Thread: Puma Battery Queries

Originally Posted by Beery

The SC80 isolator lets you use 50% of your cranking battery's capacity which is going to hammer its lifespan so need to factor in quite a few replacements of that as well.

So Beery, you must have seen heaps of cranking batteries that have had their life spans shortened because they were used as deep cycle batteries.


I have been working in this industry for more than 40 years now, and up until about 20 years ago, the only auxiliary and house batteries used were cranking batteries.


The reality is that cranking batteries make for good deep cycle used and so much so that European cranking batteries for many years now, have been labelled with both their CCA and their Ah.


So again, do you have any evidence to back your theory, or as I suspect, it was nothing but you having a thoughty?


I have been working with lithium batteries for around 8 years now, and have carried out many charge/discharge test and if you know so much about your lithium battery, why did you not mention fact that they are very temperamental when it comes to charging them.


Unless they are charged in a specific way, they rapidly loose usable capacity. They are NOT damaged but it is commonplace, where they are continually under charged, that they can drop back to as little as 60 of their original capacity.


Which is no better that what can happen to a lead acid battery in similar circumstance, except, that an Optima can be fully charged with as little a charge voltage of just 13.65v.


You can charge a lithium with 13.65v but it will not only never get to a fully charged state and, as above, it will progressively lose capacity.


Furthermore, an Optima can be safely charged with as much as 15.1v, whereas a lithium charged at 15.1v will be destroyed in a very short time.


So Beery, try putting up both sides of the argument when make your case for lithium batteries verse anything else.

Originally Posted by Beery

My preference, especially if a long way from help, is to protect the cranking battery like my life depends on it (it kind of does).

Again another thoughty based assumption.

Because of the way my isolators work, the cranking battery is going to be in a much healthier state that yours will be, so far less likely to cause a problem in the first place.

Sorry Beery, but what you "THINK" happens and what really happens are two different things and there is plenty of evidence to show that using one of my isolators will actually extend the operating life spans of BOTH batteries.

I notice the Projecta 25 amp 240 volt charger I just bought for our new camper trailer does not have a setting for lithium batteries, although it does for other types of batteries, charging each at different rates.
Is that because lithium batteries require some kind of different setting to other types of batteries?
I also notice the manual for my phone says not to charge it's lithium battery for more than 12 hours.
Just trying to understand this stuff.

Hi Mick, there are a number of different algorithms used to charge lithium batteries.


While you need to get the exact details for a specific brand of lithium battery, but as a rule of thumb, to achieve a fully charged state, you should set the charger to 14.6v during the BULK/ABSORPTION stage and turn off in FLOAT mode.


Very few chargers can be set for this type of operation, and the best chargers are the Sterling Pro Charge Ultras.


Mick, if you get a lithium battery, if you have another brand and it has a USA Gel setting, which is 14.1v for the BULK/ABSORPTION stage and 13.3v for the FLOAT stage, you will loose some percentage of the total capacity but these setting will not damage the battery.


Also check your charger to see if any of the setting are 14.6v BULK/ABSORPTION and 13.3v in FLOAT, but as these are the correct lithium setting, as your does not have that, you will most likely need to use the USA Gel setting.

Thanks. There is a table showing the charge rates for different types of batteries, so I'll have a look at that when I get home. I don't have lithiums, but was just curious.

Originally Posted by martnH

Varta same spec $300.

Mine died 7 months ago. Also MY13 defender. Wasn't driven often. Only done almost 70k kms....

Cheers

Hi martnH, is the battery an AGM or Lead Acid? I thought it was an AGM but all the quotes I am getting are mid $500's whereas you (and others) have noted a lot less.

Andrew

Landrover Fitment Guide - Batteries Plus