How the Balance your brand new LiFePO4 batteries

[@EngineerMikeF]

Perfect timing, i was about to charge 4 Elefast 12V batteries for the 1st time to put in my camper, i ordered the 30V power supply to make that go smoothly (my bench power supply is decades old, no amp control). Thanks, this video plugs that 1st time charge, periodic balance process nicely

[@Clarks-Adventure]

I'm glad it helped, Mike. Please consider sharing this video. I think it's an important one and I'd like to get this message out.

[@uhjyuff2095]

I love how you showed us the before and after voltage specs and exactly how long it took for the bms to balance the pack using your method with smart bms. Thanks you so much!

[@Clarks-Adventure]

I'm glad it helped. It's often hard to explain something like this.

[@uhjyuff2095]

@@Clarks-Adventure 72 hours for balancing at 120ma speed means your battery was 8 percent out of balance! These smart bmses still need a watchful eye to check them.

[@thechiefsway2618]

I had made a video about doing this to an entire battery bank when I discovered I was having and issue. I had noticed that while reviewing the Solar Charge Controller memory there were voltage spikes occasionally up to 16-18vdc on a 12v system. I discovered that the voltage spike was caused when one of the batteries dropped out of the bank when the BMS cut it off. The batteries had one cell like you explained that exceeded 3.65vdc and the BMS had a cell over voltage error. This would happen during active charging. After charging was completed and there was a load on the bank the bank voltage reduced to the point of where the voltage of the battery that had dropped out matched the bank and the BMS would turn on and the battery would rejoin with a rush of current usually in. Had this happen to where two batteries would drop out at different voltages. I monitored the charge Current and Voltage of the battery that dropped out first and noted the bank voltage at the time it cut out. I adjusted the Solar Charge Controllers charge parameters so it would charge the bank to a voltage a tenth below the cut off so the battery would not drop out. Increased the voltage a tenth every 4 to 5 days as the battery balanced since it didn't disconnect. Eventually the entire bank voltage was raised to 14.4vdc which is a full charge for all batteries. The two problem batteries were obviously balanced but all batteries in the group were micro balanced also. Hope this helps someone.

[@Clarks-Adventure]

Yep that's what I would expect. You seem to get this. You might want to look into my BankManager marinedcac.com/pages/bankmanager It stops charging at a true 100 percent. Charging to voltage simply doesn't work for long life in an actively used LiFePO4 bank. You will see longer life with my device.

[@Lapeerphoto]

Good clear explanation!! I'm bookmarking and sharing it with new LiFePO4 battery owners! When you type "top balance your new battery". It is hard to describe. This clears up lots of normal questions! Thanks.

[@Clarks-Adventure]

I really appreciate the shares. Yes it took me a year to come up with a good way to top balance without disassembly and how to describe it I think this is an important video.

[@Clarks-Adventure]

Please consider sharing this with friends. I think it's important.

[@david-ky7rt]

Great video 👍

[@infineite5132]

Thank you so much Clark for sharing your expertise & knowledge on this critical subject!

[@Clarks-Adventure]

So nice of you to say

[@Sonnell]

@@Clarks-Adventure Hi Clark, the thumbnail has a typo if I am not mistaken :)

[@Clarks-Adventure]

I don't see it. But k can't spell. What should I fix?

[@Clarks-Adventure]

@Sonnell oh I see it

[@Sonnell]

@@Clarks-Adventure Sorry for the late reply. it is "to" instead of "do" :)

[@mvintrigue-trawlerdiy1101]

Good video Clark. Very helpful.

[@9111logic]

🙏 Thanks for sharing your way of balancing a battery of that type. Of course in other cases like with my batteries, we can arrange all the cells in parallel and top ballace them before repositioning them all in series. I have 48V 314A built three months ago that I had to abandon for a while and that only top balanced to 3.33V, surprisingly when I checked it today after all this time standing unused, I found that all cells were between 3.328v and 3.303v so perhaps I shall never bother to top balance all the way up to 3.65 especially after having already brought them to that voltage during the testing cycle.

[@Clarks-Adventure]

You really aren't balancing unless you charge closer to 3.65v. Cells at different states of charge have very similar voltages when not brought up into the hockystick

[@9111logic]

@@Clarks-Adventure I did that on my previous one so I want to experiment this way and if necessary use the active balancer while charging them closer to the ideal top voltage. Should that not give good results I can always go back to the traditional way in parallel up to 3.65 😉

[@Clarks-Adventure]

Yep Í personally wouldn't bother doing the parallel thing again. With no BMS involved it is easy to go too far and destroy all the cells (please don't ask how I know that.. PTSD) and it's a lot of work. I'd use an active balancer and leave them in parallel like you are doing but occasionally at high voltage.

[@9111logic]

@@Clarks-Adventure Sure but with my charger, I can set not only the max voltage and charging Amp (normally 40A @ 3.65V) but also the Amperage cut-off point while monitoring from the computer and saving all data and curves thus avoiding that risk. However, this time I shall choose the active balancer as you suggested charging up to as close as possible to 3.65V if not all the way there like with the previous battery. Thanks for your inputs 🙏

[@WG7D]

Thanks Clark my BMSs shut off my 12v Lipo at 13.66 v or 3.42 volts per cell. Soooo..adjust according I suppose? One is at least 1-2 tenths of a volt per cell off. I sure appreciate your help on these. Happy sailing sir! WG7D

[@ConCoa]

Great explanation at just the right detail. Superb. Thank you.

[@Clarks-Adventure]

Thank you

[@Clarks-Adventure]

Please consider sharing this with friends. I think it's important.

[@chriswestenskow5202]

This is good, but may not work as described with some BMSs. Most BMSs seem to be set to only balance above a certain voltage threshold and many are set to only balance while charging. A problem comes in that the BMS threshold for detecting charging can be quite a bit higher than the balance current, meaning that only a tiny bit of balancing occurs with each cycle. With BMSs with BlueTooth, at least, with the right app, you can see what is going on with the balancing behavior, and possibly tweak some parameters to make it more effective. The challenge is that not all BMSs and fimware versions behave the same, so each one may be a slightly different puzzle to solve.

[@Clarks-Adventure]

Absolutely. I think I report on any BMS personality traits I found on batteries I reviewed so buying one of them might make balancing easier. Yes BMS is a big thing, bigger than I initially thought. I think one of the BMS s I tested required a .5a charge to stay in balance mode. It had a BMS so that's good. For that one I think the bench supply is especially important. It's hard to choose how deep to go in a video like this. I tried to at least address topics like this in a passing way without taking everyone on a deep trip and loosing people along the way.

[@timezonewall]

Good information. The video mentioned that the bench supply was $30. I wish I could find a 30v 10A bench supply for $30. The one shown (30v variant) is over $50, as are most others. About the best price I saw was $40. The last time I purchased an inexpensive bench supply, it stopped working within a few months with light usage and no abuse. That was quite a few years ago, maybe they are better now(?).

[@Clarks-Adventure]

It was $30 when I listed it. Probably they just sold like 100 of them due to my video and raised their price

[@timezonewall]

@@Clarks-Adventure No doubt that's what happened. Hopefully they sent you that one for free or offered to send you another one from their line-up as you made them some sales.

[@Clarks-Adventure]

They would have no way to know what happened. From their end their stock just went down crazy fast

[@paaao]

An easier way to do this as long as the BMS isn't shot, or an individual cell is to just use the battery and then charge it. Hook it up to an inverter or whatever, and drain it down to nearly empty, or completely empty. Then put a charger on it, and charge it back to full. The internal BMS should do the rest.

[@Clarks-Adventure]

Nope

[@1Homelife]

My battery doesn't have an app to show each cell voltage. So how can I tell if each cell is equal?

[@Clarks-Adventure]

Watch the whole video. The last section answers that

[@AndrewHemstreet]

Buy a topdon BT20 you can datalog voltage with it that's how I found out my LiTime trolling motor 100ah at 10a cut out at 14.45v but when that was brought down to 0.750a it cut out at 14.01. Told me two things (please correct me if I'm wrong). Thing 1 I've got balancing to do. Thing 2 750ma is above the balancing amperage. Trying again at 490ma. Then again at 200, now at 100ma.

[@Clarks-Adventure]

Honestly what it could be telling you is the LiTime bms in trying to solve the low current overcharge issue failed and ended up being a bad BMS I'll be doing a BMS swap on mine soon. It's a hard problem to solve correctly. They take a shot at it but ended up with so many failure modes they actually lie about data over Bluetooth!! See my LiTime review

[@Clarks-Adventure]

But I wish I had a data tracker. Jealous

[@mikeg7924]

Another excellent video Clark. I just bought two Redodo 12V 100Ah Group31 Smart Bluetooth Lithium LiFePO4 Battery with Real-Time Capacity Monitoring. I couldn't resist as the cost for two of them to my front door on sale with discounts was $380.00. Unfortunately their app does not appear to show individual cell voltages, but simply reports good or bad balance? Looks like I will be assuming. Redodo recommends that you charge each battery individually to 100% prior to putting them in parallel and into service. I guess that's their way of balancing all the cells. Either way, for the price, it was a no brainer. Even if I only get 2000 cycles vs 3000 cycles, it's a heck of a lot better than the $400/each AGM's that I currently have. 😉

[@uhjyuff2095]

right, a full charge on a battery will always trigger cell balancing to activate. Then the user should let the battery rest off the charger for about 10 hours for the bms to finish balancing. After that you should be good to charge it to full and note if the battery can reach 14.4v. If not just do it again with another 10 hours and your in business. Its really not that hard if you know the technique.

[@Clarks-Adventure]

That works.. except for in BMSs where it doesn't. I've seen them.

[@uhjyuff2095]

@@Clarks-Adventure Totally true. The best ones are the batteries that specifically say cell balancing in the seller listing only to find out that it doesn't!

[@mikeg7924]

​@@Clarks-Adventuregeez, I hope the redodo isn't one of those...

[@Clarks-Adventure]

Some BMSs only balance during charge. You stop charging they stop balancing. So you can't always just let them sit. Sometimes you need to charge slowly. That's why I gave the instructions I did. It's a process that should work for most BMSs and therefore most people. Like I said, the easy way works until it doesn't. The way I recommended should work.

[@stevenelson3540]

Thanks man!

[@robert4027]

awesome info. just received a new Seikon battery today. 151 dollars black Friday deal... I'm thinking to just open it up and solder on a 5 amp active balancer. .

[@Clarks-Adventure]

Wouldn't be a bad idea but be crazy careful with an open battery!!!

[@robert4027]

@@Clarks-Adventure true . I'll think about it for a few days first

[@uhjyuff2095]

why not do the charge and test the voltage like in the video before assuming your battery needs some type of extreme balancing? imo, just charge up to full 14.6v then remove the charger and wait 10 or so hours to be done!

[@robert4027]

@uhjyuff2095 over time the cells will unballance just a matter of time my thoughts was to get a head start so I don't have to worry about later on down the road

[@uhjyuff2095]

@@robert4027 That might be the move from now on. Consider a jkbms with bluetooth and active balancer. the best of both worlds

[@oll333]

Thank you very much!

[@Clarks-Adventure]

Glad it helped. Please consider sharing this with friends. I think it's important.

[@firecloud77]

I have yet to buy my first LiFePO4 battery, and I've been tempted to purchase one without Bluetooth because of the slightly lower price. Thanks to this video I will never purchase one without Bluetooth.

[@Clarks-Adventure]

Thanks for the comment, glad the video was useful

[@barryseifert6053]

Be carful what battery you buy not all Apps give you individual battery voltage. Some only tell you the overall battery voltage.

[@Clarks-Adventure]

Yep

[@firecloud77]

@@barryseifert6053 Thanks for the alert. That seems crazy that they'd bother including Bluetooth without individual voltages. Yet another thing to worry about when choosing a battery.

[@sokbattery]

Nice video !

[@Clarks-Adventure]

Thanks. I haven't torn down one of your batteries yet. Are you interested?

[@sokbattery]

@@Clarks-Adventure Yes! how contact you???

[@Clarks-Adventure]

[e-mail]

[@lenwhatever4187]

Batteries with BT +1, batteries without BT -1, one more possibility: no BT but has an obviously openable case, like it is held together with screws. In this last case each cell can be charged/monitored/etc. separately. so it can be balanced even if the battery didn't come with a balancer. Only one thing, batteries that come with screws probably have a balancer and BT or some other form of monitoring anyway.... and will cost more because screws cost money. No I am not saying the $0.04 spent on screws will make that much of a difference in finished price but rather using screws to assemble things shows a company that is willing to go an extra mile (or couple of yards anyway) so more extras inside are likely. I do understand one might decide a battery with a screwed on case would make a questionable boat battery ;) Thanks for the video

[@Clarks-Adventure]

After opening as many cases with a hammer and chisel Believe Me I'm a fan of screws! But that case has to be plastic, most screw cases are steel so no good around salt water. So far the best thing I've touched is the VoltGo. Has everything including a fire extinguisher and with my discount it's not even that expensive. Check the leader board link

[@s.mendez7160]

Where is the link to the spreadsheet of battery tests again? Thank you.

[@Clarks-Adventure]

In the description of every review. It's also near the BankManager manuals at MarineDCAC.com

[@s.mendez7160]

@@Clarks-Adventure Thank you.

[@jm47]

would it be any "better" to do the balancing in stages starting at a lower voltage? e.g. i have a 100mv imbalance even with my highest cell at 3.441V. the balance current should be pretty much the same, so the total time to balance shouldn't be too different. the bonus is i don't have to hold my cell voltage at 3.64V for such a long time. i can set my balance start voltage to whatever i need to, some BMSs may not allow that.

[@Clarks-Adventure]

Yes with all that information available I'd do it just that way I kinda had to describe this in a way that worked for 95 percent of batteries. Some Bluetooth BMSs don't say when they are balancing.

[@s.mendez7160]

Clark, have you measured the ripple on these two power supplies you mention? or at least the one in this video?

[@Clarks-Adventure]

I guess I have my nice new osiliscope right there I could. But for the reason I'm using it here it just doesn't matter. The battery will smooth things out. I have a rather large cap I keep around to help this power supply action the BankManagers contactor. Otherwise it can't handle the power spike the bistable requires. I'm sure the 10a 30v unit would though. Or the Bank manager with a monostable relay

[@s.mendez7160]

@@Clarks-Adventure That's cool. Meanwhile, I don't see the link to the battery review spreadsheet on your new website? How do I review the lastest versions? Thanks.

[@Clarks-Adventure]

It's linked in the description of every review video. It's on the new webpage near the link to manuals for the BankManager

[@samtrosper7224]

Can this process be done by altering absorption and float voltages with a Victron solar charge controller.

[@Clarks-Adventure]

Likely but as you approach highest cell max voltage slow down your charge rate I suggest a towel on the panel and a friend to move it for you. " More, less, a little more.."

[@nortonis3565]

Hello, my supplier told me this about my batteries: When each cell reaches 3.3V (13,2)or that the difference between the cells is 15mV it will start equalizing the cells I normally charge my batteries to 13.8v then i stop, it is just to save them for be 100% full (Learned from off grid garage on youtube) Will my batteries have time to balance from 13,2 when they start, and up to 13.8v where i cut them off ?

[@Clarks-Adventure]

No, the cells can't really balance properly unless they are taken up to close to 3.65v where they get in the hockey stick part of their voltage curve. It's sad that they see slow desegregation at this level so balancing shouldn't be done every charge cycle. But it needs to be done to new batteries and should be checked periodically, maybe every year or so. And to the other point. Stopping charging at 13.8v, or any other voltage is better than nothing but even that voltage can over charge your cells, or undercharge them. Repeated undercharging can cause a memory issue to build up. Basically you can't charge LiFePO4 correctly to any voltage. There is so much more to it. See MarineDCAC.com

[@nortonis3565]

@@Clarks-Adventure Its sad that my supplier get info from the importer that they say, just use the batteries normal, and they will balance and take care of themself. Like we dont have to do anything with them, that the BMS will do everything.

[@Clarks-Adventure]

Yes. But they do what they can to get a quick sale. That's China. Some of the better battery companies are trying to address the short life this is hitting their warranty departments with by walking back on this. EPOCH and LiTime have put out BMSs that "address" this. But they do it so poorly they make the battery impossible to charge correctly. I may attempt to put my BankManager tech into a BMS and sell it to them.

[@nortonis3565]

@@Clarks-Adventure What about opening them up, and then take the cells out or remove the old simple bms, and buy a good active bms/balancer to put on them ?

[@Clarks-Adventure]

Absolutely. I'll be doing that again soon. I hate the BMS in that LiTime I reviewed. I'll put a JK in it. Want a video?

[@inels6838]

I have four 12 V batteries with Bluetooth that I want to wire in series to make 48 V. I charged them all individually with a benchtop charger to 14.5 volts, as close to 3.625 volts as I could get them, the BMS says they are fully charged to their 100 amp hour rating (showing a range of anywhere from 103 Amp hours to 107 Amp hours on the different batteries) How much of a difference is acceptable in the individual cells….when I look at the voltage on the Bluetooth app. I see a range of anywhere from .006 Volts to .009 Volts. Is this acceptable or should they be closer? Also, when I disconnect the benchtop charger, the voltage will sag down over a 10 hour period or so too a range of about 3.600volts to 3.610volts across all 16 cells in the four batteries. Is this voltage drop normal with no load?

[@Clarks-Adventure]

That's quite balanced. But you may choose to do a bit better as it's unlikely you will want to balance them individually often Yes that's normal

[@inels6838]

@@Clarks-Adventure Thank you for your quick answer… I appreciate your battery videos, very helpful.

[@roberthallas349]

Hi, I’m getting a LIFPO4 24v 280ah battery with Bluetooth, and temperature control, should I charge it before using? Thanks. 😎🏍

[@Clarks-Adventure]

Watch the video You should charge it AND balance it before using.

[@roberthallas349]

I was told, charge the battery to 100%, then put it in the system, and you are ready to go. 😎🏍

[@roberthallas349]

I also bought the battery charger for my battery from the battery supplier (Fogstar in the UK). 😎🏍

[@Clarks-Adventure]

Lots of people say lots of things. Most li chargers overcharge li

[@cferinga1]

Can you suggest a reasonably priced power supply for 48 volt system? I will soon have 3 48v. Voltgo batteries. Thanks.

[@Clarks-Adventure]

That one in the description of the video and the video

[@Clarks-Adventure]

I used it to balance that 48v battery

[@IteeAshole]

Hi great video. One question though - should this be done for a battery that has been previously fully discharged and then recharged or does it not matter? I just tried this test on my new battery, which has never been fully discharged; used maybe 25% and just charged it up. According to the bluetooth app, overcharge protection kicked in at 14.5v (14.47 actual with multi-meter connected). I believe that's pretty good and I'll likely forgo a balance for now. Agree? Thanks much; I'll be sure to share this video.

[@Clarks-Adventure]

It's the same procedure for brand new and 1 year old so that cycle is unimportant. I'd be pretty happy with 14.5v More telling would be max cell difference at 14.5

[@IteeAshole]

@@Clarks-Adventure Thanks for the reply and also sorry - I forgot to mention the bluetooth app does not display individual cell information. I'm having to wing it so to say. Really don't know why manufacturers that include bluetooth on their BMSs decide to limit the info (and require an active Internet connection too), but that's a totally different topic. And as reference for the curious - It's TimeUSB's latest 12v 140ah battery with the 150amp BMS. The Redodo and LiTime apps are not compatible for what it's worth, along with a few other dozen BMS BT apps I tried. Oh well.

[@Clarks-Adventure]

You might want to check out my review of the litime 140 starter battery. They don't give cell data because that app out and out lies to you. I'll be throwing it's BMS away and might do a video on swapping that battery to a great JK BMS soon. I have the new BMS $80. Best one for the money by far. Anyway that's why I did the video and tried to cover what to do without Bluetooth. I don't think anyone else covered this. Do lease share links to this video. This is important stuff

[@IteeAshole]

@@Clarks-Adventure Good morning. I did indeed just watch your review of the 140ah Litime and look forward to a possible BMS swap video if you go there. Regarding this battery, not sure if the internals are the same as my TimeUSB, but I do agree the BMS (app) sucks. Just as you mentioned, it doesn't give individual cell voltage, just an "OK" style message. But it did give me 14.47v charge just before cutoff, which I feel pretty good about. It's not a starting battery like your Litime and weighs just 28lbs compared to your Litime's 36+ lbs. I also only paid $215 Black Friday pricing, which is a nice deal. I definitely do not like the need for Internet connectivity for the app to pull battery info, which limits off-grid use and may require a separate battery monitor, but I'll likely keep it for it's intended purpose - which is just extra amp hours in a small package for basic off-grid power. Thanks again!

[@Clarks-Adventure]

If you found yourself as the only guy in the world who makes a device that solves a big problem would you give away all your secrets in a KZbin video?

[@michaelzakharoff946]

Hey Clark, this is what I don't get. You have a new battery WITH Bluetooth, so I presume you can adjust the BMS. If the cells aren't properly top balanced, all you have to do to force balancing is to set the "balance start voltage" to just below the LOWEST cell voltage, let it SIT until it discharges the highest cell, equalizes all cells, then recharge it. If necessary repeat the process until all the cells are equal. If you have a BT BMS you shouldn't have to take it apart.

[@Clarks-Adventure]

Two things: Different BMSs operate differently and I tried to come up with instructions that work for every battery. Cell voltage isn't linear. You can't balance cells with the current algorithm unless the cell voltage is near 3.65v. They get more out of balance as the top cell voltage goes up

[@michaelzakharoff946]

@@Clarks-Adventure Sorry to disagree Clark. Sure, ideally 3.65 is a great voltage to balance, but in MY case, they were at 3.3v and refused to balance because one of the cells was high. I did two things, 1) Reduced "Balance start voltage" and 2) Reduced "balance differential voltage". I set the balance diff voltage to about ".05v" and like an orchestra it was a blinkey show of balancing until they were all perfect. Even in this setting, it'll even balance DURING charging. This works for me, and that was 3 years ago. To this day all three of the batteries remain in perfect balance.

[@nik-lc3ob]

Can you check a Redodo battery that actually has bluetooth, but no individual cell voltages are displayed in their app? Is it really balancing, or is it just saying that it's balancing? I wonder if a third party app could be used...

[@Clarks-Adventure]

What battery are you referring to. If it's that 140, I suspect it's the same as the liTime. That BMS isn't any good. I'm about to throw it away and install a good JK BMS. I'll do a video on that when I get around to it

[@nik-lc3ob]

@@Clarks-Adventure Redodo 12V 100AH Smart

[@Clarks-Adventure]

The best thing to do is write Redodo as a buyer asking for them to contact my channel That's usually how these things start

[@budmartin3344]

So what is the acceptable Delta Voltage between cells?

[@Clarks-Adventure]

The smaller the better. But yes I should have addressed this. I like to see less than .1v at the high end. If you charge at a low c rate this is a little less important. If you are planning on charging hard this is more important. It's especially important to get the balance close if you charge without a BankManager. Since overcharging and unbalanced pack REALLY overcharges the high cell

[@johnnylightning1491]

So it look like I can't do what you are doing with anything but a bench power supply, for instance my Victron battery charger. Looks like I need to get another gizmo. Keep the good stuff coming Clark.

[@Clarks-Adventure]

You can. But this is so much easier

[@jimduke5545]

You don’t need a bench power supply. A good programable charger (Victron ip22 or ip65/67) will do this easily. In fact, if you have good chargers (mppt, dcdc, alternator, shorepower) with the proper absorption settings, you will not need to do this type of maintenance balancing as the cells will be balanced each charge cycle at your normal absorption voltage. For cheap batteries, particularly when new, It isn’t a bad idea to do this type of maintenance/commisioning balancing. if you see your cells out of balance, because you aren’t routinely/normally balancing them at absorption voltage (usually 14.2v for 12v systems), it also can be a good idea, but it shouldn’t be necessary with quality charging and charging profiles.

[@Clarks-Adventure]

@jimduke5545 you might want to take a look at this. marinedcac.com/pages/bankmanager Balancing voltages cause overcharge. This shortens the life of your batteries do balancing shouldn't be done every cycle. Yours is a common misconception which I'm trying to change with this channel. The academic papers support my position

[@Grandassets]

@@jimduke5545 the problem is most of these guys are buying their batteries, BMSs and chargers on WISH, and probably running it into a Ali Express Inverter

[@jimworthington6543]

Would it be reasonable on a new 48v 100AH battery without bluetooth to simply remove the cover and check the voltage of each cell? If a cell(s) is out balance to the others, simply charge the offending cell(s) individually to bring it into balance.

[@Clarks-Adventure]

Sure and I show this in some of my battery review videos. But we shouldn't need to pry open a new battery. And trust me that's not a trivial task. Your method would be faster. While you have it open add a cheap active balancer (see my videos). But I wanted to give a method to balance without opening the case.

[@normanbell1410]

What happened to the list of batteries tested?

[@Clarks-Adventure]

The new address is in the description of all the review videos It's on MarineDCAC.com near the BankManager manual

[@AlAl-pu1oh]

Lithium batteries are hygroscopic... Lithium's affinity for moisture can cause problems during manufacturing and lead to safety issues. To produce quality batteries, manufacturers use dehumidifiers to maintain a moisture-controlled environment with a relative humidity (RH) of less than 0.5% desiccant dehumidifiers are critical... Do you check for any de-humification packages inside the case?

[@Clarks-Adventure]

I believe the cells are well sealed. When they ruptured the smell is quite distinctive. So moisture in the case could certainly cause corrosion of the BMS and contacts I don't believe the cells are at risk Also most every battery I opened smells like foam solvent (I use the term Chinese factory). This tells me the battery cases are pretty well sealed

[@dyslectische]

Its really stupid that the battery go out off balance in a year . And i ask my self wy ? Is it the settings ? The bms have function you can select. Balance by charge. Balance always on. What are the best settings ??

[@Clarks-Adventure]

I think going out of balance comes down to differences in internal resistance. Definitely some difference in the cells. So one battery might go out easily while another by the same company may stay in balance for years of use

[@dyslectische]

@Clarks-Adventure i have to same battery here . One is perfectly balanced no problem. 2e one is out of balance with 0.300volt . Try to reset it by longtime charger on it . Use a victron program charger so i can set the volts higher by adjust the volts output. Good thing is that Victron support 0.01 volts adjustment.

[@awolfey]

How did you know I have a brand new battery that just arrived yesterday?

[@Clarks-Adventure]

I have my spies. And I'm secretly your personal guardian angel.

[@Clarks-Adventure]

Please consider sharing this with friends. I think it's important.

[@Sv_SeaDuctress]

So I am the guy that knows nothing and I am still confused. Are you moving those leads around?

[@Clarks-Adventure]

Nope. And the battery was never opened.

[@Sv_SeaDuctress]

@@Clarks-Adventure Still a bit confused but I am learning as I go. Your content is spot on. Thanks

[@Clarks-Adventure]

If your questions are about balancing you might want to scan through some of my battery reviews. I know I manually balance a few of them on camera and my discussion might be helpful

[@Sv_SeaDuctress]

@ will do! Thanks.

[@glennr9913]

I'm converting a 48 volt golf cart over to LiPO4 from Lead-Acid. I purchased 4 12 volt 100 Amp Hour LiPO4 batteries and a Vevor 35 amp smart charger. I charged each battery individually. One battery didn't want to charge fully, so after thinking over it for a while I used a load tester to drain some power from it. That seemed to cure the issue and I was able to get that battery fully charged. I topped-off each battery 5-6 times over the course of 2 or 3 days, and then connected them all in parallel to balance as a group. After a couple of days, I topped the group off, still all connected in parallel. Each of the individual batteries now has the exact same voltage, 13.61. I don't have a bench power supply, but my Vevor smart charger indicates voltage & current as it charges. The readings fluctuate, which I believe indicates that it's tickling the BMS into equalizing the individual cells. Clark, have you used a smart charger like the Vevor? Does it perform the internal cell balancing that I think it does, or am I wrong about that? Does it sound like I balanced my cells, or did I misunderstand what's going on? Thanks,

[@Clarks-Adventure]

This is going to sound like I'm pushing my tech. But, nothing on the market charges LiFePO4 correctly except for the BankManager. They will put power in the batteries but they don't know how to start at 100 percent. Marketers use words like "smart" and "LiFePO4" to sell batteries, none of them are anything but a lead charger with go faster stripes. That being said, no external charger including the BankManager actually balanced cells. That's up to the BMS as it's the last device in the chain that can see individual cell voltages and do something about them. I think your process let the bad battery balance a bit. Enough to get it's shutoff voltage high enough for it to "take a charge". If they were mine I'd balance them all individually as per this video then expect better life As someone commented this video tells you how to give your batteries love.

[@drjasper100]

I usually like your video's but this one really made me feel like adunce. 😢 i had assumed the purpose of any inbuilt BMS was to balance the battery. I dont want to be performing 'maintenance', i just want to go sailing. 😢

[@Clarks-Adventure]

If you charge to a high voltage you are right but you won't get long battery life. Not any longer then lead. If you charge the BankManager way and stop at 100 percent charge the BMS can't do that part of its job.

[@sdcauldwell1]

“How to LoVe your LiFePO4”?

[@Clarks-Adventure]

Yep. Give them love so they last

[@leeinwis]

Talk sweet nothings to them ?

[@tonmommers7942]

I'm afraid that Clark thinks he realy knows to explain the subject, but somethimes the essence eludes him in his explanation.