damienperu
Observer
Hi all,
I'm very close to the point of changing from an AGM bank to a single 200Ah lithium auxiliary battery, however the question is how much of my existing charging hardware will still work adequately?, and I think this will be question that many will be facing in the coming years. Anyone here have any experience or knowledge on charging them with devices designed for AGM?
I will be maintaining a Bosch S6 crank battery (or similar technology) for the high output winching ability and have the following chargers:
- 270amp alternator (SBC-T4.2-270XP) that outputs up to 15V, sits mostly around 14.6V so I'm much better from the outset than most standard alternators
- Xantrex TRUECHARGE2 10amp dual battery AC charger with selectable profiles (except for lithium)
- EP 20amp dual battery solar controller with an 'industrial' profile for charging at 14.6V with 30 mins boost at 14.8V
Of course some battery sellers that also sell dc-dc chargers say that devices with AGM charging profiles or straight from the alternator is incompatible with the constant 14.6V apparently required for lithium, and that all hell will break loose (including the warranty) if i don't use a dc-dc lithium profiled charger (limited to 40amps from what i've seen so far), but I'm sure the batteries are more resilient than that, and I've read that lithium actually accepts even higher amperage than AGM (like that a 200ah LiFePo4 will accept up to 500amps). Smart Battery actually told me the opposite in an unconvincing one-liner, that all my stuff would be fine. So just how inefficient and damaging will be charging a LiFePo4 with my high output alternator?, which varies from 14.2V (under massive load) to 15v (under no load).
There are two reasons i don't already have a dc-dc charger for my AGMs, the first - and the reason i got the high output alternator - was to not be limited by the dc-dc charger low amperage limitations, as i run a lot of 50amp gear and professional camera battery chargers via inverter whilst running. So the last thing i want to do is drain the battery whilst running the engine when i have an alternator perfectly capable of running everything as well as charging the battery. The second is emergency starting, I have a blue sea 500amp isolator that allows me to crank from the auxiliary in emergencies, a key feature for me as i usually run solo.
I guess i could just spend more money and setup a huge +250amp manual bypass relay for a dc-dc charger and manually flick a switch when wanting an emergency start or running a big load when driving, but if i can avoid having any of that extra complexity I'll be happy.
Any insight will be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
I'm very close to the point of changing from an AGM bank to a single 200Ah lithium auxiliary battery, however the question is how much of my existing charging hardware will still work adequately?, and I think this will be question that many will be facing in the coming years. Anyone here have any experience or knowledge on charging them with devices designed for AGM?
I will be maintaining a Bosch S6 crank battery (or similar technology) for the high output winching ability and have the following chargers:
- 270amp alternator (SBC-T4.2-270XP) that outputs up to 15V, sits mostly around 14.6V so I'm much better from the outset than most standard alternators
- Xantrex TRUECHARGE2 10amp dual battery AC charger with selectable profiles (except for lithium)
- EP 20amp dual battery solar controller with an 'industrial' profile for charging at 14.6V with 30 mins boost at 14.8V
Of course some battery sellers that also sell dc-dc chargers say that devices with AGM charging profiles or straight from the alternator is incompatible with the constant 14.6V apparently required for lithium, and that all hell will break loose (including the warranty) if i don't use a dc-dc lithium profiled charger (limited to 40amps from what i've seen so far), but I'm sure the batteries are more resilient than that, and I've read that lithium actually accepts even higher amperage than AGM (like that a 200ah LiFePo4 will accept up to 500amps). Smart Battery actually told me the opposite in an unconvincing one-liner, that all my stuff would be fine. So just how inefficient and damaging will be charging a LiFePo4 with my high output alternator?, which varies from 14.2V (under massive load) to 15v (under no load).
There are two reasons i don't already have a dc-dc charger for my AGMs, the first - and the reason i got the high output alternator - was to not be limited by the dc-dc charger low amperage limitations, as i run a lot of 50amp gear and professional camera battery chargers via inverter whilst running. So the last thing i want to do is drain the battery whilst running the engine when i have an alternator perfectly capable of running everything as well as charging the battery. The second is emergency starting, I have a blue sea 500amp isolator that allows me to crank from the auxiliary in emergencies, a key feature for me as i usually run solo.
I guess i could just spend more money and setup a huge +250amp manual bypass relay for a dc-dc charger and manually flick a switch when wanting an emergency start or running a big load when driving, but if i can avoid having any of that extra complexity I'll be happy.
Any insight will be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,