Cell balancing is an extremely important aspect of LFP banks. When you have lead acid batteries in series they can be purposely over charged/equalized to a 15.5V pack voltage and they will, in a sense, self balance. With LFP banks this will not happen due to the knee ranges. As a cell becomes full the voltage all of a sudden skyrockets and the cells need to be in balance in order to charge and discharge at matched voltages.


TOP BALANCE vs. BOTTOM BALANCE:


There is much controversy over top vs. bottom balance mostly due to confusion over differing uses.


BOTTOM BALANCE:
A bottom balance simply means the cells are balanced at the lowest "safe" voltage and all cells will converge and match exactly at say 2.75 VPC. In the EV world bottom balancing is almost always the preferred method, and makes the most sense, with high loads and frequent opportunities to completely drain the bank. In EV the car is then brought back to the garage and charged with ONE charge source.


1-Discharge cell using a 20-30A load to 2.50V

2-Let the cell rest at room temp for 24 hours and allow voltage to rebound

3-The cell will now be resting somewhere between 2.75V and 2.85V

4-Apply the load and stop discharging at exactly 2.65V

5-Allow voltage to recover for about 6 hours

6-Repeat load discharge to 2.65V until the resting stable voltage of each and every cell is 2.75V

7-As you get closer and closer to resting voltage of 2.750V a small resistor can be used as opposed to the large load.


Once all cells rest at 2.750V and stay there the cells are bottom balanced.


NOTE: A guy recently dropped off 4 cells he was having trouble "balancing". He was attempting a bottom balance and intending on using these for fractional "C" use stopping at 70% DOD.. He had spent countless hours trying to bottom balance these cells, and he did.


So what's the problem? The problem is that at a 14.0V pack voltage he had one cell at 3.65V and one cell still at 3.380V!!!! His cells tested at varying capacities and thus the cell with the lowest capacity was firing into the upper knee sooner than the rest, even at a pack charge voltage of 14.0V. These were cells with an absolute MAX cell voltage of 3.600V. With a bottom balance and used cells (I don't suggest buying used cells) he was sending once cell into the dangerous upper knee even at just a 14.0V charge rate. I conducted a top balance for him and the cells now all remain well balanced at the upper charging voltage range. On the low end one cell will still fall off the cliff early, but at 70% DOD that does not happen.


TOP BALANCE:
On boats we have multiple charge sources, shore charger, alternator, solar, wind, hydro or even hydrogen fuel cells. Our risk of cell imbalance is more pronounced at the top end rather than the bottom end. We run a much higher risk of over charging imbalanced cells than we do by over discharging, like the electric vehicle (EV) guys do, but it can still be a risk.. For off-grid / marine use top balancing is quite often the preferred method so the cells converge or are in excellent balance at the top, when fully charged, rather than when dead or fully discharged...


In theory the BMS would always protect the cells at either the bottom or the top end but keeping the cells well balanced ensures an extra level of protection, just as keeping charging voltages out of the upper knee range does. Don't discharge below 80% DOD and have a max charge voltage of 3.5VPC / 14.0V for a 12V bank, and your cells will be very happy.


Whether you choose to top or bottom balance is a personal choice. I chose a top balance for this bank and even after 750 cycles the cells have tended to converge in cell voltage rather than diverge.



PHOTO: In the photo the four Winston cells have been individually & very carefully charged to 3.75VPC with the bench top power supply shown. The cells were then wired in parallel and allowed to sit for multiple days but weeks or months is even better, if you have the time...


TIP: When ordering cells ALWAYS order extra cell jumpers so that you can wire the cells in parallel and top balance if you choose to do so.