Long Term Lifepo4 Battery Shipping Storage.

[RoycoMag]

Hello guys, I am based in South Africa and recently got a 12v 100ah lifepo4 battery on Amazon. Litime and Redodo brand. I used a freight forwarding shipping service company that has a US address to receive the battery in US. The shipping company will now help me forward the shipment of the battery to Africa from US. However the battery will have to be sent to me via ocean shipping and this will take about four months to arrive in Africa. I saw that in the battery manual, it is stated that for long term storage the battery should be charged once every three months. Does this also apply to a new battery that has not yet been used and is still in the box it came with. I want to know if my shipping company can still ship the battery to me even though it will take 4months to get to me. Will the battery be ok even though it will not be used or touched for 4months?will it still be ok for them to ship it and battery will be fine for 4months of no use. This is a brand new battery.

 

[DIYrich]

LiFePO4 batteries discharge about 2% per month. 4 months is fine, assuming the batteries had about 50% charge to begin with.

 

[RCinFLA]

Self discharge is 1 to 2% per month for a new LFP cell but goes up at higher ambient temps. There is also some BMS current drain which should be less than 2-3 AH per month.

You should still be fine in four months but cells will likely be out of balance.

Primary reason to do charging more often is to keep cells balanced. The cells self-discharge rate will likely not be identical so the longer they sit the more imbalanced their state of charge gets.

You should do a long absorb voltage level charge when you first get them to allow BMS to balance cells. (about 14.2v for 8 to 48 hours). It is good to get 12v LFP batteries with internal BT BMS so you can monitor individual cell voltages.

100AH cells with 50 mA BMS balancing dump current takes 20 hours of balancing time for each 1 AH (1%) imbalance in cells state of charge. BMS balancing does not activate until a cell gets above 3.4v. For four cell 12v self contained LFP battery that requires at least 13.8 vdc with some allowance for tolerance on the 3.4v balance trigger voltage.

It is highly likely the battery will trigger a cell overvoltage charging shut down during full charge attempt. It should bleed down the overvoltage cell and start charging and balancing again. It may cut off charging due to cell overvoltage several times before it finally is able to reach full absorb charging voltage.

 

[RoycoMag]

This t.

Self discharge is 1 to 2% per month for a new LFP cell but goes up at higher ambient temps. There is also some BMS current drain which should be less than 2-3 AH per month.

You should still be fine in four months but cells will likely be out of balance.

Primary reason to do charging more often is to keep cells balanced. The cells self-discharge rate will likely not be identical so the longer they sit the more imbalanced their state of charge gets.

You should do a long absorb voltage level charge when you first get them to allow BMS to balance cells. (about 14.2v for 8 to 48 hours). It is good to get 12v LFP batteries with internal BT BMS so you can monitor individual cell voltages.

100AH cells with 50 mA BMS balancing dump current takes 20 hours of balancing time for each 1 AH (1%) imbalance in cells state of charge. BMS balancing does not activate until a cell gets above 3.4v. For four cell 12v self contained LFP battery that requires at least 13.8 vdc with some allowance for tolerance on the 3.4v balance trigger voltage.

It is highly likely the battery will trigger a cell overvoltage charging shut down during full charge attempt. It should bleed down the overvoltage cell and start charging and balancing again. It may cut off charging due to cell overvoltage several times before it finally is able to reach full absorb charging voltage.

Thanks so much. This explanation makes perfect sense.