Lithium won't charge on cold mornings
2022 travel trailer, 100 Ah LiFePO4 battery with Bluetooth BMS. 30A shore, converter running
Customer says: We're camped in the cold. The battery was fine all fall, but this week it won't charge in the morning. By afternoon it's okay.
Battery is mounted outside on the tongue.
Tests you can run
- Voltage at the battery terminals, converter running
- Converter output at its terminals
- Voltage drop on the cables between converter and battery
- Battery temperature
- Read the status in the battery app
- Warm the battery above freezing and try again
- Replace the converter
Repair options
The lesson behind this case
Keep going on 12V and batteries
Learn it
- Volts, amps and ohms, the simple way
- Voltage drop: the test that finds bad grounds
- Practice: find the bad connection
- Batteries: lead-acid vs lithium
- Fuses, breakers and grounds
Prove it
- Back lights are dim
- Battery dies even on shore power
- Coach is dead, battery is fine
- Batteries dead after storage
- Solar quit charging