Did I damage (4) Battleborn batteries?

Good Evening Y'all,

Long story as short as possible. I installed a complete solar system on my RV back in July 2020 and it has been working for the most part without any issues. However starting about a month ago I started receiving "Low Battery" alerts from the Inverter when we were running high draw appliances such as the microwave, electric fireplace or water heater (always just run one high draw appliance at a time). Also the DC lights in the RV flicker when a high draw appliance is running. In my current situation I only have access to 7A of shore power so we really rely on the 3000W Victron MultiPlus to provide power assist via stored energy in (4) 100Ah Battle Borns.

I called BB support and they directed me to disconnect the four batteries (which are connected in parallel) in order to check them with a volt meter. Three of the batteries were around 13.5 volts and one was at 0 volts. For the 0 volt battery I connected it to my truck battery to wake it up however after leaving it connected for over 15 minutes with the engine running its still shows 0 volts. BB Support said that the 0 volt battery would have to be RMA'ed. For the others they cautioned me if I did something to the batteries I would be charged a shipping fee and 180/hr for a BB technician to attempt to troubleshoot and repair. Also if I sent them in and there were no issues I would be responsible for hundreds of dollars in shipping fees.

What troubleshooting/checks can I perform on the three batteries to ensure that they are malfunctioning? The checks I've done so far is to charge all the three batteries up to 14.4 volts in order to balance the cells. Two of the batteries charged up to 14.3 volts and I connected them back in parallel but they are still showing the "low battery error". The third battery doesn't charge higher than 13.5 volts. I did purchase a Victron IP65 which I'm charging the batteries with as I wanted to remove the Multiplus from the equation just in case its the problem. I'm thinking about purchasing a load tester like this one to perform a load test on each battery: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07V9W8SBD/ref=ewc_pr_img_3?smid=AZYZB6OQFMIQ6&psc=1

Any further guidance would be much appreciated.

Other will be along with some good advice.

I’m sorry to hear battleborn customer service isn’t a bit more customer friendly. Years ago, they were excellent. I suspect the company is suffering from a more competitive environment.

Edit-I thing the guidance is that it is ok to run them to empty, but don’t leave them there. From memory, leaving them empty for 5 days is an issue. Shorter is better.

Bluedog225 said:

Edit-I thing the guidance is that it is ok to run them to empty, but don’t leave them there. From memory, leaving them empty for 5 days is an issue. Shorter is better.

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Understood, but when you have four connected in parallel and everything is working okay how would you know that one battery was at 0 volts? Of course I don't know when that battery dropped to 0 volts so maybe it corresponded exactly when the "low battery" issue started.

txrangers said:

how would you know that one battery was at 0 volts

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The battery is not necessarily at 0, A proper designed battery like the BB would have a battery management system that would disconnect the battery at a specified cut off voltage.

Also, the reason the battery cant go higher than 13.5 is also because of the battery management system. The battery may have a bad cell in it that is triggering an over voltage protection scenario. This possible bad cell may be the entire problem, IF their even is a problem.

There isnt enough testing or information here to convince me that you should RMA it with those risks involved.

ScrotusGobbleBottom said:

There isnt enough testing or information here to convince me that you should RMA it with those risks involved.

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Please advise what additional tests I should perform on each battery?

Bump for op.

txrangers said:

Please advise what additional tests I should perform on each battery?

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txrangers said:

Please advise what additional tests I should perform on each battery?

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We need to know everything.
This is a 12v setup with 4 100 Ah batteries in parallel?

First thing to do you be to isolate the offending battery and slowly charge it until it gets to 14.3 or wherever the other batteries are at.

If this is a parallel 12v setup, why would the inverter say low battery with a single or double fully charged 12v battery? Is this under load? Is the battery or the inverter saying this?

txrangers said:

What troubleshooting/checks can I perform on the three batteries to ensure that they are malfunctioning? The checks I've done so far is to charge all the three batteries up to 14.4 volts in order to balance the cells. Two of the batteries charged up to 14.3 volts and I connected them back in parallel but they are still showing the "low battery error".

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This may simply be due to excessive loads or bad connections that are causing excessive voltage drop.

txrangers said:

The third battery doesn't charge higher than 13.5 volts.

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LFP charging can seem like it stalls, but it's still happening. At 13.5V, were amps still going to the battery? If yes, you just need to keep charging it.

txrangers said:

I did purchase a Victron IP65 which I'm charging the batteries with as I wanted to remove the Multiplus from the equation just in case its the problem. I'm thinking about purchasing a load tester like this one to perform a load test on each battery: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07V9W8SBD/ref=ewc_pr_img_3?smid=AZYZB6OQFMIQ6&psc=1

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The linked load tester would be power limited to about 9.5A to ensure you don't burn it up. Assuming the batteries are good, it would take up to 10 hours to confirm capacity.

Alternatively, I would hope you have a battery monitor like a BMV or a smart shunt. If so, you could do a bulk test of all three in parallel at once. Turn off all charging and allow the batteries to drain while measuring the Ah consumed.

txrangers said:

Any further guidance would be much appreciated.

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There have been reported issues with the terminals on Battleborn batteries becoming disconnected internally.

I wonder if BB would let you open it up and troubleshoot. The shipping both ways is tough medicine.

txrangers said:

Good Evening Y'all,

I only have access to 7A of shore power so we really rely on the 3000W Victron MultiPlus to provide power assist via stored energy in (4) 100Ah Battle Borns.

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Per the Manual, the power assist needs at least 9.5 A of shore power to function. Have you verified your charge feature even working through the inverter with only 7A? Is there Solar charging of any sorts in your system? You may have just been on a downward slope for a while with battery SOC, resulting in really out of balance cells.

txrangers said:

I called BB support and they directed me to disconnect the four batteries (which are connected in parallel) in order to check them with a volt meter. Three of the batteries were around 13.5 volts and one was at 0 volts. For the 0 volt battery I connected it to my truck battery to wake it up however after leaving it connected for over 15 minutes with the engine running its still shows 0 volts. BB Support said that the 0 volt battery would have to be RMA'ed.

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Does this mean they are covering the shipping to/from?

txrangers said:

For the others they cautioned me if I did something to the batteries I would be charged a shipping fee and 180/hr for a BB technician to attempt to troubleshoot and repair. Also if I sent them in and there were no issues I would be responsible for hundreds of dollars in shipping fees.

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Seems like the other 3 are probably fine but will need a long charge up to balance cells. How long have you tried charging for? Hours? Days?

txrangers said:

What troubleshooting/checks can I perform on the three batteries to ensure that they are malfunctioning? The checks I've done so far is to charge all the three batteries up to 14.4 volts in order to balance the cells. Two of the batteries charged up to 14.3 volts and I connected them back in parallel but they are still showing the "low battery error".

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After charging as described below, IF you still get this error, measure voltage at the inverter when you get this error to verify. Use 1 battery at a time to the inverter with a small load.

txrangers said:

The third battery doesn't charge higher than 13.5 volts. I did purchase a Victron IP65 which I'm charging the batteries with as I wanted to remove the Multiplus from the equation just in case its the problem.

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Good charger, leave each battery on there for at least a day, 1 battery at a time. The app is good for monitoring.

seneysolar said:

Per the Manual, the power assist needs at least 9.5 A of shore power to function. Have you verified your charge feature even working through the inverter with only 7A? Is there Solar charging of any sorts in your system? You may have just been on a downward slope for a while with battery SOC, resulting in really out of balance cells.

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Victron periodically adjusts these limits and publishes them in a spreadsheet on the Pro site. Last update was 7/12/2022, and the inverters need to have a firmware version that supports the change.

The MP 12 or 24V/3000 unit can be configured down to 7.5A with powerassist.

sunshine_eggo said:

Victron periodically adjusts these limits and publishes them in a spreadsheet on the Pro site. Last update was 7/12/2022, and the inverters need to have a firmware version that supports the change.

The MP 12 or 24V/3000 unit can be configured down to 7.5A with powerassist.

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Ahh ok, This was Rev. 5 dated March 2023 pulled of their website.

seneysolar said:

Ahh ok, This was Rev. 5 dated March 2023 pulled of their website.

View attachment 209726

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Even with the date difference, the spreadsheet is more accurate.

ScrotusGobbleBottom said:

We need to know everything.
This is a 12v setup with 4 100 Ah batteries in parallel?

First thing to do you be to isolate the offending battery and slowly charge it until it gets to 14.3 or wherever the other batteries are at.

If this is a parallel 12v setup, why would the inverter say low battery with a single or double fully charged 12v battery? Is this under load? Is the battery or the inverter saying this?

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The solar system on my RV consists of the following components:
(1) Victron Multiplus 3000/12 Inverter/Charger (4/0 cable)
(1) Victron MPPT Charge Controller 150/85
(1) BMV-712 Battery Monitor
(4) Battle Born 100Ah batteries in parallel (2/0 cable)
(4) 200W Solar Panels
Note: Inverter's AC-Out is connected to a 3 Position Master Switch that provides power on both legs of the 50A.

I did remove the battery that is showing 0.00 v and have tried charging it with jumper cables connected to my truck as well as the Victron IP65 charger. Now the IP65 was set to charge to 14.4. Should I increment the charging say first at 10 v and then if it wakes the BMS move the charge up a little more?

The inverter is the one that is showing the "low battery" alert both in the bluetooth app and on the Inverter's front panel. It only shows low battery when its under load say from a higher draw appliance. I don't see the alert if I'm charging phones while the refrigerator is running.

sunshine_eggo said:

LFP charging can seem like it stalls, but it's still happening. At 13.5V, were amps still going to the battery? If yes, you just need to keep charging it.

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The IP65 charger doesn't show any amps going to the battery. When I connect it to the battery and power it on it immediately moves from Bulk to Absorption but the chargers logs don't show any amps going in.

sunshine_eggo said:

The linked load tester would be power limited to about 9.5A to ensure you don't burn it up. Assuming the batteries are good, it would take up to 10 hours to confirm capacity.

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I'm fine with waiting 10 hrs.

sunshine_eggo said:

Alternatively, I would hope you have a battery monitor like a BMV or a smart shunt. If so, you could do a bulk test of all three in parallel at once. Turn off all charging and allow the batteries to drain while measuring the Ah consumed.

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Yes I have a BMV. Good idea I will give that a try tomorrow and report back.

seneysolar said:

Per the Manual, the power assist needs at least 9.5 A of shore power to function. Have you verified your charge feature even working through the inverter with only 7A? Is there Solar charging of any sorts in your system?

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Yes I have 800w of panels and a Victron Charge controller that is also charging the batteries.

seneysolar said:

Does this mean they are covering the shipping to/from?

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I did receive boxes and labels for sending them back however they did mention if I damaged the batteries or there was no issue found with them I would be on the hook for the shipping costs.

seneysolar said:

Seems like the other 3 are probably fine but will need a long charge up to balance cells. How long have you tried charging for? Hours? Days?

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The longest I've left a battery on the IP65 charger is 4 hours partly because it went to Float mode, no amps were being put into the battery and because they are out in the elements. I'm currently having a house built so I've positioned the RV on the other side of the property so its not in the way. This means that I have to run extension cords (10 gage) from the main power pole to the RV. Which is why I have the Inverter set to only pull 7A from this 25A rated circuit. In order to charge the batteries with the IP65 and to get the full 15A its rated for I plug the charger directly into a GFCI outlet on the power pole.

seneysolar said:

After charging as described below, IF you still get this error, measure voltage at the inverter when you get this error to verify. Use 1 battery at a time to the inverter with a small load.

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Okay I will try this.

seneysolar said:

Ahh ok, This was Rev. 5 dated March 2023 pulled of their website.

View attachment 209726

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Hmm....I haven't updated the firmware since I purchased it back in 2020. I will check its installed version versus the applicable document in order to see what the lowest Power Assist setting is. I had just lowered it in the app to the lowest it would let me go.

I recall my battle born ran dead once when I’d forgotten to reconnect the panels. It came back to life on a jump. Something like 15 minutes.