I am starting this thread with the hope to help us owners make more informed decisions when upgrading our
boats to a
lithium battery bank. A lot has changed in the past year that make upgrading to
LiFePO4 easier and yet most
boat forums continue to offer “stale” recommendations. I will document each upgrade as it occurs to our sailboat
Every
boat is different and each person wants something a little different, but this is what we wanted our upgrade to entail.
1.
Batteries. We wanted to use (3) 24 case size
LiFePO4 batteries that fit in the exact space that the present
AGM batteries are in. Did not want lengthy high
current wires and batteries running everywhere as we have a 3,000 watt inverter/ 150 amp
charger. We wanted batteries that have a Bluetooth connection so we can see the exact state of charge, voltage, cell balance and temperature, amp hours used,
current to and from the
battery, time to discharge and time left to recharge. We also wanted batteries that the output can be turned off with an app. We wanted batteries with internal heat so they can be charged and discharged in cold
weather. We also wanted batteries that will protect themselves from overcharge by turning off the
charging circuit in the BMS and not turning off the output of the battery. And like all LiFePO4 batteries, they will shut down output on over current and over temp.
Many LiFePO4 batteries still
sold today shut the entire battery off on overcharge voltage or cell imbalance, thus destroying your
alternator and leaving you without
power. I tested this on the batteries I purchased and they will indeed still output
power but shut the charge mos off in the BMS on over voltage. The app clearly explains what is going on in the battery and gives error codes. We purchased 5 of these and 2 of them have been in use for a month in series (24 Volt) on our M151A2 Military Jeep. Batteries in series tend to become unbalanced and these are staying balanced due to an excellent BMS and good cell quality. The best quality LiFePO4 cells available are called EVE cells and those are the cells used in these batteries. Because of this, these batteries have an 11 year warranty.
These batteries are
sold and supported here in
Georgia USA. Anytime I had questions, they answered the
phone. Try that with a battery purchased from Amazon! A five year battery warranty from an Amazon seller will most likely not be around if 5 years, they come and go all the time. Look for battery teardowns on you tube, there are some really shitty batteries on the market. You get what you pay for and we do not want to be 100 Miles off shore with a
cheap set of batteries!
Oh yea, did not want to spend $1,000 a piece for batteries that have no Bluetooth. We purchased these on
sale end of last year for $340 each, not bad for a premium battery with
marine and UL approvals (important for
insurance and
safety reasons).
These are the batteries we purchased.
https://www.epochbatteries.com/produ...och-essentials I have no financial interest in this company,
research shows good
reviews and battery teardowns show excellent quality.
2.
Alternator Charging. Yes, folks are still recommending keeping an outdated expensive, heavy
AGM battery on board as your start battery. Then to make it worse you have to add a DC to DC converter to that start battery and add more
wiring, switches,
fuses etc. to charge your new LiFePO4 batteries. Oh, the DC to DC
charger now limits your alternator charging to 30 amps unless you want to add 2 of them (more expense and wiring). Short of spending over $1,100 for a
Balmar alternator and
regulator, these were the only ways to deal with it. Almost forgot, the
Balmar will not directly fit and new brackets and spacers have to be machined, more $ and aggravation. And the balmar does not have any way to limit charge amperage or charge current vs
engine rpm.
Folks, there is an easier way. Purchased this Alternator
regulator.
https://arcomarine.com/products/arco...ator-regulator Expensive but found a dealer that sells it for $225.00 cheaper.
This will allow you to use your current alternator (with a simple modification) to charge your new LiFePO4 batteries.
Throw away the AGM battery, DC to DC converter and
wiring and use KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). New LiFePO4 batteries now have the current to start our tiny
engine. Leave the battery switch to the all position and you have hundreds of cranking amps available to start your
Westerbeke. My tests and manufacturer battery spec
sheets show only one battery will start our engine but keeping the battery switch to all 3 will prolong the life of the batteries and BMS.
I was so ecstatic about this regulator simplifying a LiFePO4 battery upgrade, created a video today putting it through it’s paces on my test bench. I have no connection or stock in this company, lol, just a great product to share with all of you. No other regulator on the market can do this and everything, and I mean everything is programmable with an app. Here is the video
https://youtu.be/v-b5Dp2JcHk?feature=shared If anyone is interested on how to modify the stock alternator, I can create a video of it. However any alternator shop can add a field wire to it as well.
Unfortunately, all of the
equipment we installed in Starrider in 2007 does not have
Lithium profiles. So we need to upgrade our
solar charge controller and
monitor and the Battery amp hour meter. We will be using
Victron products as they can create a Bluetooth
network and the battery amp hour meter can share battery state of charge with the
solar controller so the batteries are never overcharged or undercharged. Will document this in the spring when the
weather is more conducive to working outside.
Hope this helps someone.