HELP! Cirrus 620 winterized battery dead?

johnVT · November 24

Hi Helpful folks,

I have a Cirrus 620 camper with the Battle Born Lithium battery upgrade. The camper is now off the truck, winterized, and covered for the winter. I followed the recommendations listed on the Battle Born “How to Winterize and Store LiFePO4 Batteries” page. These include:

1. Bring the batteries to a full charge using shore power, generator, or lithium charger.

2. Disconnect Solar PV inputs from controllers.

3. Disconnect from shore power, generator, or lithium charger (does this last point mean physically disconnect from the Victron inverter?)

4. Disconnect the batteries from the system using your disconnect switch or removing the positive main battery cable.

5. Ensure that all system loads, including Smoke and CO detectors, must also be powered down.

6. Turn off or disconnect the heat-enable wire from the positive main terminal for heated Battle Born Batteries. (I didn’t do this step…)

I checked the battery in early November using the VictronConnect app as the SmartSolar MPPT 100/50 was still delivering a bluetooth signal (perhaps that’s the problem? The little blue light is no longer on...) At that time the battery registered 13.38 volts.

I checked it just the other day and could get no Bluetooth signal. Turning the disconnect switch back to “On” to turn on lights yielded nothing. I’m guessing that the battery is dead.

Can anyone help me understand this?

Also, what are my options now? Can I reconnect to shore power and recharge the battery? It’s November in Vermont so the daytime highs are in the 30s-40s.

Thanks in advance!

John

pthomas745 · November 24

Tell us exactly which "lithium package" you have. Do you have the "Multiplus Inverter/Charger?" Or, the "WFCO charger", and a "regular" inverter for the trailer? There are many different "lithium upgrades", and we have trouble keeping them straight. So: Multiplus or not? If not, a "regular" inverter?

What exactly did you disconnect from the Solar controller? The wires at the controller? The fuse for the panels at the controller? Both the fuse for the panels at the controller and the fuse at the battery for the controller? If the controller gets confused about what the status of the battery is, usually the bluetooth connection disappears.

Battleborn doesn't know a travel trailer from an Airbus. For most of our trailers, all that is required here is: fully charge the battery. Turn off the battery switch (which disconnects all the parasitic drains mentioned in their step 5).

The "battery heaters", even if left "on" will only activate when the battery temperatures (the physical battery, not the air temperature) drops below a certain threshold. The other thing that, if not turned off, can drain a battery with the battery switch off is...the "normal" inverter. It can drain a battery at a fairly quick rate. (About 1.2 amps per hour).

Your battery is most likely fine. If it dropped to the "low voltage cutoff" level, then the battery simply shuts down and waits for a sufficient charge to "wake it up". In the absence of the Victron displays, a simple multimeter will tell you the exact status of the battery. (I hope!).

So, clarify what exact equipment you have in the trailer.

Is the trailer in the sun? Even with the battery switch off, the solar panels can easily keep a battery charged while in storage. Even if the trailer is not in the sun, the battery can hold a charge for months with the switch off. The parasitic draw of the Victron devices is extremely low, and pulling all those fuses and cables is.....in my opinion....not necessary. All batteries have a certain "self discharge" rate, and for a lithium that is about 3-5 percent a month.

johnVT · November 24

Thanks for your reply pThomas.

To answer your questions:

—Yes, Multiplus Inverter/Charger.

—I pulled the to-the-panels fuse for the SmartSolar MPPT 100/50. Left the to-the-battery fuse in place.

—There's a switch for the battery heater. It is off.

—The camper (it's a truck camper, not a trailer) is under a opaque cover, so no sunlight is hitting the panel.

Let me know if you need any other info...

pthomas745 · November 24

Sorry, "truck camper!"

If you have a multimeter, and you can get to the battery, that would be a good step to confirm the battery voltage. The battery sounds like it has reached "low voltage cutoff" and shut down to protect the battery.

If you have shore power available, I would turn on the battery switch, plug in, and go from there.

I do not completely understand the operation of the Multiplus, especially if there is no way to reach the unit if the Victron app is not connecting.

I also do not know what the "drain" from the Multiplus inverter is, IF it was left on.

There is also a "circuit breaker" in the trailer that may have tripped, which in the 400's at least is very close to the battery disconnect switch and the battery fuses. Find that circuit breaker and check the status. If there does happen to be a rush of charging current for the battery, you might want to keep an eye on it to check to see if it is tripped.

Hopefully, someone with a Multiplus can fill in my knowledge "blank spots" on if the inverter section of the Multiplus is left on, does it draw power like a regular inverter would?

johnVT · November 25

Thanks again for your input. I'll try and get a multimeter on the battery today.

Just curious, but why shouldn't I leave my camper connected to shore power all winter to keep the battery charged? Surely the controller won't overcharge it...?

pthomas745 · November 25

There is nothing wrong with that, and many owners do. The only "draw" on the camper battery would be the basic "parasitic" drains (stuff like the entertainment items, the gas monitor) and the WFCO charger can easily handle that.

johnVT · November 25

So I've been in touch with Jordan at NuCamp. I asked if it was OK to leave the camper plugged into shore power (with the battery heater engaged) through the winter, and he confirmed that it was.

So I plugged the camper in and all the Victron components reported a battery capacity between 14.10-14.20v. Guess the battery was OK after all? Anyways, it'll be plugged in for the winter...

pthomas745 · November 25

The "battery heaters" really do not need to be on. The only reason to heat the battery is: if you "need" to charge the battery when the "interior of the battery" is below freezing. If the inside of the battery is below freezing (inside the battery) you can damage the battery if you try to charge it. If that happens, the the battery "low temperature charging protection circuit" will kick in, and prevent battery charging in that case. When the temps warm up, the battery will begin charging again. If you are really needing to charge the battery and the battery is below freezing...by all means, use the battery heater.

The voltage you are seeing is really only the voltage going into the battery. Have a closer look at the shunt "consumed amp hours" and see what that reads. You can also go into the Shunt history section and look at "deepest discharge" and "last discharge" and see if you can tell what the last/low discharge was.

If your battery/camper completely shut down, you need to sort out why that happened.

Marceline · 6:59AM

johnVT said:

So I've been in touch with Jordan at NuCamp. I asked if it was OK to leave the camper plugged into shore power (with the battery heater engaged) through the winter, and he confirmed that it was.

So I plugged the camper in and all the Victron components reported a battery capacity between 14.10-14.20v. Guess the battery was OK after all? Anyways, it'll be plugged in for the winter...

If you look at the SmartShunt numbers, it shows that 40.70A of current is moving into your battery. VE.Bus (Multiplus? Not sure - I don't have the equipment) shows 45.30A of current. The VE.Bus also shows "absorption" not "float" which means the battery isn't fully charged yet (but getting close).

Either something is using a heck of a lot of power in your camper or the battery was severely depleted and the converter is working pretty hard to recharge it.

If you're not using the camper over the winter and you're in a location (Vermont?) where the temperature is frequently below freezing, personally I would make sure that absolutely everything is shut off - zero power in/zero power out. If you have a way to keep it plugged into shore power your alternative would be to keep the Multiplus on but be sure to keep the battery heater on so your battery is protected when the charger kicks on when the ambient temperature is below freezing.

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HELP! Cirrus 620 winterized battery dead?

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