Lithium Battery - severe test and a pass
Last spring, in making our Wolf Pup 18TO able to boondock, I contracted with Bend Battery of Bend Oregon to install four 100AH Battleborn Lithium Ion batteries, Victron Energy’s Color Control GX monitor and multiplus equipment and several Renogy solar panels. Bend Battery did a superb job and provided me, an engineer but new to solar, with a block diagram, so I could understand how everything was wired together. I originally wanted to have the capability to tilt the solar panels, but they were so concerned with my safety on the RV roof, they strongly recommended against titling. I took their recommendation.
Last summer, we had planned to camp in national parks where shore power was not available, but the pandemic forced us to stay close to home. For our first night camping, we were connected to shore power at a RV park. My son and I went whitewater rafting for the day. When we returned, we found a dead RV with A/C switched on as it was a warm day. No power at all- no 110 volt, no 12volt - nothing. I checked the shore power plug connection and found our plug had worked its way out of the RV park’s power socket which disconnected shore power completely. We had inadvertently drained the batteries to zero! I didn’t know if the batteries would survive as a I remembered lead acid batteries would not have, so I was facing a real problem here
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I plugged the connector back in and checked to assure it was securely in. After several agonizing minutes, the Victron color monitor finally showed 1% capacity. Many minutes later, the monitor showed 5% and the RV’s lights came on. It took a few hours for the batteries to reach 100% and everything worked. I have not had a problem since.
This severe test showed that the engineers at Battleborn and Victron Energy had done a superb job of protecting the batteries from incidents like this and that the Bend Battery installation stood up to this test. I hadn’t intended for this to happen, but bad stuff sometimes happens. If I hadn’t had lithium batteries, I would have destroyed the lead acid battery and would have had to scramble to find a replacement battery, so we would be able to continue our camping trip.
If you want to go solar and live in central Oregon, I highly recommend Bend Battery for the installation. They are extremely knowledgeable, friendly and very safety conscious. Ask for Jacob or Taylor. They will work with you to make a great installation.
I also highly recommend using Battleborn Lithium batteries and Victron Energy equipment. Maybe other brands would have fared as well, but I now know and have proved that these products are engineered to survive this kind of severe test.
I could not be happier with the results. Five stars for all.
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