2022 Micro Minnie FLX 2306BHS Battery

[Pappy-WO]

I have a question about the battery on the unit. I just bought this unit 2 months ago and have not really used it. I have a small space heater below where the batter is to keep it warm. I have had the unit plugged in to a 20 amp outlet and unplugged it a couple nights ago to see how long it would take for the battery to go down. Even though it was sunny during the day, apparently the battery was dead this morning. I plugged the unit back in and the battery showed full charge in just a few minutes. I have downloaded the lithionics battery app but it would not pair with the battery this morning. Seems the battery should have lasted longer ? Also when it has been unplugged, after you plug it back in the round blue battery switch below beeps and sounds like a fan running ? I bought a 1500 watt battery to plug the RV into when we are off roading and two solar panels to charge that. One is 200 watts and one is 100 watts. this FLX unit has 2 200 watt panels on the roof and any ideas on what I might expect off grid ? When I call Winnebago on this they don't seem to know anything on this and they have me call Lithionics but they never call back.

 

[Thindirtline]

Battery

Lithium batteries should be kept above freezing during use and charging. If your electric heater is drawing from the battery it is likely drawing the battery down quickly.
I wouldn't use an electric heater to keep the battery warm. Disconnect the battery if at or below freezing. When camping keep the cabin warm with propane or an electric heater only if you have shore power. Keeping the cabin comfortable should keep the compartment with the battery well above freezing unless it is extremely cold outside.

 

[Pappy-WO]

Thanks ! I have the RV plugged in so that the small heater will keep the battery warm. If I don't use the heater the battery will go way below freezing and it has been below zero for several days. Once a month I unplug the unit overnight and the batter goes down to about 2/3rds then I plug it back in again. even if disconnect the batter it seems it would not be good for it to go below freezing ? Thoughts ?

 

[Thindirtline]

After you unplug there is still a load on your battery from something. I don't have the flex so I could only speculate what the loads are.
Many of us have installed a battery disconnect like this one: ($7)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JZ8MKL2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

This completely disconnects the battery from all loads. Once disconnected the battery can be left in the cold. The discharge rate will be extremely low.

 

[creativepart]

Pappy, your FLX version of the Micro Minnie is quite advanced and very different than any non-FLX TT. The battery system is produced by Lithionics and we’re lucky to have a volunteer member from the Lithionics engineering team here that can answer your questions on the battery and its usage.

We have a dedicated thread just for these questions and to provide help in these issues. Here’s a link:

https://www.winnieowners.com/forums/f260/assistance-with-lithionics-batteries-366502.html

 

[Trax]

Two things come to mind. The battery has an internal heater. 35 watts I believe. The battery heater turns on at 37° according to Lithionics. The other is the inverter, if the inverter is on it will also consume some battery. If you are hearing a fan it is most likely the inverter. I can’t say they should consume the amount you are seeing but these are two possible sources of battery drain.

As for off grid battery life it’s hard to estimate because there are so many factors that affect it. We camped two nights with temperatures that were around freezing at night and 50° during the day. We were in a shady spot so not a lot of charging during the day. We started at 100% and ended at 39%. This was with moderate conservation of electricity on our part.

Now we take a small 2000w generator with us and can top the battery off from below 30% in less than 2 hours. We don’t try to conserve much battery and run the generator a couple hours every couple days.

 

[Minwintim]

I have an identical camper to yours. It has a winter cover on it and is plugged in all the time. We have had several weeks of sub freezing and several days of sub zero temperatures here I SW Pa. I just pulled the info from the lithionics battery this morning and it shows that the lowest battery temp has been 35 degrees.