I’ve had a Bluesmart IP67 12v/17a charger for a few years, using first on an LFE battery used for astronomy. I use it infrequently, but it has always worked fine before.
I just plugged it in to charge the battery (down to about 65%) and it would not charge, showing absorbtion and 0.3a instead of 17a. It’s set to the same profile I used before (slightly custom) but I switched to a standard one - same thing.
I finally noticed the issue – it is wildly wrong on voltage it senses, it thinks the battery is at 14.5v and it is at 13.3v. I confirmed this with both a separate voltmeter and also the battery has a Victron SmartShunt, plus the battery’s own BMS – all so about 13.3 whereas only the charger is at 14.5.
It’s appropriate it be in absorbtion at 14.5, except it’s not at 14.5 really.
The charger is current on firmware (V 3.65, V3.15), and lives inside so is not subject to weather, water, etc. While about 4 years old it has probably only a week or two cumulative usage time on it.
Any idea what can be done, short of disposal?
It was bought through Amazon, the warranty appears still valid but says to return it to distributor, and Brandcentric isn’t listed as authorized (but is who sold it). I’m unclear even if I can get in touch with them (though am trying).
This indicates that the charger no longer has a good connection to the battery bank, and is therefore reading and displaying its own output voltage rather than the battery bank voltage. Check the wiring and the fuses! That model may have its own inline ATO fuse on the DC +ve cable, and is where I’d start looking.
First, after sitting on chat for about an hour with amazon trying to figure out how to proceed, they just said “return it to us” and gave me a QR code, so I may not need to debug.
Wiring… this is not a mounted device, it’s a barebones battery with just a cable to feed my telescope system, or in this case the same cable plugs via powerpoles into the charger. It looks like back in the day I removed the rings (did it come with rings) in favor of a powerpole connector.
There is 14.5v at the end of that cable so there is continuity at least open circuit. But I Think you have hit on the problem.
This is where it gets weird. When I moved the charger to inspect the cable I found this (photo). I have no idea what that is. The substance is rock hard, looks like hot glue. I can’t imagine a fuse melted, but it’s the only thing I can think of. I certainly didn’t decide one day to replace a fuse with a mound of hot glue. It’s completely solid, I can’t open it to look inside.
I measured the 14.5 at the end, but if I poke probes into the cable I get about 5 ohms across that fuse holder, which is probably high enough to completely screw up measured charging voltage I think.
Ever seen anything that looks like this? It was facing down where the charger was sitting, so until I picked it up, I didn’t notice it.
It was working perfectly on this battery last time I charged it (a couple months ago). It’s an Ecoworthy 155ah battery, and was fully charged, I used it two nights and left it stored (I figure better partially discharged), then decided it had been long enough and I should charge it. So it’s recent. It was never warm to the touch today (but I might not have noticed last charge if that part was hot). There’s no sign of damage to the wire. I had no indication of issue with the battery. It’s used only with that battery, nothing else.
I guess I’ll just return it since Amazon is willing to take it, but I am very puzzled.
Yep… unfortunately, I’ve seen a fair few of those inline fuseholders do that. Having cut a number of them open over the years that I’ve been seeing that failure, the supplier of that particular wiring assembly forgot to properly crimp one of the connectors inside the fuseholder (there’s two female spade-type terminals inside, which the fuse slots into, and the terminals crimp to the wire on either side), which leads to the fuseholder getting hot and melting out the adhesive lining inside.
Happy to hear that Amazon is taking it back for you!
