Got Valence u1-12rt cheap, Now what, Help

Hello All.
Ikind of dont know where to start with this, so here goes.


Ipicked up a pair of u1-12rt valance batteries for cheap at a scrap yard locally, i know nothing about these batteries, other than brief reading the online manual which didnt help a whole lot.

Oneis blinking greenish-yellow (from what ireadthat means its ok, but needs charged)
2nd is not blinking at all (from the same reading this means this one is totally drained or dead)
Also read they also have there own proprietary internal BMS and you cant get the software and such, any ideas on this? (BMS replacement is possible according to YT video)

1st off how do i go about actuallycharging one of these batteries and determining if there any good.??

2nd my intended use for these is for a small house bank on a boat, so i would like to be able to charge them with both solar and via engine alternator is that do-able.? what kind of charge controller would work for say 250 watt panel?

please ask any questions you have and i will do my best to answer...
i really wasent prepared to purchase these right now, but there opportunity was there so sorry for the disjointed nature of the post.

Cyric

I use Valence batteries too... ALOT of em... But I have swapped out the BMS on them since I gave up finding the info I needed. I now run mine on Batrium BMS instead. Alot cheaper than the Valence BMS

1. You can just charge them on the ports on the top BUT if they BMS doesnt work they wont balance. If you want to be sure hook up a balance charger (RC) instead internally and bypass the BMS tha sits there

2. Will work just fine. If you run them at 12V you need a 12V charge controller and if you run at 24V you need one that can do 24V LiFe works pretty close to same voltage as 12V lead acid so you can potentially run such a charger BUT I highly recommend a proper charge controller where you can set voltages.

Check out my videos below and search for Valence on my channel and you find a whole bunch of videos on other Valence packs.

daromer said:

I use Valence batteries too... ALOT of em... But I have swapped out the BMS on them since I gave up finding the info I needed. I now run mine on Batrium BMS instead. Alot cheaper than the Valence BMS

1. You can just charge them on the ports on the top BUT if they BMS doesnt work they wont balance. If you want to be sure hook up a balance charger (RC) instead internally and bypass the BMS tha sits there

2. Will work just fine. If you run them at 12V you need a 12V charge controller and if you run at 24V you need one that can do 24V LiFe works pretty close to same voltage as 12V lead acid so you can potentially run such a charger BUT I highly recommend a proper charge controller where you can set voltages.

Check out my videos below and search for Valence on my channel and you find a whole bunch of videos on other Valence packs.

Click to expand...

Daromer

Thank you for your reply it gives me a place to get started from, im sure i will have further questions along the way but at least i have a idea of where to go from here.

Again thank you

Cyric

Hi Guys;
I've recently joined this forum and am also interested in the Valence 12RT battery, as I am considering buying one (or two) to set-up a small experimental solar system, before making a large investment in a future off-grid home.

For Daromer- from the Valence datasheet, I understand that up to 4 units of 12RT can be connected in series to provide 48V. Do you know if 2 (or more) 48V strings are possible to provide increased batterybank capacity?

Thanks a lot

I have 18 strings in parallel

Hi Daromer
Thanks for your reply. Wow 18 strings of 4(?) 12V LiFePO batteries? I saw on another website that it is NOT recommended to have more than 4 strings of batteries in parallel... due to balancing issues. Your comments?

Also in your earlier thread, you mentioned that you are using Batrium bms cause you could not find any info on the Valence bms. What kind of info is required? How to tell if the Valence bms is working properly?

Sorry to pepper you with so many questions, but you obviously are an expert solar system expert and one of the few with actual practical experience in setting up large solar-LifePO batterybank... which is what I plan to build too, once I learn enough not to screw up the system! Thanks for your advice.

This is an older thread i found from Google. I have just bought a couple Valence U1-12rt batteries. I have watched @daromer vid "Voltage checker cable for Valence packs DIY"

I see the British ebay listing for the connector. I am looking for the connector in the USA. I don't know what the connector is called. Lots of Googling, I can't find it. Any HELP?

Next, I am an RC guy. My balance charger has a LiFePo4 setting. Once I get a connector, can I balance charge with that connector?

Hi, I would like some advice please. I recycled 12 electric valence XP series U24 batteries from electric scooters. I also have the BMS XP series U-BMS-LV and I would like to create a storage system for my home. I would like to install 4 batteries in series for 48V and 4 batteries in parallel. However, I cannot understand how to connect the U-BMS-LVs in the system. on the web I haven't found the wiring diagram and I can't find Valence's manual. Please can you help me with the configuration? Thanks

Hello, I would like some advice please. I recycled 12 electric valence XP series U24 batteries from electric scooters. I also have the BMS XP series U-BMS-LV and I would like to create a storage system for my home. I would like to install 4 batteries in series for 48V and 4 batteries in parallel. However, I cannot understand how to connect the U-BMS-LVs in the system. on the web I haven't found the wiring diagram and I can't find Valence's manual. Please can you help me with the configuration? Thanks

funN4lo no you cannot. The contact is communication wire towards the existing slave board inside. You need to redo the system totally.

Alessandro
You need to buy the proper BMS master from them and pay them some heavy bucks for license.... Or swap out the BMS like I did.

Hi,
I recently bought 2 used Valence U1-12RT lithium batteries to begin my learning journey towards building an off-grid system. Both batteries seem to be working fine. Their BMS should be ok since they were formerly used in a hospital medical device environment.

My question is whether they can be charged in parallel using a 12 V (automobile) battery charger without having to buy an expensive outboard BMS? If this is possible, I'm thinking about adding 2 more batteries in parallel to increase storage capacity. Would an outboard BMS be required for this case? Grateful for any expert advice.

chewface said:

Hi,
I recently bought 2 used Valence U1-12RT lithium batteries to begin my learning journey towards building an off-grid system. Both batteries seem to be working fine. Their BMS should be ok since they were formerly used in a hospital medical device environment.

My question is whether they can be charged in parallel using a 12 V (automobile) battery charger without having to buy an expensive outboard BMS? If this is possible, I'm thinking about adding 2 more batteries in parallel to increase storage capacity. Would an outboard BMS be required for this case? Grateful for any expert advice.

Click to expand...

Hi, the RT Series has a full featured BMS included. When you connect them in series you need the U-BDI as he controls the inter Battery balancing.
In Parallel no external device is needed and intra battery balancing is done from the BMS.

Most people don't differentiate the different Valence battery models, and due to this many wrong informations are all over in the www.

XP Series = you need an external Box from Valence, which is hard to come by
RT Series = All included for parallel connection, for serial buy the U-BDI per line.

In general a good Battery. The charger should be cc cv and the max voltage should be 14.6v and less than 20 amps (per battery).
No special charging algorithm is needed, as the internal BMS is doing this part.