Battery question

[craig333]

Seems my AGM's are taking longer to charge. I'm thinking I've lost some capacity (they're approaching seven years old) and I'm considering changing one of the charge parameters from 125ah down to maybe 100ah and see if that helps. Anyone tried this? I'd like to wait a bit before I change over to lithium.

Has anyone setup a Trimetric controller for lithium batteries. Bogart says "contact us" for the info.

 

[PaulT]

I have been using the Bogart SC-2030 and TM-2030 units for a several years with a pair of Battle born GC2 100 Ah LiFePO4 batteries in parallel.

I may have been one of the earliest to replace AGM with LiFePO4 using their solar charge controllers. It took a while working with Bogart Engineering to arrive at parameters that worked well. I replaced a Zamp Solar 15 amp charge controller as I added a 160 watt panel on the roof plus a 120 watt portable panel which exceeded 15 amps.

Using a true LiFePO4 MPPT charge controller would have been easier but the Bogart was less than a year old and I was not prepared to throw away the investment for questionable gain.

My only regret is that I had not won the lottery and could more easily win the argument with my wife for the expense. I had my eye on some more ham gear.

Paul