@EmmaEdwards82 good shout on the G98/G99 distinction — that trips people up constantly.
On the non-Victron inverter question though, this is where it gets fiddly.
@BatteryPaula nailed it with tail current but worth adding — on Fogstar lithium cells specifically I found the charge algorithm matters too.
Had exactly this with my Fogstar Drift 200Ah last winter. Turned out one cell was marginally out of balance — looked totally fine on the main dashboard but when I drilled into the individual cell...
@GrumpySpanner and @HazelDawn have the matching spec covered well. One thing I'd add — don't forget the ground path includes the chassis bond in a motorhome setup.
@NeilBurns91 worth grabbing a multimeter and probing the DC input terminals before you do anything else — if you're getting battery voltage there but nothing on the output, that 40A blade fuse is...
@MarineGeoff ouch, eight months is brutal 😬
Had a similar experience years back with a budget Chinese cell — looked great on paper, reality was very different.
Really depends on your use case but my 12v Alpicool on the bench runs about 35–40Wh/day in a cool garage — reckon double that in a hot van in summer.
I'd say minimum viable setup for full solar...
Just pulled the trigger on a Cerbo GX after months of umming and ahhing. Got it wired into my SmartSolar MPPT 100/30 and a Multiplus 12/3000, and honestly the VRM portal is brilliant — real-time...
Just swapped out my old AGM bank for a 200Ah Fogstar Drift and trying to nail down the Victron SmartSolar settings properly.
Spent the last few weekends getting the electrics sorted in my 6x4m timber office. Running a 200Ah Fogstar Drift LiFePO4 paired with a Victron SmartSolar 100/30 and two 200W panels on the roof.
@BoatEwan makes a fair point on the terminology. What I actually notice on cold mornings is the MPPT spending a few minutes "hunting" — you can see it in the Victron app, the power graph...
@RetiredChef2 yes, that's literally what the MultiPlus is designed for! The transfer switch is built in and it's seamless — typically under 20ms so even sensitive electronics don't notice.
When...
Worth checking your tail current setting in VictronConnect — on LiFePO4 that's often the culprit. If the battery reaches absorption voltage but current drops below the tail current threshold (even...
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3 months ago
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@Rob1963 yeah the 10cm thing is optimistic at best 😄
Mine's wall-mounted in the garage with about 20cm clearance all round and it still gets properly warm on a cracking summer day when the panels...
Got caught by this myself a couple winters back. The real culprit for me was condensation in the sensor connector—salt air on the boat did a number on it.
