Recommendations for replacing our two gopower LifeP04 batteries 100

[DennisJGray]

Hello fellow Escapers,

We love our 3year old 21 NE.

Other than the trip from Escape industries three years ago to New York adirondacks, we have not boondocked. But been on the campgepund AC.

We just are in our first boondocks in the adirondacks and apparantly our two batteries are pooched.

Spoke with gopower etc.

Don't know what caused the issue...but solar does recharge during day to about 12.8 but with only recharging phones, and a few lights we are not drawing much power, by midnight the system starts beeping and dies. Next day it recharges and repeats.

I will work on the current batteries I this fall, but would appreciate any replacement battery recommendations for those of you who are better informed.

Thank you all...love the forum and help.

Dennis and Marcielis
LoonScape 21NE

 

[Perry Butler]

How much solar is on your roof and what are your big users of DC power? We have a 2000 watt inverter, but only use it to make toast. Are you a fully electric kitchen, including your fridge?

Lots of problems with GoPower controllers. I replaced our GoPower controller with a Victron 100/30.

Do you have a shunt to monitor your usage? If not, I'd purchase a Victron BMV-750 shunt. I feel along with many others that EVERY camper should have a shunt to help monitor the system. I do not consider the Ali shunt adequate, since it has no or minimal history available.

Our 2018 5.0 had the solar going to a negative post behind the WFCO that held eight wires. Good practice is only three at most. I installed a 8 post bus. The solar improved. Then I dumped the GoPower controller and wired in the output from our 100/30 directly to the battery, not to the WFCO. After making those changes we filled the batteries at least 50% faster.

Food for thought,

Perry

Your batteries should be fine once you get adequate solar.

 

[TTMartin]

Hello fellow Escapers,

We love our 3year old 21 NE.

Other than the trip from Escape industries three years ago to New York adirondacks, we have not boondocked. But been on the campgepund AC.

We just are in our first boondocks in the adirondacks and apparantly our two batteries are pooched.

Spoke with gopower etc.

Don't know what caused the issue...but solar does recharge during day to about 12.8 but with only recharging phones, and a few lights we are not drawing much power, by midnight the system starts beeping and dies. Next day it recharges and repeats.

I will work on the current batteries I this fall, but would appreciate any replacement battery recommendations for those of you who are better informed.

Thank you all...love the forum and help.

Dennis and Marcielis
LoonScape 21NE

It might not be the batteries are bad. It might just be that they aren't getting charged by anything, but, the solar.

Before you buy any batteries, get a Lithium Compatible Battery Charger like the NOCO Genius 10, and try charging the batteries with it.

 

[Chamberman]

Don't know what caused the issue...but solar does recharge during day to about 12.8 but with only recharging phones, and a few lights we are not drawing much power, by midnight the system starts beeping and dies. Next day it recharges and repeats.

12.8V for LiFePo4 is only 20% charged. Its no wonder you're running low so quickly. You need to get to 13.5 - 13.6V @ rest state for the battery to be fully charged. Some good suggestions by others to address the issue.

 

[HABBERDABBER]

Questions?

What chemistry are your 2 batteries? Lead acid, or something else? There's also AGM and lithium batteries, each a bit different.

3 year old batteries are not typically at the end of their life, unless they have been deeply discharged (during off season storage?) and a couple of times. Flooded lead acid (FLA) batteries need to be kept at a moderate to fully charged state to keep them happy & long lived. Deep discharge shortens their life and capacity. They charge OK, but don't hold a lot of energy and punk out quickly.

You can have your batteries load tested, which could eliminate their performance aspect in your issue.

 

[Chamberman]

What chemistry are your 2 batteries? Lead acid, or something else?

The battery type was in the thread title. That was the reason for my post prior to yours mentioning LiFePo4.

 

[Ron in BC]

..but solar does recharge during day to about 12.8

Maybe I missed it but what is the voltage reading while solar is charging?

Ron

 

[John in Santa Cruz]

a Solar controller, properly setup for Lithium, should charge all the way up to 14.2-14.4V, holding that for an hour or so before optionally dropping back to a 13.x holding voltage.

 

[Ron in BC]

That's what I'm asking. The term "recharge" usually means after the charging is finishing. If that's the voltage while charging then something is definitely wrong.

Ron

 

[John in Santa Cruz]

um, no, 'recharge' is a verb and is the process of charging the battery

'recharge' - transitive verb
1: to charge again. especially : to restore anew the active materials in a storage battery

 

[oldwave]

Unless the LiPO batteries were abused (extreme cold is one way), they should not be bad.they may however need balancing. I suspect that your issue is likely some thing in your charging chain. A LiPO should be good for thousands of charge cycles. However the solar charger and the converter need to properly be set for enough absorption time for balancing. Let us know the solution.

My preference for battery charging and solar controllers is Victron. The control and monitoring are first rate.

 

[John in Santa Cruz]

Unless the LiPO batteries were abused (extreme cold is one way), they should not be bad.they may however need balancing. I suspect that your issue is likely some thing in your charging chain. A LiPO should be good for thousands of charge cycles. However the solar charger and the converter need to properly be set for enough absorption time for balancing. Let us know the solution.

My preference for battery charging and solar controllers is Victron. The control and monitoring are first rate.

yeah, what he said. LFP batteries are very hard to damage due to their integral BMS. My Victron SmartSolar MPPT 100/30 has worked awesome since installed, its very configurable, and has a great phone app that can display status, history, etc etc. But there's plenty of other solar controllers, which one do you have ?

 

[HABBERDABBER]

My error

The battery type was in the thread title. That was the reason for my post prior to yours mentioning LiFePo4.

I didn't see it. Oops!....

 

[Perry Butler]

Do you have a shunt to monitor your usage? If not, I'd purchase a Victron BMV-750 shunt. I feel along with many others that EVERY camper should have a shunt to help monitor the system. I do not consider the Ali shunt adequate, since it has no or minimal history available.

I meant to say Victron BMV-712, not 750. I find the BMV-712's history invaluable when looking for electrical problems.

Enjoy,

Perry

 

[GinoandLinda]

yeah, what he said. LFP batteries are very hard to damage due to their integral BMS. My Victron SmartSolar MPPT 100/30 has worked awesome since installed, its very configurable, and has a great phone app that can display status, history, etc etc. But there's plenty of other solar controllers, which one do you have ?

Ditto. If they were lead acid batteries, I would say check them out first, but lithium batteries, even cheap ones, are pretty solid. I would focus in the charging circuit. I would also isolate each battery and see how close their state of charge is to each other.

 

[dstreight]

Charging issues aside, and it sure sounds like that might be the OP's problem, if you have a modicum of skills, just build your own LFP battery using Fortune Prismatic cells. Has worked out perfectly for me.

 

[jnfrombigt]

How much solar is on your roof and what are your big users of DC power? We have a 2000 watt inverter, but only use it to make toast. Are you a fully electric kitchen, including your fridge?

Lots of problems with GoPower controllers. I replaced our GoPower controller with a Victron 100/30.

Do you have a shunt to monitor your usage? If not, I'd purchase a Victron BMV-750 shunt. I feel along with many others that EVERY camper should have a shunt to help monitor the system. I do not consider the Ali shunt adequate, since it has no or minimal history available.

Our 2018 5.0 had the solar going to a negative post behind the WFCO that held eight wires. Good practice is only three at most. I installed a 8 post bus. The solar improved. Then I dumped the GoPower controller and wired in the output from our 100/30 directly to the battery, not to the WFCO. After making those changes we filled the batteries at least 50% faster.

Food for thought,

Perry

Your batteries should be fine once you get adequate solar.

I like that idea of a grounding bus instead of stacking everything on the WFCO post. Gonna give that a try

 

[John in Santa Cruz]

Charging issues aside, and it sure sounds like that might be the OP's problem, if you have a modicum of skills, just build your own LFP battery using Fortune Prismatic cells. Has worked out perfectly for me.

no thanks, not when you can buy 300AH batteries with heaters and bluetooth management for $1100, https://www.currentconnected.com/pr...d-bluetooth-lifepo4-battery-epoch-essentials/

 

[Ron in BC]

um, no, 'recharge' is a verb and is the process of charging the battery

'recharge' - transitive verb
1: to charge again. especially : to restore anew the active materials in a storage battery

Sorry, but "reharge to....." sort of implies that after charging that's what he was left with.

Still not clear if, while charging, the maximum voltage achieved is 12.8.

Ron

 

[CamperCamper]

I am new to this forum and to Escape-pick up an E23 in 2 weeks. I have found some valuable information here but am quickly tiring of the finger wagging, chest puffing, mansplaining and inane comments I keep seeing. I for one do not care who is smarter, has more experience and generally knows better. I find all comments and ideas to have some value and are worth considering. Sorting through the BS causes me to close a discussion thread before I am done with it and most likely miss some valuable ideas. I hope this is merely a temporary condition and not a sign of the way things are.