Reactivate depleted lithium batteries

[jmhigh]

Hi. New to forum. Have Hymer Carado with lithium batteries and underhood charger. Batteries depleted. How can I safely bring them back to life so as to charge? Use batteries charger or another hot battery?? Thanks

[rowiebowie]

Originally Posted by jmhigh

Hi. New to forum. Have Hymer Carado with lithium batteries and underhood charger. Batteries depleted. How can I safely bring them back to life so as to charge? Use batteries charger or another hot battery?? Thanks

Welcome to the forum jmhigh!

Search for other posts regarding Etrek lithium problems. A couple of sources have been mentioned that will service those batteries. But if they're shot, a remedy won't be cheap. Sorry.

[booster]

This might help if you don't have it already, as it says how to get the batteries to come on if they don't with normal turn on.


https://www.roadtrek.com/wp-content/...il-24-2017.pdf

[hbn7hj]

I would charge with 13.5 volts and see what happens. You can search for "restoring lithium batteries." There is info there.

Restoring a lithium battery is one thing, getting an Etrek module back on line is another. The info you need is on other threads and the link provided.

[Nic7320]

Be afraid. Be very, very afraid. You are playing with fire.

And... enough with the movie sound-bites! But you are dealing with a significant fire risk dealing with abused lithium cells. First, I would not leave the batteries in the coach while trying to revive them. Try all your science projects in a fire-safe location. Second, pay strict attention to the battery temperature. If the batteries have a working BMS (Battery Management System), much of this is handled, but be forewarned the BMS may only be programmed to deal with normal State Of Charge depletion, and won't know what to do beyond that.

It might be time for an expert. One with adequate insurance.

[Belzar]

If your ecotreks are like mine: Being off does not necessarily mean they are fully "depleted". The BMS is designed to shut the batteries down due to charge/draw/temp to protect them. Turn battery switch to on. Hold reset for 5-10 seconds and release. Idle, or better yet, drive vehicle for 30-60 minutes. Hopefully this will 'wake up" the batteries and then you can plug in and charge as normal.

(Don't get too excited about the alleged "fire hazard". The batteries in your van have different chemistry than the early lithiums that had reported issues...you don't see many Teslas and Toyotas burning on the side or the road

[csaeger]

There is a carado and sunlight owners Facebook group who have a lot of collective experience with this kind of thing. In the files section of the greoup there is a document specifically called resetting Ecotreks.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/461889954253973/

[falfal3]

Same thing happened to me after I got my 2017 Axion. I was told to hook a battery charger to the outputs of the inverter/charger (red to red, blach to black) and leave charger on overnight (approx 10 hrs). Sure enough, next day all was back working properly. Best of luck.

[booster]

Originally Posted by falfal3

Same thing happened to me after I got my 2017 Axion. I was told to hook a battery charger to the outputs of the inverter/charger (red to red, blach to black) and leave charger on overnight (approx 10 hrs). Sure enough, next day all was back working properly. Best of luck.

Was that an old school fixed output charger, I suspect, so that it would start charging or was the AGM still charged enough so it could be a smart charger?

[falfal3]

Just an old car battery charger I had laying around, I set it to 2 amps/12vdc.