Charger 1 - can this drain my car's battery?

Product Discussion Accessories
1

I’m a bit confused about something. I’ve installed the Charger 1 according to the instruction, and connected it to my battery. I assumed that it had some kind of circuitry that detected if the car is on, and if it isn’t, it would shut off. But I now find this isn’t the case - that it will shut off after 30 minutes after the car has been turned off. Which means that it is running off of the battery. I tested this - I can see the green LED in the Charger 1 and after I stopped and locked my car (which shuts off everything - dome lights, headlights, etc), the light in the Charger 1 was still lit. It is only after I flip the breaker that the light turns off (proving it isn’t somehow getting power from the Bluetti).

I really don’t want this to happen. That’s all good if the battery is brand new, but if the battery is more than a few years old (like mine is), leaving the car door open for 30 minutes with the dome lights on can drain my battery to the point that I get a “low battery” warning. So although I am going to replace my battery, I really don’t want the Charger 1 to be drawing it down after the car has been turned off.

Is there some way to prevent this? I can’t find anything in the documentation that tells me how the Charger 1 has safeguards against draining my car’s battery.

Thanks!

1 Like
2

@Nozzie
The issue isn’t with your car battery - replacing it won’t solve this problem.
Charger1 is designed to wait until reaching the shutdown voltage after detecting engine turn-off before powering down. Otherwise, the LED indicator remains constantly lit (this indicates standby mode, not active charging).

3

So to clarify - The Charger 1 will continue to charge the Bluetti battery after the the car/alternator is shut down. It wil continue to draw from the car until the car battery drops to a preset voltage. Do I have that right? Is there a setting for this in the app?

4

Yes, that’s right.
There’s no way to set this in the app, it’s automatically controlled by the software.

5

An alternative is to use use a 12v D+ which would only energize the C1 when the ignition is turned on.

6

I’ve found this thread while searching.

I have recently installed an Apex 300 and charger 1 to my campervan.

I thought it was strange that there was no D+ signal to activate the charger 1 on ignition, I thought it would detect increased voltage from the alternator?

I came out to a flat starter battery today. :worried:
So the charger 1 continues to drain the starter battery when the engine is off?

The manual says:
Plus, it smartly detects your car battery’s voltage to prevent drainage, so you’ll never be left without power on your adventures.

It also says:
Deactivate CHARGER 1 by either turning off the vehicle or using the app before
changing the cables.

The two statement are contradictory.

What is the shutdown voltage of the charger 1?

If I deactivate charging for the charger 1 in the bluetti app, will this prevent battery drain?

I can’t access the circuit breaker easily due to where is is installed.

Could the firmware be updated to activate on increased voltage (provided from the alternator when engine running)?
I think the charger 2 does this.

Thanks

7

I think a safe solution is to fit a victron battery protect between the starter battery and charger 1.

The smart version enables configurable voltages.

This really shouldn’t be necessary though!

8

I have tried disabling charger 1 via the app, but it randomly turns itself back on.

It seems the safe solution is either:
Use the circuit breaker if accessible
Or
Install victron battery protect to disconnect / reconnect automatically.

This is a major oversight with the charger 1, hopefully it can be resolved via firmware and app updates.