Czauto

Is the panels still available?

I don't know the details but FW were sold/merged with another company May 2023. Technical works through Electro Mechanica (Pty)Ltd. That's the guys I dealed with with my eTower issues. Directors also changed in 2023. Probably for B-BBEE reasons. It seems Mr. English is still CEO. As I said, I don't have the exact details so don't take my word for this. The below screenshot was taken of the warranty document on their website.

True. This is the main reason why I chose FW. Their LiTe range was just too expensive for me. The same capacity bank would've cost me double. Even though slow under the new ownership they still offer after sales support which is much better than most other Chinese brands. I've heard horror stories about certain other "cheaper" brands.

I had some shite with mine. One was replaced by FW (bad cells) and the other was repaired by FW (imbalanced cells) I still have an issue with batteries in the bank not showing the same SOC%, differing up to 20% and it seems (after various capacity tests) that capacity on both the new and repaired batteries are more in the vicinity of 3kWh (20% Dod) where it's supposed to be 4kWh. Other than that they're doing just fine. I have no experience with any other LiFePo4 batteries so I cannot elaborate or compare the eTowers to other brands. At least FW came to the party noth times and did not leave me hanging. It took some time though. They're quiet about the SOC% issue now though.

Check that Vd on the battery. A balanced battery's cells should be within 2mVd-8mVd. It's possible that there's a dudd cell screwing things up for the rest. Check them at resting Voltage at 100%SOC and then again at 20%SOC (without any loads) if the highest voltage/lowest cell is always the same one, that's probably your cullprit.

Hi. I had a similar issue with one of my eTowers. Turned out there were bad cells in the one battery and by looking at the Vd on that last cell voltage screenshot, that battery's cells are definitely out of balance. I don't know the batteries you're using. Do you know what BMS it uses?

https://herholdts.co.za/pi64308/victron-anti-islanding-relay-ufr1001e/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw3vO3BhCqARIsAEWblcAg-9Jlr0R2s0dpPd5lhTSSxDaPVI0GjOxRjvWgAg39wcRmpLbm1w8aAmwXEALw_wcB This is what you need. And no it's not advertising for anyone, this was the first one my Google search spew out.

It's nogal a struggle to get rid of these oukies these days. I've got one as well, bit older, and already dropped to R4500 on marketplace without any sale. Lot's of scams but no sale. It's been almost a year......

I guess you'll need an anti-islanding device added to get approval. The older easysolar/Multiplus units does not have built in anit-islanding like the Multiplus2 and other, newer generation Victron inverters.

I got mine from FW. They actually sent it to me for free. Only had to organize a courier

Normally the BMS will only start balancing above a certain cell voltage (around 3.45v-3.48v). The BMS will also only recognize and reset to 100% SOC when the pack reaches a set voltage and goes below a set charge current for a set time. Victron's ESS system (when set to Self consumption with batterylife) will set your lowest SOC% according to the amount of charging the batteries get to get the to 100% SOC as often as possible. This means that an algorithm automatically increase the SOC% should the battery not be charged fully in a certain timeframe and vica versa. Properly charging Lithium batteries is a debate that will probably continue for a very long time. My opinion is that the bloody things are too expensive to not look after them.

You should subscribe to Andy's Youtube channel, "offgrid garage" He has experimented a lot with different batteries and BMS's

Good day fellas, I'm looking for a main processor board with 2620 chipset for a Multiplus 48/3000/50. Anyone knows of a broken Multiplus laying around with the 2620 mainboard, please let me know....

Shit! I missed this. I need it for spares as well. I've got 2 of those

I would say go for the FW eTowers. 5kWh each, stackable and communicates with most inverters. I installed 2 back in 2020 and recently had a problem with a faulty cell on one of the batteries. I returned the battery to Herholdt's for RMA and they borrowed me an eTower while mine was in for repairs. That's service unspoken of these days. The eTowers currently sell for around R22k at Herholdt's..... Not sure what cells they use but they use a Pace BMS which is not the best out there but quite reliable. Good value for money IMO