Not the cells that fail it is the battery Management System!
Hi all,
"The Weak Link - The BMS
We now have a few years of experience with lithium-ion batteries, and what is becoming clear is that while the LiFePO4 cells hold up very well, that is not the case with the Battery Management System (BMS). Overall the number of prematurely failed batteries is small, but with 10,000+ batteries sold it is clear that in 99% of cases it is the BMS that fails, turning the battery into an expensive piece of gender-neutral-cave decoration!
While we very much advocate for using batteries with a build-in BMS (without one the battery would be unsafe and likely fail very quickly!), manufacturers struggle to make their BMS as bullet-proof as it should and needs to be. Surge currents due to the input capacitors of large inverters, motors, and air-conditioners can and at times will kill the BMS, rendering the battery useless.
At least one well-known battery manufacturer is now enforcing their warranty conditions to the letter, and that requires the use of an external current limiter when their batteries are used with large inverters (“large” being defined as 3,500 Watt and up). This leads to the ironical situation where the BMS is there to protect the battery, and now a current limiter gets connected to protect the BMS. What will be next to protect the current limiter…
Seeing how the BMS has become the weak link, manufacturers should really work (hard) on hardening that. Nothing is 100% bomb-proof, but there certainly is room for improvement! Another solution could be to acknowledge that the BMS is the weak link and make it so it can be replaced without too much effort, for example a gasketed lid on the battery that is removable with a few screws, and a BMS that has connectors and bolted lugs, so a repair shop can swap the board. It makes no sense to throw away a battery where 90% of the cost is in the cells, and 10% in the BMS, just because the BMS failed."
From:
https://www.solacity.com/how-to-keep-lifepo4-lithium-ion-batteries-happy/?fbclid=IwAR0FAHVnbdaMhMmT3Ue9CxovYxjyEIFqUJWPCi-QPpPdNm8p41WLt3yzQWA
"The Weak Link - The BMS
We now have a few years of experience with lithium-ion batteries, and what is becoming clear is that while the LiFePO4 cells hold up very well, that is not the case with the Battery Management System (BMS). Overall the number of prematurely failed batteries is small, but with 10,000+ batteries sold it is clear that in 99% of cases it is the BMS that fails, turning the battery into an expensive piece of gender-neutral-cave decoration!
While we very much advocate for using batteries with a build-in BMS (without one the battery would be unsafe and likely fail very quickly!), manufacturers struggle to make their BMS as bullet-proof as it should and needs to be. Surge currents due to the input capacitors of large inverters, motors, and air-conditioners can and at times will kill the BMS, rendering the battery useless.
At least one well-known battery manufacturer is now enforcing their warranty conditions to the letter, and that requires the use of an external current limiter when their batteries are used with large inverters (“large” being defined as 3,500 Watt and up). This leads to the ironical situation where the BMS is there to protect the battery, and now a current limiter gets connected to protect the BMS. What will be next to protect the current limiter…
Seeing how the BMS has become the weak link, manufacturers should really work (hard) on hardening that. Nothing is 100% bomb-proof, but there certainly is room for improvement! Another solution could be to acknowledge that the BMS is the weak link and make it so it can be replaced without too much effort, for example a gasketed lid on the battery that is removable with a few screws, and a BMS that has connectors and bolted lugs, so a repair shop can swap the board. It makes no sense to throw away a battery where 90% of the cost is in the cells, and 10% in the BMS, just because the BMS failed."
From:
https://www.solacity.com/how-to-keep-lifepo4-lithium-ion-batteries-happy/?fbclid=IwAR0FAHVnbdaMhMmT3Ue9CxovYxjyEIFqUJWPCi-QPpPdNm8p41WLt3yzQWA
