lifepro4

luvrbus · November 18, 2021, 04:18:11 AM

I have 1- 200 watt solar panel it seems to keep the Lifelines charged but I haven't used much power from the 2 batteries, I drew the batteries down to 50% and the inverter didn't take long to charge the 2 back to 100%.

I try to keep all the Chinese made stuff I can out of my life ,some times you have no choice

chessie4905 · November 18, 2021, 05:21:23 AM

Pretty much impossible anymore.

dtcerrato · November 18, 2021, 05:30:46 AM

Had a microwave smoke bomb a couple days ago. Panasonic website had the same brand new 2015 unit for $550! Ended up getting a very similar Panasonic unit at Sam's Club perfect in size the only difference was the key pad - $159... Made in China. Before us westerners started buying made in China goods from the internet most name brand manufactures were doing it for us - big names including the US military!? WTF?

luvrbus · November 18, 2021, 05:37:32 AM

Quote from: chessie4905 on November 18, 2021, 05:21:23 AM
Pretty much impossible anymore.

Yep I ordered a Gates water pump for my pickup the box said made in the USA lol the water pump in the plastic bag says made in China and I paid 30 bucks extra for the Gates name

,the Gates belt and tension pulley were made in the USA,hard to believe no one rebuilds water pumps anylonger and GM would put the thermostat in side the water pump

chessie4905 · November 18, 2021, 06:03:06 AM

Toughened fuel economy standards are resulting on all kinds of innovation to meet them. Aluminum bodies or beds, shorter sidewall tires, cylinder deactivation, multiple speed transmissions, variable output alternators and oil pumps, variable camshaft timing, start stop, etc.Some successful, some not.

luvrbus · November 18, 2021, 06:09:23 AM

Quote from: chessie4905 on November 18, 2021, 06:03:06 AM
Toughened fuel economy standards are resulting on all kinds of innovation to meet them. Aluminum bodies or beds, shorter sidewall tires, cylinder deactivation, multiple speed transmissions, variable output alternators and oil pumps, variable camshaft timing, start stop, etc.Some successful, some not.

People are in for a sticker shock when they have a starter replaced on the new start and stop engines dumb idea a starter inside the bell housing lol that is probably a 2k starter replacement I saw one being replaced at the Chevy dealer

oltrunt · November 18, 2021, 07:46:52 AM

Replacing the water pump on my 2017 Ford Explorer costs $1200 because it is inside the block behind the timing chain cover. If the shaft seal gives up it fills the engine with antifreeze--bye bye engine! Jack

Jim Blackwood · November 18, 2021, 09:47:35 AM

Thanks Don, I don't remember ever seeing anyone here say you could use a regular battery charger with Lifepo batteries before so I just assumed they needed something special. That actually does make a pretty big difference in the decision about what to buy.

Can you imagine a whole container full of those things if the seal on one failed and air got to it? Man the life boats!

That starter in the bellhousing thing is actually a really good idea if they use a brushless motor. Nothing but a winding inside to go bad and it can only fail by overload, physical damage, or poor quality control at manufacturing. No built in finite lifespan, it could last forever. Plus being so large diameter it wouldn't take much to generate a whole lot of torque. I don't know why they haven't done it sooner, but it probably took rail gun technology to kick start it.

Jim

chessie4905 · November 18, 2021, 09:50:56 AM

good to check owner repair reviews before buying, unless doing own work. The afm on new models is a killer if it goes out. Same with failing torque converters. Metal particles go through whole transmission.

windtrader · November 19, 2021, 09:07:55 PM

Jim - the one caveat about using any charger is to ensure the output of the charger is in the range of the battery pack. A general guideline is .5c to 1.0c of rated pack. If you ran a small pack, you'd need to be more careful to not exceed pack charge capacity.

Dave5Cs · November 20, 2021, 12:39:48 PM

Don, Speaking of that my Victron 100/50 is over charging these past few days at 101.9 when normal is no more than 98.6 and alert says #33 which is over voltage. For the day 2 panel each 2 are 97.00 Volts of 6 are all 250 watts each panel. Just started doing it. Inverter is turned off right now but panels keep the 8 6volt batteries charged all the time. Any ideas?
Maybe need to go to a 200/ 50

windtrader · November 22, 2021, 05:05:36 PM

Hi Dave,

Not sure it is anything abnormal or especially anything wrong with the equipment. The charge controller is doing what it is supposed to. I don't think a percent or two is causing any harm. And they advertise them as "smart" so maybe the programming is making some small adjustments to max the performance.

Size of the charge controller is determined by the size of the array and ability to handle current.

The manual is here I believe for your unit. https://www.victronenergy.com/upload/documents/Manual_SmartSolar_MPPT_100-30__100-50/MPPT_solar_charger_manual-en.pdf

windtrader · November 23, 2021, 09:44:16 AM

Dave- Are you referring to the SOC number? If it is reading at/near 100% it is fine. If it is slightly over 100%, it probably is the calculation. SOC is based on the amount of energy available for you battery pack. And that is either set or dynamically calculated based on measuring the current flowing from the charged state to empty state. And ideally you define what those thresholds are based on voltage. There is limits to full and empty voltages based on the battery chemistry. Generally, you'll want to stay within 80% as the typical amount of energy to discharge. You get far more cycles that way. You can discharge the batteries to the max, gaining maybe getting that added 10-15% energy but the cost is a the number of cycles goes down a lot if pushed hard. Hope that helps, you got my number