Lithium Batteries

FWC wrote:
There seems to be a lot of confusion about these, possibly arising from the fact that no one is actually using them. A couple of things that may help - these are lead acid batteries, and have the same electrochemistry as all the other flavors of lead acid battery (AGM, flooded, gel etc). The only parameter that they differ significantly from other lead acid batteries is low temperature charging, as there electrolyte is already crystalline, and therefore they won't freeze like a liquid electrolyte at a deep discharge. They are not comparable to the various lithium chemistries (which are a completely different electrochemistry), which have significant advantages in terms of energy density (by weight and volume) rate of charge, cycle life, self discharge, partial charge etc.

This is also not new technology. There was another wave of companies pushing this 'break through' technology a decade ago. But you will notice, with the exception of some niche applications such as low temperature telecom installations, it has not taken off and it has not been adopted by any of the major battery manufacturers. There is a reason for this - unless you desperately need high rate and deep DOD low temperature charging, there is no significant advantage over regular lead acid, which is well known and available from established manufacturers.

You will also notice that almost all the performance information on SiO2/lead crystal batteries is in the form of marketing from people selling them. There is almost no independent testing or scholarly research on them, which is a major red flag.

I don't have a dog in this fight beyond having looked into these batteries some time ago for some remote instrumentation we were installing in Antarctica. What worries me is that these seem to be being promoted as some amazing new thing for RVers, and somehow equivalent in performance to LiFePO4, when they really aren't. If you really do need to charge at -40C, then maybe they are worth looking into, but for general use, stick with well known deep cycle/AGM manufacturers or LiFePO4.

PS if you do need to charge at -40C, you are going to have other problems than the just the battery - check the specs on your power electronics, I doubt many will work well at those temperatures.

SiO2 don't sulphate and don't require 100% recharging each and very cycle.

Let me know how well LI work if you discharge them to stone bone dead say 25 times? SiO2 allows that 620 times.

Let me know how to charge an LiFeP04 at -40, in any reasonable time frame.

My electronics do just fine at -37 C.

And yes, my RV is modified to endure such temperatures, with auxiliary heaters where they are needed, and electric heated carpets.

SiO2 behave much more like LI than any flooded or agm jar.

There are few folks using SiO2, but I'll be going that route in summer of 2021 and will of course test and post results.