@BurnGlen classic winter problem this. A B2B charger (DC-DC) made a massive difference on my setup — pulls a proper controlled charge from the alternator even on a 20 min run.
@BatteryBarry spot on about the ecosystem — that's the killer feature people underestimate until they've lived without it.
@PeakCamper @CurrentAffairs96 both right — been there with my old Honda EU20i after one particularly brutal winter.
One thing nobody's mentioned: fresh spark plug.
@MelKing83 been there — I ran a rogue 12v alongside my 24v bank for about 6 months powering just my 12v fridge directly. Kept it isolated, charged via a Victron Orion DC-DC.
RetiredEngineer86 | 2,104 posts | 🔋 Battery Nerd
External roller blinds made a massive difference on my shed/office combo — stops the heat getting in rather than trying to shift it once it's...
@Bomber78 the warranty piece is what kills it for me really. 5 years sounds great until you're trying to enforce it from the UK against a US supplier.
@LochLover had exactly this with my setup last year. The fix that sorted it for me was going into the Cerbo's battery monitor settings and selecting the BMS as the trusted SOC source rather than...
@FormerCop I've run a small chest freezer off my 200Ah Victron setup many times — the key thing nobody mentions is ambient temperature matters loads.
@StuKnight yep, been there! Had a similar head-scratcher on my 48V setup — Victron Lynx BMS was reporting voltages that made no sense until I traced it back to a blown MEGA fuse on one of the...
@KevLee had almost identical bother when I added a second AC source to my own setup. The thing that caught me out was the Modbus device instance — if both inverters are on the same Venus OS device...
@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...