I knew my bank of three Lifeline AGM 225 Ah 8-D's were getting long in the tooth at 11 years old. One was weaker than the others and I should have taken it off of the system last year. I was hoping to hold on until I found a good deal on lithium's but the weak one shorted a cell and forced the issue a week ago. I could have limped along on the one remaining good 8-D but if I was going to move everything necessary to access the batteries, I wanted to do it just once.
I haven't jumped on the lithium band wagon simply because I could not see the sense in replacing a functioning bank with really expensive lithium for nothing more than the cool factor. I have done it many times for customers over the last three years and have been given some really nice lead acid batteries, some of them brand new.
Another reason I was holding out is that I have been in talks with a manufacture creating a customized, affordable series of lithium batteries for my customers. While the pricing shows what the huge mark up is for the big named brands, I couldn't wait for the slow boat from China to get here in a few months.
Luckily LifeBlue dropped their prices to compete with the no name brands, something BattleBorn is also doing over the summer. While still twice the price as the custom batteries I could at least afford a single 200 Ah battery with its own bluetooth state of charge monitor. I did not get the self heated option. Now my trailer weighs 420 pounds less.
So here's to my LifeLines, they did themselves proud. Life ain't easy being the solar man's battery bank.
Pretty impressive, considering you got those Lifelines used, and had to perform the extended reconditioning on them when you got them, long ago.
Any end of life observances you care to share?
Would amps taper to 0.5% of capacity at absorption voltage, or bottom out well above that threshold and start rising in their final months?
Did you perform any other light/ heavy/ regular reconditioning procedures, since you got them?
I'd enjoy gaining experience with Lithium, but my Northstar AGM-31, is only 15.5 months old and still a beast, and I got 4 free west marine GC-2s AGM's off of a boat onto which I installed 8 gpl-4ct's, that are still pretty healthy despite their age, 2 of which I intend to install in my Van and abuse, then the other 2.
Ironically I just bought a big, heavy 120ah lead acid AGM as a backup shack battery.
Still working things out but I hope to be able to have some ham radio equipment and computers on a backup power source...we do not have 100% reliable grid power here in Texas. You may have heard.
I got the bank in 2014, maybe 2015. The weak battery rested in storage at 12.8v while the other two were at 13.1. I did get the weak one to rest at 13.1v even though it cost me the Mega watt that is now the basis of Mex's Borg charger. I still use a Meanwell.
I didn't see a big change in acceptance rates in the end because I have been swamped and as a active system there is always something running. Even with the bank useless at night I was running the freezer, hot water heater, fans, chargers until the sun gets too low.
What I do get to pay attention to is the waking voltage and voltage drop in response to heavy loads. A few years ago I started seeing 12.2 volts after a heavy night of usage but I figured it was a combination of bank age and me using more power. Last year I had a customer with a bad battery plugged into me every night for two weeks. They hit me pretty hard a few nights before I had to tell them to cut back. After that it was 12.2v every morning even though I had cut back on most of the heavy loads. The trailers 55 amp converter didn't seem to have the ability to bring up the voltage when I ran the generator on a cloudy day.
In the end it was quick. A heavy night took the resting voltage down into the 11's and I couldn't get it to stay up even after shutting off the freezer at night. It continued to drop until I had to jumper a grp 24 into the fuse box to keep the furnace on. The last night the fridge turned off due to low voltage even though there was almost nothing running. Now I know it wasn't a load sucking up the power, it was a battery.
One thing I can tell you is that the bank was hot after a full day of charging. The battery that rested at 12.6v had cooled by the next day but the one that rested at 12.06v was still warm. The one that rested at just over 10v was noticeably warmer even after 24 hours.
I wouldn't be in any big hurry to get lithium if you don't need to. Prices are coming down fast. The shop I'm talking to is offering both bluetooth and self heating for half of what LifeBlue sells for. You have to pay for shipping but you are still looking at paying much less.
The king is dead , sorry for your loss , long live the king.
Eventually a battery just ages out. Hard to know when that will be, but sooner or later, it will.
By the way my lightly used BattleBorn LifEpO4 is still working well after more than 2 years....they do seem to be able to tolerate being 'ignored' a bit better than lead acids...
And lithium compatible chargers (grid powered) are becoming more available and prices are a bit better than they used to be.
Update us on the prices please.
The LifeBlue batteries dropped from over a $1000 for the self heating 100 Ah to $750 for the standard version with the built in Bluetooth monitor and $829 for the same version plus the heating.
The Chinese batteries are under $400 per 100 Ah with Bluetooth and heating. That's plus shipping which varies depending on how it's shipped. By ship is the least expensive but it takes a few months. By air varies depending on how many batteries I order at once. An example is a estimate for three 200's came to just over $1000 to be shipped by air while a estimate for five 200's and four 100's came to just over $1200. So there must be a minimum charge to get the container on the plane and then you can fill it for not much more. Still it's a way to get the batteries here in about a month and keep the shipping charge per battery down.
Since global shipping will be a mess for the next month, or more, ~~~
Funny how the estimates for clearing the stuck ship in the Suez Canal range from 'over the weekend", to months.
Apparently, it will cause more toilet paper panic buying too, somehow.
Should probably delete my news bookmarks