I got my EB55 out to cycle it through after the 3 month storage and get it ready for summer. When I pulled out of the box it had 80% power just like I left it 3 months ago.
My cycle process would be ever 3 months run it down to 20%, charge to 100%, run down to 80%, store.
This time, I plugged in a rice cooker to make rice and run it down to do a good charge. When i turned on the rice cooker and it surged to 800W (well below the acceptable 1400W), the 80% power quickly dropped to zero and shut off. When powering back up, got the low voltage error.
Charging with the wall charger (charged at about 210W), it was done in about 30 minutes which didn’t seem correct based on how much it should have needed. I then ran it down by charging another unit I have and it ran at 65W output for about 1.5 hours before the low voltage come on. Nowhere near the 500+wH it should have. Charged again, and then used a hotplate pulling 490W which ran for about 30 minutes. This is less than 50% efficiency.
Any ideas on this? Firmware update? Bad Cell? Time to call customer support for warranty?
@BPS Please try discharge the machine to 0%, then charge it to 100% via AC. During this time it needs to be charged continuously, with no loaded. Please try to cycle twice.
We suggest you try this first and then see if the EB55 still has this problem.
Thanks. That was my plan as well. I did one cycle yesterday where I used on a consistent load until it shut off. Charged it with AC. Then I will cycle again today. Will update when done.
UPDATE: I did the second cycle. I started using the hotplate as I did before but realized it was not continuous as it shuts off when it gets hot and then back on, so I moved to fans and lights drawing 185W. The meter showed that it went off at 200wH of use. I let it rest for a bit and then plugged in the AC charge as I would like to cycle a couple of times using the continuous fans and lights. This time, it would not start to charge immediately. I had to remove the AC charge and plug back a couple of times to get it to start. Once it started, the % charge went up to 80% and only the 100% bar was flashing which kind of indicates that it is 80% charged.
I then thought maybe it is not recognizing the charge properly. Unplugged the AC and it showed 100%! So I put the load on it again to run it down. I went off almost immediately, so it wasn’t charged.
Again I had issues getting the charge to start, but when it did, it started at the 80%.
I am going to let this go until the AC and Input show zero and cycle this through a few times over the weekend using the fans and lights so that it is continuous.
I will update you again on Monday. Just let me know if there is something else you want me to try between now and then.
The 1400 watt surge rating is for a small fraction of a second. I suspect that your battery was drained lower that indicated on the display and as mentioned below, a couple of cycles of charge / discharge will resolve that.
Thanks Scott. Giving it a try now with a consistent discharge rate of 138W. I suspect it still may take a couple of cycles as the last cycles I did used the hot plate which turned on and off. Fingers crossed.
UPDATE 2: So this weekend I cycle through the battery 4 times. I used 2 fans and a 65W light bulb that pulled a total of 138W according to the EB55 Output and 147W on my Watt Meter. No cycle ran longer than about 2:15 minutes using around 320wH. This is a terrible number. There are also other odd things going on with it. Each time I went to charge (always with the AC charger), it would not take an input until I plugged it in and out at least once, sometimes several times. It charged at between 199 and 210 Watts. The charging indicator no longer works the way it did before. When I do get it start charging, it goes all the way to 80% and only the 100% bar flashes. Prior to having this issue, it would always start at 0 and flash up to the 100%. As charge got put on it, the 20% would stay lit, then the 40% and so on.
So something is wrong. Any ideas on the next step to get this thing working again?