I currently run 2 x AGM's that are about 4 years old.
I had a Projecta IC3500 to charge them from mains power. Notice I said "had". For ages it was on the fritz whereby it would constantly restart and eventually settle in and charge. |There seemed to be no rhyme nor reason to it. I tried disconnecting from power both mains and battery to no avail. Finally it went toes up. Wont even turn on now. So the dilema I face is that my batteries are still ok but I know they wont last forever and when they die I would move across to lithium. My old IC3500 didnt have a profile for lithium so I wont be getting one of those again so my question is; What charger is out there that will charge my current AGM's but also charge lithiums when I get them? I have done some research but I seem to only find either lithium or OTHERS not both. Thought I would put it to the collective to see if others have been in a similar situation (Im sure this must happen to many).
Thanks
Adrian
Whenarewethere said
05:09 PM Aug 15, 2022
I don't have lithium but all my Victron chargers have profiles for lithium plus no end of adjustments.
Before you fork out your hard earned money it might be worthwhile reading this thread:
Hi Adrian,
iTechworld claim their lithium battery can be charged with a conventional charger but they aren't cheap. You need to do some investigating first.
And while lithium batteries might be nice to have, I saw a not so nice Facebook post yesterday on the mining, production of lithium in Sth America. There are some very serious environmental issues with the material. I know lead isn't very good but there is also other heavy metals involved with lithium.
Tony Bev said
12:37 AM Aug 17, 2022
I know nothing of a 240 volt charger, for lithium batteries
For charging with 240 volt, (which touch wood, I have never had to do), I carry an el-cheapo dumb 20 amp charger, the brand name is Giant
The theory is that, I will never leave it on, and forget it.
I would switch it on, monitor the batteries, and then remove the charger, when the batteries are full
I have a Renogy 12 volt DC/DC solar charger, which gives me the options of setting it for Flooded, AGM, GEL, Lithium, or set your own settings
I am not a techie, but in theory, with lithium batteries when you are parked up (not using the RV) for months at a time.
If you completely isolate lithium batteries, there is no need to continually keep them charged up, like the AGM's you have
So the plot thickens...was going to go to pick up a new acdc charger to replace what I thought was the broken one in the van. To be thorough I thought Id have one last play around with the existing charger. The current charger has a plug in temp sensor so on the basis of what havent I tried already I unplugged the sensor. Low and behold it works (for now). SO...in doing that I had my bare arm resting on the lip of the front boot of the van and if I held my arm just so I could swear I was getting a little bit of a electricle tickle. Sure enough. I could replicate the tickle so being the rocket scientist I am I thought to myself..."that cant be right" So I whip out the multi meter and using a anderson plug I test the voltage. That checks out fine so I then go to test for current leakage by keeping the negative probe on the negative of the anderson plug and place the positive probe agains the metal sheeting at the back of the front boot area. Low and behold its showing me I have about 12-13 something milivolts. Which is the same as the charger is currently putting out but in full volts not mV. Im sure thats not supposed to do that? Do I have a short or am I just a numpty? If its a short that could possibly explain why the charger kept restarting. Thoughts?
Whenarewethere said
12:12 PM Sep 23, 2022
I had one of a battery's cell leaking a tiny bit of acid in a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) which caused the RCD to trip.
The battery was in a metal UPS case & I felt a tingle.
swamp said
07:16 AM Sep 27, 2022
hi
Thermistor is used for sensing temperature very accurately . It most likely uses a control voltage ie alot lower than 12vdc to do this .
Hi All,
I currently run 2 x AGM's that are about 4 years old.
I had a Projecta IC3500 to charge them from mains power. Notice I said "had". For ages it was on the fritz whereby it would constantly restart and eventually settle in and charge. |There seemed to be no rhyme nor reason to it. I tried disconnecting from power both mains and battery to no avail. Finally it went toes up. Wont even turn on now. So the dilema I face is that my batteries are still ok but I know they wont last forever and when they die I would move across to lithium. My old IC3500 didnt have a profile for lithium so I wont be getting one of those again so my question is; What charger is out there that will charge my current AGM's but also charge lithiums when I get them? I have done some research but I seem to only find either lithium or OTHERS not both. Thought I would put it to the collective to see if others have been in a similar situation (Im sure this must happen to many).
Thanks
Adrian
I don't have lithium but all my Victron chargers have profiles for lithium plus no end of adjustments.
Before you fork out your hard earned money it might be worthwhile reading this thread:
https://thegreynomads.activeboard.com/t67732755/lithium-batteries-charging-discharging-balancing/
https://thegreynomads.activeboard.com/t67455852/lithium-battery-teardown-examples/
Hi Adrian,
https://www.victronenergy.com/chargers/blue-smart-ip22-charger#manuals
Is this what u are looking for.
iTechworld claim their lithium battery can be charged with a conventional charger but they aren't cheap. You need to do some investigating first.
And while lithium batteries might be nice to have, I saw a not so nice Facebook post yesterday on the mining, production of lithium in Sth America. There are some very serious environmental issues with the material. I know lead isn't very good but there is also other heavy metals involved with lithium.
For charging with 240 volt, (which touch wood, I have never had to do), I carry an el-cheapo dumb 20 amp charger, the brand name is Giant
The theory is that, I will never leave it on, and forget it.
I would switch it on, monitor the batteries, and then remove the charger, when the batteries are full
I have a Renogy 12 volt DC/DC solar charger, which gives me the options of setting it for Flooded, AGM, GEL, Lithium, or set your own settings
I am not a techie, but in theory, with lithium batteries when you are parked up (not using the RV) for months at a time.
If you completely isolate lithium batteries, there is no need to continually keep them charged up, like the AGM's you have
Hih Tim Tim,
that looks the goods. Thanks/
I had one of a battery's cell leaking a tiny bit of acid in a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) which caused the RCD to trip.
The battery was in a metal UPS case & I felt a tingle.
Thermistor is used for sensing temperature very accurately . It most likely uses a control voltage ie alot lower than 12vdc to do this .