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

You'll need to provide more information about your system. What brand inverter?

Try resetting it like the manual says you should do when the BMS is dormant. Also make sure there's some kind of charge to the battery eg. solar or inverter/charger. If the battery switched off at 10% SOC it will only switch on again at 15% SOC.

I'm not sure about SANS regulations (mechanic by trade) but I would say yes. If you think logically, you need to be able to safely isolate all components in a system in case of failure. For example, one of the two batteries fail and you need to remove it and send it for repairs. It's not safe to have any "hot" cables hanging around but if you have an isolator/fuse on both batteries you can isolate the faulty one by removing the fuse and still keep a safe enviroment. That was just the way I was thinking when I installed mine. After all, in the end it's all about safety right?

Damn. I wish I could afford another 2 eTowers but I just bought tyres for my SUV😊

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Is this still available??

What's the latest firmware version on the eTowers? Mine is about 18 months old and running without issues on my Victron system but I was wondering if there has been a firmware update since. Mine is showing version 1.0.

If it were mine I would stay away from any repair attempt. Even if the cells can be salvaged, I don't want LiPo batteries with faulty/damaged BMS's close to any of my property.

All depends on settings but you should be able to go down to 10% SOC after which the inverter will shut down to protect the battery. So below 10% you will most likely be joining the rest of the 95% of dark Africa's population. Is it an absolute bust that all the pumps have to run through loadshedding? I would minimize the essential loads and seperate the non-essentials so that they will fall away below a certain SOC%. Not sure about the setup on the Sunsynk's but this works great on Victron systems. My AC units and borehole pump are connected to the non-essential output but the relay is set to stay closed under certain condition, for example, when the batteries are charging from solar, when grid supply is on and when battery SOC is above 50%. Anything below that the AC and borehole pump will shut down and leave me with about 8 more hours of power on essential loads. Thats enoug to last untill the sun comes up.

Connect the victron chargers directly to the batteries and make sure the charger is set to the correct battery settings (assuming you're using Victron smart chargers) the charging voltage is not that much higher than with Lead acid batteries and both systems should be safe up to at least 18v before damaging anything so in my opinion you should be safe without any extra switches or relays.