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Goal Zero Yeti 1250 – Great platform for drop-in LiFePO4 upgrade

BriteStar said:
Thank you! Didn’t see the other thread. Just bought me a PowerQueen 12V LFP 100Ah for just under $250 (before tax+free shipping) - that is just under $0.2/Wh, and even cheaper than like-for-like AGM replacement! And am gonna drop it in my 1250 with an inline Victron Smartshunt and consider the upgrade done! Just hoping the MPPT and wall chargers will be able to keep it topped off to at least 90% capacity, but I’ll use a borrowed 20A LFP wall charger as soon as I get the battery to fully charge it for the top-balancing before I drop it in the case. If this ends up working after a few months of testing, then I will buy more PowerQueen 100Ah batteries next summer (up to 4 in parallel) and have me a whopping 5KWh power bank to outfit my van for less than a grand! The 1250W inverter is more than enough to run maximum use case scenario for all appliances running all at once, including the fridge, diesel heater, device chargers and everything else at maximum load! I never understood why anyone would get a 3000W inverter that self-consumes lotsa background power where they’d never use anywhere near its full capacity! I have everything in continuous use wired to DC fuse box. Only my device chargers requiring 120V power is what I’d ever use the inverter for, so it is only turned on when we need to charge devices!
Click to expand...
Awesome! Good luck with the upgrade. I hope you get years of trouble-free power.
 
Bob142 said:
What’s This Post About?
I got the portable, LiFePO4-based solar generator I wanted by combining an old-school Goal Zero Yeti 1250 with a Lion Energy Safari UT battery.

This is not the best system for everyone, but it fits my requirements almost perfectly. It’s also straightforward to achieve:
  • Buy a used Goal Zero Yeti 1250.
  • Buy a Lion Energy Safari UT LiFePO4 battery.
  • Replace the lead-acid battery with the LiFePO4 battery.
  • Enjoy your full featured, high capacity, portable LiFePO4 solar generator.
For those who want more of the story, read on.


Background
I wanted a portable, relatively large capacity, lithium-based solar generator that had room for expansion. In looking at the full-sized offerings on the market I found I didn’t really love the big Li-NMC systems. My concerns were fewer max capacity cycles, lack of easy expansion, and battery chemistry safety compared to LiFePO4. I looked to see if any vendors offered a LiFePO4-based system but didn’t find anything I liked. I figured I’d have to go the route of others and build my own portable system (I’m amazed at how cool the systems in Show and Tell are). Then I remembered a solar generator I had first looked at way back in 2012 but always dismissed as not truly portable: the lead-acid Goal Zero Yeti 1250.

Go here for Goal Zero Yeti 1250 info


The Conversion to LiFePO4
The Yeti 1250 is a monstrously heavy 103 lbs (46.7 kg) unit with a group 27 100Ah AGM lead-acid battery at its core. The good news is that Goal Zero designed this system to have a user-replaceable battery. The battery accounts for over 60 lbs of the Yeti 1250’s weight, so I thought if I found a LiFePO4 drop-in replacement that was light weight and could fit in the battery compartment I might have something to work with. (The original battery measures 12.9" x 6.8" x 8.7".)

Enter the Lion Energy Safari UT 1200. Coming in at 21 lbs and offering more effective capacity than the lead-acid it would replace, I figured it would make the Yeti 1250 light enough to lift and make it actually portable (where my definition of portable is that I can lift it myself and put it into a vehicle for remote use). The Safari UT physical dimensions of 10.2” x 6.6” x 8.8” seemed workable in theory. In practice, it fits and has worked great so far.

Replacing the battery was straightforward, and Goal Zero even provides a seven-step procedure in the user manual. Here’s a YouTube video of how to replace the battery.

After replacing the battery, the whole system weighs about 60 lbs.


Charging
  • The old Yeti 1250 has a 20A MPPT charge controller built in! And unlike the MPPT module Goal Zero sells now for their Li-NMC models, you can put 12V panels in series because the input is rated at 16-48V (the Yeti Lithium 25A MPPT module input is rated at 15-22V which means you will be putting your 12V panels in parallel).

    There are two types of charging ports, (2) 10A 8mm and a 20A Anderson power pole port for a combined input power rating of 240W.

    [The website (320W) and manual (240W) have conflicting information, so I contacted Goal Zero customer support to confirm what the actual max input wattage is. The answer is max input of 240W, regardless of whether that all comes in through the Anderson power pole input or split between that and the 10mm input ports.]

  • You can also use the chaining port (described below) to jack in whatever charge controller/charger you want. I use this to connect a Samlex 30A grid-power charger. I may also use it for a higher rated MPPT charge controller down the road.

State of Charge Monitoring
Note: I haven’t yet decided what I’m going to do long-term for state of charge monitoring since I assume the built-in monitor is calibrated for lead-acid. Stay tuned.

(Edit: Dec 21, 2019) First attempt at SoC monitoring is to use this Drok meter with hall effect sensor. (More details below.)

(Edit: June 9, 2020) The Drok is a bust as it does not provide accurate SoC. I'll work on a shunt-based solution.

Output Ports
  • 1200W continuous/1500W surge AC inverter (pure sine wave) with three outlets
  • 3 – USB (2.1A)
  • 2 – 6mm 12V DC (6A)
  • 1 – Cigarette lighter style 12V DC (10A)
  • 1 – Anderson power pole 12V DC (33A)

Expandability
The Yeti 1250 has a built-in chaining port (Anderson SB175 connector) on the back that allows users to add additional batteries in parallel. Perfect! I can attach more Safari UTs if I need to get more run-time, and since they only weigh 21 lbs a piece I can still load the whole setup into my SUV in pieces and reconnect at my destination. With the Anderson connector, adding or subtracting the additional batteries is a snap.

(Edit Mar 6, 2020) Example of chaining extra batteries can be seen in this post below.

Availability
  • Yeti 1250 – Find a used one on eBay. Goal Zero customer support told me that they have discontinued the Yeti 1250 (shortly after I bought a refurbished one from them).

  • LiFePO4 Battery – Buy a Lion Energy UT 1300 (or any LiFePO4 battery that fits the dimensions stated above. Or go the DIY LiFePO4 route).

    Note: Lion Energy discontinued the UT 1200 shortly after I bought a couple. Hmm, a pattern. The universe seems to be trying to tell me something. However, they are replacing it with a UT 1300 that is the same physical size, only 23 lbs, and reportedly will be 105 Ah (vs. 90 Ah for the 1200)

The Cost
Your mileage will likely vary from mine, but here it is for reference:

  • Yeti 1250 - $700 for an “open box” Yeti 1250 from Goal Zero. I was able to sell both the lead-acid battery, and the Yeti roll cart (you may want to keep this depending on your situation) which brought my cost down to $550.

    I’ve seen used Yeti 1250s sell on eBay for between $475-$650 recently.

  • Safari UT 1200/1300 – $650 for a UT 1200 from Costco’s recent clearance sale. This is an atypically low price, so you will likely spend closer to $800-900 for a battery that fits into the compartment.

  • Drok meter for SoC monitoring - $29 (Edit: June 9, 2020) Don't buy the Drok.

  • Chaining cable for extra battery capacity - $25 on eBay for a 2’ long 4 AWG cable: eBay chaining cable

Total cost for my base system: $1,200 $1229 (Edit: Dec 21, 2019)

For reference, that is virtually identical to a Goal Zero Lithium (NMC) Yeti 1000 w/MPPT module.
Click to expand...
Knowing this is an old post, here goes… the goal zero site, in Q/A’s at least, say you cannot from-in replace the AGM with lithium. I have a 1250 we bought 10 years ago when I couldn’t wrap my head around any of this as a DIY. It has served us well, although I have replaced the AGM, and added a 2nd at that time. So: how has this done over time?
 
RickRoades said:
Knowing this is an old post, here goes… the goal zero site, in Q/A’s at least, say you cannot from-in replace the AGM with lithium. I have a 1250 we bought 10 years ago when I couldn’t wrap my head around any of this as a DIY. It has served us well, although I have replaced the AGM, and added a 2nd at that time. So: how has this done over time?
Click to expand...
The GZ Yeti 1250 is a legendary unit as far as I'm concerned. I'm going on 2 years with my lithium swapped 1250 so far with just about zero problems and all benefits! The Yeti its self is around 7 years old so its getting up there in age but has no problem delivering 1200+ watts of pure sine wave power.

As is obvious and has been clearly stated over and over againby everyone who's done the swap, its much lighter now making it practical to take camping a few times with me. It also has a higher power output since the LiFEPo4 battery has a pretty stable voltage no matter the load and the remaining charge. Unlike the old AGM battery that would dip so low it would shut the unit off if I tried to puil over 1kw.
The lithium battery also means longer run times especially in winter in my shed when my solar panels aren't able to deliver as much power.

The Ampere Time battery I purchased for the unit is still holding strong with around 98.6 Ah of power being usable from it before the BMS shuts off. Pretty good battery degredation given its over 2 years old, I use it about once every week or so and its was stored in my below freezing shed for 3 months, albeit with no charging happening during the below freezing.

TLDR: The Goal Zero Yeti 1250 was and still is an amazing solar generator that I wish Goal Zero still sold, maybe even with a lifepo4 battery already installed. If you have one I HIGHLY recommend swapping it to lithium and if you can get your hands on one it will be well worth it so long as you're ok with the size and weight given other market offerings.
 
invento123 said:
The GZ Yeti 1250 is a legendary unit as far as I'm concerned. I'm going on 2 years with my lithium swapped 1250 so far with just about zero problems and all benefits! The Yeti its self is around 7 years old so its getting up there in age but has no problem delivering 1200+ watts of pure sine wave power.

As is obvious and has been clearly stated over and over againby everyone who's done the swap, its much lighter now making it practical to take camping a few times with me. It also has a higher power output since the LiFEPo4 battery has a pretty stable voltage no matter the load and the remaining charge. Unlike the old AGM battery that would dip so low it would shut the unit off if I tried to puil over 1kw.
The lithium battery also means longer run times especially in winter in my shed when my solar panels aren't able to deliver as much power.

The Ampere Time battery I purchased for the unit is still holding strong with around 98.6 Ah of power being usable from it before the BMS shuts off. Pretty good battery degredation given its over 2 years old, I use it about once every week or so and its was stored in my below freezing shed for 3 months, albeit with no charging happening during the below freezing.

TLDR: The Goal Zero Yeti 1250 was and still is an amazing solar generator that I wish Goal Zero still sold, maybe even with a lifepo4 battery already installed. If you have one I HIGHLY recommend swapping it to lithium and if you can get your hands on one it will be well worth it so long as you're ok with the size and weight given other market offerings.
Click to expand...
I may still try the swap, but my gears just grind trying to follow the work, and I’ve never been one to mess with electronics or electrical equipment. I know my breaker box, and an electrician’s number. I have the 1250 - which I agree is a legend. I bought 2 systems that year, the GZ and a small solar generator start up that since went under, but had good components, with the charge controller being a Blue Sky Energy Solar Boost 3024IL that I think can be set up to charge lithium batteries. It’s a beast also with a 150ah sunXtender AGM battery. Both units could be much improved. I just have to get my head around it and get over my first-time-DIY fear. Just never been a hardware guy. I’m a strategy and project manager guy?
 
invento123 said:
The GZ Yeti 1250 is a legendary unit as far as I'm concerned. I'm going on 2 years with my lithium swapped 1250 so far with just about zero problems and all benefits! The Yeti its self is around 7 years old so its getting up there in age but has no problem delivering 1200+ watts of pure sine wave power.

As is obvious and has been clearly stated over and over againby everyone who's done the swap, its much lighter now making it practical to take camping a few times with me. It also has a higher power output since the LiFEPo4 battery has a pretty stable voltage no matter the load and the remaining charge. Unlike the old AGM battery that would dip so low it would shut the unit off if I tried to puil over 1kw.
The lithium battery also means longer run times especially in winter in my shed when my solar panels aren't able to deliver as much power.

The Ampere Time battery I purchased for the unit is still holding strong with around 98.6 Ah of power being usable from it before the BMS shuts off. Pretty good battery degredation given its over 2 years old, I use it about once every week or so and its was stored in my below freezing shed for 3 months, albeit with no charging happening during the below freezing.

TLDR: The Goal Zero Yeti 1250 was and still is an amazing solar generator that I wish Goal Zero still sold, maybe even with a lifepo4 battery already installed. If you have one I HIGHLY recommend swapping it to lithium and if you can get your hands on one it will be well worth it so long as you're ok with the size and weight given other market offerings.
Click to expand...
This battery was on Will’s site, and should fit.
powerurus.com

PowerUrus 12V 100AH LiFePO4 Deep Cycle Rechargeable Battery

Model S12100A Nominal Voltage 12V Capacity 100 Ah, 1280Wh Life Cycles >3500 @ 70% DOD BMS Board Yes (Internal) BMS Rating 100A BMS Mechanical Performance Cell Type Grade A LiFePO4 Cells (Prismatic Cell) Number of Cells 4 Terminal M8*12mm (L) Weight 30 lb (13.5kg) Dimensions 12.94in x...
powerurus.com powerurus.com
 
You can upgrade every AGM Yeti with LFP. I‘m running a little Yeti 150 with LFP since 1.5 years without any problems. My old Yeti 400 AGM runs since six years with the original (!) AGM. Crazy. If the AGM of the 400 is dead I will replace it with LFP too.
 
RickRoades said:
I may still try the swap, but my gears just grind trying to follow the work, and I’ve never been one to mess with electronics or electrical equipment. I know my breaker box, and an electrician’s number. I have the 1250 - which I agree is a legend. I bought 2 systems that year, the GZ and a small solar generator start up that since went under, but had good components, with the charge controller being a Blue Sky Energy Solar Boost 3024IL that I think can be set up to charge lithium batteries. It’s a beast also with a 150ah sunXtender AGM battery. Both units could be much improved. I just have to get my head around it and get over my first-time-DIY fear. Just never been a hardware guy. I’m a strategy and project manager guy?
Click to expand...
Replacing the 12v battery in the Yeti is pretty straight forward, especially if you've already done it one. Swapping to a lithium battery is almost the same process with the only added part being having to add a ammeter to it.
If you'd like any help with the swap I'd be more than happy to assist you with it!
 
invento123 said:
Replacing the 12v battery in the Yeti is pretty straight forward, especially if you've already done it one. Swapping to a lithium battery is almost the same process with the only added part being having to add a ammeter to it.
If you'd like any help with the swap I'd be more than happy to assist you with it!
Click to expand...
Thanks a bunch! I just purchased and fumbled through an EG4 inverter and 48v battery for emergency back up, so the cost will be in line after I catch back up. Hope I can call on you a couple months down the road.
 
Hi all,

I got an old yeti 1250 and put in 120ah LEP battery and it mostly works. it was not looked after well by the previous owner, was bit banged up but most seem to work.
The original AC charging adapter was lost and was replaced by a cheaply made alternative, it gets very hot when charging the device.
I want to swap it out for a well made AC charging adapter, finding one with 8mm DC port is a challenge.
Looking at the spec sheet, I will need an AC adapter that does over 16v to charge using the 8mm port.

Old Thinkpad laptop adapters used to have 8mm DC port and they do over 16V, will these work? is my reasoning right or am I going to break something!
If not I have a newer thinkpad adapter that I carry with me and this ebay seller has an adapter that goes from the newer square plug to 8mm DC male plug, I might get this. - https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/153961704648

I would greatly appreciate if anyone with more electrical knowledge can offer their feedback.


This device sits in the back of my car most of the time, I was hoping to charge using the car cigarette lighter socket but spec sheet says it needs minimum 16V so I dont think this will work, might need a voltage booster device. Goal Zero sells one but reviews are poor, it also heats up.

If anyone is charging using their car alternater, can you please share the details.

Thanks
Yudi
 
I don't know the specs of the Yeti, but I have used that adapter successfully with Thinkpad 190W and 230W power bricks on my Bluetti.
 
yudi said:
Hi all,

I got an old yeti 1250 and put in 120ah LEP battery and it mostly works. it was not looked after well by the previous owner, was bit banged up but most seem to work.
The original AC charging adapter was lost and was replaced by a cheaply made alternative, it gets very hot when charging the device.
I want to swap it out for a well made AC charging adapter, finding one with 8mm DC port is a challenge.
Looking at the spec sheet, I will need an AC adapter that does over 16v to charge using the 8mm port.

Old Thinkpad laptop adapters used to have 8mm DC port and they do over 16V, will these work? is my reasoning right or am I going to break something!
If not I have a newer thinkpad adapter that I carry with me and this ebay seller has an adapter that goes from the newer square plug to 8mm DC male plug, I might get this. - https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/153961704648

I would greatly appreciate if anyone with more electrical knowledge can offer their feedback.


This device sits in the back of my car most of the time, I was hoping to charge using the car cigarette lighter socket but spec sheet says it needs minimum 16V so I dont think this will work, might need a voltage booster device. Goal Zero sells one but reviews are poor, it also heats up.

If anyone is charging using their car alternater, can you please share the details.

Thanks
Yudi
Click to expand...
Bit of a late reply but any power adapter 16 volts and up, all the way to 40 volts will work! When you connect to the power input ports on the yeti you are just plugging power into the solar charge controller. This means the charge controller will take car of stepping down the voltage to what is needed to charge the battery.

I'm assuming Goal Zero went with a 16v power adapter out of the box as this is the minimum input voltage for it to charge as well as most likely being the most efficient voltage to charge from as it doesn't have to step the voltafge down much.

I've been thinging about integrating a small AC charger into the yeti so I don't have to lug one around with it but I haven't found a good way of doing this yet.
 
invento123 said:
Replacing the 12v battery in the Yeti is pretty straight forward, especially if you've already done it one. Swapping to a lithium battery is almost the same process with the only added part being having to add a ammeter to it.
If you'd like any help with the swap I'd be more than happy to assist you with it!
Click to expand...
So after months, I dropped a EG4 12v 100ah in. It has Bluetooth so if it charges correctly, I’m good to go.

Testing it now with a power tool charger, running at 200+ watts, and plugged into the wall to charge the Yeti, at the standard 65-68 watts. The Yeti SOC is about right, since the LiFePo app reads 86% and discharging.

We’ll look tomorrow!
 
I'm unsure what the status actually is. The EG4 Utility app used to monitor the 12v battery says it's at 100%, but charging, with current. The Yeti is saying it's dumping 30-120 watts in.

The batter is at 13.5v. I'm just wanting to make sure it's working correctly, without damaging the yeti or the battery.
 

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New member here. I've been reading through this post on how to upgrade the GZ Yeti 1250 to Lithium after discovering that my Yeti 1250 lead acid battery was kaput after nearly 8 years. Thankfully, in those 8 years the price of Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries have come down considerably. After reading through all posts here, I decided to give this drop in upgrade a shot. I purchased a Li Time 12.8v 100ah LiFePO4 group 24 battery with included Bluetooth connectivity in the battery for $359.00. Not having to worry about purchasing a shunt to monitor SOC reduced my cost. I did purchase the Li Time 12v 20A 14.6v Charger ($85.00) so that I could use it to be my charger for the Yeti. I'm going to continue to use this as my standby for when power goes out at home to power a few household items as before. Upon arrive, I used the Li Time charger to fully charge the battery. The charger woke the battery up (it arrived charged to 56 percent) and took about 2hrs and 45 minutes to charge to 100pct. I then disconnected the charger.

I removed the GZ cover and disconnected the original lead acid battery and removed it, then placed the Li Time into it and reconnected everything. I replaced everything as it was and then plugged my 12v Outsunny fridge to the GZ. Since the panel on the GZ didn't show anything other than a full battery symbol, I used the Bluetooth connection coupled with the Li Time app on my phone to view the battery SOC and I could see the draw on the battery from the fridge. I let the fridge draw down the battery overnight to see how things held up. Late in the afternoon on the next day I saw that the battery was down to 86 percent with no issues.

I want to use the Li Time 12v charger which is made for the battery I purchased to be able to recharge the Yeti 1250 from the wall outlet. To do this I purchased a 50A Anderson to SB175 Anderson connector on eBay to attach to my Li Time charger cable for $15.99. This allows me to plug the charger in to the back of the Yeti where the SB175 Anderson connector is located. Once connected I used the Li Time app on my smart phone to monitor the SOC. It averaged about 263 watts in at 19.3A for about 2.5 hours until it reached 100 percent and the charger stopped charging. The app indicated the BMS was balancing the load.

All in all the process appears to work well and breathes new life into this GZ. The complete cost to upgrade in July of 2024 for me was, $460.00 and I'm good with that. Thanks to all who experimented with this originally and sharing what you learned. Below are links to the items I upgraded with:

Li Time 12v 100ah Group 24 LiFePO4 Bluetooth Battery on Amazon : https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CYQ371X4?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1

Li Time 12v 20A 14.6v LiFePO4 Charger on eBay: https://www.amazon.com/Lithium-Batt...-4c75-a7e2-28711543817d&ref_=sspa_dk_detail_1

50A to SB175 Adapter on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/155045160760
 
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