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Most “battery not working” calls are a healthy system obeying its design. Learn the built-in reasons first; the fault-finding flows then start from the right place.

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The bank’s own current limits

Every Kent battery model has a hard charge/discharge ceiling, and the bank’s total is packs × pack limit: A bank below the minimum-pack matrix runs the whole system at BMS-limited current — no fault shown, just less power both ways. That is design, not defect; the fix is pack count (or setting the inverter’s max currents to the bank’s real capability).

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Thresholds that stop charge or discharge on purpose

Both platforms hold SOC thresholds that park the battery by design — the values and names are platform items, never carried across:
  • Kent M1 — Shutdown / Warn / Restart SOC govern low-battery behaviour; charging from the grid is disabled by default and must be deliberately enabled (with a max grid-charge current) on outage-first sites. Details: Kent M1 Settings Reference.
  • Kent G3 — Battery reserve stops on-grid discharge below its set point (default 80 %); Overdischarge and Force-charge SOC bound the low end; grid charging happens only where Allow grid charging permits. Details: Kent G3 Settings Reference.
  • TOU windows rule the clock on both platforms — a battery told to idle until 22:00 will. Slot logic and units differ per platform (that difference lives on the cheat card).
Kent G3 ECO function: with PV under 100 W and SOC below the overdischarge point, the inverter deliberately draws standby power from the grid instead of the battery — a protective behaviour, not a fault.

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Dormant packs and wake-up

A deeply discharged pack drops into a dormant state and will not respond until woken — the official way, never by jump-charging:
  • Kent G3: the Battery Wakeup switch (professional Function Settings) wakes a dormant battery from PV or grid and charges it back above the overdischarge point.
  • Kent M1: Activate Bat provides the timed wake-up that prevents deep discharge on idle systems.
Pending Kent validation — do not configure in the field. [KNB-VAL-18] The Kent G3 manual’s printed wake-up voltage range is inconsistent with the platform’s battery window (documentation errata). Until Kent publishes the confirmed range: use the Battery Wakeup switch only, never key in wake-up voltage values from manual text, and leave voltage/time at factory values.
Pending Kent validation. [KNB-VAL-21] The Kent battery’s own pack-side wake procedure and front-panel indications are under confirmation with the Kent battery team. Until published here: wake a dormant bank through the inverter’s official function above; if the pack still does not respond, that is a Kent battery-service case — never jump-charge a pack from a bench supply or another battery.

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Temperature protection

Charging and discharging are curtailed outside the pack’s temperature window and resume on their own when temperature normalises — on the Kent M1 the LCD flags these states explicitly (over-temperature and low-temperature protection codes). Persistent temperature blocks in a sensibly-sited system are an escalation, not a settings hunt.

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Common mistakes

  • Selling a one-pack system as “full power” when the matrix says two — see the pairing matrix on the platform battery-wiring pages.
  • Leaving M1 grid-charge at its default (off) on a backup-first home — the battery is empty when the first cut comes.
  • Reading G3 reserve behaviour as a fault — on-grid discharge stops at the reserve by design.
  • Waking packs with improvised chargers instead of the platform’s official function.

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When to escalate