June 29, 20232 yr Bought a backup system with hard earned and saved cash, Hubble AM-2 battery, installed by Electrician on the 24th of May. No more loadshedding, wifi and tv always working etc etc. On the 22nd of June, as loadshedding started everything just went dead, 4pm the afternoon, video called the electrician, on a Friday, said hell pop in on monday morning. Monday morning he came in, looked at all the fuses etc, the inverter still running on grid, but does not “see” the battery, tested the battery with a tester, and showed 11 volts, removed the battery and got send to Hubble Cape Town overnight the same day. just received an email this morning, “issue resolved, warranty null and void, bms was wiped with a R cable and pmbs tools, absolutely flabbergasted, no words to express my utter dismay……R 33 000 out of pocket, this is beyond belief. Not even 1 month. Im not tech savy, any advice will be much appreciated.
June 29, 20232 yr That's a bad one . I got to wonder how good these Hubble's are as a friend's am-2 on inverter shows 100% but on the inverter the volts show 44v as well with a multimeter which is flat. The lights on the Hubble shows full but yet when tested it shows 44v so this can only be an bms issues . We were told to run the inverter on user to get the battery back up to 53.6v so the bms can calibrate we have had to do this twice now if a few month don't seem right to me
June 29, 20232 yr Author I decided on Hubble based off their google reviews, and since this morning searched high and low what the issue can be. But they were not asking if I wiped the bms, they told me I did, why on God’s green earth would I wipe a battery with equipment I do not own, never mind what it is?? We had stage 3 which meant 2 hours down every other day or so, battery was fully charged when it happened, 53.5 - 54 volts, I have read up on the balancing requirement, but this a clause in their fine print to basically rob me of R 33 000
June 30, 20232 yr 5 hours ago, Connie said: I decided on Hubble based off their google reviews, and since this morning searched high and low what the issue can be. But they were not asking if I wiped the bms, they told me I did, why on God’s green earth would I wipe a battery with equipment I do not own, never mind what it is?? We had stage 3 which meant 2 hours down every other day or so, battery was fully charged when it happened, 53.5 - 54 volts, I have read up on the balancing requirement, but this a clause in their fine print to basically rob me of R 33 000 Perhaps you could ask them for evidence as in a copy of the bms log from the battery. I am not 100% sure what infomation it reflects but it might actually show when the bms was cleared and if in fact it was. Suppose at this stage you hace nothing to loose !
June 30, 20232 yr If the BMS needs to replaced out of warranty, it doesn't cost R33000. Something doesn't add up in this story. Did you buy the battery brand new of second hand? Edited June 30, 20232 yr by PowerUser
June 30, 20232 yr 11 hours ago, Connie said: I decided on Hubble based off their google reviews, and since this morning searched high and low what the issue can be. But they were not asking if I wiped the bms, they told me I did, why on God’s green earth would I wipe a battery with equipment I do not own, never mind what it is?? We had stage 3 which meant 2 hours down every other day or so, battery was fully charged when it happened, 53.5 - 54 volts, I have read up on the balancing requirement, but this a clause in their fine print to basically rob me of R 33 000 Just note that you can never trust Google reviews. Companies can have the negative reviews removed, so they end up with only good reviews even if the company is horrendous. Edited June 30, 20232 yr by HendrikBigChief
June 30, 20232 yr 12 hours ago, Connie said: Bought a backup system with hard earned and saved cash, Hubble AM-2 battery, installed by Electrician on the 24th of May. No more loadshedding, wifi and tv always working etc etc. On the 22nd of June, as loadshedding started everything just went dead, 4pm the afternoon, video called the electrician, on a Friday, said hell pop in on monday morning. Monday morning he came in, looked at all the fuses etc, the inverter still running on grid, but does not “see” the battery, tested the battery with a tester, and showed 11 volts, removed the battery and got send to Hubble Cape Town overnight the same day. just received an email this morning, “issue resolved, warranty null and void, bms was wiped with a R cable and pmbs tools, absolutely flabbergasted, no words to express my utter dismay……R 33 000 out of pocket, this is beyond belief. Not even 1 month. Im not tech savy, any advice will be much appreciated. Who wiped the BMS? The electrician?
June 30, 20232 yr 6 hours ago, warick_wrx said: Perhaps you could ask them for evidence as in a copy of the bms log from the battery. I am not 100% sure what infomation it reflects but it might actually show when the bms was cleared and if in fact it was. Suppose at this stage you hace nothing to loose ! Ask when the BMS was cleared and if you did not do it, someone else must have Ask for a quote to fix it, maybe it is a faulty BMS or cell replacement which will be better than a new battery of R33k
June 30, 20232 yr Author 8 hours ago, HendrikBigChief said: Who wiped the BMS? The electrician? nobody, they claim it was wiped,?battery is less than a month old from new
June 30, 20232 yr Author 8 hours ago, Dieter said: Ask when the BMS was cleared and if you did not do it, someone else must have Ask for a quote to fix it, maybe it is a faulty BMS or cell replacement which will be better than a new battery of R33k Dieter, lets hold thumbs, they are “willing” to replace the bms, but it feels like “shock and awe” tactics from Hubble, blaming the customer, and then displaying goodwill gestures, but lets see, I will most certainly give feedback on this when it happens
July 25, 20232 yr Author Update: hi All, so, after a struggle I managed to get my battery repaired under warranty, and it was made known to me that I was given grace…. the bms was faulty, and they replaced the bms
July 25, 20232 yr 4 minutes ago, Connie said: Update: hi All, so, after a struggle I managed to get my battery repaired under warranty, and it was made known to me that I was given grace…. the bms was faulty, and they replaced the bms Thanks for coming back. One wonders how many people will EXPERIENCE a BMS giving up the ghost.
July 25, 20232 yr Author My inverter is the 5000 watt Growatt, which comes with the data logger, and ive been getting inconsistent readings and discharges which does not make sense, it shows in a typical loadshed cycle, that the battery SOC is 10%, sometimes 20%, after showing 100% - 75% in a space of a couple minutes. If I use 1000watts, the battery should give me 5hours if its a 5000 watt battery? The hubble is 5.5kw, but only 5kw is available? Edited July 25, 20232 yr by Connie
July 25, 20232 yr 13 minutes ago, Connie said: Update: hi All, so, after a struggle I managed to get my battery repaired under warranty, and it was made known to me that I was given grace…. the bms was faulty, and they replaced the bms Grace my ***...... they knew it was faulty and was probably holding out in the hope that you would spend more money with them
July 25, 20232 yr Author Andre, I will not touch this battery again, Hubble will come and do their testing or whatever where it is mounted, but as it stands, it shows a state of charge 25%, with 900 watts use after 2 hours….
July 25, 20232 yr 1 hour ago, Connie said: Andre, I will not touch this battery again, Hubble will come and do their testing or whatever where it is mounted, but as it stands, it shows a state of charge 25%, with 900 watts use after 2 hours…. Hubble batteries uses Pace Bms's, found on many other commercial batteries. But how much control Hubble has over the BMS and the integration with inverters is questionable.
July 25, 20232 yr 26 minutes ago, TaliaB said: Hubble batteries uses Pace Bms's, found on many other commercial batteries. But how much control Hubble has over the BMS and the integration with inverters is questionable. Do you know by any chance the exact model of Pace BMS?
July 25, 20232 yr 20 minutes ago, PowerUser said: Do you know by any chance the exact model of Pace BMS? @PowerUserNo i don't and Hubble won't give you that information either. What is concerning is that Pace is the gold standard in bms's you won’t find Pace Bms online - they’re notoriously difficult to purchase unless it’s direct from the manufacturer. Maybe Hubble changed the communication protocol to suit their battery hence the reason for problems with certain inverters Victron being one of them.
July 26, 20232 yr 9 hours ago, TaliaB said: @PowerUserNo i don't and Hubble won't give you that information either. What is concerning is that Pace is the gold standard in bms's you won’t find Pace Bms online - they’re notoriously difficult to purchase unless it’s direct from the manufacturer. Maybe Hubble changed the communication protocol to suit their battery hence the reason for problems with certain inverters Victron being one of them. Problems with certain inverters, indeed, so far we know of Victron, Sunsynk/Deye and Growatt. What is left?
July 26, 20232 yr Fsckers, they use PBMTools themselves. When I had a faulty cell with SOC issues I told them the one battery shows lower SOC in PBMSTools. They tuned me to please refrain from using it. When I took my battery in to Hubble JHB they used PBMSTools right in front of me and showed me the faulty cell.
July 26, 20232 yr 17 minutes ago, WAP said: Fsckers, they use PBMTools themselves. When I had a faulty cell with SOC issues I told them the one battery shows lower SOC in PBMSTools. They tuned me to please refrain from using it. When I took my battery in to Hubble JHB they used PBMSTools right in front of me and showed me the faulty cell. I think that's fair. It's like buying a car: If THEIR mechanic uses a #13 spanner, that's OK. If YOU use a #13 spanner or get in a 3rd party mechanic, that's not OK. Their mechanic they can control, somebody else they can't.
July 26, 20232 yr 16 minutes ago, HendrikBigChief said: Problems with certain inverters, indeed, so far we know of Victron, Sunsynk/Deye and Growatt. What is left? Yep the problem is their cloak and dagger approach to many problems installers and end users are experiencing in the past and present. Rather working together with installers and end users to at least try and resolve their problems together. My preferred SA company and battery is FW they have good business ethics and open communication should their be any queries or problems. I don't see a future for Hubble if they don't change their unscrupulous ways of doing business. You have one chance in this business if your reputation is in dispute that chance flies out the window.
July 26, 20232 yr The Pace BMS typically keeps the last 400 or so events/alarms timestamped, I'd guess this is what they use to assist in their warranty-denying escapades. But wow, thats a pretty terrible customer experience.
July 27, 20232 yr I import batteries with PACE BMS. On a new 10kWh battery we found the BMS to be faulty. A quick call to my supplier and a new BMS was immediately posted. I received and fitted the BMS a day later. No issues with warranty, no arguing etc. One cannot just "wipe" the BMS, they are password protected so your electrician would need the software and password to change BMS logs etc. I doubt if he has this. If the poster likes he can contact me and I'll see if I can source him a new BMS at his cost.
December 12, 20232 yr I came across this topic when looking for additional info re. pace bms in our svolt battery. I do not think the bat. suppliers would like to leave bms settings in the hands of so called "installers", i e. "electricians" with zero knowledde of how bms works. These so called "wire pullers" ironically are ok'd by law to do solar installs. I asked my supplier for a rs232 cable to be able to use pbmstools, they apparently thought I was an installer due to the technical questions I asked about the bat. Pbmstools is a great tool for keeping a hand on your battery. Cell balancing is very important for prolonged bat. life. If one or more of the cells reach ovp, charger can shut down leaving you with a flat battery. Fortunately the pace bms goes into balance mode when ovp reached, and will keep on balancing the cells unless current is drawn from the batteries. (unfortunately the pace bms does passive balancing which may mean weaks to balance properly) My bat. bms was setup wrongly, over voltage protection was too high, and balance threshold too low. One can not start to balance cells while voltage still on the flat part of the charge curve. If I was a bat. supplier I would refuse to sell a bat. to a company who does not have personell with proper training in solar and bms setup. The additional info I was looking for, is the "gap charge" setting, if anyone can assist, it will be appreciated. For those interesting in bms setup and how it works, consider following "offgridgarage" on youtube, look for pace bms.
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.