Disconnecting Iota charger

I would like to disconnect the IOTA in my 2015 FWC and using a Victron IP22. I most likely will not use shore power much but would like to have the ability since I won’t always have enough solar and do not have a DCDC charger. I can see where the IOTA is wired to the battery. Would it be possible to just remove those connections and cap them? The 120v wiring looks a bit more complicated to me so was planning on just leaving it. I appreciate any advice given. Thanks.

In my 2021 Grandby the Iota 12 vdc positive is not connected directly to the battery. It is instead connected to the bus bar of the dc fuse panel. The silver switch must be pulled (on) to charge the battery from the Iota. Are you sure your Iota connects directly to the battery?

I do not have a fuse labeled converter on my dc fuse block. I do have a 120 breaker for the the converter. I looked up the installation for the iota and it states a battery positive connection. There are so many wires in my cabinet it is hard to tell how FWC wired it. I may need to take the cabinet front off.

I observe power to the iota when the silver switch is pulled and none when pushed in. I am not connected to shore power.

The Iota is a fine unit and if its only the occasional charge from it the difference in charge profile won't be a big deal. Save the work and expense.

I’m liking your advice.

+1 to what Craig said.

I was kind of thinking of just keeping iota but power anxiety was getting to me. ? I don’t use much power, 12v frig, heater on cold nights, phone. My new lithium, 100ah, 160w and new Victron 100/30 MPPT contoller seem to be huge upgrade from AGMs and old PWM controller. Fridge running from startup just on battery overnight and battery was already at full charge by 10am. I’m going to put a new charger on hold. Thanks for the advice and reassurance!

check if your Iota has an exterior DONGLE. If so, then you can "upgrade" it for use with your LiFePo4 batteries

I checked. It doesn’t allow the dongle. Thanks

As long as your solar provides the correct charge most of the time the charge from the IOTA wont' hurt anything.

craig333 said:

As long as your solar provides the correct charge most of the time the charge from the IOTA wont' hurt anything.

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Agreed. My Iota DLS-30/IQ4 in my 2021 Grandby won’t effectively charge my lithium battery, but it still works great as a DC converter if I ever hook up to shore power.

Outnabout said:

I do not have a fuse labeled converter on my dc fuse block. I do have a 120 breaker for the the converter. I looked up the installation for the iota and it states a battery positive connection. There are so many wires in my cabinet it is hard to tell how FWC wired it. I may need to take the cabinet front off.

I observe power to the iota when the silver switch is pulled and none when pushed in. I am not connected to shore power.

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Based on what you wrote in your last paragraph, it sounds like your Iota is connected the same way mine is. Mine has its positive DC output wire connected directly to the DC fuse panel bus bar. The Iota has its own internal output fuse. There is no fuse in the camper DC fuse panel between the DC panel bus bar and the Iota. The bus bar has two direct connections to it: one is to the silver switch (and via that switch to the battery and the camper side of the battery isolator), the second is to the Iota DC output.

I would suggest you consider disconnecting truck positive wire from the battery isolator if you have a lithium battery.

Thanks for the information. I am going to keep the Iota for now. Solar charge is pretty fast even with some cloudy skies.

I disconnected the ground on the ACR. This appears to have separated the truck batteries from camper. Checking the ACR and the green led which indicates closed position is not on and battery voltage is high enough to have triggered a closure. I also have camper running lights with this setup.

Outnabout said:

Thanks for the information. I am going to keep the Iota for now. Solar charge is pretty fast even with some cloudy skies.

I disconnected the ground on the ACR. This appears to have separated the truck batteries from camper. Checking the ACR and the green led which indicates closed position is not on and battery voltage is high enough to have triggered a closure. I also have camper running lights with this setup.

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I forgot you had said you were going to pull the ground from the ACR. That will keep the truck battery isolated from the camper battery.

Jon R said:

Agreed. My Iota DLS-30/IQ4 in my 2021 Grandby won’t effectively charge my lithium battery, but it still works great as a DC converter if I ever hook up to shore power.

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My Iota DLS-IQ4 charges my AGM batteries at 14.6V and floats at 13.5V according to the Victron BMV. Battleborn gives a charge range of their battery of 14.2 to 14.6 and float of 13.4 to 13.8.

Why does the Iota not fully charge the Lifepo4 battery?

I figured I would replace my dying AGM's with a Battleborn, disconnect the ACR by pulling the fuse on the negative wire since I never really need the truck alternator to chage anything. When parked in my garage (most of the time) just plug into ground power to run the fridge or charge up the battery. I probably wouldnt leave it plugged in for more than a few days at a time. I guess I dont really understand how that would not charge or even damage the battery given the specs from Battleborn and the voltage the Iota DLS-IQ4 is providing.

Would be nice to use one Lifepo4 instead of replacing 2 AGM's every few years, but not worth it to me if I need to change out the wiring, ACR, and Iota DLS-IQ4. As I said, I can do without the truck alternator charging the batteries, but sure is nice to plug into ground power when parked in the garage.

Thanks!

That plan with those voltages will work. I keep my BB LiFePo4’s a bit less than fully charged, say 14.4V and 13.4V.

There are other factors than just Voltage to consider when charging. Victron gear lets you specify things like how long you want to charge (Absorption phase). Lead Acid/AGM batteries go through BULK/Absorption before floating. LiFePo4 essentially just BULK. Which Victron makes confusing my removing Bulk and leaving Absorption in the settings tab. Other things like “tail current” can help the charger determine if the battery is REALLY full.

crashmaster said:

My Iota DLS-IQ4 charges my AGM batteries at 14.6V and floats at 13.5V according to the Victron BMV. Battleborn gives a charge range of their battery of 14.2 to 14.6 and float of 13.4 to 13.8.

Why does the Iota not fully charge the Lifepo4 battery?

I figured I would replace my dying AGM's with a Battleborn, disconnect the ACR by pulling the fuse on the negative wire since I never really need the truck alternator to chage anything. When parked in my garage (most of the time) just plug into ground power to run the fridge or charge up the battery. I probably wouldnt leave it plugged in for more than a few days at a time. I guess I dont really understand how that would not charge or even damage the battery given the specs from Battleborn and the voltage the Iota DLS-IQ4 is providing.

Would be nice to use one Lifepo4 instead of replacing 2 AGM's every few years, but not worth it to me if I need to change out the wiring, ACR, and Iota DLS-IQ4. As I said, I can do without the truck alternator charging the batteries, but sure is nice to plug into ground power when parked in the garage.

Thanks!

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The problem I experience is that, when I turn on the Iota with my LiFePO4 battery at a mid battery charge level, the Iota senses the approximately 13.0 to 13.4 system voltage as indicating a charged battery, so it seems to come up in either power supply mode or float mode. There was a discussion about this in a previous thread and I can’t remember which of the two modes we decided it was in. Regardless, in my camper the Iota only applies 13.4 volts in this situation so it does not charge the battery at a high rate. I recall it was just a couple amps, but can’t remember exactly ( the discussion was last summer I think). It would work as a trickle charger for storage, but not for 30 amp charging.

It does work fine as a power supply, though. During use for storage or camping on shore power, you can disconnect the battery with the silver switch to preserve a full charge or leave it connected and possibly draw down the battery a little and the Iota will supply up to 30 amps at 13.4 volts.

I don’t believe just leaving the Iota connected and running in this mode during long term storage would harm a LiFePO4 battery - it would just sit at 13.4 volts. I personally would not do that, though, unless I needed to actually keep something running in the camper. A LiFePO4 battery will not significantly self-discharge in six months, and I think it’s lower risk just to switch off the battery for long term storage and not run a device like the Iota charger largely unmonitored for months at a time.

I left my Iota in place for shore power use when needed and I don’t have any other installed 120 VAC charger. However, I have not yet connected to shore power away from home and doubt i ever will. When camping, my solar system is almost always adequate to bring me to 100% by midday. I very rarely even turn on my DC to DC charger while driving (except for winter gray sky camping), and have never had to run the truck just to charge. I have 200 ah, though, and can go 4-5 days with no charging at all.

I store my camper indoors with the battery switch off and no shore power connected. If I need to charge from 120VAC, I get out my NOCO Genius 10 amp charger and connect it. I’ve done that a couple of times during the winter after forgetting to turn the battery switch off and finding the battery low after a few weeks depletion by the gas detector and the fan control card.

Thank you both, that is very helpful information. If I replace the AGM's with a LiFePo4 I may just go with what I have and not worry about it. FWC did something strange with my wiring because my batteries have a parasitic draw with the battery master switch turned off. I just have to disconnect the battery the old fashioned way.

If its a problem for me I guess I could get a new Iota DLS and the IQ-LIFPO as with current Iota I am not able to connect an IQ-LIFPO.

I also never connect to ground power unless parked in my garage so I guess I'm really worried about nothing. With the current DLS/ACR/AGM batteries, it is pretty nice to keep both the camper batteries and truck batteries charged up for storage with my current system, and solar charging the truck batteries is a piece of mind as well when way out in the bush. Always pros and cons to any system I reckon.

Thank again for all your help.

We are also living with our Iota DLS and our new lithium battery. We're finding we rarely use it, but it will charge at very low amperage, taking 30+ hours to fully charge the 100ah battery. So sometimes we'll charge it using shore power before a trip if it's not sunny enough for our solar system.

I observe the lower charge voltage from my Iota as well. I have decided to leave the Iota in place since my solar set up is charging my 100ah LiPo sufficiently. I have also chosen to not go the DCDC route and have disconnected my ACR to keep the truck battery separate from camper. So far so good.

I store my camper outside so I also need to put an in-line fuse or breaker between my panel and controller so the battery is not constantly charged during longer periods of non use.

Thanks for the discussion.