Hi , had a Clayton 100Ah , 2500W LPS in my T6.1 for 4 years , been great until I foolishly let van engine battery and the LPS run flat. Not had a lot of use these last 12 weeks , thought I had checked and run it enough, obviously not. Van now running after an overnight trickle charge , but the LPS will not wake up, running the engine or plugging into 240v always woke the thing up and the lights all came on indicating charging. No more. I do believe the LPS and its management system might have gone into some thing called a 'deep sleep' so as to protect the battery. Nothing in the instructions helps , and I am waiting a reply to my e mail into Clayton , but likely the Xmas break in the way. Anybody out there had a similar experience and know what to do ?? , Many thks for any help offered , Jeff
Clayton LPS
- Thread starter wildjeff
- Start date
Did they give you any indication of what was wrong and/or why it couldn’t be repaired ?
For what they cost it’s defo worth doing some digging and seeing if it can be recovered
If the issue is because it was run too flat then hopefully it could be opened up and internal batteries charged etc to get it back to a workable state ?
For what they cost it’s defo worth doing some digging and seeing if it can be recovered
If the issue is because it was run too flat then hopefully it could be opened up and internal batteries charged etc to get it back to a workable state ?
@Dellmassive anything to add ?
Hi all,
Searching the internet for information about connecting a solar panel to an LPS1, I came across this entry. Might be a bit late to respond but this could be interesting for anyone having a dead Clayton LPS caused by empty internal cells.
I bought an LPS 1512 100Ah at an auction without knowing its history. First power on resulted in error codes 50, 53 and 60 all complaining about an empty battery and the LPS powered off after a few seconds. As the unit was only dead weight now I had little to lose so I opened the unit and removed the top PCB to get access to the individual cells. Each of them had a voltage of less than 0.5V which is way below acceptable discharge level.
I removed the sensor PCB's between the cells to electrically separate them and connected a power supply with current limited to 5A and max voltage set to 3.5V to one cell at the time. I continuously measured the cell voltage which quickly increased to about 2V. I continued charging till the cell reached 3.25V and then moved to the next cell. To reduce the risk of something very bad happening I did this outside several meters away from any building.
After the 4 cells were at 3.25V I installed all components/PCBs again, connected the LPS 230V input to mains and powered the LPS on. It seemed that the LPS needed a few times power-on before accepting that the errors were gone and slowly the charge level went up from 40% to 99%. Success!
The LPS seems to function correctly now although I have not measured the true capacity of the unit. I can imagine that discharging the battery too much has affected the quality of the cells but for now I'm happy. I did not pay a lot at the auction so even with less than full capacity it seems to be a very interesting addition to my camper. And sorry, it is not a T6 but a Fiat Ducato/Giottiline camper...
Searching the internet for information about connecting a solar panel to an LPS1, I came across this entry. Might be a bit late to respond but this could be interesting for anyone having a dead Clayton LPS caused by empty internal cells.
I bought an LPS 1512 100Ah at an auction without knowing its history. First power on resulted in error codes 50, 53 and 60 all complaining about an empty battery and the LPS powered off after a few seconds. As the unit was only dead weight now I had little to lose so I opened the unit and removed the top PCB to get access to the individual cells. Each of them had a voltage of less than 0.5V which is way below acceptable discharge level.
I removed the sensor PCB's between the cells to electrically separate them and connected a power supply with current limited to 5A and max voltage set to 3.5V to one cell at the time. I continuously measured the cell voltage which quickly increased to about 2V. I continued charging till the cell reached 3.25V and then moved to the next cell. To reduce the risk of something very bad happening I did this outside several meters away from any building.
After the 4 cells were at 3.25V I installed all components/PCBs again, connected the LPS 230V input to mains and powered the LPS on. It seemed that the LPS needed a few times power-on before accepting that the errors were gone and slowly the charge level went up from 40% to 99%. Success!
The LPS seems to function correctly now although I have not measured the true capacity of the unit. I can imagine that discharging the battery too much has affected the quality of the cells but for now I'm happy. I did not pay a lot at the auction so even with less than full capacity it seems to be a very interesting addition to my camper. And sorry, it is not a T6 but a Fiat Ducato/Giottiline camper...
Thanks for this @Jaap-P I know of at least one unit that was scrapped for this reason.
Hi again, thks for those thoughts , an update . Clayton say that the LPS1 is now obsolete and they no longer offer any kind of service on them. I think they had to send them back to Denmark , and the option is too expensive /outcomes not good. So the option they offer is a well discounted new item LPS2. They were very helpful, in that they did have some spare parts which they sent me , a screen and a touch control film. What I have done is find a local electrician who was happy to open up the kit , and get the battery recharged. It held the charge, though changing the screen and the control film , didnt give me any digits/data , LPS screen still blank. What I have found is that my remote ( wired) will operate the Clayton , all the lights work on the remote , the extent of charge is available to see ,tho only 1 - 5 lights , no % figure; i can switch 240v on/off , 12v on / off, I can see if its charging , off mains , off car , off solar. So as far as from the inside of the van is concerned the remote is behaving like it always did , so it looks as if there is no problem. But the main unit has a blank screen and tells me nothing, so I am still concerned, not that I actually used the information off the screen very often. I have decided ( Plan A) to run like this for a few months and see if the battery performance is impaired ; I have been away for a night , wild camp/cooked using 240v hob and microwave - no different to previous experiences, no probs . Longer trip planed early May , as a further test. I have found a company in the midlands who have experience renovating Clayton LPS , but without me taking it and them putting it on test for a couple of days I dont know if they might find something 'repairable ' or not. That will be Plan B before I have to consider a replacement. As for the question about Solar , I had a panel fitted and its plugged into the Clayton. The management system is Vitron ( there is a ph app to download so you might see performance ( I have a problem with that at the moment for some reason) ) but the remote in the van has a light that flashes when the solar is supporting the battery, I didnt connect it myself , but it seems as if its wired into an aux plug, may be the one that would allow the Clayton to back charge the car battery. Let you know how I get on over these nxt few mths , Jeff
Hi Jeff,
Thank you for your reply. Apparently empty cells is not the only problem in your LPS but if it is usable with the remote then you have an acceptable situation. Your plan A and B make perfect sense.
I don't have the remote with my LPS but it seems to be a very useful monitoring/control tool so I would certainly like to have one. If anybody has a remote and no working LPS then please let me know.
Today I connected the solar controller to my LPS using the DC OUT connector of the LPS which seems to be the way Clayton advises. It is charging the LPS but very slowly; most of the time around 1A. Today was a cloudy day in the Netherlands so I hope charging will be more enthousiastic when the sun is shining brightly.
My solar controller is a simple Büttner Elektronik MT 230-PP so not a Victron SmartSolar with nice monitoring functions. The MT 230 should be able to supply 14.5A but I probably need another solar panel to achieve this. If more sunshine does not increase charge current then I might try a Victron controller before replacing the panel itself.
I have planned a trip to Norway in a few weeks and it would be nice if I could be off grid for several days in a row. First short test will be the Easter weekend which should also give me a better idea of my daily power consumption.
Thanks again!
Thank you for your reply. Apparently empty cells is not the only problem in your LPS but if it is usable with the remote then you have an acceptable situation. Your plan A and B make perfect sense.
I don't have the remote with my LPS but it seems to be a very useful monitoring/control tool so I would certainly like to have one. If anybody has a remote and no working LPS then please let me know.
Today I connected the solar controller to my LPS using the DC OUT connector of the LPS which seems to be the way Clayton advises. It is charging the LPS but very slowly; most of the time around 1A. Today was a cloudy day in the Netherlands so I hope charging will be more enthousiastic when the sun is shining brightly.
My solar controller is a simple Büttner Elektronik MT 230-PP so not a Victron SmartSolar with nice monitoring functions. The MT 230 should be able to supply 14.5A but I probably need another solar panel to achieve this. If more sunshine does not increase charge current then I might try a Victron controller before replacing the panel itself.
I have planned a trip to Norway in a few weeks and it would be nice if I could be off grid for several days in a row. First short test will be the Easter weekend which should also give me a better idea of my daily power consumption.
Thanks again!
Useful to know there are some repairs that can be done on these.. i am investing in one and its a big outlay to find a simple discharge would mean a replacement! Out of interest, who is the company in the midlands that has experience repairing them? One question I have in the back of my mind is whether the cells are proprietary, or generic ones that could be replaced in the future if that is the only thing in the unit that has degraded. Did you happen to take any pictures when you had it open @Jaap-P?
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