My 4 yr old Tempest battery has been in a voltage decline for a couple of months and now reads 2.13 volts. I reset the station and the unit shows it is online but in spite of being close to a bright LED ligh source for 18 hours the voltage remains the same. Tech support says “The power system has failed in the unit so the Tempest will need to be replaced.”
Before I spend $175 I wonder what the collective wisdom thinks about just replacing the battery?
There’s a thread or two here about installing new batteries. The process requires soldering, and the original cells are not commonly-available ones. There is an alternate cell that increases the battery capacity, but it requires modifying the Tempest’s internal housing to fit them in…..
Thanks for the reply Vreihen. My concern with replacing the battery centers around throwing good money after bad. Support quotes a “power system failure”. In my mind this could be the battery or some other component of the charging system.
I’ve done a bit of searching but can’t seem to find any posts (ideally with pics) that shows a “start to finish” battery replacement. Did I miss one?
This might be the best one … https://community.tempest.earth/t/bigger-battery-booster-replace-batery/13265 . But, definitely not for the faint of heart. I am not sure there is anything totally “start to finish”.
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The solution that I used for one of my Tempests that had a battery/charging failure was to add a Power Booster Accessory (PBA) to it, fed from a massive overkill 35 Ah battery and 100 watt solar panel and solar charge controller…..
Just to close the loop on this thread …
Tempest offered a replacement station for half price but I decided to try and replace just the battery. I ordered the one from Batteryspace.com and it ran $27.64 including tax and shipping. I had a lot of trouble unsoldering the old battery from the circuit board. If I had a 3rd hand it would have been much easier. I was concerned that I applied too much heat and may have cooked some of the PC board components.
The replacement arrived today and it took less than 2 minutes to solder it in. The station immediately connect and is now displaying data.
Thanks to those who responded.
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