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Post Info TOPIC: Lithium battery charging
Dick0


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RE: Lithium battery charging
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landy wrote:

Hi again Tim thank you for the new link We do have a 600 watt inverter but haven't used it in years as we find a 150 watt does our needs and is more convenient as we can plug it into the many 12 volt sockets about the van and it seems to work fine. as you suggest I'm not going to worry about the model of the 240 volt charger at this stage, I have been all around it with a long handled mirror and the model is not marked any where you can see with it in situ, probably got a sticker on the side that's screwed to the Wall. biggrin . For My next step I will start looking for a suitable battery, I see on ebay there are a number of suppliers offering 135 Ah lithium batteries that will fit into one of my battery box's and would appear to be equal in performance to my two lead acids, would this be the case ? I can always add a second one in the other box at a later date if needed Also is there any particular brand that might be worth looking out for, time is my friend here as my goal is mainly weight reduction and my lead acids are still doing an acceptable job. I have read on here several times there are some handy specials come up from time to time. Thanks again Cheers Dave.

Hi Dave, I have 3 x 135AH LiFePO4 batteries in parallel (405AH). When I changed to lithium I read recommendations that it is best to use the same batteries in the bank from same manufacturer brands and models and capacities as different manufacturers use differing BMS specs. My batteries came with that recommendation also.

Something to think about if you start with one lithium battery and then decide to add more later.



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Cheers, Richard (Dick0)

"Home is where the Den is parked, Designer Orchid Special towed by Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited"

"4x250W solar panels, Epever 80A charger and 3x135Ah Voltax Prismatic LiFePO4 Batteries".
landy


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Thanks for the heads up on that Dicko it,s certainly something else I will have to keep in mind. Just as an aside what brand of battery did you choose and have you been happy with them.
Cheers Dave

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TimTim


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landy wrote:

Thanks for the heads up on that Dicko it,s certainly something else I will have to keep in mind. Just as an aside what brand of battery did you choose and have you been happy with them.
Cheers Dave

 Dicko has VoltaX batteries now rebranded as VoltX.  Im on the road travelling at the moment but will do a post later of a few different brands you may like to consider because Ebay is a minefield.

Tim



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landy


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That would be great thank's Tim.
Dave

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TimTim


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Hi Dave, An AGM battery can deliver as much power as a LiFePO4 battery but the difference is the voltage level for the state of charge.  Even though an AGM is considered to be fully discharged at 10.5V it is recommended that you do not run AGM's below 50%, which is just on 12.0V, because sulphation of the lead plates begins to occur.  Then of course you also need to get the batteries charged back up and because of the long absorption time they may not get fully charged. Then things like inverters may have a cutout at 11.5V and also LED lights may begin to flicker at the voltage lower.


With LiFePO4 you can run them down to 10.0V but the good thing is only 9% of the power that can be drawn is below 12.0V so you do not get the same low voltage issues. They also do not have to be charged back up as soon as possible and will quite happily sit there partially discharged. You will in all probability find that a 135Ah battery will be suffice.
Whether you buy one battery now and and another later and even a different make and size does not matter.  The battery manufacturers will recommend you don't but there people in the US and Canada who use large banks and progressively add to them without any issues.  I have recently added to my batteries some four years later and there are many others that have done the same.

I build my own batteries but recently bought a !00Ah VoltX battery that was on special at $269 and posted about them here because of the good reviews.  They are now being sold through Woolworths Marketplace for $388.  It is a very nice battery and I capacity tested it at 107Ah.

Most of the Ebay batteries are the same battery with a different label and in all probability you can forget about any warranty as many sellers just disappear and also have multiple seller names.  Ther are some good brands Like VoltX that started on Ebay.  Can you give us a link to the battery that you are looking at.

Probably the best inexpensive LiFePO4 battery around at the moment is the Wattcycle although I haven't bought one to test myself.  They are currently on special but a few months ago they were much cheaper but their popularity has increased.

https://au.wattcycle.com/

Here is a tear down review.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDkJ7Sq21Qw&ab_channel=DIYSolarPowerwithWillProwse

Good luck
Tim




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