Initial charge method

So my AC200Max arrived with about 63% of its charge intact. I’ve worked that down to about 10% now.
My question to the knowledgeable is, what is the preferred method of that initial charge to bring it up to 100% and condition it properly?
AC? PV? I kind of searched the data base but didn’t really find much.
Thank you in advance!

I don’t think there is a “preferred” method, but I charged my batteries from AC initially. The logic behind this was that it provides constant input, unlike via PV that can be interrupted for whatever reason (shade etc.).

It doesn’t really matter. Charge is a charge. Use whatever that is available and reliable.

Your AC200 Max does not know the source of the electrical power you will feed it and all sources are the same except for charging speed.

Very cool. Thank you all for the input.
It’s a new type of battery technology for me, and a sizable investment, so I wanted to approach this cautiously and make sure I didn’t hurt anything.
I’ll be researching some solar panels for this soon, so I’ll go ahead and bring it up to full with AC for now.

Thanks again everyone!

Going with an AC charge. It’s seems to be stuck at 12% so I’m giving it 5 hrs on AC then disconnect and see what I come up with as for a percentage.

Charging with it on and the percentage indicator is now rising.
The learning curve ……

So, my initial AC charge taught me the power brick light indicator needs to be red to indicate the charge is passing to the battery. For that to happen, I needed the battery in the “on” mode.

I went to a local seller the other day and bought three 250 watt solar panels along with a 30’ mc4 extension cable. Panels are used and tested as functioning fine. I’ll be mounting these on my back patio roof, and when needed I’ll simply plug my AC200Max in.
All this for $212 out the door. They also have an online store and ship. Check them out at

https://santansolar.com

Just following on from this, the manual just says to maintain battery longevity, keep the SOC at 60-80% by top up charging every few months.

Is there are any recommendation about the best thing to do when it’s first out of the box - ie should charge it to 100% first up, or drain it to empty then charge to 60%, or just leave it at 60% and top up to 60-80% every few months ?

I will be using mine purely as a backup generator for a few circuits in my house (infrequent outages); plan was to turn it off completely, and perhaps check SOC every few months if it’s not being used…

Charge it up to 100% and then drain it to 0%. Charge back to your desired level and then play with it until you are totally comfortable with all the features and then charge back to your desired charge level for storage

1 Like

Thanks Scott

Is there any issue with keeping it at close to 100% for most of the time ?

This is a great company. I bought twelve of the used 250 watt panels. The price, including shipping, was just over $1,000, and the panels have tested great. I just need to complete the mounting system for them.

I keep all of mine fully charged to 100% of the time since my purpose of having them is for emergency use. I will prob. have a tiny bit of reduced charge cycles (TINY) but I am confident my batteries will age out or have a hardware failure long before I reached the expected cycle count lifespan.

3 Likes