This is a contentious subject, and to be fair tons of conflicting advice on the web.
Simple answer: to get the most out of your battery it should be charged correctly.
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We recently received a set of 280AH LiFePO4 cells that we purchased from Shenzhen Luyuan (Amy Wan).
We wanted to know three things:
What are the individual cell capacities and how evenly matched are they?
What is the capacity for a reasonably high-C (in our case this would be around 160A so around 0.6C)?
What temperature do the terminals get to at the “high-C” test? These are the new welded-stud terminals with worryingly small surface contact areas, so we’d like some peace of mind that they don’t heat up too much.
One of the most common topics that we see on Facebook groups & forums is the question:
How can you justify the cost of LiFePO4 versus Lead Acid?
So in this article, we’re going to be covering this topic to shed some light on the numbers and to prove how good value for money LiFePO4 is!
Firstly, we’ll say that the chemistry of the battery system that you choose should be driven by two main things:
What are your current needs?
Do you think your needs will change in the future?
By needs, we mean what do you need to draw from your battery or run on it? Do you just need to run lights in your van, charge your phone and maybe charge a laptop? Do you need to run a large inverter that can run an induction cooktop, Nespresso machine and TV & PS4?
There are a gazillion options when it comes to purchasing LifePO4 (or any other Lithium-based) batteries. Some (maybe even MANY) of the options are so well priced that they are too good to be true. There are certainly good deals to be had, but if a deal is too good to be true it probably is.
Why is this?
Put simply there are great differences in the quality and build of batteries. There are different grades of cells that make up the batteries and of equal importance, there are so many options of battery management systems (BMS) that are of varying quality and functionality. So in a nutshell: Cells and BMS!
f you've ever worked with cheaper LiFePO4 battery cells, you'll know the concern of stripping the threads in the battery terminal. Well, I sadly had this very experience recently and after much research and thought about it, figured I could fix it and document the process to be able to help you, in case you ever find yourself in the same boat.
If you are looking to upgrade your motorhome to lithium, install solar onto your motorhome or build the best possible offgrid electrical system, you should join all the thousands of adventure lovers that are benefitting from our exclusive tips & how-tos that we share in our regular emails.