lithium question

Jo I think he meant a regular car battery charger with bat clamps like the one you plug into a house socket for current. I also await the answer from experienced RVers or tech heads. I do use small lithium battery power packs to jump start dead truck lead acid batteries and they work great. Quick and easy and cheap.

Some say lead acid, especially AGM, are close enough to there lifepo4 batteries to use,others say you must have a smart charger with a lithium setting while others say lifepo4 charger only...:B

Will Prowse says on solar settings lead acid settings are fine for most lifepo4....My battery guy said to use the AGM setting if I didn't have a lithium setting....

Confused yet...Me too...lol

daily double wrote:
Can you charge lithium batteries with a regular charger or do I need to buy a special charger?

Standard converter works fine. Most portable chargers will work fine too as long as you stay away from equalization and recondition options. AGM or GEL settings will tend to avoid equalization.

There is no metric electricity or lithium electricity. As long as charging meets the voltage and amperage specifications the charging is fine.

Don't get all wrapped up in having to charge at 14.6 volts to fill the battery. 13.8 will fill the battery 99% just fine. Even the dreaded WFCO at 13.6 will do OK but take a bit longer. Unlike lead-acid there is no need to cram lithium 100% full. Too many procedures from lead-acid are shoved onto lithium. I would stay away from all "lithium" converters, the stock ones are better.

Here is an example from my Renogy solar controller and the pre-set parameters for the different 12v batteries and how close or not they are..

jaycocreek wrote:
Some say lead acid, especially AGM, are close enough to there lifepo4 batteries to use,others say you must have a smart charger with a lithium setting while others say lifepo4 charger only...:B

Will Prowse says on solar settings lead acid settings are fine for most lifepo4....My battery guy said to use the AGM setting if I didn't have a lithium setting....

Confused yet...Me too...lol

everything I have read says if you dont have the Li setting to use Gel as it is close but doesnt have the things that will damage a Li like equalizationg and such, but the others will work in a pinch also


Steve

I agree Steve except when I got my first Lifepo4 battery I wrote the company and asked which charger will work with your lifepo4..

And this was there answer:

Lynx battery wrote:
Any charger up to 40-50amps that takes either lithium or AGM Batteries.

If you are buying new, go with one with a lithium setting.

But looking at the chart above,Gel is the closest...And I have watched a couple of Will's videos on setting up your solar controller and he mentions for most the lead acid setting will work with lifepo4..Crazy huh...

daily double wrote:
Can you charge lithium batteries with a regular charger or do I need to buy a special charger?

What do you mean by "regular charger"?
The factory supplied solar/battery charger built into my 2021 Artic Fox will charge lithium batteries, AGM, etc.
I'm not sure about the automotive battery charger in my shop - it's pretty ancient and I would not use that without further information.

Well this thread is an eye opener for me. Everything I remember reading about lithium batteries on here has been saying I need to remove the factory built in charger and install a charger designed for lithium. So now I'm seeing that is not the case, and I can just swap to lithium and keep using the factory WFCO charging system that came installed in my Wolf Creek?

MORSNOW wrote:
. . . and I can just swap to lithium and keep using the factory WFCO charging system that came installed in my Wolf Creek?

Apparently so according to their website: https://wfcoelectronics.com/lithium-solutions/

MORSNOW wrote:
I can just swap to lithium and keep using the factory WFCO charging system that came installed in my Wolf Creek?

Yes. Although I would recommend 200+ watts solar to go along with the WFCO as I would recommend for any RV camping off-grid.