looking more and more like battery problem

My thoughts too.

Well.... The jury has returned and the verdict is.....BOTH 260Ahr Preditor batteries FAILED. On the 1st slow draw down test 1 battery lasted 40 minutes and the other 30 minutes. On the 2nd draw down test 1 battery lasted smidge over 40minutes and other was still being tested but wasn't looking good. Battery bloke said he expected at least 500 minutes as batteries were march 2020. The answer is lithium but the question is 1 x 200 or 2x 120, Gunna do a bit or research i think. Thank you one and all.

Well, at least it's an easy if not so cheap fix.
Any chance of a warranty claim. ?

Bass wrote:

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Well.... The jury has returned and the verdict is.....BOTH 260Ahr Preditor batteries FAILED. On the 1st slow draw down test 1 battery lasted 40 minutes and the other 30 minutes. On the 2nd draw down test 1 battery lasted smidge over 40minutes and other was still being tested but wasn't looking good. Battery bloke said he expected at least 500 minutes as batteries were march 2020. The answer is lithium but the question is 1 x 200 or 2x 120, Gunna do a bit or research i think. Thank you one and all.

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 I've been away camping for a few days without internet, but glad to hear the fault has been found, and it actually sounds like your fridge is quite efficient.

In regards to you purchasing lithium, I would tend to buy 2 batteries of equal Amperage as then if one fails you have one to keep you out of trouble. Make sure you can run the batteries in parallel and wire them up accordingly, and you should get many years of service from them.

I think the biggest/hardest choice now will be what brand to buy, I am relatively new to lithium 12v but it is my belief that if the cells are 3.2v nominal then you only need 4 cells, unlike a lot of these drop in replacement batteries flogged cheaply on the net that contain 28+ cells and a lot of them are way over rated, I noticed in the section on teardown batteries that Whenarewethere showed a victron battery that only had 4 cells, this is in my opinion how a battery should look. I only found one supplier when I was looking for a drop in replacement that had only 4 cells in his batteries but then took the plunge to make my own, which the cells and BMS should arrive in the next week or 2.

So I will keep everyone informed how that goes, as I test the capacity of each cell before assembly (and no I will not be testing the tester ).

-- Edited by peatop on Thursday 14th of October 2021 02:40:26 PM

 

Terryt wrote:

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What is your solar/battery setup. Must be huge (talking to Yobar)

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Used to have 9x190 watt Trina panels (1710 watts) but broke a couple on dirt roads.Impossible to get replacements,as they were an older model,and I could not fit physically bigger panels amongst the remaining 190s.Took them all off,and ditched them,but replaced with 6x275 watt Suntech Polys.(1650 watts) In the van I have a 5kw Victron inverter (plus 2kw Victron in car as a totally separate system for beer fridge!) and 540ah Victron Lithium Batteries. (6x90ah). Car has 2x90ah Victron Lithium batteries.Where I presently am travelling,it was 40 degrees yesterday,and again today it is 40 degrees,so I left my 2.5kw MHI AC running all night. Batteries dropped to 88% overnight,and were back at 100% just after 10am. Cheers YobaRR

Terryt wrote:

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impressive

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 x2 and I thought I was doing ok now

second thoughts

-- Edited by PeterD on Tuesday 19th of October 2021 01:28:34 PM

Mike Harding wrote:

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Bass wrote:

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Would of liked to put Victron in but $$$$$$$$

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Victron make some brilliant inverters and solar controllers but I would not buy Victron batteries because, afaik, Victron do not make batteries so are rebadging another and, I suspect, putting a hefty profit margin on the battery. Find a reputable manufacturer (Powersonic amongst other) and buy their product.

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 Hey Mike I had a quick look on the EV website and their batteries seem to be worth looking at or investigating as a drop in replacement, although I didn't go much further than looking at the build and price but for around $750 for a 4s 12v it seems ok to investigate for someone going down that path?

Oh wait I just looked again and they use,

" Whats Inside the Box?
One thing that differentiates EV Power from other Lithium battery suppliers is that we know what is in the box and we also tell the client what is in the box. In addition our phone App allows the customer to see exactly what is happening with the cells in the battery. Our EVH batteries use high quality cylindrical cells of the 32700 size format, LiFePO4 3.2V 6Ah. Internally the cells are spot welded in a 20P4S format into a rigid, vibration proof unitary structure. We are aware of a disinformation campaign suggesting that cylindrical cells are inferior to prismatic (box shaped) cells, this is false. We have experience with both cell types over 13 years and the defining factor is the quality of manufacture of cells and battery packs. Tesla Electric Vehicles use cylindrical cells of a similar format."

-- Edited by peatop on Tuesday 19th of October 2021 02:07:06 PM

Well Well Well, Update on fridge sarga seems i got ripped off by the installers who originally upgraded system, predater batteries where redated when put in, solar controler started playing up when connected to new batteries so pulled it out Made in china ( no problem there ) but DATE OF MANAFACTURE, JAN 2010 bloody thing was 10years old when installed and used. new Victron controller installed. All going perfect fridge doing what it is suposed to and all's well in my world UNTILL other day 39 degs, in park on 240 volt fridge not copeing, fridge running flat out on fast freeze and just keeping frezer at - 5 degs, any other setting and temp goes to positive , at 6pm fridge -1.5 deg. by 3am fridge finally down to -21 degs, next day 38 deg same story. my 50lt Waceo from car put in van and set to -2 deg no problems. SO I removed the 240 volt wires from fridge and ran it on 12volt that seemed to work a bit. at home now and van out in sun 28degs and all good. Pricing 3 way fridges had enuf this bloody thing.

I have done lots of tests on my 28L fridge. The lowest I got it to was -25°C. 

When I ran it for 72 hours straight in a heated room at 35°C & sometime heated to 40°C. It had no issues cooling, but I did notice that it generally could only cool to about 45°C below ambient temperature. So if it is 45°C you will only get it down to 0°C. 

 

So in hot environments like a car or the sun hitting the side of the caravan where the fridge is, one could easily have +60°C and the fridge will struggle.

 

It is clear in very hot ambient temperatures a fridge needs really good air flow through the condenser, good insulation, away from sun and extra heavy wire to the battery to get that last 0.1 volt instead of going up in heat through thin wiring.

 

So look at the fridges data sheet at how many degree is can reduce by.

In yachts you can get water cooled condencers for fridge units. On the cray boat i worked the cool room refrigeration had water cooled condencer/heat exchanger which was fed water from the pump supplying the well.

Bass, just ensure they guarantee they install to the manurfacturers requirements. Few 3 way fridges are. And thats the problem.

Hello Bass we have a 210l evakool 12v fridge and have the same problem since day one. 2 x 120ah agm batteries and 340w of solar. Could never keep up with the fridge and everything else so i installed another panel all to no avail. Another vent and a fan all to no avail. Being a fridgie i decided the thermostat was at fault but discovered it wasn't the problem. Did some homework on the fridge (which is not avail anymore because i believe the fridge is too big for the compressor) and found out that the manual indicates the fridge draws about 2.5amps but doing some homework on the danfoss/secop BD50 compressor i know draws about 5 amps @ -20 sst on a 38 deg day which it is where i come from. The -20 sst refers to the suction temp of the refrigerant in the evaperator equating to about -15 in the freezer. The BD50 in the evakool runs at full speed which is 3500rpm and needs to because it is undersized for the fridge. I decided to install a bushman 190l fridge but first rang bushman and asked the amp draw. I was told approx 2.5amps and when i asked what speed they run the BD50 (it has a various speeds depending on how it is setup with diodes) i was told 3500rpm which still equates to 5 amps @ -20. I explained this to the bloke at bushman and he agreed the 2.5amps was @ about 25 ambient. So that ended the bushman installation as i would be nearly back to square one although not completely because the bushman was a smaller fridge and was kinder to the compressor. Still pulling my hair out as you did nearly 2 years down the track i really began to believe that although i had a uneconomical fridge power wise the agm's would never handle it. I researched lithiums and i am glad i did. Installed 2 x 120 ah lithiums and overnight my hair started growing back. I would wake up in the morning with still half or more of the batteries remaining as opposed to no batteries and 11 volts. As we know the agm's don't like to be drawn down deyond 50% and that was the problem. My uneconomical fridge was using about 100 ah a day thus leaving approx 20ah for everything else, whereas the lithiums can be drawn down to almost nothing and still perform. If the fridge used 100ah i was still left with at least 100ah for everything else which is more than enough. All i can say now is "lithiums rock" and the expense was well worth it as i sleep now and no longer get up a 3am to check the battery meter. Hope this helps

Was there ever a solution found to this by bass?