NOCO Genius GenPro PSA

J.W. · May 01, 2023, 12:49:32 PM

So I thought I had my boat charging this whole week. I had the boat plugged in to the extension cord, but the cord wasn't plugged in inside my shop. Anyway, I had a battery start going dead on Bistineau yesterday morning. Went home, charged the batteries for a few hours before a tournament on Cypress that evening. Get on the lake for the tournament, and electronics won't come on. After catching the first fish I discover we also had no livewell pump. Crap. I empty my dry bag and use it to put lake water in the livewell. It starts getting dark, and I then discover we also have no nav lights.

Anyway, none of that is the point. My point is that if you have one of these NOCO GenPro chargers, and your voltage gets low enough, it will not charge the battery unless you tell it to by putting it into "Force Mode," by holding the button for five seconds then selecting the correct charging mode. Otherwise it stays in "standby mode" and doesn't charge. Didn't know that.

If that battery had been charging while I was at home, I would've had enough juice to get me through that tournament.

Anyway, just wanted to put that out there in case anyone else has the same charger.

Smallie_Stalker · May 01, 2023, 02:00:09 PM

Very helpful information. Appreciate you taking the time to share it with us.

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

Princeton_Man · May 01, 2023, 02:58:26 PM

Something I didn't know either.

BTW, you can generally force fill your livewell/s by opening the drain and running the big motor in reverse. This works better with some boats better than others. Close the drains before making a run. Continuing to run in reverse will also push water in through the intakes.

apenland01 · May 02, 2023, 08:45:51 AM

That's interesting. I have the Noco GenPro 10x4 for about a year with no issues, but my batteries never get that low, ever. Even if I forget to plug them in, they have enough voltage I guess.

If you have the charger bank set to lead acid, I could see that as a safety feature, as the charger might think it's a dry battery and doesn't want to try to charge it and start a fire or something. I'm not sure it would do that with AGM or Lithium batteries...

J.W. · May 02, 2023, 03:28:59 PM

Quote from: apenland01 on May 02, 2023, 08:45:51 AM
That's interesting. I have the Noco GenPro 10x4 for about a year with no issues, but my batteries never get that low, ever. Even if I forget to plug them in, they have enough voltage I guess.

If you have the charger bank set to lead acid, I could see that as a safety feature, as the charger might think it's a dry battery and doesn't want to try to charge it and start a fire or something. I'm not sure it would do that with AGM or Lithium batteries...

Yeah, nothing wrong with the charger, I love it. I just wish I would've known about that quirk. All the batteries' charging modes are set correctly, and the dead one started charging just fine once I did the button dance. I just had no idea I needed to do it. When I got back home from the tournament and plugged it in, I noticed the LED indicator on the charger was different on that battery, a little orange power symbol, and the charging bars weren't lighting up on that one. I had to look up what to do.

Normally low batteries are not a problem, but I guess a week and three days of not charging, plus two fishing trips with electronics going... maybe I pushed it a bit.

J.W. · May 03, 2023, 07:41:54 AM

Quote from: apenland01 on May 02, 2023, 08:45:51 AM
I'm not sure it would do that with AGM or Lithium batteries...

Sorry, I just saw this part of your post. The battery that went into standby mode actually was a 100 AH lithium.

apenland01 · May 03, 2023, 08:38:47 AM

Quote from: J.W. on May 03, 2023, 07:41:54 AM
Quote from: apenland01 on May 02, 2023, 08:45:51 AM
I'm not sure it would do that with AGM or Lithium batteries...

Sorry, I just saw this part of your post. The battery that went into standby mode actually was a 100 AH lithium.

If your lithium has BMS, which it should, it has to be "woken" up if it gets below 3v I believe. In order to wake up the BMS, you have to smack it with a quick jolt of power. The BMS won't allow the battery to charge at really low voltage. I'm guessing you holding the button provided the wake up jolt and then it started charging normally...

J.W. · May 03, 2023, 10:58:12 AM

Yeah, I think you're right.

J.W. · May 08, 2023, 06:42:07 AM

UPDATE: If you're charging lithiums on this charger, please read.

I'm not sure if it's my doing or not, but I might have messed up my battery's BMS by trying to charge it while it was so low. It charges to full charge, and while it's charging, everything looks normal. But I checked it this weekend, and the "bad battery" light on the charger keeps coming on. I should've read the battery's manual before reading the charger's manual, because they say two different things. When I read the charger manual, it seems to indicate that you need to put it into "force mode." The battery manual says completely disconnect the battery then jump it to another disconnected lithium battery with a full charge and that will reset the BMS.

It's showing a full charge when I turn on a graph in the boat, but I have not had a chance to take it out and see how it handles a load over the course of a day yet. I might be having to replace that battery.

Princeton_Man · May 08, 2023, 07:06:03 AM

Quote from: J.W. on May 08, 2023, 06:42:07 AM
UPDATE: If you're charging lithiums on this charger, please read.

I'm not sure if it's my doing or not, but I might have messed up my battery's BMS by trying to charge it while it was so low. It charges to full charge, and while it's charging, everything looks normal. But I checked it this weekend, and the "bad battery" light on the charger keeps coming on. I should've read the battery's manual before reading the charger's manual, because they say two different things. When I read the charger manual, it seems to indicate that you need to put it into "force mode." The battery manual says completely disconnect the battery then jump it to another disconnected lithium battery with a full charge and that will reset the BMS.

It's showing a full charge when I turn on a graph in the boat, but I have not had a chance to take it out and see how it handles a load over the course of a day yet. I might be having to replace that battery.

If there's an ongoing problem, check on the battery's warranty and support before dropping the $$ for a new battery. I would expect the battery's BMS to protect the battery, but not render it useless.

J.W. · May 08, 2023, 02:45:48 PM

Quote from: Princeton_Man on May 08, 2023, 07:06:03 AM
Quote from: J.W. on May 08, 2023, 06:42:07 AM
UPDATE: If you're charging lithiums on this charger, please read.

I'm not sure if it's my doing or not, but I might have messed up my battery's BMS by trying to charge it while it was so low. It charges to full charge, and while it's charging, everything looks normal. But I checked it this weekend, and the "bad battery" light on the charger keeps coming on. I should've read the battery's manual before reading the charger's manual, because they say two different things. When I read the charger manual, it seems to indicate that you need to put it into "force mode." The battery manual says completely disconnect the battery then jump it to another disconnected lithium battery with a full charge and that will reset the BMS.

It's showing a full charge when I turn on a graph in the boat, but I have not had a chance to take it out and see how it handles a load over the course of a day yet. I might be having to replace that battery.

If there's an ongoing problem, check on the battery's warranty and support before dropping the $$ for a new battery. I would expect the battery's BMS to protect the battery, but not render it useless.

I called on my break at work today and got a voicemail, so I left a message and sent an email.

That said, I just got home and the bad battery light is no longer on and everything looks normal. Maybe the BMS finally reset. $:-\$