Lithium Batteries

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kazuaki

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I know there were multiple discussions on this topic that were lost, so here we go 🙂  My fifth wheel currently has 4 Trojan T105's that are tired and need to be replaced.  They are charged/maintained by the charger section of my Magnum Energy MS2000 inverter/charger.  No solar currently.  My fridge is also about done and I'm debating between a new Amish cooling unit or maybe a 12V compressor cooling unit, if that matters.

So, looking for battery recommendations.   As I understand it, 200AH of lithium power will be equivalent to my 4 T105's when they were new, correct? I'm just trying to see if I can justify the cost.  I like the idea of not messing with battery replacement/maintenance anymore.  But am I going to be happy with just 200AH?  What batteries do you guys recommend? I'd rather not buy something that is used or requires a bunch of setup.  Something fairly drop-in with built-in BMS seems key to me.  A long warranty would be nice too, since the investment is huge (to me anyway).

Thanks for any help!

 
I have to get the name of the ones I just installed.  I installed 600ah of Lipo.  400 of them are Lion energy the other two are blue tooth and I will have to get the name.   I was lucky and only paid $550 for each one.   I have 750 watts of solar and a 2000watt inverter for the coach and another one for the fridge at 1000 watts.   so far I can leave both inverters on and running and I don't need to plug in.  Voltage doesn't drop below 13.1 so far.  I have just left it all on for weeks so far in my backyard to test.   I would think I would want at least 400ah but I get crazy about the power. 

 
Hit up @socaldmax. He is very up to speed on the lithium tech and knows where to get the best deals. When I'm ready to upgrade my system Steve will be my first call. 

 
I have a 271 AH system and I have used 270AH by mistake once... the capacity is incredible and i gotta say i love knowing exactly how much energy is in the system.

 
I have a total of 552 ah..... 138 x 4 Batteries. SoCalDmax is da man for this info. He also sells some super Killer kits / set ups. Get one of his kits and you will be set, that’s for sure.

 
As long as you can change the charge profiles on your solar and converter your ready for LiFPo4.  You will wish you had done it years ago.

The new 310AH cells are the best price point right now.  Was 270AH most of last year.

 
I don't have solar, but my Magnum MS2000 is fully configurable for charge profiles (pre-configured and manually configured).

 
So, just wanted to update this thread.  I ended up buying two SOK 12V 206AH batteries.  They're pretty nice. They come in a steel case that allows you to access the internals if you need to replace a cell or the BMS.  I installed those, reconfigured my inverter/charger to optimally charge them and also replaced the cooling unit on my Norcold 1210 with a 12V compressor unit.  The initial trip was Halloween weekend.  The day I left for Glamis, the inverter/charger started acting up.  It was reporting an AC High Volt fault, even after disconnecting it from shore power.  Because of this fault, I couldn't charge the batteries on the generator.  We continued the trip anyway and were super careful what we used power on.  About 2 days into the trip, the fault cleared for some mysterious reason and I was able to run the gen and get some power into the batteries before the fault reappeared.  That was enough to make it through the trip.  The fridge worked fine and draws about 8.0-8.5 amps while the compressor is running. I read a few posts online about people having similar symptoms with this inverter and the service center replacing their AC board to fix it. I took a gamble on the $250 part and had it at my house in a couple days.  I pulled apart the inverter and replaced the board and all seems well.  I've had it on shore power for several days and it seems to be working normally.  

A few things I've discovered on this project:

1) LiFePO4 batteries are pretty awesome.  When my charger was not working, I ran the battery bank down to about 25%. At that state of charge, the batteries were still at about 12.9-13.0 volts.  At that same point, lead acid batteries would have been more like 11.9 volts and would have started suffering some damage.

2) I really should have solar on the trailer.  If I had enough solar to at least cover the power the fridge uses (plus some extra) it would make this setup even better. I can see that it will be my next project. I just need to figure out how much I need.

3) The 12V compressor setup is better than propane in some ways, but I feel like it's not powerful enough.  I think it takes too long to pull down the temps and it is too sensitive to frequent door openings, etc.  I bet the compressor setup I have would kick ass in a smaller 2 door fridge, but I think it might be marginal in a larger 4 door like I have.  That said, the temps were in the 90's over Halloween and it managed, so maybe it will be fine. 

 
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