PixelZA

Thanks @introverter I think I need to take the batteries back again... My wife phoned me earlier, we had load shedding, wasn't 30 minutes before the inverter started beeping... I did set the cut-off voltage to 22.5V, and it does start beeping a few millivolts ahead of 22.5V, but there is definitely still not nearly enough capacity. The only thing running at the time was the computer, which according to the BMV puts a 155W load on the batteries, so 155W for 30 minutes is not right? When I left for work this morning, I confirmed, the batteries were 100% fully charged - there was 0A flowing into the batteries. I set the float voltage to 28V last night to see if it makes any difference. Unfortunately I'm not home yet, so cant access the BMV to see what happened.. But I suspect one of the two batteries started running flat again As previously asked, here is a photo of my two batteries - they plug into the inverter with a Anderson plug on the side. The wires are 16mm2, multi strand core, wire. The BMV's 500A shunt is behind that battery, and that is it Simple installation, no solar panels or anything yet (Although, at the rate my batteries are dying, probably never ) Those three wires coming through the lid (two blue and one red) laying on its side are the three wires for the Victron Balancer I mounted to the lid, and the thin red wires with the fuses are the BMV's wires.. I think I'll take that whole kit to them, as is, perhaps they can test it and advise... edit: fixed some typo's

Yes, you are right, they were in service, however I was at work so they basically only powered my router, decoder, and the TV which was in standby - the PC was switched off during that time, so they would not have seen much power drawn I went to the shop this morning with the two batteries, showed them the BMV screenshots, especially the one where the voltage dropped almost 2V in under 3 minutes.. They tested the batteries by hooking them up to an inverter and putting a load on it, and confirmed that the one battery is definitely faulty. They would have replaced both, but only had one left in stock, but said the other appears fine so it shouldn't be a problem.. I hope they're right, because my 6 month warranty is coming to an end in 2 months... Before I connected any of the batteries, the OmniPower or these "Sky King" batteries, I charged them with an external charger and let them stand for a while to ensure they are at an equal, or very close to, voltage. So I hope that I did it right, and that I didn't inadvertently mess something up at that point... The shop mentioned one thing though, they said that I can set my Bulk Charge and Float Charge voltage the same, they said my float charge of 27.6 could be a bit low, I should set it the same as the bulk charge which is 29.2V? Does that sound about right? I'm in no position to argue with them, but would like to make absolutely sure of what I'm doing... It was Sinetech who told me that the inverter should not be on the AGM setting, that its not optimized for those batteries, that it should be on user... I quote: "A pre configuration of AGM was selected which is not correct for the OPR AGM GEL hybrid batteries." This was said to me when I tried to have the batteries replaced under warranty, which they rejected because of my inverter config... It was set to the AGM mode..

I just tested the system again with the BMV connected. After drawing 4.7Ah, the mid-point voltage was at 9.4%. So I measured the batteries separately, the one battery was at 12.8V, the other was at 10.5V, even after standing for a few minutes with no load applied. So I suspect the one battery might be damaged? Is it possible for one battery in a bank of 2 to be damaged, without the other being damaged as well?

Thank you very much As mentioned, I installed the BMV earlier today, then ran my PC from the inverter for about 20 minutes before the BMV started beeping, I opened the app, and it was complaining about "midpoint voltage" - said that there was a 7% difference? I then switched on mains again, the within a few seconds the Midpoint Voltage went down to 0.40% where it is still currently at. As requested, here are my current settings, but please note that this has changed so much recently since I started troubleshooting the cause of my horrible battery life... My balancer is one exactly like this: I will take some pictures of the actual installation for you as well, will have to open the battery box, its one of those steel battery boxes large enough for 2 batteries, with the inverter mounted on top, and the balancer on the side Edit: I forgot to add, the batteries have their charging requirements on the side, they read as follow: Cycle Use: 14.5 to 14.9V Standby Use: 13.5 to 13.8V Max Initial Current: 25A

Hi all, I'm new to the forums, as well as to inverters and batteries in general, so I really hope that you will be able to guide me before I mess something up. A little more than a year ago, I purchased an RCT-Axpert 1K (24V) inverter, along with 2 x OmniPower 120 Ah batteries, which are connected in series to provide 24V. I know its not the best by any stretch of the imagination, but to me it was quite a lot of money and seemed that it should fit my needs, at the time. I have no solar panels at the moment, even though my goal is to eventually add one or two panels to start generating a little bit of my own power. The inverter acts like a UPS at the moment, charging the batteries from mains, and is only running my TV and Computer. Individually those two items consume around 100W of power each. I do not "cycle" the batteries, however I do switch off the mains to the inverter once in a while, perhaps bi-weekly, just to see the state of things, and I will run it till the inverter reaches around 24.5 - 25V then switch the mains back on. After exactly 1 year, my OmniPower batteries "died", they would not even power the computer for 10 minutes before starting to beep, even when the inverter showed they are fully charged and they are in float charge. I went and bought two new batteries, this time "SkyKing 100Ah AGM" batteries from the local solar shop around the corner, and they appear to be taking the same route as the OmniPower batteries, except much much sooner. They are now 4 months old, and they can hardly keep my PC powered for an hour. Whats odd though, when I switch on the mains so the inverter can charge the batteries, it immediately indicates that they are full again. I have a Victron Battery Balancer connected to the batteries which hardly ever indicates that they are out of balance during charge, and I ordered a Victron BMV 712 which is literally on its way to my house as I type this, but I feel that it might be too little, too late? Is there a way I can "test" the batteries to make sure they are still fine? If they are not, I might be able to get a warranty replacement since they are still so new, but I'm starting to think that its actually the inverter not treating them correctly? I have never depleted them fully, even the previous batteries, the longest they were on power was the duration of load shedding, and according to what I heard, they should be able to power my load for around 7 hours? They hardly ran for 3, so if time is any measure to go by, they should in theory not even have been discharged 50%? I guess, long story short, I really need some help to get my system sorted out, on a very tight budget, if that is even possible. I would hate to have to take out my installation, since I really enjoy at least having power when there is none provided by the utility. Even though we don't have load shedding right now, we do have a lot of shorter power interruptions. Thank you for your time (edit: So the BMV-712 just arrived, I'll be installing that within the next few minutes )