Installed lithium batteries in 2022 T@b 400

kerilynvj · July 20

I just installed two lithium 100 batteries in my 2022 400. I was a little discouraged when on the first night of dry camping, we were already down to 13%. And, after being in the sun the next day it only went up about 4%. I had the fridge, vent and light on. That was it. I switched the fridge over to propane, but the percentage did not get any better. Any ideas? I can’t find anywhere in the paperwork where I would need to switch my solar to lithium either. Is there a switch? The solar cable is hooked to the battery.

pthomas745 · July 20

What is telling you the percentages? The Victron app? If so, can you show us your Victron status page, and your Victron battery settings, and the Victron "history page". All those things will show us the battery voltage, if the Victron is properly set up to charge your lithium batteries, and whether your batteries are actually charging.

If you have a Victron shunt, the battery settings also need to be reconfigured to reflect the appropriate amp hours in your setup.

There can also be issues with how the batteries were disconnected, and then reconnected. If the Victron solar controller did not get a chance to "read" the new battery setup properly, you may just be getting bad data from the solar controller.

So: let us know if you have the Victron App for the solar controller....if you have a Victron shunt or some other device. The setup procedures are not very hard.

qhumberd · July 20

So I just got a LiTime 12 V Lithium Fe Phosphate battery (230 amp Hr)to replace my Harris AGMs. I noted in the instructions that they are shipped at 30-50% state of charge. Prior to swapping I wanted to charge them and used my 100W solar portable panel and charge controller and in full sun it is only adding around 30 amp hrs daily so my 100W suitcase solar set to Lithium will take at least 5 full sun days to bring the SOC to full.

Wondering if your batteries were at full charge when installed as that would explain the numbers you got?

You do have to set the solar charge controller to lithium as well.

kerilynvj · July 20

Where is the solar charge controller? My manual has nothing since they came with regular batteries. Also I just checked on the batteries after being hooked up to shore power for 5 days and they are still at 4% 😐. I have the Epoch 105h essential series.

kerilynvj · July 20

I am looking at the Epoch app. They were at 100% when installed until the day we left. We were only gone 3 days. Came back, hooked back up to shore power and they won’t go back to 100.

kerilynvj · July 20

Is the app Victron Connect? I’ll download. I’ve never had that.

pthomas745 · July 20

Yes, this:

https://www.victronenergy.com/victronconnectapp/victronconnect/downloads

This thread explains where to look for the Solar Controller

https://tab-rv.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/14711/location-of-the-victron-mppt-controller-in-a-2021-t-b-400-bd

kerilynvj · July 20

Thanks you guys! This community has always been the best help. Note to anyone else reading this, check the trip in the bay by the battery disconnect to see if any items hit the switch🫤. I should have known to check there first.😖😖😖

pthomas745 · July 20

Good for you! The Gloso Circuit breaker strikes again!

Horigan · July 21

A couple of things. The solar charger is typically connected between the battery and the circuit breaker, so it should have still charged your battery. Make sure your chargers are reconfigured to Li.

Note that the 3-way frig that can operate on propane is inefficient on 12V compared to the 2-way frig (AC and 12V).

kerilynvj · July 21

How do I reconfigure the chargers to Li? I couldn't find it on the Victron app. Also now my main circuit breaker keeps tripping. I had to unplug and disconnect everything until today to find out what is going on. The fan on my circuit box doesn't seem to be working either. Usually I hear that going off if it is getting too hot.

pthomas745 · July 22

What "main circuit breaker?" The Gloso circuit breaker near the battery disconnect switch? Or, a breaker inside the WFCO?

The WFCO fan will usually start up when it is running things in the trailer, etc.

If the Gloso circuit breaker is tripping, what is probably happening is the batteries are at a very low state of charge, and the surge of power going to the batteries to charge them is tripping the Gloso.

Are you getting any indication from your Victron app that the solar charging is working? Even if the Victron is still set for "lead acid" charging, the batteries will still charge, just not to "100 percent". If the Gloso is tripping because the batteries are in a low state of charge, letting the solar charge the battery will/might help the situation with that "surge of power" I mentioned.

The other issue here is the actual status of the battery. If this battery is below "10 Volts", that is what Epoch calls "low voltage disconnect". On the Epoch display you show, the batteries down near "4 percent" and "5 percent" may be far below that 10V level, and the batteries have shut down. I've looked at the Epoch web page, and they don't seem to have a good explanation of what to do in this case. Other batteries that stop working in this condition can be recharged with a 12V charging source, like your solar setup. This is why the Victron app and trying to determine if the batteries are charging through solar is important.

This is a Battleborn page that shows how to set the Victron solar controller to properly charge a lithium. Find your battery manual and substitute your Epoch battery numbers for the Battleborn parameters.

https://battlebornbatteries.com/programming-a-victron-smartsolar-charge-controller/

kerilynvj · July 22

The Gloso tripped on my camping trip and I reset. But now the main circuit breaker in the fuse box under the stove is getting hot and tripping. My shore power cord was hot as well. I just purchased a new one to see if this will help. Starting with one item on the list and working my way down!

kerilynvj · July 22

Ok - I just replaced the shore cord and the fan finally came on for the fuse box. I batteries started charging again and all was good. I turned on the air conditioning and the freaking Gloso tripped again. Its hot and won't let me reset it.

I'm so frustrated right now...

Grumpy_G · July 22

From what I gather the circuit breaker is a 40A model, however a pair of LiFePo batteries can "sink" a lot more than 40A. The converter can put out 55A on the DC side so I'd venture that's why the breaker trips. Others had that issue too.

Marceline · July 22

kerilynvj said:

Ok - I just replaced the shore cord and the fan finally came on for the fuse box. I batteries started charging again and all was good. I turned on the air conditioning and the freaking Gloso tripped again. Its hot and won't let me reset it. I'm so frustrated right now...

If you’re on shore power, try turning off the battery switch. That should stop the converter from trying to charge your battery, hopefully leaving you enough power to run the air conditioning.

Marceline · July 22

kerilynvj said:

I just installed two lithium 100 batteries in my 2022 400. I was a little discouraged when on the first night of dry camping, we were already down to 13%. And, after being in the sun the next day it only went up about 4%. I had the fridge, vent and light on. That was it. I switched the fridge over to propane, but the percentage did not get any better. Any ideas? I can’t find anywhere in the paperwork where I would need to switch my solar to lithium either. Is there a switch? The solar cable is hooked to the battery.

The 3way fridge (propane) constantly draws about 10A when running on DC power. So for every hour you ran the fridge on DC power, you consumed 10aH of power from your 200aH battery bank. 12hours =120aH. So it sounds like you severely depleted your batteries. When boondocking with a 3 way fridge, you really need to run it on propane.

Assuming you have a Victron solar controller, you need to install the Victron Connect app on your phone, connect the app to the controller in your camper, and reconfigure the controller to charge your new batteries.

The manuals for the Victron solar controller and the Victron Connect app are available on the Victron website.

Sharon_is_SAM · July 22

Charge your batteries using a portable lithium charger with the battery switch off. That will exclude any fuses (except the inline battery fuse).

kerilynvj · July 22

Grumpy_G said:

From what I gather the circuit breaker is a 40A model, however a pair of LiFePo batteries can "sink" a lot more than 40A. The converter can put out 55A on the DC side so I'd venture that's why the breaker trips. Others had that issue too.

What do I do to correct this?

Grumpy_G · July 22

kerilynvj said:

Grumpy_G said:

From what I gather the circuit breaker is a 40A model, however a pair of LiFePo batteries can "sink" a lot more than 40A. The converter can put out 55A on the DC side so I'd venture that's why the breaker trips. Others had that issue too.

What do I do to correct this?

There is a good discussion here: https://tab-rv.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/17880/low-batteries-gloso-trips-when-i-try-to-charge In a nutshell, you would have to upgrade both wiring and the breaker.

Another option as @Sharon_is_SAM mentioned is to use a regular LiFePo charger plugged into an outlet (either wall or trailer) and turn off the battery disconnect so the built-in converter doesn't try to charge the batteries.

kerilynvj · July 22

Grumpy_G said:

kerilynvj said:

Grumpy_G said:

From what I gather the circuit breaker is a 40A model, however a pair of LiFePo batteries can "sink" a lot more than 40A. The converter can put out 55A on the DC side so I'd venture that's why the breaker trips. Others had that issue too.

What do I do to correct this?

There is a good discussion here: https://tab-rv.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/17880/low-batteries-gloso-trips-when-i-try-to-charge In a nutshell, you would have to upgrade both wiring and the breaker.

Another option as @Sharon_is_SAM mentioned is to use a regular LiFePo charger plugged into an outlet (either wall or trailer) and turn off the battery disconnect so the built-in converter doesn't try to charge the batteries.

That is actually a great discussion and exactly what is happening to me! Thank you for the info!

Yoshi_TAB · July 22

There is a good discussion here: https://tab-rv.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/17880/low-batteries-gloso-trips-when-i-try-to-charge In a nutshell, you would have to upgrade both wiring and the breaker.

Hi, I've been reading the above thread...my 360CS came with 4AWG wiring for everything except the solar circuit and I've been wondering why. It also has a 40 A Gloso. It has the WFCO 8955 Converter/Charger which the data sheet says 55 amps output. I don't have enough outings yet with the 360, but it appears the 40 A Gloso might be too small. Correct?

TY

Grumpy_G · July 22

Yoshi_TAB said:

There is a good discussion here: https://tab-rv.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/17880/low-batteries-gloso-trips-when-i-try-to-charge In a nutshell, you would have to upgrade both wiring and the breaker.

Hi, I've been reading the above thread...my 360CS came with 4AWG wiring for everything except the solar circuit and I've been wondering why. It also has a 40 A Gloso. It has the WFCO 8955 Converter/Charger which the data sheet says 55 amps output. I don't have enough outings yet with the 360, but it appears the 40 A Gloso might be too small. Correct?

TY

Possibly, depending on your battery. A standard lead acid battery does not pull that much current when charging, a single LiFePo could already exceed 40A and multiple LiFePo definitely will.

Howdy, Stranger!

Quick Links

Categories

Installed lithium batteries in 2022 T@b 400

Comments

2019 T@B400 Boondock Lite "Todd"