Hey guys,

I have a 16x 12 v 200 Ah AGM batteries linked to 2x Axpert 5KVa inverters, monitored through a Victron BVM-712 and ICC-Pi.

I don't have any battery balancer at the moment. Should I get some?

The battery midpoint deviation value seems to increase significantly recently. (see screenshots)

Thanks for your help!

 

Hi Marcel

Balancing your batteries is of utmost importance if you are using lead acid/ agm / gel batteries. We have discussed this quite a few times on the forum already. All these types of batteries requires balancing, irrespective of the brand name. A set of batteries not equalised / balanced, will have a shorter lifetime than those balanced, and you will almost always end up with a battery in the bank, collapsing before the other 3 partners. We all know that it is not viable to replace 1 battery in a bank of 4, hence the need for a battery balancer. I found that the HA-02 balancer is doing a fine job in doing this and hence the reason for my distributing it in South Africa. I have sold many of them to the forum members and has never had anyone complaining about them not doing the job.

Point is you have to balance the batteries, no matter what device you choose to do it with

Hope this is of some use to you.

Chris-R

Hey Chris.

Thanks a lot. That's a lot of help.

Makes you wonder how come installers don't propose it from the beginning! 

I my case of 4x4 batteries, I need one balancer per group of 4 batteries?

Cheers.

Edited July 16, 20205 yr by Marcel Cerdan

You can link the batteries across the strings and use one balancer, but if they are way out of balance, with 4 batteries, one balancer may not be able to pass enough current and blow the fuses on the interlinks (they are supposed to have a 5A fuse). 

Seems that not all people can hear this, but when you first connect up an HA02 to an unbalanced bank it emits a very high pitched whine until the batteries come into balance. Just FYI in case you hear it.

Edited July 16, 20205 yr by DeepBass9

Thanks DeepBass9. If I hear it, at least, I won't go in panic mode now 😂

I've been on the forum store and can't find those HA-02 balancer. Where do you guys get them from?

Chris imports them.

14 minutes ago, Marcel Cerdan said:

Thanks DeepBass9. If I hear it, at least, I won't go in panic mode now 😂

If you don't hear it, YOU MAY BE GOING DEAF!!!!!! LOL.

Looking at your ICC settings, you batteries are not far out. I see the load is very low. I have 2 x HA02s on my bank, and I see on my BMV that the voltage difference is generally zero, except if there is a large load all of a sudden, or if the load or charge current is very low.

Thanks, I'm looking for balancer ASAP, before it's too late!

We are currently out of stock, but should arrive within the next ten days, if you interested

Sure! What would be the cost?

How many units do I need?

I have 2 x 4 batteries inside the roof and then 2 x 4 batteries outside on the flat roof. Here is a picture of one of the bank.

 

On 2020/07/16 at 3:38 PM, Chris-R said:

We are currently out of stock, but should arrive within the next ten days, if you interested

Have you got stock now on HA02? I need for my 3 strings of 48v bank.