Lithium 12v WalMart Battery

I hate it when you pick batteries that has minimal specs included with them.

The SCHMACHER 12VDC AGM spec sheet says it is a 110AH and weighs 68LBS.. That is about all the info you get.

You can compare that to a TROJAN 31-AGM which weighs around 69LBS... TROJAN lists all their specs for all to see... Then you can get a better idea what to expect performance wise... i.e This battery will produce 12VDC@25AMPS for 177 minutes (2.95 hours). Six of these in parallel will produce 12VDC 12VDC@25AMPS for 17.7 hours... That might keep you going until the HIGH SUN comes out again to re-charge them again. Also re-charging any deep cycle battery that has been depleted down to the 50% charge state will want to see around 14.4VDC @ 17-20AMPS of DC Charge per battery in the bank if you want them to get re-charged in a short three hour time frame. In your case the initial DC charge demand for the six batteries in parallel will be in the neighborhood of 120AMPS DC Current. With a typical 120WATT solar panel only producing around 6AMPS DC CURRENT when in HIGH SUN you are a very long way from getting there if you want the batteries to get re-charged to at least 90% charge state in a three hour window.



Also you see CRANKING AMPS so this tells you it is not a TRUE DEEP CYCLE battery.

Being on SOLAR I imagine you will running down the batteries to their 50% charge states many times more than just keeping them topped off all the time. I would definitely want DEEP CYCLE BATTERIES in the mix which are designed to do many of these up and down charge cycles...

Just things to think about and plan for...

Roy Ken

Pricewise, all of those batteries you're looking at don't have a good ratio of $$/AH. The cheapest you'll find are 6V golf cart batteries and they are a true deep cycle battery.

Lithium batteries do have an advantage of deeper discharge, usable AH down to 10% or so of their capacity but are expensive and are not friendly with cold weather.

M.A.Taylor wrote:
.........I didn't notice it's actual storage capacity until you mentioned it. Looks like these batteries have big cold cranking amps but not much storage..........

$150 for 10-14 AH capacity doesn't do much for me either!!

Thanks for the reply. Here is the battery I was looking at http://www.batterytender.com/Batteries/240-CCA-Lithium-Engine-Start-Battery.html

I didn't notice it's actual storage capacity until you mentioned it. Looks like these batteries have big cold cranking amps but not much storage. Suppose I'll go with 6 maintenance free 110ah batteries from WalMart like these http://www.walmart.com/ip/Schumacher-Electric-12V-110AH-Battery/25955633

Am I thinking correctly? I'm not sure if there is a difference between how the capacity of a lithium battery is rated compared to that of a regular battery. I'm confused on that, hope it's not contagious (grins).

M.A.Taylor wrote:
WalMart is selling lithium batteries from batterytender.com, I'm installing a 480 watt solar system from Go Power! and was wondering if anyone else is using these batteries or even if they would be suitable as the batteries for such a solar power system? Thanks for any help or insights.

Do you have a link to the lithium battery? I searched through Walmart and don't see any bigger than a laptop battery.

I did find this Deltran battery at Northern Tool. It is only 35AH so won't provide much storage capacity.