How to restart a lithium battery?
Lithium batteries have a BMS (battery management system) built into the battery. That can open a charge and discharge switch on the battery. The switches can open for a number of different reasons.
- To low of voltage,
- to high of voltage,
- to hot
- To cold
- Too much draw off the battery
Resetting a lithium battery requires a charge from an alternate charging source like the alternator of a vehicle or a separate battery charger or even jumping the battery from another one. The charging source requires at least 10 amps to the battery.
Inverter/chargers need battery power to run so if the voltage drops too low an inverter charger may not be able to charge the battery using an alternate source is recommended.
It is also sometimes required to isolate each battery and charge them separately in certain situations if an entire battery bank has dropped its voltage too low.
Unfortunately, you cannot test a lithium battery. The only way to determine if a battery is faulty would be to see how it charges and discharges after the BMS has been reset. Does it charge properly and hold the charge? If a known load is put on the battery, does it discharge as expected?