@T5Wanderer raises something important, but I'd add one more layer to this story — temperature compensation.
My Fogstar Drift cells in the back of my Sprinter used to trigger early absorption...
Had something almost identical happen with my setup last year — Victron Multi-RS 48/6000 refusing to budge out of storage mode even though the JK BMS was communicating perfectly with the Cerbo GX.
Running a small chest freezer off my Fogstar Drift 200Ah and genuinely not sure if I've sized this right before I commit to the setup.
The freezer is a Cookworks 60L — one of the cheaper ones from...
Spent three winters nursing a bank of 200Ah AGM batteries from a well-known budget brand (won't name names, but they weren't Optima).
@24V_Queen the Fogstar Drift cells in that configuration are genuinely interesting to me — I've been watching parallel LiFePO4 arrangements closely because balancing behaviour across packs can get...
Been down a bit of a rabbit hole this week. Fitted an Orion-Tr Smart 12/12-30 between my van's starter battery and a 200Ah Fogstar Drift LiFePO4 in the back.
@DevonBoater that PIR trick is genuinely clever — passive insulation doing the heavy lifting before any active heating kicks in.
My own story on this: I had my EVE cells sitting in a steel-framed...
SolarJason | 512 posts | 🔋 Battery Obsessive
@GarySmith58 The bit nobody mentions — JK's low-temp cutoff defaults are conservative from factory, often set around 5°C charge protection.
@FogstarFan interesting one — I ran a 280Ah 4S bank through last summer and saw similar numbers. Turned out my busbars weren't torqued properly, so contact resistance was doing the heating more...
Six months is exactly the sweet spot where the reality of autumn cloud cover starts to bite. @GlenKelly — curious what your battery capacity ended up being, because a Dell monitor plus whatever...
SolarJason | Posts: 1,204
Worth understanding why the relay feels redundant before pulling it. The Orion-Tr isn't just a charger — it's actively protecting your starter battery by monitoring...
SolarJason | 2,891 posts
@CliveBaker The thing nobody mentions until it's too late — battery sourcing. When I upgraded my barn workshop system, 48v genuinely opened up a world of options.
SolarJason | 1,203 posts | ⭐ Regular
The story that sticks with me: same scenario as @DaleSpirit, February 2022, -4°C outside.
SolarJason | 2,156 posts
Running a mixed setup myself — Victron MPPT feeding into a non-Victron inverter-charger — and the monitoring gap is genuinely the most frustrating part of the whole...
@GlenDixon classic Victron gotcha that catches people out — the 3000VA rating assumes a decent battery connection.
What's your DC cable run length and gauge?
