The pitfalls of bying Lithium batteries (article)

Mexico,

What battery type do you recommend for this type of use:

Never off Grid.

On 50 amp service to converter/charger (Charge Wizard) to RV every evening from check-in until check-out each travel day.

5th wheel plugged into truck while traveling with usual travel day of 8 - 10 hours.

2000W Magnum pure sine inverter powering Fisher/Paykel residential inverter style reefer while traveling.

On 50 amp service while at destination.

It might be helpful to refer to a trusted depth-of-discharge-versus-cycle-life-chart.

For an off-grid situation cycle life is crucial. But take a number like "500" cycles then see how great a DOD that would allow. Five hundred cycles is nothing to sneeze at. How about 700 cycles?

How many vacations equal 500 cycles? Weekends. Boondocking...?

Take care of an AGM and it will last an eyebrow raising number of cycles even at 80% depth of discharge.

But abuse will kill these numbers. These batteries must be recharged correctly.

What a lot of folks misunderstand is that battery plates get eaten whether they use the battery or not. Telecomm battery float life is something like 12-15 years. But thin plate AGMs like Full River and Odyssey only float well for 6-8 years.

During that period of time Go For It. If I hauled batteries to the wilderness every weekend they'd better be prepared for an 80% depth of discharge (20% remaining). But right after they got near a power line they would be meticulously recharged. There is NOTHING wrong with impressing 14.4 volts regulated charge across the battery, then have a timer shut the charger off. A 105 amp hour battery and a 20 amp charger can be timed for say eight hours. The extra hour or two spent at 14.4 WILL NOT HURT THE BATTERY. The voltage of course must be changed in cold weather.

Would lithium make sense for a weekend warrior or even for a 2-week camping spell, in comparison to AGM? I would like to have some numbers ran past me if you think lithium is justified under these conditions. The entire and I mean TOTAL factor of justifying lithium is TIME. Many weeks spent partially recharging the battery. Repetitive cycles.

Too often, customers read of a battery "trait" then extrapolate it to the boundaries of sanity. Chemistry does not work that way. An AGM battery will not be killed by occasional periods of 80% recharged. It's when the batteries see weeks and months of partial recharging that will occlude negative plate material.

So sifted down, flooded batteries "have their place". So do AGM batteries. And lithium construction has their optimum setting. Pluses and minuses. Strong points and weak. Compromises. Everything has it's compromising nature.

I'm waiting for the LiFePo4 craze to pass. That particular chemistry doesn't excite me.

It is battery replacement time for me too, and I am looking at a compromise possibly going with Firefly Oasis Carbon Foam AGM, they get nearly the deep discharge capacity of Lithium in a lead acid AGM for about half the price of LiFePO4. So while they still have the weight of Lead Acid, they have nearly double the effective power with safe deep discharging.

Biggest pitfall for me is the price. I can buy decades worth of conventional batteries for the cost of one Lithium and weight with me, isn't an issue anyway.

GordonThree wrote:

Itinerant1 wrote:
Why is lighter than 28# so important?

For my little trailer I only have 800# CCC. I spent 280# of that on batteries.

When I can buy Lithium Manganese batteries batteries in the 100ah range for around $300 I'll happily upgrade.

My current g31 are 200ah but the 50% rule means it's only advisable to use the top 100ah of that or damage the battery.

Understandable,
Almot is asking about "28#" why 28#?

Itinerant1 wrote:
Why is lighter than 28# so important?

For my little trailer I only have 800# CCC. I spent 280# of that on batteries.

When I can buy Lithium Manganese batteries batteries in the 100ah range for around $300 I'll happily upgrade.

My current g31 are 200ah but the 50% rule means it's only advisable to use the top 100ah of that or damage the battery.

Don’t make it polictical? The buying habits of Americans is of political importance. It always has been and will be. I object to the OP attempting to limit discussion of his post to what he wants to hear.

Why is lighter than 28# so important?

28# for group 31? Not terrible. I think my Duracell g31 agm are close to 70# each!