Request To Victron To Provide Documentation On Storing Victron Smart Batteries At Lower SOC

Right, so this is something that's been gnawing at me for a while now, particularly as I'm leaving the narrowboat unattended for increasingly longer stretches over winter.

We all know the drill with LiFePO4 — park it at 40-50% for any extended storage, not rammed full to the gills at 100%. The chemistry is well understood at this point. What's not well understood, at least from Victron's end, is how they expect owners of Victron Smart Batteries to actually achieve this in a documented, warranty-safe way.

The Victron ecosystem is brilliant — don't get me wrong — but trying to configure a DVCC setup to deliberately settle at a lower SOC for seasonal lay-up, without bodging something together from forum posts and crossed fingers, is frankly a faff. There's no official application note that I can find covering this specific scenario. Victron's documentation covers bulk/absorption/float till the cows come home, but storage SOC management? Tumbleweeds.

My specific questions for anyone who's actually tackled this properly:

• Have you raised this directly with Victron UK or via a dealer?
• Is anyone using a scheduled assistant or ESS workaround to hold a lower charge target during lay-up periods?
• Does doing so affect your warranty position on Smart Batteries?

I'd genuinely like to see this community put a formal, collective request to Victron to publish a proper application note. Their competitors manage it. Fogstar, for instance, are far more forthcoming with practical storage guidance on their cells.

Anyone else fed up enough to actually push for this, or am I shouting into the void again?

@Boycie25 Victron's silence on long-term storage SOC is deafening for a "smart" battery range — my Fogstar Drift at least came with a clear "store at 50%" sticker, which is more than I can say for the blue corner. 📄

Worth firing a proper support ticket rather than hoping the docs materialise — in my van I just set a scheduled charge to top to 50% a fortnight before I abandon ship for winter, but a narrowboat sitting unattended is a different beast entirely given the damp.

Someone on here must have had a direct response from Victron UK about this — @anyone with a distributor contact, now's the time to earn your forum karma. 🏆

Storing mine at around 50% over a fortnight away and it's been fine — two winters now with no drama. The Victron app does let you set a storage charge voltage if you're running a Multiplus or similar, which at least gives you some control even if the documentation is vague.

What actually bothers me is there's no clarity on whether the internal BMS is doing anything protective during extended storage or whether it's essentially passive. For lead-acid there's decades of guidance. For these... silence.

@NaeClue makes a fair point about Fogstar being more forthcoming. Their published specs actually reference storage recommendations explicitly.

Might be worth raising it directly through a Victron dealer rather than waiting on forum responses — sometimes the technical teams respond better through that channel than official support tickets.

@Boycie25 This hit close to home — I went through exactly this when I built out my tiny house system and started leaving it for weeks at a time.

What finally worked for me was configuring a scheduled charge in VictronConnect to top up to 80%, then letting natural self-discharge bring it down gradually rather than actively discharging to a storage voltage. Not perfect, but it's a workaround for Victron's silence on the matter.

The frustrating part is that Fogstar publish actual numbers in their documentation — specific storage voltage ranges, expected self-discharge rates, the lot. Victron are selling premium kit and can't be bothered to tell you how to look after it properly when unattended.

I'd genuinely support a formal request thread to push them on this. Their community forum does occasionally yield responses from Victron staff if enough people pile in.

Good shout @Boycie25 — this gap in Victron's docs has caught me out too with my boat setup.

Worth knowing that LiFePO4 chemistry is actually pretty forgiving for storage compared to other lithium types. The general consensus from battery engineers (not just forum wisdom) is:

• 40-50% SOC is the sweet spot for extended storage
• Self-discharge is minimal — we're talking maybe 1-3% per month
• Temperature matters more than SOC for LiFePO4 longevity

Practically speaking, I use a Victron SmartSolar with a storage float profile disabled, just charging to ~50% then disconnecting loads before I leave. The VRM portal lets you monitor remotely which helps peace of mind.

@LiFePO4Fan two winters at 50% backs this up perfectly. I'd push Victron support directly via their community portal — they're more responsive there than through dealers in my experience.