Hey all, first time poster. I'm a bit of a n00b so apologies in advance.
TLDR: I currently have a 3ish year old 120ah lifepo4 battery. I want to drop in another battery in in parallel to increase the capacity. My questions are:
1. Is it OK to mix different ages and capacities?
2. Is it a problem if the connection between the two is pretty far (8-10ft)?
Long version:
I've got a camper van where I currently have a diy lifepo4 battery I made using cells from aliexpress and an Overkill Solar BMS. It's about 3 years old and 120ah. It gets charged via about 200w of solar and also the van's alternatore (when I enable that). I am considering getting Starlink and will need more juice to power that. Unfortunately, the stock aux battery location is too small for a larger battery so I thought I'd just buy a drop-in lifepo4 that I could fit elsewhere and wire them in parallel, increasing the capacity with minimal hassle and retaining the battery I already have. However, I'm concerned that maybe it's not OK to hook up batteries of different ages/capacities (I've read mixed things on this). Also, I am curious if the distance between the two batteries would be a problem. The current battery is hooked up to a fuse block that's about 1ft away. The second battery would have to be about 8-10ft away from the current battery and so would also be much farther from the fuse block where the load is coming from. Could this be a potential issue?
Thanks for the help!
TLDR: I currently have a 3ish year old 120ah lifepo4 battery. I want to drop in another battery in in parallel to increase the capacity. My questions are:
1. Is it OK to mix different ages and capacities?
2. Is it a problem if the connection between the two is pretty far (8-10ft)?
Long version:
I've got a camper van where I currently have a diy lifepo4 battery I made using cells from aliexpress and an Overkill Solar BMS. It's about 3 years old and 120ah. It gets charged via about 200w of solar and also the van's alternatore (when I enable that). I am considering getting Starlink and will need more juice to power that. Unfortunately, the stock aux battery location is too small for a larger battery so I thought I'd just buy a drop-in lifepo4 that I could fit elsewhere and wire them in parallel, increasing the capacity with minimal hassle and retaining the battery I already have. However, I'm concerned that maybe it's not OK to hook up batteries of different ages/capacities (I've read mixed things on this). Also, I am curious if the distance between the two batteries would be a problem. The current battery is hooked up to a fuse block that's about 1ft away. The second battery would have to be about 8-10ft away from the current battery and so would also be much farther from the fuse block where the load is coming from. Could this be a potential issue?
Thanks for the help!