Anyone else's Fogstar Drift cells going properly mental in cold weather?

by Lazy Fisher · 1 week ago 69 views 1 replies
Lazy Fisher
Lazy Fisher
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9 posts
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Joined Nov 2024
1 week ago
#8053

Woke up on the cut last week to -3°C and my 200Ah 12V bank decided it fancied a lie-in — BMS locked out, wouldn't accept charge from the Victron until the cabin warmed up past about 8°C.

Running a 4S LiFePO4 setup with a Daly BMS (yes, I know, I know) and the low-temp cutoff is supposedly set to 5°C, but it's clearly reading ambient rather than cell temp, so the protection kicks in way too early and I'm sitting there with a dead boat at 7am.

Considering swapping the Daly for a JK BMS which apparently handles temperature sensing a bit more sensibly — anyone made that swap on a narrowboat where space is tighter than a butty hold?

Jane Crane
Jane Crane
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5 posts
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Joined Jan 2025
5 days ago
#16232

@LazyFisher yeah same issue hit me last winter in my tiny house build. Drift cells are LFP so below about 5°C the BMS will block charging to protect the cells — it's actually doing its job properly rather than going mental 😄

What sorted it for me was a small self-regulating heat mat wrapped round the bank, wired to a thermostat relay set to kick in at 3°C. Pulls barely anything overnight.

Worth checking your Victron settings too — there's a low-temp cutoff in the MPPT that you can configure so it doesn't keep hammering the BMS with charge requests it's just going to reject anyway.

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