I noticed that when my unit is fully charged, disconnected from input power and there are no loads (either AC or DC) pulled, that the unit nonetheless is losing power. Within 6 hours today, the power has dropped from 100% to 88%. The unit is inside my house at 68F. I am receiving no faults. Is this normal?
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If you turn your unit off it will not drain power. To turn off, hold down the power button for five seconds. Very similar to leaving the key on in your car but not running the engine. The battery will drain because there are systems on and powered up that consume electricity.
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My $0.02 - The BMS uses power when the unit is powered ON and using the built-in inverter uses ~45W/hour, so keep that in mind when operating the unit. Pass-through charging helps minimize power draw, if you happen to have a smaller sogen attached and allow the smaller unit to use Its inverter for smaller AC loads. Use DC charging to keep the smaller sogen topped off.
The above chart indicates the AC inverter consumes 10 watts in standby (25.9 AC and DC minus the Only DC of 10.9 -minus the power on standby of 6 watts) not the 45 watts which is quite a difference over the long term.
Running DSP version 800 1.11, arm version 800 2.07, b m s version 1 1 0 6 .0 7, hmi version 700 3.0, I have observed a 45 watt inverter power draw use when using AC.
Charts are neat and all, but I believe in real life experience. Maybe yours is different
If construction Engineers built buildings the way software Engineers built software, the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization as we know it today.
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I have turned off my unit for about six weeks. I went back to start it up and couldn’t initialize it even after connecting the power brick. What is happening>
You likely did not turn the unit fully off and it sat in a discharged state of time for an extended period of time which allowed the battery to further discharge past the point the BMS could allow charging.
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Thanks Scott. Is there a solution for me? I have had the ac charger on more than 12 hrs. No solution. I can try the two pv panels but if the ac doesn’t charge then is it just a return? Seems there should be some way to get past this. An internal switch that prevents deep discharge seems like a simple Bluetti solution
Karl Dortzbach
443 570 3668
I have not seen a work around for this issue. I have seen this same issue across several brands of product and agree that the BMS system should cut off the battery completely when it reaches a minimum safe recoverable voltage.
I do know that some battery packs can be revived by charging them directly, bypassing the BMS until they reach the minimum acceptable voltage. The problem with doing that though is that is would require opening the case and working on issues that would void any warranty. I would suggest contacting Bluetti directly and I’m sure they will get you working.
thanks Scott. I appreciate your attentiveness on the forum. The bluetti has a lot going for it, but some of the bugs are going to be deadly if not fixed. This will be the third return for me. A number of the issues I had from the start have been addressed in the community forum, so I am glad it is there.
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I have seen issue of batteries failing to accept a charge due to too low voltage on most brands of these types of units. Obviously the mfg wants to state as large a battery capacity as they can but I would not argue that the lower limit cutoff is likely causing problems of units failing to charge due to low voltage. If a battery pack fails it will also go to a lower than usable voltage to charge.
I am always a little amused at how much time is spent worrying about the details of how many battery cycles (in the thousands) a person will receive when I am more concerned that my equipment works and is reliable.
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If your battery is still under warranty, talk to Bluetti to see if they can help. If it is not, or they can’t help, take the battery out and measure the cell voltages. If anyone that are way low, directly charge them with the approprite charger. Once all cells are within an operating range, reassemble and try to charge using OEM equipment. I have had this happen to me on a old Yeti power pack and was able to revive it that way.
I am sure that your fix would work. I have had this trouble multiple times. Apparently I am not turning it fully off. Bluetti has been great, this will be the fourth replacement. But fundamentally this shouldn’t happen. There is no warning in the manual about what happens if the unit is left for two days without being charged.(that is all it takes if it is not fully turned off). It means a constant baby sitting of the unit, which isn’t possible in real life. An auto switch should be easy to include in the unit. But I don’t see any way to put one outside the box, so it is a design issue.
After four replacements I would concentrate on turning the unit off fully. Hold the main power button down for three to five seconds and it will power down. A short press of the button will simply put the display in standby mode. I have my original AC200 and keep it for months in storage without losing charge. What I would suggest in the design though is to have some type of external low draw indicator light that alerts someone that the unit is in the standby mode. Or… a large main “master” power switch that clicks on and off that must be turned on and off to fully turn on or off the box. This is one case where high tech gets away from the real world.
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thanks Scott. I believe you are exactly correct. The manual does not indicate that to fully turn off the unit the power button must be fully depressed for five seconds. I have “turned it off” not realizing that I only put it into standby mode. I am not sure what function the standby mode serves since a reinitializing only takes a few seconds. The standby mode seems to encourage exactly what has happened to me. Bluetti if you are monitoring this thread I hope you make a change in your manual, and add a sticker or something to the power switch so that there is no mistaking how the unit is built. Better yet would be to install at least a warning light, and better yet a positive switch.
You may have saved Bluetti a lot of returns Scott. if anyone is following this thread. I don’t have a problem turning off the unit…adding four seconds to the turn off is simple now that I am aware of it
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here is the actual correspondence I had with Bluetti service:
Hi
Is there any understanding about why the two units I have returned now have failed so quickly?
Hi Karl,
Maybe bad luck!
OOPS how about an answer like “have you fully depressed the power button for five seconds so that it is turned off rather than being put into stand-by mode?”
I am going to guess that the standby mode allows the unit to charge on PV, and if fully off, it will not. Probably standby turns off any loads attached and simply draws for the internal operations of the unit. I suppose that might be helpful in some situations, but I struggle to figure out why that helps more than just a simple on/off that shuts down the entire thing. If there is a PV attached for charging and there are a couple of cloudy days in the winter, then poof! that unit is gone. I have had one panel always attached (190W) but that alone does not charge it. I have to have both panels working (my panels fold up on the roof so for travel only one is exposed)
I posted the suggestion of the addition of a master on/of mechanical switch on a couple brands of these units. I was not met with much agreement but I think it would be a good idea. The main purpose of the standby feature is to turn off the display and save the power consumed. But…I would much rather have the display remain on indicating the unit is powered up than to save a few (and I do mean just a few) watts of battery life. My main use for the products is to keep them charged up and then put in storage for hurricane relief. I am careful to make sure each product (various brands) is fully turned off but I think I have researched the usage of each machine more than the average casual user. Even an on and off switch, the battery should not be allowed to drain past the point of not being able to be recovered with a normal charge cycle.
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