Bought a 100Ah Lithium for $399

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Originally Posted by Red90

Maximum Continuous Discharge Current 100A
Peak Discharge Current 300A@10s
Cycle Life(0.5C/1C, 25℃) 5000 Cycles (80% DOD 80% EOL)

These are as good as anything out there.

https://au.renogy.com/content/batter...12100-SPEC.pdf

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Those specs are a lot more useful than the info supplied on the Australian site.

At the price they have them at right now, you should get your moneys worth.

The problem is that the lithium battery market is a mine field and it is hard to find out everything you need to know.

For example, there are heaps of lead acid batteries that are suppling with 3 year warranties, yet on average, 4 or 5 years of use is all you can expect.

But they claim 10+ year life expectancy for lithium batteries but only offer 2 to 3 year warranties.

Furthermore, there is now a major problem showing up with lithium batteries being used under the bonnet.

Even the so called Drop-Ins, which are marketed as being designed to use in the engine bay, are failing after 2, to 3 years, and they are NOT cheap.

Although it may not sound like it but I am a big fan of lithium batteries, but sorting good from bad is almost impossible.

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Originally Posted by drivesafe

Furthermore, there is now a major problem showing up with lithium batteries being used under the bonnet.

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Mine will be in the right rear quarter of the car below the electrics (Tim knows where I mean). The depth of that area isn't quite deep enough for a 100Ah battery so it will protrude upward (that's the reason I had 2x45Ah AGM Deep Cycles in there).

My 105AH AGM fits there, albeit with a small section of the plastic under the floor cover removed.

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Originally Posted by drivesafe

Those specs are a lot more useful than the info supplied on the Australian site.

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The specs I posted are directly from the Australian page that I linked.

Make sure your charger has a remote temperature sensor that can be placed with the battery. It is important that the charger adjust for temperature especially with a cheaper battery that may not have a great onboard BMS.

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Originally Posted by drivesafe

Those specs are a lot more useful than the info supplied on the Australian site.

At the price they have them at right now, you should get your moneys worth.

The problem is that the lithium battery market is a mine field and it is hard to find out everything you need to know.

For example, there are heaps of lead acid batteries that are suppling with 3 year warranties, yet on average, 4 or 5 years of use is all you can expect.

But they claim 10+ year life expectancy for lithium batteries but only offer 2 to 3 year warranties.

Furthermore, there is now a major problem showing up with lithium batteries being used under the bonnet.

Even the so called Drop-Ins, which are marketed as being designed to use in the engine bay, are failing after 2, to 3 years, and they are NOT cheap.

Although it may not sound like it but I am a big fan of lithium batteries, but sorting good from bad is almost impossible.

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Tim, would this battery charge correctly with your SC80 ?

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Originally Posted by loanrangie

Tim, would this battery charge correctly with your SC80 ?

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Hi Loanranger, what vehicle is this in?

Your D3 would be fine and your Kombi would be perfect for lithium battery use.

It will work in some vehicles but not in others, like D4s.

With D4s, you must use a DC/DC device.

Also note, no lithium batteries should be mounted in an engine bay. Thats cranking batteries or auxiliary batteries.

This is proving to be a big problem with lithium battery use

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Originally Posted by drivesafe

Hi Loanranger, what vehicle is this in?

Your D3 would be fine and your Kombi would be perfect for lithium battery use.

It will work in some vehicles but not in others, like D4s.

With D4s, you must use a DC/DC device.

Also note, no lithium batteries should be mounted in an engine bay. Thats cranking batteries or auxiliary batteries.

This is proving to be a big problem with lithium battery use

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Yep in my D3, even in the aux compartment on the drivers side ? I've not found it to be excessively warm in that spot and my AGM has been there for 5 years but starting to show its age.

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Originally Posted by loanrangie

Yep in my D3, even in the aux compartment on the drivers side ? I've not found it to be excessively warm in that spot and my AGM has been there for 5 years but starting to show its age.

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Hi again Loanranger and I strongly recommend against mounting a lithium battery where you plan.

There have been a number of D4s with cranking and auxiliary batteries fitted under the bonnet and they have not lasted 3 years.

The cranking battery in a D4 is in a similar environment to your D3 auxiliary compartment so, NOT a recommended location.

Your lithium battery needs to be mounted somewhere in the cab.

There are now so many reports from all different makes of vehicles, where lithium batteries, both cranking and auxiliary batteries, are failing in as little as 18 months in some cases.

But when mounted in the cab, there does not seem to be a problem.

Re the 100Ah lithium battery to replace the failing deep cycle AGM House batteries in the Rangie, I also bought a Kings 25A DC/DC charger that has both an alternator input and solar input. For a test I connected my rigid 2x80w solar panels to the charger to test it and charge the battery.

The charger has an in-built MPPT (allegedly) regulator so I bypassed the panel PWM regulator.

Today, with full sun and the panels perpendicular to the sun’s rays, the best I saw was 4.78A @ 14.37V (68W) into the battery. The panels are rated (under ideal conditions) at 8.76A with the panels at max power voltage of 18.25V (8.76A x18.25V = 160W).

I wonder how accurate the panel ratings are.

Previously, when camped in full sunlight, using the supplied PWM controller, I’d often see 7A into the AGMs. Another oddity of this controller is that if the panels are briefly shaded, it can take a minute or more before the controller starts letting current flow into the battery. The PWM controller let current flow immediately. Not good if there are clouds scudding across the sky.

I’d always believed that an MPPT controller was significantly better than a PWM controller. In fact, I built an MPPT controller from a Silicon Chip design to replace the PWM but, because of COVID, I haven’t been camping to really test it. I’m not sure that I can use it on the lithium for a comparison.