What is the best way to wake up a lithium battery?

What is the best way to wake up a lithium iron battery?

The Facts 

If a lithium battery does not accept a full charge or does not work after an extended period of time, it may be in sleep mode.

Lithium-iron batteries are sensitive to over-discharging and should not be discharged below the battery's over-discharge voltage, the voltage of the cell is usually between 2.5 and 2.75 volts at most. Manufacturers vary in how much voltage will cause the battery to go into sleep mode.

For Enjoybot 12.8V lithium-iron phosphate batteries, the over-discharge voltage is 10V. Below 10V, the battery has no output, and controllers do not detect the battery voltage. The battery is then considered dead, and the controller will not provide power to it.

State of Charge

When determining if a lithium-iron phosphate battery has any charge remaining, first turn off the power source to the device and disconnect all wires from the battery. Next, using a voltmeter or multimeter, test the voltage of the battery; if it is less than 11.85 volts, then it may be in sleep mode.

To help you better understand Enjoybot's capacity, please refer to the table below, parameters are for reference only.

Charge

Voltage(V) Electricity(SOC)
11.85 0%
13.01 10%
13.21 20%
13.33 30%
13.33 40%
13.33 50%
13.35 60%
13.45 70%
13.45 80%
13.45 90%
13.6 100%

 

Discharge

Voltage(V) Electricity(SOC)
11.85 0%
12.91 10%
13.04 20%
13.15 30%
13.21 40%
13.23 50%
13.26 60%
13.37 70%
13.37 80%
13.38 90%
13.4-13.8 100%

Note: The twice of 12.8V LifePO4 battery SOC is 25.6V LifePO4 Battery SOC. 3 time is 38.4V LifePO4 Battery SOC. 4 time is 51.2 V LifePO4 Battery SOC.

Three ways to wake up the lithium battery

Here we introduce three ways to save a battery that has been drained too much:

Option 1: Connect to a 0V charging activation charger

Connect to a charger

Connect the charger to the battery for some minutes. If you bought an Enjoybot 12V battery, please use a lithium charger in the range of 14.6V±0.3V, this will keep the voltage within the tolerances of the wake-up feature, ensuring that the battery re-activate efficiently. If you bought an Enjoybot 24V battery, please use a lithium charger in the range of 29.2V. If you bought an Enjoybot 36V battery, please use a lithium charger in the range of 43.8V. If you bought an Enjoybot 48V battery, please use a lithium charger in the range of 58.4V. 

The LiFePO4 battery charger cannot activate the battery?

Currently, many chargers determine the status of the battery by detecting its voltage. When the charger detects that the battery voltage reaches 10V~13.4V, it judges that the battery is good and charges the battery normally; when the charger detects that the battery voltage is below 10V, it judges that the battery is bad and will not charge the battery. Therefore, most of the LiFePO4 battery charger cannot activate lithium iron phosphate batteries with no output, the charger is defined as a charger that does not have a 0V charging activation function.

For example: If your battery's BMS has a low voltage protection function, the battery voltage may be between 0~3V. We assume that the battery voltage is 0V, then your charger may not be able to detect the battery voltage, and therefore, your charger will not wake up the battery that has triggered BMS protection.

However, our 14.6V, 43.8V and 58.4V lithium battery dedicated charger, which includes a 0V charging function, can activate your 12V, 36V and 48V lithium iron phosphate batteries from sleeping mode.

We have stocks of 14.6V 10A lithium charger(Only 200ah, 280ah, 300ah, and 400ah battery can be used) and 14.6V 20A lithium charger ON SALE, please place your order if you need them.

Option 2: Connect to solar panel

Use a solar panel to charge the battery. For our 12.8V battery, you will need an 18V-36V solar panel. Disconnect MPPT/PWM solar charge controller, directly connect the solar panel to the lithium battery for 30 minutes. Please note that you need to operate in the presence of sunlight.

Option 3: Parallel connection

For example, if your lithium-iron phosphate battery is 12V-100AH, you could connect another pack of 12V-100AH batteries in parallel. Fully charged the battery and connected in parallel with the 11.85V or lower voltage battery for 30 minutes. Although this method does not guarantee 100% activation of batteries, it is still an alternative to wake up the battery.

Option 4: Use DC power to charge the battery for 30 minutes

Option 5: Warm up the battery

When temperature getting cold, the low temp cut off protection will be activated and battery will shut themselves down. We suggest you take it home and leave it for 1 day, the room temperature is usually higher, and the battery can be charged normally when it comes back up to 51.8 F.

Conclusion

We hope our article will help you re-activate your lithium-iron battery. If you have questions or demands of lithium iron batteries, please feel free to contact us.