Thread: Difference between drop in replacement LiFEPO4 and others

This depends on which vehicle you have, but as you say it has given over 10 years service, it could be a vehicle without a "smart" alternator, but if that was the case, I'm not sure why you'd have a 25 amp BCD charger as this would normally restrict the recharge time from the alternator depending on what the battery can take.

I think the BMS in the itechworld may be different to the big wei batteries hence the difference, but maybe Traxide would be better to answer that.

Cheers

Originally Posted by discorevy

This depends on which vehicle you have, but as you say it has given over 10 years service, it could be a vehicle without a "smart" alternator, but if that was the case, I'm not sure why you'd have a 25 amp BCD charger as this would normally restrict the recharge time from the alternator depending on what the battery can take.

I think the BMS in the itechworld may be different to the big wei batteries hence the difference, but maybe Traxide would be better to answer that.

Cheers

Hi mate. At the risk of triggering Traxide i had the DC2DC for AGM health. The battery has certainly lasted (and is still good). The 25amp Red Arc delivers more than 25amp at.times. It never had an issue charging up fully. Anyway be that as it may it is still in the vehicle and the vehicle doesn't have a smart alt. Cheers

Originally Posted by ozscott

Hi mate. At the risk of triggering Traxide i had the DC2DC for AGM health. The battery has certainly lasted (and is still good). The 25amp Red Arc delivers more than 25amp at.times. It never had an issue charging up fully. Anyway be that as it may it is still in the vehicle and the vehicle doesn't have a smart alt. Cheers

Fair call, Big wei looks alright and close to you, I don't know enough about why they'd recommend the 20 amp charger unless it's to use with 240 A/C.

If for example their 100ah battery was rated 1C, It'd take a lot more than 20 amps ( suppose to be 100 amps in theory )

Be worth asking them.

Cheers

Hi ozscott first off, as Discorevy posted, not having a SMART alternator means you do not need a DC/DC device and the fact your battery lasted 10 years is most likely because it’s a Fullriver battery.

Fullriver Deep Cycle batteries are amongst the very best AGMs on the market and that sort of lifespan is not unusual.

Next, as you wish to continue to use the DC/DC device, you will have to make sure, as it is an older model, that the charging voltage is no more than 14.4v and this is usually a GEL setting.

The commonly used AGM setting is too high a voltage for use with lithium batteries.

Also, if your DC/DC device has a solar regulator, you must not use that feature with lithium batteries, unless the DC/DC device has a LITHIUM setting, which, because of its age, your DC/DC device will not have a lithium setting.

If you have an older 240vac battery charger, even if set to GEL, you will more than likely damage a lithium battery.

The problem with both an older solar regulator and older battery charger is that they do not shutdown once a lithium battery is fully charged.

All lead acid batteries can be continually maintained with a solar regulator or battery charger operating in FLOAT mode, but continually keeping a FLOAT charge applied to a lithium battery will destroy the battery.

This is not a problem when charging directly from an alternator or from a DC/DC device because you will never drive long enough to cause a problem.


As for that lithium battery. I have never had anything to do with that brand but it does seem a bit expensive for a lithium battery with such ordinary specs.

I personally do not use lithium batteries that do not have at least a 100 amp continuous charge and discharge rate.

Thanks lads.

Dave I have a Big Wei with 100 amp continuous charge rate. I have had one of their lithium batteries in my boat for 3 years used with my electric motor and it has been fantastic.

Cheers

Originally Posted by drivesafe

Hi ozscott first off, as Discorevy posted, not having a SMART alternator means you do not need a DC/DC device and the fact your battery lasted 10 years is most likely because it’s a Fullriver battery.

Fullriver Deep Cycle batteries are amongst the very best AGMs on the market and that sort of lifespan is not unusual.

Next, as you wish to continue to use the DC/DC device, you will have to make sure, as it is an older model, that the charging voltage is no more than 14.4v and this is usually a GEL setting.

The commonly used AGM setting is too high a voltage for use with lithium batteries.

Also, if your DC/DC device has a solar regulator, you must not use that feature with lithium batteries, unless the DC/DC device has a LITHIUM setting, which, because of its age, your DC/DC device will not have a lithium setting.

If you have an older 240vac battery charger, even if set to GEL, you will more than likely damage a lithium battery.

The problem with both an older solar regulator and older battery charger is that they do not shutdown once a lithium battery is fully charged.

All lead acid batteries can be continually maintained with a solar regulator or battery charger operating in FLOAT mode, but continually keeping a FLOAT charge applied to a lithium battery will destroy the battery.

This is not a problem when charging directly from an alternator or from a DC/DC device because you will never drive long enough to cause a problem.


As for that lithium battery. I have never had anything to do with that brand but it does seem a bit expensive for a lithium battery with such ordinary specs.

I personally do not use lithium batteries that do not have at least a 100 amp continuous charge and discharge rate.

Hi Dave,

The Red Arc BCDC 1225 I have has a 14.5v absorption charge and 13.3 volt float for the AGM/Gel setting (the other settings are much higher). Given that is about 1% difference from what you were saying re 14.4 max I should be right I am thinking. For solar I could get a cheap LiFEPO4 regulator and attach to the battery end of the solar panel wiring run. Cheers mate

Not to be anal but it's certainly not 1% it's 0.1 volt difference and for lithium this can be crucial to be fair. You also do not want to float a lithium battery to be honest, in fact a lithium battery is best kept between 20% and 80% charge to get the most life out of it. This means you get 60% useful use (as opposed to the often used rule of thumb of 50% for an AGM).

Your mileage may vary but with batteries that are so happy to burn out of control, I am not sure I would want to mess around.

Cheers,
-P

Lithium Ion is the burner. Lithium polymer is not the same. But as you say float seems to be the issue.

Cheers,