So my DL issue is an odd one and one that I am still currently diagnosing and it might end up being a charger issue. I currently run 3X DL 12V 100A for my trolling motor and run a NOCO 10amp X 3bank charger for these. This setup has worked well for me for 2 seasons, but now one of the 3 DL batteries will not register above a 25% charge on the NOCO onboard charger. I have swapped the supposed faulty battery out to other banks of the same NOCO charger and it continues to read only 25% charged after 24hrs + of charging. Now here's the odd stuff: When the problematic DB battery is put on and entirely different NOCO charger, it reads at a full charge and when I swap a different DL battery to the same bank of the 3X NOCO charger that previously read only 25% it reads at full charge. I have tested the DL battery on a multimeter and get 12.5 off the charger, so it seems to be achieving a full charge. I was thinking this might be a faulty NOCO charger and I have spoken with their customer service and am in the process of uninstalling this charger and shipping it back to them for further troubleshooting over the winter but this has me scratching my head as to why the charger would read at only 25% for 1 specific DL battery, but it seems to be full on all other measures. DL customer support has been available via email and says that as long as the battery ready 12.5V and is placing blame on the charger and really has not offered any additional troubleshooting or support.
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I thought that the DL batteries came with an 8 A charger? If so have you tried that charger?
I take it your NOCO charger is set to lithium or AGM if the charger is not a lithium one?
12.5 volts on a lithium battery is essentially depleted, at 100% the battery should be 13.6 volts or close to that. The chart below is from Battle Born, the voltage / charge level should be about the same since the chemistry is the same.
I went to DL’s web page and couldn’t find a chart like the bb one but there is one section on this page that states level of charge etc..,and it appears to be the same as the BB one.
Have you checked your voltmeter on a known source to verify its reading accurately? I took my decades old FLUKE 77 multimeter to an electronics shop and they used my voltmeter on a battery, then used the shop voltmeter and they read the same.
Im sorry to hear that DL’s tech support has not been that helpful. One of the main reasons I shied away from DL was that I could not talk to a person in their tech section, I had to wait for an email response within 1-2 business days, and when I was emailing the DL tech support with questions it took two business days, same reason I shied from Anti Gravity batteries, and when I did get a response they either did not answer my questions or gave me wrong answers. The only two battery companies that would answer the phone for technical support were ReLion and BB, but the ReLion heated batteries could not be placed in series, big thanks to
@Can0n11 for catching that and alerting me to that fact. If I’m going to be laying out $800 bucks, or less for a LiFePO4 battery then I better be able to TALK to a tech CSR that is knowledgeable, and at BB all the CSR‘s are tech reps in addition to sales.
If you have the DL charger(s) try putting the DL chargers on the batteries to see what happens, then take a voltage reading with your tested multimeter (so the DL techs cannot say it’s your multimeter, and be sure to say that you had your multimeter checked at an electronics shop) If it’s not 13.6 or the charger doesn’t go to green then contact DL tech support and see what they say then.
From the sound of it, I’d be suspicious of the NOCO charger and here’s why. You are placing the 25% battery on a different bank of said charger and it reads 25%, then you place a fully charged (?) battery on the bad bank and it reads full. It could be the battery but it’s sounding more like a charger since using a different charger shows the 25% battery is full, but, the real test of course is charging a partially discharged battery to see what happens. I initially used a MinnKota PC MK330 10A three bank charger set on AGM (the charger that came with the boats dealer installed trolling motor battery bank) when I first got my BB batteries and I was still having the 12-14 hour charge times due to the MK 330’s algorithm, and on several occasions the center bank would take longer than the two outer banks to come to full charge so after further research I went with the Victron Energy 25A IP67 charger, now my batteries charge in 4 hours. I thought, The 100Ah lithium batteries can charge at 50A’s, so why charge at 10A’s when I can charge at 25A’s? And for my use I needed that much faster recharge time, getting home and getting the batteries on the charger at 2200 hours (10:00 pm) then wanting to head back out the next day at 0400-0500 (4-5:00 AM) and the batteries not being fully charged and having to wait to leave to let the batteries finish charging was frustrating.
Im hopeful that all of this is just the NOCO charger.
dragonflyenergy.com
