Converter/Battery Charging Question

[TucsonJim]

I just got back from a ten day archery elk hunting trip (successful BTW). We camped in a national forest campground and our solar array was completely shaded by large pine trees. So for the first time in a couple of years, I had to rely on generators to keep the battery bank charged. We use a 12V compressor refrigerator which will deplete the battery bank of 300 amp hours of LiFePO4 batteries in about three days.

When my Victron 712 meter indicated we were down to about 125-150 amp hours remaining, I'd fire up the generator long enough to get back up to at least 80-85% SOC. The converter is a Progressive Dynamics PD9160AL (Lithium) model. This unit is supposed to produce 60 amps.

Now the question. While monitoring my charging, I saw that the converter was only providing 25-30 amps, not the full 60. Can any of you shed some light on why this might be?

Thanks,

Jim

[Country Campers]

Jim

Not that I am any type of expert but I did notice on my new setup with a 100 amp charger that the actual current when bringing the batteries from about 60% up to full charge was only about 72 amps. I am not sure why this is but hopefully we get some info. I am wondering if it has something to do with the BMS in the batteries.

Brian

[Guest]

I just got back from a ten day archery elk hunting trip (successful BTW). We camped in a national forest campground and our solar array was completely shaded by large pine trees. So for the first time in a couple of years, I had to rely on generators to keep the battery bank charged. We use a 12V compressor refrigerator which will deplete the battery bank of 300 amp hours of LiFePO4 batteries in about three days.

When my Victron 712 meter indicated we were down to about 125-150 amp hours remaining, I'd fire up the generator long enough to get back up to at least 80-85% SOC. The converter is a Progressive Dynamics PD9160AL (Lithium) model. This unit is supposed to produce 60 amps.

Now the question. While monitoring my charging, I saw that the converter was only providing 25-30 amps, not the full 60. Can any of you shed some light on why this might be?

Thanks,

Jim

Jim,

I'll speculate that your battery voltage at your remaining SOC did not result in full output on the PD9160AL. I have the same unit and the most I've seen is around 56amps while charging one 100ah battery.

Jim

[ncitro]

Congrats on the Elk!

I charge with my Victron Multiplus at 125 amps and my 6 Lion Energy batteries eat that up and ask for more. I also have a 100 amp fixed output converter (same on Brian has) I have as a backup, but I have not used it since I first put it in as a test. I went with a fixed output rather than a three or four stage lithium converter after speaking with Lion. They stated the battery BMS would shut down when they were full and the best thing I could give them was a fixed voltage (in my case they recommended 14.6V). I set both the Multiplus and the converter to that and it seems to work great. I have not ever tried putting the whole 225 amps in at once, I keep the converter off unless I need it (if the charger in the multiplus fails), but when I did the test I did see the converter put out the whole 100 amps.

I looked at the manual for your converter and it looks like it is factory set at 14.6V fixed. I assume your bank is three 100ah batteries, if so the BMS should not be an issue with that many in parallel. Obviously the current going in (assuming no solar) would be the output of the converter less any DC draws, any idea what they would have been at the time? I would have thought at a 50% or less SOC you should see the converter putting out most of its output.