Just bought a lifepo4 Renogy Lycan 1075wh power box, which had no capacity, partly balanced the cells manually, and it was greatly improved, bought an active 1.2a inductive balancer, and run a few cycles, it's gaining 45wh every time it's cycled, currently its up to 750wh.
So I have 2 of these, and the same thing happened to one of them. This is why I prefer the newer prismatic cell because they are typically in a 4S1P configuration internally for most batteries (unless its a higher capacity one like 400AH). These older renogys have multiple in parallel and in my case there were several dead individual cells and multiple batteries that have horrible self discharge. So I could manually charge each bank to full, and hook the battery up, it would be fully charged and work, but as you drain the battery as a whole I would have a bank that died faster then others, even if i didnt put a load on it for a few weeks. The only way to fix it, is to have 2 batteries in this state and combine good cells that dont have high self discharge, or potentially remove batteries, and drop it down to a 50AH battery. But that comes with its own issues because the BMS protections are for 100AH battery.
This is extremely helpful. Thank you for posting this! I have two SOK batteries that have never been used completley depleated (I didn't know how to care for the batteries when I got them, I bought them and just put them on a shelf (climate controlled, for 2 years) until I was ready to use them). We weren't sure how many amps to try to charge them at when bypassing the bms so this helped us. Thanks so much. Also curious about the capacity test you were running, should i do that too?
Yes absolutely. You also may want to talk to SOK, they have updated BMS they will send. They had an issue with some and it sounds like you may have some affected.
@@sotasolar yes they sent the new BMS and the one with the old BMS is working fine but the one with the new BMS must be too low because we can't wake it up. Once we get it going do you think we will have an issue because they have two different BMS versions? Should I ask them to send one for the other battery ?
@jessiegrimmitt8604 of the serial numbers are close, I would want them both updated. Maybe I’ll do a video on this whole topic. I have an SOK battery in the shop from this generation getting the same treatment.
If it matters, this customers batteries died this year. I’d be weary of throwing good money after bad. Spend the money on a SOK battery or even Amperetime
I've got the larger 170amp version of these batts. They really didn't hold up. Just over half capacity after about 5 years. BMS must be junk. 5 of the 6 are still going but one had to be removed from bank because it wouldn't balance no matter what I did. $8k worth of garbage batteries. Atleast they can be replaced for a fraction of the price now.
I've got a 50Ah one of these. Left it for three months (after one month of ownership, the thing was brand new) - that's all it took for one of the cells to completely die. Stuck at 9V, even if you leave it on the charger for a week. Going to pull it apart and see what I can figure out. Downright rubbish products - I had to threaten them with legal action for them to honour their warranty. Any pointers?
On the repair? Crack the case open carefully by heat cycling the edge. Ultimately, these did not last long. We love the SOK batteries, serviceable and well constructed,
Do a full capacity test. Discharge to 10v charge to 14.6 . Watch carefully as it charges around 14v if it jumps quickly from 13.8 or 14v to 14.6 v that means the battery is out of balance. Once charged to do a complete discharge again. If still reporting low, I’d get in contact with BB. If you have trouble give us a note on our website and we’ll see if we can shake some trees on our end. Edit, I just realized you posted this on a video where we go over all this.
@@sotasolarcool got it straightened out thanks So my progressive dynamics li rv charge controller only has a high charge of 14.25 ?I think Li Time says balance starts at 14.22 Chances are this second hand bat never balanced .I’ll use it for my mobile diesel heater.I might open it up to check voltage of cells.Nice new shop!
Just bought a lifepo4 Renogy Lycan 1075wh power box, which had no capacity, partly balanced the cells manually, and it was greatly improved, bought an active 1.2a inductive balancer, and run a few cycles, it's gaining 45wh every time it's cycled, currently its up to 750wh.
So I have 2 of these, and the same thing happened to one of them. This is why I prefer the newer prismatic cell because they are typically in a 4S1P configuration internally for most batteries (unless its a higher capacity one like 400AH). These older renogys have multiple in parallel and in my case there were several dead individual cells and multiple batteries that have horrible self discharge. So I could manually charge each bank to full, and hook the battery up, it would be fully charged and work, but as you drain the battery as a whole I would have a bank that died faster then others, even if i didnt put a load on it for a few weeks. The only way to fix it, is to have 2 batteries in this state and combine good cells that dont have high self discharge, or potentially remove batteries, and drop it down to a 50AH battery. But that comes with its own issues because the BMS protections are for 100AH battery.
This is extremely helpful. Thank you for posting this! I have two SOK batteries that have never been used completley depleated (I didn't know how to care for the batteries when I got them, I bought them and just put them on a shelf (climate controlled, for 2 years) until I was ready to use them). We weren't sure how many amps to try to charge them at when bypassing the bms so this helped us. Thanks so much. Also curious about the capacity test you were running, should i do that too?
Yes absolutely.
You also may want to talk to SOK, they have updated BMS they will send. They had an issue with some and it sounds like you may have some affected.
@@sotasolar yes they sent the new BMS and the one with the old BMS is working fine but the one with the new BMS must be too low because we can't wake it up. Once we get it going do you think we will have an issue because they have two different BMS versions? Should I ask them to send one for the other battery ?
@jessiegrimmitt8604 of the serial numbers are close, I would want them both updated.
Maybe I’ll do a video on this whole topic. I have an SOK battery in the shop from this generation getting the same treatment.
What the temperature of the heat gun to remove the cover? I have 7 bricks from Renogy. and what BMS would you recommend if i wanted to replace it?
If it matters, this customers batteries died this year. I’d be weary of throwing good money after bad. Spend the money on a SOK battery or even Amperetime
What type of charger are you using that you can adjust the voltage and amps?
I've got the larger 170amp version of these batts. They really didn't hold up. Just over half capacity after about 5 years. BMS must be junk. 5 of the 6 are still going but one had to be removed from bank because it wouldn't balance no matter what I did. $8k worth of garbage batteries. Atleast they can be replaced for a fraction of the price now.
Yeah for sure. If you can manually balance the pack it might improve.
I've got a 50Ah one of these. Left it for three months (after one month of ownership, the thing was brand new) - that's all it took for one of the cells to completely die. Stuck at 9V, even if you leave it on the charger for a week. Going to pull it apart and see what I can figure out. Downright rubbish products - I had to threaten them with legal action for them to honour their warranty. Any pointers?
On the repair? Crack the case open carefully by heat cycling the edge. Ultimately, these did not last long. We love the SOK batteries, serviceable and well constructed,
I have an older BB 100ah that only puts out 52.4ah through Victron shunt.Bottom center of bat seems swelled.Or both sides of case got worn down?
Do a full capacity test. Discharge to 10v charge to 14.6 . Watch carefully as it charges around 14v if it jumps quickly from 13.8 or 14v to 14.6 v that means the battery is out of balance.
Once charged to do a complete discharge again. If still reporting low, I’d get in contact with BB. If you have trouble give us a note on our website and we’ll see if we can shake some trees on our end.
Edit, I just realized you posted this on a video where we go over all this.
@@sotasolar haha I was like dude I just watched what you wrote lol So why doesn’t my Victron shunt show gain in charge,only shows discharge?
Make sure you charge via the load side of the shunt. Not directly on the battery
@@sotasolarcool got it straightened out thanks So my progressive dynamics li rv charge controller only has a high charge of 14.25 ?I think Li Time says balance starts at 14.22
Chances are this second hand bat never balanced .I’ll use it for my mobile diesel heater.I might open it up to check voltage of cells.Nice new shop!
I wonder what happened to them? cold temp charging, super low discharges?
I didn’t get the full story, but likely deep discharge .
Honestly never even deep discharged mine. They were treated very well. Think they are just garbage batteries. Renogy seems to know it.
I had 3 of those, they're junk. The cylindrical cells run away, heat up, and lose capacity. Throw it away.
Renogy is garbage, mine all had issues as well.
noooo. Too many volts on a single cell. each cell max is 3.6volts.