some sort of momentary transition from charging, to protection to discharging, that can disrupt loads.


It might also be due to a charger voltage SPIKE exceeding the ~16V limit of the Quattro, which can be caused by other attached chargers over-volting because they can't shut the charge off fast enough when the battery is instantly removed from the charge circuit.


If 13.8V doesn't do it, 13.6V can be used as well, but allow 5 hours absorption.


Lastly, you might need to put them on a constant 14.4V charge for at least 24 hours, maybe more. Sometimes, they have to be held at elevated voltage to force balancing.


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