I have followed this story on this and other forums and find the information
to be some what misleading.
I am not affiliated to any company and find people that tell others that their
choice is incorrect due to some affiliation wrong.
I am posting this and will update to give you a real idea as to what I did to go lifpo4
and why. We live in far north Qld and as we both work can only travel for short times.
spend 3 weeks in the middle of the state with your 3 way fridge at 15 to 20 degrees
and wife telling the food id to hot to be safe and you look at lithium.
Now to the battery 100ah drop in lifpo4 (in built BMS)
why are there so many negative remarks about this -after all if I get one from $$$$$ , or @@@@@ I have to accept their BMS
will maintain the battery and keep it safe ??????? What's the difference ( cannot be Chinese batteries as they all are)
there are a lot of company's doing drop ins with 3 year warranty. I bought from one with over 30 years in Oz
I have changed my setup to allow for Lifepo4 , extra 200W solar and lithium capable BCDC charger
so my setup - new crx110 fridge (reason for all changes) 200W fixed solar ($120), 160W portable solar (170), New BCDC $299,
100ah Lifepo4 Battery $1000 now this needs to be clarified as you can get for $700 I paid extra as I am in Cairns so freight
can be an issue so I got mine from a national dealer with 3 year warranty
I am yet to try in real world but as I said
I will update when known the whole system is tested
cheers Mark
Ron-D said
08:39 AM Mar 4, 2019
Yeah Mark lets hnow how you get on this really only comes down to just connecting the right type of battery chargers to suit the lithium battery ,my van and everyone elses just has the house charger 240 v and the 12v to 12v charger ,theres people making big dollars out there fitting these systems, promoting its complicated but really is it rocket science .
T1 Terry said
12:51 PM Mar 4, 2019
As long as you only ever intend to use a single drop in battery and never intend to parallel multiple drop in lithium batteries in an attempt to increase the available maximum current draw, there is every chance you will see the 3 yrs service life plus a bit. Just don't ever expect to run a load greater than the max continuous rating in the manufacturers specs. They will know if that draw has been exceeded and your warranty will be null and void.
The part people do not seem to understand is the effect of trying to install multiple 100 ah lithium batteries the same way they had installed multiple lead acid batteries. If the inbuilt BMS says a max continuous draw of 50 amps and a peak of say 100 amps, then that is all you can have no matter how many 100ah batteries you add in parallel. To date there is no current limiting BMS system available, the user must limit the current draw or suffer the consequences.
The sellers are very careful not to tell you the continuous output from each battery can not be added together if multiple batteries are connected in parallel, they just let you assume it can be done. So running an inverter at an output greater than 550w will progressively kill each battery in the parallel string.
Keep it simple, run a very limited draw system and only use a single drop in and you should be fine, as long as the cells are of a good quality as well as the electronics in the BMS. That now raises the question, how do you know? If the gear is good quality, why put it in a sealed box so no one can see what they really bought?
T1 Terry
Kebbin said
10:27 AM Apr 13, 2019
Well said Terry, I bet a lot of vanners are kicking themselves ( or will be) for not staying informed on these drop in batteries.
Kebbin said
10:29 AM Apr 13, 2019
Well said Terry, I bet a lot of vanners are kicking themselves ( or will be) for not staying informed on these drop in batteries. Ubif your reluctant to give the retailers name so how about the battery brand?
T1 Terry said
02:03 PM Apr 13, 2019
Kebbin wrote:
Well said Terry, I bet a lot of vanners are kicking themselves ( or will be) for not staying informed on these drop in batteries. Ubif your reluctant to give the retailers name so how about the battery brand?
Tricky one, I'm guessing you mean the drop ins and not the prismatic cells we use to build our batteries. If you are asking that, we use Winston LYP cells (Lithium Yttrium Ferrous Phosphate). As for the drop ins, it seams a lot are badge engineered, one manufacturer puts whoevers sticker on the outside that is paying for that shipment. I've read some interesting spin from some "manufacturers" that claim they make their batteries in Australia, yet their website has photos of the Taiwanese workers on the assembly line and look like a cut and paste from the real manufacturers website.
Others spin up the virtues of using cylindrical cells, but the things they spin as being a plus are actually their weakness. Quality cylindrical cell batteries have a thermal management system as part of their BMS (battery management system) and this requires a fluid to be pumped through pipe work to maintain cell temperature. This is both for cooling and heating, if the battery doesn't have a radiator, fluid pump and a fan, it doesn't have a thermal management system. Claiming the gap between the cylindrical cells promotes cooling yet the whole thing is in shrink wrap inside a solid case says there can not be much air movement to promote the cooling they have claimed.
Hi all
I have followed this story on this and other forums and find the information
to be some what misleading.
I am not affiliated to any company and find people that tell others that their
choice is incorrect due to some affiliation wrong.
I am posting this and will update to give you a real idea as to what I did to go lifpo4
and why. We live in far north Qld and as we both work can only travel for short times.
spend 3 weeks in the middle of the state with your 3 way fridge at 15 to 20 degrees
and wife telling the food id to hot to be safe and you look at lithium.
Now to the battery 100ah drop in lifpo4 (in built BMS)
why are there so many negative remarks about this -after all if I get one from $$$$$ , or @@@@@ I have to accept their BMS
will maintain the battery and keep it safe ??????? What's the difference ( cannot be Chinese batteries as they all are)
there are a lot of company's doing drop ins with 3 year warranty. I bought from one with over 30 years in Oz
I have changed my setup to allow for Lifepo4 , extra 200W solar and lithium capable BCDC charger
so my setup - new crx110 fridge (reason for all changes) 200W fixed solar ($120), 160W portable solar (170), New BCDC $299,
100ah Lifepo4 Battery $1000 now this needs to be clarified as you can get for $700 I paid extra as I am in Cairns so freight
can be an issue so I got mine from a national dealer with 3 year warranty
I am yet to try in real world but as I said
I will update when known the whole system is tested
cheers Mark
Yeah Mark lets hnow how you get on this really only comes down to just connecting the right type of battery chargers to suit the lithium battery ,my van and everyone elses just has the house charger 240 v and the 12v to 12v charger ,theres people making big dollars out there fitting these systems, promoting its complicated but really is it rocket science
.
The part people do not seem to understand is the effect of trying to install multiple 100 ah lithium batteries the same way they had installed multiple lead acid batteries. If the inbuilt BMS says a max continuous draw of 50 amps and a peak of say 100 amps, then that is all you can have no matter how many 100ah batteries you add in parallel. To date there is no current limiting BMS system available, the user must limit the current draw or suffer the consequences.
The sellers are very careful not to tell you the continuous output from each battery can not be added together if multiple batteries are connected in parallel, they just let you assume it can be done. So running an inverter at an output greater than 550w will progressively kill each battery in the parallel string.
Keep it simple, run a very limited draw system and only use a single drop in and you should be fine, as long as the cells are of a good quality as well as the electronics in the BMS. That now raises the question, how do you know? If the gear is good quality, why put it in a sealed box so no one can see what they really bought?
T1 Terry
Tricky one, I'm guessing you mean the drop ins and not the prismatic cells we use to build our batteries. If you are asking that, we use Winston LYP cells (Lithium Yttrium Ferrous Phosphate). As for the drop ins, it seams a lot are badge engineered, one manufacturer puts whoevers sticker on the outside that is paying for that shipment. I've read some interesting spin from some "manufacturers" that claim they make their batteries in Australia, yet their website has photos of the Taiwanese workers on the assembly line and look like a cut and paste from the real manufacturers website.
Others spin up the virtues of using cylindrical cells, but the things they spin as being a plus are actually their weakness. Quality cylindrical cell batteries have a thermal management system as part of their BMS (battery management system) and this requires a fluid to be pumped through pipe work to maintain cell temperature. This is both for cooling and heating, if the battery doesn't have a radiator, fluid pump and a fan, it doesn't have a thermal management system. Claiming the gap between the cylindrical cells promotes cooling yet the whole thing is in shrink wrap inside a solid case says there can not be much air movement to promote the cooling they have claimed.
T1 Terry