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<p>As a long time HUP dealer, I've dealt with stuff like that for
quite a while. FYI, HUPs are no longer being made, thanks to the
tariffs. </p>
<p>As Steve mentioned, renters are Not the best off grid customers.
They really don't understand the system, and how to properly
maintain it. My guess is they have a bunch of phantom loads,
extra junk plugged in, and the system is never reaching full
charge. 2nd, as noted, they are over filling the water. I have
several customers that get fixated on filling, and forget to check
SG, and actually fully charge the batteries too. You didn't
mention some key info: battery size, or array size. If its a
bigger HUP, it could take over a week with no loads to come back
up. HUPs have a minimum charge rate requirement that is very
important in this situation. </p>
<p>So, based on the age, this should be recoverable. It will take
some extreme EQing for possibly a couple of days. I'd EQ at 61 v
for 2 hours. Monitor temperature and don't let the batteries
exceed 95F. Check SG. If you're not up to 1.265 on the lowest
cell, EQ again. Rinse/ repeat, until you get to 1.265. Then this
renter may need to go on an energy diet too, so this doesn't
happen again. I've had so many renters ruin good systems that
worked for the original owners for decades. They just leave stuff
on, and it never comes to full charge. </p>
<p>Ray Walters<br>
Remote Solar</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 12/12/2025 11:35 AM, Steve Higgins
via RE-wrenches wrote:<br>
</div>
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<div>The SW series inverters don't have non-volatile memory, so
if the renter discharges the battery below the low-voltage
point, all settings will be reset to default. That will
definitely cause charging issues. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>If they were overfilling the batteries, this would push
sulfate out of the battery, diluting the acid mix and lowering
overall capacity. You can try adding more back, but it will
require a lot of premixed acid. It might help to drain 1/2 out
and add back premixed 1.265-1.280 acid to correct. If the
sulfate levels are already low and there is mostly just water
in the battery, corrosion can occur within weeks, resulting in
permanent damage.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Also, if you add too much or the sulfate has precipitated
on the plates, this will increase the sulfate in the battery
and lead to a significant loss of overall capacity. <br>
<br>
My guess... is this battery is done for... You can try the
above, but you'll likely spend a lot of time adjusting
electrolyte levels and many hours of cycle charging to
recover. Even if you recover to some capacity, the SGs will
always be "All over the place," and the bank will likely
remain questionable until they are replaced. In the end,
the "Renter" probably killed these due to lack of
interest/education... <br>
<br>
Steve Higgins. </div>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Fri, Dec 12, 2025 at
10:21 AM David Coale via RE-wrenches <<a
href="mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote"
style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">Hi
Wrenchers,<br>
<br>
I have a client with an old off-grid Trace system and he is
having trouble with the batteries. He has HUP Solar One FLA
batteries that are about 4 years old, so they should be in
good shape. The last set lasted almost 20 years with a fair
amount of abuse.<br>
<br>
Here is he history and what I think is going on. 7/21 they got
new batteries after about 19 years of use.<br>
<br>
7/22 I get a call saying the batteries are not charging up all
the way. When I check out the system, the batteries needed
cleaning, and I found three low cells, and the charger
settings were back to default, not set high enough to charge
the batteries all the way (it’s always multiple problems).
The client (now a new renter, new to the system) said he was
filing the batteries once a month and experienced some
overflowing when the batteries were charged up.<br>
<br>
I cleaned things up, reset the charging parameters and set up
an equalizing charge to even out the cells. Hopefully this
will fix things.<br>
<br>
11/25. The client calls and said the batteries don’t charge up
all the way and he is running the generator a lot and worried
about getting though the wintertime.<br>
When I check things out, there are three bad cells and there
is soda on the batteries. It is hard to get a good voltage
readings because of the soda. Most of the cells are reading
2.1 volts under about a 40 amp load.<br>
<br>
Yesterday I check things out, and all the cells are reading
between 1.93 to 1.98 under a 40 amp load in the morning, and I
don’t find any bad cells. The charging voltage is never going
over about 52 volts so the system is never getting fully
charged up. The charge setting look OK, so not sure what is
going on. This is acting like an old battery pack but these
batteries are relatively new.<br>
<br>
My guess at this point is that maybe the batteries lost acid
with the overflowing event and lost capacity. Maybe adding
acid back in would bring them back up to working order. The
SG measured at 1.150 or less.<br>
<br>
At this point the client (renter) has had enough of these
battery problems and is wondering every morning if the
batteries will last long enough to until the sun comes up.
The renter is pushing for a replacement LFP battery, but there
should be lots of life left in this battery pack.<br>
<br>
Let me know what you all think.<br>
<br>
Thanks,<br>
<br>
David<br>
<br>
<br>
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