Charge starter battery but not lithium (1 Viewer)

May 2, 2014
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I've recently gone through the pain of a failed airbag ECU due to low battery state. The new van that I'm picking up next week has a solar/ lithium leisure battery set-up. Don't know details yet.

My question is...... Is it possible to keep the starter battery solar charged when not in use but switch off the charging to the leisure lithium battery?

Sorry about the lack of details on the kit.
 
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Folkranger
May 2, 2014
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Lithium is indeed best stored at 50% when disconnected but if you have a load on it such as something to maintain the starter battery then it needs to stsrt off at 100%.
Ok. Through the winter when not in use I rely on either mains or solar to keep the lead batteries in charge. If I use either of these methods with lithium it'll cook the battery. (I think?)
 
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funflair

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Dec 11, 2013
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Ok. Through the winter when not in use I rely on either mains or solar to keep the lead batteries in charge. If I use either of these methods with lithium it'll cook the battery. (I think?)
Depends on your solar controller as you can put in a different charge profile for while it is parked so that it doesn't get 100% charge, we have a Victron "smart solar" and can set different profiles to suit.
 
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Folkranger
May 2, 2014
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Depends on your solar controller as you can put in a different charge profile for while it is parked so that it doesn't get 100% charge, we have a Victron "smart solar" and can set different profiles to suit.
Ok but looking at your vehicle you probably don't have the Fiat weakness which blows out the airbag ecu if the battery level drops below 12.5 volts.
 
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Dark_Comet

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Jun 25, 2021
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If the vehicle is parked and the starter battery not in use, where is the charge going. Any fully charged battery in good condition will hold its charged unless you got something dragging the battery down.

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Dark_Comet

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Halfords has a solar battery maintainer 12 volt 6 watts. Would that not be a cheap solution. Park up long as you want and leave the maintainer to do the job. Always guaranteed a full battery. Put the kit away until you next need it.
 
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Jan 27, 2018
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I use a votronics mppt to charge a lithium and starter battery info from Roadpro
"the Starter output is a fixed rate voltage and maximum amp rate so doesn't require setting separately from the leisure battery.
If you disconnect the leisure battery and leave the starter battery connected to the same input it will still charge as it would do if the leisure battery was still connected."
For "winterization" i now have issolator on the LB negative and is sitting at 69% u till we go on holiday and the SB has 220W to trickle charge it.
 
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