Battery replacement time - which ones?

[dougxn]

New years morning woke up to a relatively dead boat - started the engine, set it to parallel and was able to get the house battery to charge enough to charge on it’s own. All is normal now, but I definitely need to make it through the night.

The DIY mobile guy - will prowse likes sok batteries, but have a relatively glowing review of the chin batteries.

I was think 2 x 300Ah units would suit me well. And at $2000, that seems as good as it gets.

Anyone have experience with these batteries on their boat. They say 10 year service life, but only guarantee for 5 years?

Cheers and happy new year [emoji312]


Somewhere on the water [emoji97]

 

[AboutTime]

I installed (2) 200Ah Ampere Time LiFePO4 batteries last summer in my C30-CB. Replacing the (4) AGM's. They've been working great and I lost 175 lbs.
I paid about $756 each back in June. I think you can get them for under $700 now.
Although, I think (like you) I would go with (2) 300Ah ones if I had it to do over again. I believe they're the same overall case size as the 200Ah batteries. Heavier, of course. They just fill the case fully.
There's obviously some other electrical work that needs to be done if converting from AGM's. But it was well worth it for me.
Now my starting and thruster AGM's are starting to lose capacity. They're almost four years old. I'm thinking about converting those over to LiFePO4 cranking batteries, but I'm not sure about going that way or not. They're more money than the deep cycle ones. Ampere Time told me last year that they were working on them, but they still don't have any for sale. I just asked them.
Not much boating being done in the rain anyway. I have time.

 

[dougxn]

Looks like I can do a few things on the battery front:

1 - Build many own from cells - I suppose I would use the Winston cells or something like that - $200/cell. I just saw they have some 400Ah cells;-)

2 - Buy a prebuilt battery:
A - Victron 300Ah = $3300 + bms
B - SOK 2x206Ah. = $2000
C - Dakata 2x200Ah = $2900
D - Chin 300Ah = $1000 < wow cheap.
E - Lithionics 320Ah = $4500 < Wow, pricey > I hope they are worth it

Either way, I will have to buy at least one battery charger for the alternator and I guess another charger for the shore hookup. That is another $1000 easy - Ug!

I suppose I could changer out eh starter, but then I would also do the thruster battery - Ug.

 

[knotflying]

Just a thought. Cruised 9,500 nautical miles for 10 years on my R-27. Four Walmart dual purpose deep cycle $87.00 each. Changed them every three years regardless of condition. Always had enough power anchored out up to 3 days with solar panel. Yes, I managed my power usage. Never a dead battery. Unless there is a compelling reason to go Lithium, keep it simple.

 

[dougxn]

I installed (2) 200Ah Ampere Time LiFePO4 batteries last summer in my C30-CB. Replacing the (4) AGM's. …rain anyway. I have time.

I am curious how you charge them. My understanding is you need a charger that sports 20% of the battery capacity- ie: 100Ah*.2=20A. So for 400*.2=80.(?) I don’t see any ac chargers that can handle this and fit on my boat (IB D3).

Thanks!


Somewhere on the water [emoji97]

 

[dougxn]

Just a thought. Cruised 9,500 nautical miles for 10 years on my R-27. …dead battery. Unless there is a compelling reason to go Lithium, keep it simple.

Wow, you got it down. Perhaps I should reconciled myself to saving some Money for once… 🙂


Somewhere on the water [emoji97]

 

[CruisingElvinRay]

I just switched my R-23 to LiFePO4. I did 4x 100Ah Dakota Lithium batteries. This almost tripled my available Amp Hours with a relatively flat discharge curve. It was a LOT of work to do it right. But, I have plenty of power now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[GaylesFaerie]

...keep it simple.

+1

 

[dougxn]

I just switched my R-23 to LiFePO4. I did 4x 100Ah Dakota Lithium batteries. This almost tripled my available Amp Hours with a relatively flat discharge curve. It was a LOT of work to do it right. But, I have plenty of power now.

So, if you don’t mind, what size of charger do you have for the shore power? I assume you are also charging from the alternator with a dc-dc charger?

Thanks - dn

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[YukonRon]

We also replaced our house batteries with 4 x 100 Ah Dakota LiFePo4.
We bought the boat used through the local Ranger Tug dealership, and it was needing new batteries at the time. Having the batteries installed by the dealership, by their ABYC certified staff, using the same batteries that Fluid Motion factory installs in their Lithium option, seemed to me to have some value with regards to keeping the insurance companies happy as well as future re-sale value.
Of course, there were lots of other mods I had to make like upraded wiring and fusing, a DC-DC charger, upgraded to a Victron 3000 inverter/charger, and a Victron BMV battery monitor. Solar was upgraded at the same time.
Lots of cash outlay up front to be sure, but well worth it for us. We easily spent 4 weeks continuous cruising and anchoring out with no generator and no shore power. That's what it's all about for us.

 

[HookedUp]

As I read though this I see there is no right or wrong except at it applies to YOU. The occasional sailor with little need for long term power should probably stick with lead acid and the long term cruiser with long term power needs should probably be looking for lithium batteries and the proper updates to manage them.

Makes sense to me. We're not all the same in our boating needs and why spend a fortune upgrading batteries if you have no use for it or not upgrading when you obviously need it? I guess the real question is what is your planned use. That answer will determine which way you need to go.

 

[AboutTime]

I also upgraded the inverter charger to a 2000w Zantrex Freedom Pro Mariner. It will charge at up to 100 amps from shore power or the generator. I have it set to 90 amps. I also installed a Victron 30 amp dc-dc charger for charging from the alternator. A separate shore power charger needs to be installed for the AGM batteries. I’ll probably stay with agm’s for the high output engine and thruster batteries. It’s just too early in the tech for LFP starting batteries to be affordable/worth it. I’ll revisit it in four years when the new set of AGM’s need to be replaced again.

 

[CruisingElvinRay]

I replaced the Kisae Abso 20 Amp charger with the 60 Amp version, largely because it has a similar footprint and all I had to do was swap it in and replace the DC cables. I did that about 18 months ago to charge my SLA house bank faster. Everything else (including the new DC-DC charger )is Victron.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[dougxn]

Just an update and end to this thread from my point of view.

I installed two 200Ah LiFePO4 chin batteries. A Victron pheonix charger, a dc-dc (alternator) charger along with the mission 420W SP, mppt, smart shunt and the cerbo gx. Went out Sunday night for a trial by fire. Over night plus a work day. I am super happy with everything power wise. Plenty of power to do everything including running the laptop plus monitor without charging.

I still need to figure out what good having the cerbo is - we don’t have internet access full time on the boat. And I don’t have the cool screen inside installed and from the front of the wheel house none of the Bluetooth is strong enough to connect.

That will be a future project ;-)

 

[dougxn]

Oh, and thanks everyone for your input! Much appreciated.

 

[dbsea]

Please post an update down the road on how the Chin batteries are doing. They are so much less expensive than the Dakota, Battle Born, or Lithionics, and I'm petrified of them having issues. I just replaced my UBG AGMs that were failing with Lifeline AGMs, so when these are cooked i'll be ready to switch, I think. I would really like the single Lithionics 630ah, but that battery is north of $8,000.