Best Rv batteries

2oldman wrote:
Well, there's price, longevity, maintenance, capacity. etc. Best usually means price around here. Lithium is best.

Not necessarily.

EACH "type" of battery has "pros" and "cons", comes down to what best SUITS YOUR "priorities".

IF you have tons of cash laying around and have no cares in the world and don't mind burning it like there is no tomorrow then "Lithium" just might be suited for you.

However for the rest of us poor working slobs, Lithium is STILL way over priced for what you get.

Sometimes if you are simply looking for the HIGHEST BATTERY CAPACITY FOR THE MONEY, FLA (Flooded Lead Acid) technology well surpasses all other battery technologies.

With FLA, the best bang for the buck is the ever so humble Golfcart batteries..

Even paying MORE for a GC battery is dumb, the ones sold at Sams club or Costco ARE the most inexpensive but yet with PROPER care can easily get you 10 to 12 yrs of usable capacity..

Then you have AGM, you pay more, get less capacity for the same size as FLA.. But they do have sever "advantages" in the fact they often can be recharged a bit quicker, can take a bit higher discharge with less voltage drop, can be turned on their sides, do not outgas unless you did something wrong.. However, mistreat AGM and they turn into a expensive doorstop the first time.

Lithium, lighter weight than FLA, can be turned on their side, provides more power density.

Downside is they are insanely expensive, REQUIRE BMS for discharge and recharge, without BMS you run the risk of not only damage to these batteries but overheating to the point of setting either the batteries on fire our your RV on fire.. BMS often times is the failure point of Lithium and most prepackaged Lithium batteries have it built in so if the BMS fails you have no choice but to lay out more money for another battery.

Another "elephant" in the room that pro Lithium folks don't talk about is "recycling", many lithium batteries are not 100% recyclable due to economic costs, it is not economically feasible to recycle them (it costs MORE to recycle than the final product made from all new material).

SEE HERE

Text from link..

"OEMs are looking at overcoming the dependency on lithium through reuse of lithium batteries in other applications (second-life) and through recycling the batteries once they have completed their lifecycle. However, it does not make any economic sense to recycle the batteries. Batteries contain only a small fraction of lithium carbonate as a percent of weight and are inexpensive compared to cobalt or nickel. The average lithium cost associated with Li-ion battery production is less than 3% of the production cost. Intrinsic value for the Li-ion recycling business currently comes from the valuable metals such as cobalt and nickel that are more highly priced than lithium. Due to less demand for lithium and low prices, almost none of the lithium used in consumer batteries is completely recycled.

While lithion is 100% recyclable, currently economics do not add up to recycle it"

ALL of the Lithium used for batteries typically comes from OUTSIDE the US!!! Yep, YOU are now depending on Lithium from OTHER countries, their politics, economy..

From link above..

"Lithium supply and challenges

There are a number of challenges that are likely to impact lithium supply in the future. Although there is sufficient amount of lithium resources available globally to meet the demand, almost 70% of the global lithium deposits are concentrated in South America's ABC (Argentina, Bolivia and Chile) region. This poses an inherent risk due to the accessibility of the raw material that is available only in a specific geography. Unrest or instability of the governments in these regions can greatly affect the supply and have impact on the battery price and in turn, the vehicle cost."

Buy into the Lithium is "best" and is "the best solution" to everything at the risk of your own peril..