100Ah 12v LiFePo4 Battery charger

[Tomthumb62]

It seems you still havent looked at the report. The temp during testing was listed as 25°C which is about 77°F.

That’s my point. It’s likely to be hotter than 77F because of the reasons I listed.

It’s your battery and money to burn man, personally I wouldn’t do it. But maybe it’s worth it to you.

If you point a fan towards the battery that only clicks on when the charger is charging, that might do enough to make a difference. Or put the battery in an air conditioned space. Or only charge at high rates during the spring, fall and winter.

 

[HarryN]

Hmm, it says right on every SOK battery that Max charging current is 50A.

When you drive, do you usually run the engine at the max rated hp or somewhat less?

 

[Sanwizard]

Only 30 amps but recomended,

https://www.amazon.com/Victron-Energy-12-Volt-Battery-Bluetooth/dp/B08NY23BKF?th=1

This one. Works great.

 

[thepartyhound]

When you drive, do you usually run the engine at the max rated hp or somewhat less?

Actually, yes, most of the time I am running at max HP. Generally when I'm driving I'm pulling a heavy trailer and the 'ol diesel is held to the floor most of the trip. But dont worry, just like this battery it has safeguards in place to prevent it from damaging itself.
But thats apples and oranges. I do see the point you are getting at, but you are still assuming that I, like yourself presumably, want this battery to last 70 years! I don't! If I can get 10 years out of this thing, I'll be thrilled! The scientific testing that has been done on this battery supports my assertion that if they can get nearly 4k cycles out of this battery at 1C CHARGE and dicharge, then I should be able to get at LEAST that many charging at 0.6C. AGAIN, Im not living on this battery. It is going to be cycled MAX 60x/year...likely less than a third of that. If I get 1000 cycles out of this battery it will likely have outlived me!

50Amps is half the rated HP in your analogy.

 

[thepartyhound]

That’s my point. It’s likely to be hotter than 77F because of the reasons I listed.

It’s your battery and money to burn man, personally I wouldn’t do it. But maybe it’s worth it to you.

If you point a fan towards the battery that only clicks on when the charger is charging, that might do enough to make a difference. Or put the battery in an air conditioned space. Or only charge at high rates during the spring, fall and winter.

Maybe summer is hotter than 77° where you live, but that is a pretty typical high temp at 8k-9k feet here in the mountains of Montana.

 

[Sanwizard]

Maybe summer is hotter than 77° where you live, but that is a pretty typical high temp at 8k-9k feet here in the mountains of Montana.

Must be a beautiful place to live! I drove up pikes peak once, and man I got dizzy. You need a while to get used to those heights! Do you have a heater for your batteries? LiFePo4 does not like cold.

 

[JRH]

Only 30 amps but recomended,

https://www.amazon.com/Victron-Energy-12-Volt-Battery-Bluetooth/dp/B08NY23BKF?th=1

I have a 12v and a 24v ( 30 /16 amp) version these …they are great ..Blue tooth is very good … excellent phone app..easy to mount and access hook ups.?

 

[Brucey]

I do like the blue equipment! However, this battery will be used between a couple of different locations and will mostly be charged via generator. The less time the generator has to run, the better! @ 30A the generator would only be pushing out what...380ish watts. I'd really like to find a charger that can push a little more than that.

The Victron IP22 12/30 will use around 470W in 30A mode.

14.5V*30A = 435W to the battery.

 

[HarryN]

Actually, yes, most of the time I am running at max HP. Generally when I'm driving I'm pulling a heavy trailer and the 'ol diesel is held to the floor most of the trip. But dont worry, just like this battery it has safeguards in place to prevent it from damaging itself.
But thats apples and oranges. I do see the point you are getting at, but you are still assuming that I, like yourself presumably, want this battery to last 70 years! I don't! If I can get 10 years out of this thing, I'll be thrilled! The scientific testing that has been done on this battery supports my assertion that if they can get nearly 4k cycles out of this battery at 1C CHARGE and dicharge, then I should be able to get at LEAST that many charging at 0.6C. AGAIN, Im not living on this battery. It is going to be cycled MAX 60x/year...likely less than a third of that. If I get 1000 cycles out of this battery it will likely have outlived me!

50Amps is half the rated HP in your analogy.

It isn't actually the Li cells that are the limitation in this particular battery - it is the electronics in the BMS.

I do get it that you want to be higher up the performance side - which is why it is worth buying a better battery like the BBs with a higher end BMS vs a marginal one but at this point it is what it is. The BB both continuous and max is 50 amps IIRC for charging. There are some out there that have higher rating than .5 C but I have not looked lately.

The discharge rates are different than the charge rates in most batteries - including this one.

Usually the failure mode of Li batteries is not a slow failure - the risk is fire so just have a way to manage that aspect if you are going to be pushing the limits.

Technically for your use case - you should have purchased a good AGM instead of this Li battery but that is an entirely different discussion.

 

[thepartyhound]

It isn't actually the Li cells that are the limitation in this particular battery - it is the electronics in the BMS.

I do get it that you want to be higher up the performance side - which is why it is worth buying a better battery like the BBs with a higher end BMS vs a marginal one but at this point it is what it is. The BB both continuous and max is 50 amps IIRC for charging. There are some out there that have higher rating than .5 C but I have not looked lately.

The discharge rates are different than the charge rates in most batteries - including this one.

Usually the failure mode of Li batteries is not a slow failure - the risk is fire so just have a way to manage that aspect if you are going to be pushing the limits.

Technically for your use case - you should have purchased a good AGM instead of this Li battery but that is an entirely different discussion.

Speaking with SOK yesterday (this whole discussion has been about SOK...BB has not been brought up) they would not outright advise me to charge at above their published recommendations, however they did confirm that the BMS in their battery was the same BMS (with some updates since) that was used in their cycle testing that survived for 3600+ cycles of 1C CHARGE and discharge. So, again, I assert that if a battery (BMS included) can withstand 3600+ cycles of 100A charge/discharge, I have every confidence that the same battery would also survive AT LEAST 1000 60A charge cycles...likely many more.

 

[A.Justice]

If you're willing to DIY a little bit, you can modify old computer power supplies to output slightly more voltage, and some of them will pretty easily put out lifepo4 charging voltage. Theoretically, I could charge at ~160 amps, with $25 worth of stuff.

I got two, used, 80 amp, 12 volt server rack power supplies off of eBay for something like $25. One of them is modified to output 14.2 volts for charging lithium (removed a resistor, and soldered in a potentiometer, very simple), The other one is currently being used in a different project to add 12v DC outlets to certain places in my house so I don't have to have all of those "wallwart" converters plugged in.

If you don't feel comfortable modifying a power supply like that, I also recommend the Progressive Dynamics chargers, they are very high quality.