Told Ya! 6.8 A/H Lithium Battery With Charger Under $20

Some of the sailboat buys are getting along well with their Lifpo4.

One guy is saying he can detect no capacity loss after 400 cycles.

Video link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ8AfJsOhsM&list=UUoPqTkOluQsuu3RpGnxVwFw&index=13

NOt in the same price league as Mex's link, but I've been watching these Lithium jumper packs come down in price.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K7UXT2O/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1&tag=viglink20599-20

I'm very interested in the lithium technology-I have a 48V 10 AH pack in my electric bike. The blurb says 50 Kilometers, I've already beaten that with very minimal pedaling. My Bike :C

As for the motorhome, I'll wait a few years until you guys have smoke tested them thoroughly. :B

Lithium, most of the capacity is usable. A group 31 is about 55 amp hours usable unless I wish to destroy it in short order. "Diablos" meaning hand trucks and Mexican hotels don't mix. Stairs. Pull up each and every one to follow down each and every one. All for a BiPAP. Gravel parking areas with Florida orange size rock. Then believe it or not a 60 lb battery in a 2.900 lb car does not make a lot of sense, especially when it goes upside down after whacking a "tope" (speed bump). AGM has less capacity per pound.

The Chinese honesty in advertising is another issue entirely.

Why not, just RV and use it's batteries? Toll road tariffs, RV parks cost more than a hotel room. Car gets 30 mpg, gasoline is 4.00 USA a gallon. Where does a person park an RV in downtown Mexico? A hotel with comprehensive disabled facilities costs 400 dollars US a night. Welcome to Mexico. I must live estilo Mexicano. Yeah, in hotels where the beds have 109 springs (should have 120), just lay back and count-'em. I do not carry a 4" memory foam mattress without using it.

One of the Meanwells is going to serve as a minor UPS for the lithium pack with the BiPAP connected to the batteries. When, not if, the power goes out I will never miss it for the night. The amp hour capacity inherent in my selection will not overdischarge the lithiums even if the unit works 10 hours. I will have a car lighter socket charger cord, and arrive with the battery pack at 100%.

PS thank you for the hand truck recommendation. I did buy one of those jobs at COSTCO, and it has saved my butt too many times to count. Folds up nice, but for some reason now the wheels have to be spread first allowing the platform to drop. This is almost beyond my physical capability now :(

JaxDad wrote:

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
Objective: Gang enough lithium in parallel to carry to and from hotel rooms, that would allow 8 hour use of CPAP with humidifier plus a 5 watt LED reading light for 3 hours. Because of a bad disc, lift ability is limited to 2 kilos. This is Mexico. Electricity is about as dependable as safe drinking water out of a faucet.

Have you considered using a small collapsible lightweight hand truck and a standard AGM deep cycle battery?

Good thing about Lithiums is that they weigh less than AGM.

Hand truck... You guys should travel more, beyond the great US of A. There are stairs in many places. And no elevators. And no wheelchair ramp to the lobby, or on any sidewalk, with curb stones sometimes a foot high. All the Central America and Caribbean are like this, even Bahamas - except for the most expensive hotels.

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
Objective: Gang enough lithium in parallel to carry to and from hotel rooms, that would allow 8 hour use of CPAP with humidifier plus a 5 watt LED reading light for 3 hours. Because of a bad disc, lift ability is limited to 2 kilos. This is Mexico. Electricity is about as dependable as safe drinking water out of a faucet.

Have you considered using a small collapsible lightweight hand truck and a standard AGM deep cycle battery?

I use a pair of small 12 volt SLA batteries intended for a UPS in my ice fishing shack, they are 3.5 pounds and 4.5 AH each, so 9 AH together. They run the LED lighting and cell phone chargers all day with no problem.

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
6800mAh DC 12V Super Rechargeable Lith-ion Battery Pack US Plug

Five of these puppies, ganged, would equal the usable capacity of a 70 some amp hour Pb battery.

5*7=35 AH, not 70.

15*6.8 would be 100 AH, $300. Paid $180 for my 100 AH Chinese AGM

I believe the highest capacity 18650 Li-ion cells are now only 3600 Mah. Panasonic NCR 18650b were the standard and are 3400 Mah. All sorts of other cells, especially those with 'fire' in their names, are likely 18650 cells taken out of laptop batteries with a new shiny wrapper wrapper and some fancy marketing.

They like to claim to have protection circuitry too when none exists. I believe I own such a reclaimed laptop cell, and it lasts about 1/4 the time in my Nitecore HC50 as do my Orbitronics 18650's which are based on the Panasonic NCR18650B cell. I have two bare panasonic cells too.

It'll be nice when prices drop.

http://www.amazon.com/Battery-Tender-BTL14A240C-Lithium-Phosphate/dp/B00F9LPJ8S/ref=pd_sbs_auto_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0K6Z43NQVDAD9J45EBEA

NinerBikes wrote:

Go actually measure what you are getting out of that 18650, and you'll be surprised to find that you really only have 2300 to 2500 miAH in that 18650.

I was just going to write the same thing. Pretty sure they haven't gotten this much in an 18650 battery. Maybe just over 3000, but no way up to 5000AH.

I Am So Corn Fused

Golden_HVAC wrote:
I have been buying 5,000 ma batteries for a couple of years from China, they are rated at 3.7 volts, and used in many flashlights. It is a 18650 battery, with 18 mm diameter, and 650 mm length. So 5 amp hours each. You can buy 3 gang battery holder, that would give you 11.1 volts total, so it will not work out well for a 12 volt system. 14.8 four batteries would be a little to high voltage.

The 5 AH 3.7 volt cells are running about $3 each when you buy them 10 at a time. Less if you buy 50 or 100 each. 48 of the cells, when wired 4 to a string, and 6 strings would give about 14 volts and 30 amp hours.

I was looking up this battery, the slightly larger diameter 26650 cell, 100 each for $411 with free shipping. This could give 25 strings of 7.2 AH each, or a fairly decent battery pack at 14.4 volts. Clicky Problem being it is 14.4 volts, not the nominal 12 volts used by motorhomes that is actually about 13.6 when charging and 12.8 when discharging. So it is a slightly higher charge voltage, and about 1.2 volts higher while discharging. I wonder how much of a difference this can make?

You can search the Aliexpress website for various batteries, and the holders to hold strings of 4 batteries, if you want to. They have some great prices. I bought a lot of LED light panels there as well.

Fred.

Go actually measure what you are getting out of that 18650, and you'll be surprised to find that you really only have 2300 to 2500 miAH in that 18650. Those are laptop computer batteries. The Chinese are notorious for padding the actual amp hours, you can go on Deal Extreme and read the comments to see what the batteries really put out, versus the BS printed or claimed on the label.

Fully charged, I end up with about 4.12V per cell. The voltage drops off pretty fast from 4.12 to 3.7V, where it sits steady for quite some time. Drop the voltage discharging much below 3.0V, and you just killed and destroyed a very expensive LiIon battery. Some of these batteries come with a built in "protection" circuit, but they are a little bit longer than the normal 18650... fine in a flashlight where there's a spring at the back to compensate for the additional length, but a whole other matter if you are building battery packs in existing holders. Also, these cells, often need individual compensation charges per battery, when it packs, to keep them all balanced in charge, and capacity.