Pulled the Trigger on LiFePo4

[adamis]

After much thought and a few posts in the past, I have finally pulled the trigger on a 12v, 100AH Battle Born LiFePo4 battery for my 2001 Bigfoot 10.6. It will be arriving on Wednesday and I will be installing it on Thursday. Instead of purchasing on Amazon, I called them directly. I was able to get a $50 military discount they were kind enough to offer and saved on Sales Tax as well (out of state). Out the door for $899.00. Now before everyone gets excited about how I could have gotten twice the capacity for half the cost, I had reasons for going this route...

1. Able to remove camper from truck. My old 6v 300AH Lifelines were stored in the bed of the truck requiring a long umbilical cord that had to be disconnected if I removed the camper.

2. Saved 150lbs of weight (30 lbs versus 180 lbs for AGM).

3. Able to use existing battery compartment that is limited in size on Bigfoots.

4. Wanted something that could charge faster than my AGMs

5. Built in Battery Monitoring System prevents over charging / discharging so less to worry about.

6. Usable capacity is probably higher than my 300AH AGMs that I could only draw 150AH from to be safe and considering they were 10 years old, probably had less than half of that capacity.

In regards to cost, yes, it was more than had I gone with AGMs but I had some points on my credit card to use up so this really cost me $500 out of pocket and the benefits I think were worth it.

I'll post my experiences on this thread over time so others can learn from my early adopter experience.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
And now for some photos of the install... I took some comparison images of a standard car battery as well as my old 6v Lifelines. I haven't measured it yet but I think it might be possible to get two of these into the Bigfoot battery compartment. I think one will be sufficient for me however.

[covered_wagon]

I'll be staying with my paralleled wet cell batteries and other Wagon Wheel era technologies. I'm pretty stubborn/ pig headed so don't try convincing me otherwise Lol

[SidecarFlip]

When the price of admission gets reasonable (and it will at some point), I'll get 2 for my TC.

[Johnnybgood]

I have two of them in my fifth wheel. Couldn't ask for better. If I was going to use it in our truck camper in the winter I would insulate the door to keep the cold out and possibly make openings in the back of the battery box to let the heat from inside the camper get in. I have yet to run out of power. Only problem I have had was the battery box is larger then the battery. Had to make wedges to keep it from sliding around.

[LosAngeles]

Great thread. Thanks.

How are the Battleborn doing now?

j.

[work2much]

Eric&Lisa wrote:
I am looking forward to the long term feasibility report!

I admit, I had to look at the website to see what the big deal is. A G-note for a battery seems pretty steep, until I realized it is a lithium ion battery. We may need locks for them like Fastguns. LOL!

Anyway... I bought a Phantom 2 quadcopter a few years back, which also uses lithium ion batteries. I had read, but failed to heed, that lithium ion batteries should NOT be stored at full charge. They should be stored at 30-40% or so charge. My thinking was... What's the point of a battery if it isn't full when I need it...so I kept them at full all the time. They lasted about 2 years before losing their ability to lift the QC off the ground. Bought new ones, and I leave them at about 30% capacity. I only charge them to full before a flight.

So I will be curious what the long term report is on this battery. Will you keep it at full charge when not in use? And if you do, how will it hold up over time?


Thanks,
-Eric

I can sort of report on this shorter term. I built a custom LFP battery system for our TC.

Here

Everything has exceeded our expectations. We have been using the system now for close to a year including a couple months of storage and non activity from charging or discharging which we just left the bank disconnected around 80% full. When we turned back on the monitors it was about where we remember leaving it. Very little self discharge.

We work the battery bank hard running a multitude of high load appliances, heating, air conditioning, cooking and all the little normal stuff like TV and charging computers. Most of our travels are in good weather. We spend our winters in the southwest where solar production is good.

I am planning on running a 1 year test of the system when we get back home to see what losses in capacity our battery bank has sustained in the first year.

[gmctoyman]

I believe I was an early user of the BB batteries, almost 3yrs on mine. I replaced 3x grp 8 lifeline AGM (450# & 380 USABLE AH)in my Foretravel with 4 BB (108# & 380 USABLE AH) batteries. The Foretravel had a residential refer and 5cu ft chest freezer in it. Made a trip to Alaska, boondocking as much as possible, never had a problem. We downsized into a 24’ class C and I kept the BB batteries. I have 400-520 W of solar availability and with the batteries I can EASILY run 3 days with no sun at all. The folks a BB have been some of the best, most helpful I’ve ever delt with. They helped me set up my system, getting the correct parameters for my inverter/charger, battery monitor & solar controller from the manufacturer for their batteries. Coming out of Alaska, with the freezer full of fish I began to be a little concerned with the freezing temps. I sent BB an email on Sunday, and received a reply that afternoon. 24° on a Cell and the BMS would shut off that cell from charging, since mine were (are) enclosed I have not had an issue.

[adamis]

TucsonJim wrote:
If you haven't seen it, BattleBorn just changed their warranty for a full 10 years on all their LiFePo batteries. This includes batteries that were already sold.

If you want to get the full charging speed out of these batteries, switch out your multi-stage converter for on that is designed for these batts. Progressive Dynamics sells a single stage converter that runs a constant 14.4 VDC charge (current tapers to zero when fully charged). But be warned. If you order the PD Converter from Amazon, there is only one seller. When I purchased mine from there, they shipped me a standard converter, and not the lithium version. And I had to pay the shipping to return it for a refund. I finally purchased mine from Best Converter for a fair price.

Jim

I did not know of this warranty change but that is fantastic. So far my experience has been very positive. I've not had issues with the batteries charging and the capacity seems to be sufficient for my needs. I just got back from my second trip to Pismo for the weekend. I have a portable 100w solar panel that I put on the roof and it topped up the battery during the day and we had plenty of power in the evening.

A couple of things I will change in the future...

1. Add permanent 200w panels to the roof.
2. Upgrade my DC-DC charging system with larger cables
3. Find a LiFeP04 compatible BMS display system.

[TucsonJim]

If you haven't seen it, BattleBorn just changed their warranty for a full 10 years on all their LiFePo batteries. This includes batteries that were already sold.

If you want to get the full charging speed out of these batteries, switch out your multi-stage converter for on that is designed for these batts. Progressive Dynamics sells a single stage converter that runs a constant 14.4 VDC charge (current tapers to zero when fully charged). But be warned. If you order the PD Converter from Amazon, there is only one seller. When I purchased mine from there, they shipped me a standard converter, and not the lithium version. And I had to pay the shipping to return it for a refund. I finally purchased mine from Best Converter for a fair price.

Jim

[adamis]

Here is a response from BattleBorn regarding some of the questions people have posted...

When storing the battery, you can fully charge it, then just leave it. It will only discharge a percent and a half or so per month.

As far as the temperature go’s. On the hot side, the BMS will shut the battery down once it reaches 135 degrees F.

As far as cold weather, the battery will no longer accept a charge at 24 degrees F, but will continue to discharge until the temperature drops to -4 degrees F.

[Eric_Lisa]

I am looking forward to the long term feasibility report!

I admit, I had to look at the website to see what the big deal is. A G-note for a battery seems pretty steep, until I realized it is a lithium ion battery. We may need locks for them like Fastguns. LOL!

Anyway... I bought a Phantom 2 quadcopter a few years back, which also uses lithium ion batteries. I had read, but failed to heed, that lithium ion batteries should NOT be stored at full charge. They should be stored at 30-40% or so charge. My thinking was... What's the point of a battery if it isn't full when I need it...so I kept them at full all the time. They lasted about 2 years before losing their ability to lift the QC off the ground. Bought new ones, and I leave them at about 30% capacity. I only charge them to full before a flight.

So I will be curious what the long term report is on this battery. Will you keep it at full charge when not in use? And if you do, how will it hold up over time?

Thanks,
-Eric

[adamis]

pianotuna wrote:
Hi,

Unless you plan on camping below -4 F (-20 c) I would NOT use those blankets.

egarant wrote:
I am going to wrap my batteries in a battery blanket that will help insulate them from heat and cold.

Like these two:

Battery Blanket 1

Battery Blanket 2

I think I would have to agree, especially in warm weather climates. The batteries when charging generate a certain amount of heat and if you wrap them up in an insulated blanket, you will trap that heat in. You want as much ventilation as possible in warm weather.

In cold weather, if you are going to be consistently in extreme environments that are below the operating temps of the battery I think I would look for a way to put the battery in a heated compartment first before going to a blanket. The coldest temps will be seen at night when you likely will not be charging and thus won't have the internal heat generated to make the blankets effective.

The nice thing about these LiFePo batteries is the BMS system takes the guesswork out for you by preventing charging in temps beyond what is safe.

[pianotuna]

Hi,

Unless you plan on camping below -4 F (-20 c) I would NOT use those blankets.

egarant wrote:
I am going to wrap my batteries in a battery blanket that will help insulate them from heat and cold.

Like these two:

Battery Blanket 1

Battery Blanket 2

[egarant]

I am getting ready to purchase the LifeBlue Lithium batteries as I want the bluetooth monitoring advantage. Also they just came out with a 125 amp hour group 31 size.

Progressive Dynamics sells a drop in replacement charger portion for their charger/converters that have a lithium ion charge profile.

I am going to wrap my batteries in a battery blanket that will help insulate them from heat and cold.

Like these two:

Battery Blanket 1

Battery Blanket 2

[adamis]

First observation with the camper parked in front of my house is that it has held it's charge nicely in the week that it has been installed. I have a trip this weekend to Pismo Beach where I will be able to get a first use out of them and will report back.