camelracer
Contributors
My 125ah POS Vmax AGM battery has given up after 3 years so I'm looking into a 100ah LiFePo4 replacement. Most of these are advertised as a drop in replacement but because of the cost I contacted the venders to find out if my solar/charging system was adequate. The batteries under consideration are BattleBorn, StarkPower and LiFeBlue.
My charging system consists of the truck alternator through a Blue Sea ACR, 200w of solar through a Morningstar SunSaver 15 MPPT controller and an IOTA DSL30 without the IQ4. When I contacted the battery vendors I forgot to mention the IOTA.
BattleBorn's reply was that the Morningstar solar controller would over charge the battery because the float voltage was too high (0.1v over their spec).
LiFeBlue's reply was that the Morningstar solar controller would over charge the battery because the absorption cycle was too long. They also said I needed a switch or solenoid on the alternator input.
StarkPower actually called me to say that their battery would be fine with my system but there doesn't seem to be any low temperature charge protection. He said that internal battery heating would take care of the low temperature problem - not sure I believe that.
Morningstar said that they haven't tested with a LiFePo4 but some of their customers have changed the internal settings to make them work. Morningstar won't modify my controller but they will sell me a module to interface the controller with a PC to change the charging parameters. Besides the cost of the interface the main problem with this solution is that I would have to go over to the dark side and get a Windows PC.
So much for a "drop in LiFePo4 replacement" being an easy upgrade. Any input would be appreciated.
My charging system consists of the truck alternator through a Blue Sea ACR, 200w of solar through a Morningstar SunSaver 15 MPPT controller and an IOTA DSL30 without the IQ4. When I contacted the battery vendors I forgot to mention the IOTA.
BattleBorn's reply was that the Morningstar solar controller would over charge the battery because the float voltage was too high (0.1v over their spec).
LiFeBlue's reply was that the Morningstar solar controller would over charge the battery because the absorption cycle was too long. They also said I needed a switch or solenoid on the alternator input.
StarkPower actually called me to say that their battery would be fine with my system but there doesn't seem to be any low temperature charge protection. He said that internal battery heating would take care of the low temperature problem - not sure I believe that.
Morningstar said that they haven't tested with a LiFePo4 but some of their customers have changed the internal settings to make them work. Morningstar won't modify my controller but they will sell me a module to interface the controller with a PC to change the charging parameters. Besides the cost of the interface the main problem with this solution is that I would have to go over to the dark side and get a Windows PC.
So much for a "drop in LiFePo4 replacement" being an easy upgrade. Any input would be appreciated.