Lithium Iron battery

[talbot]

Regarding the battery question at last night's Zoom meeting: My P21 now carries a ReLion RB60 battery. Group 24, 60 Ah.

[Brian N.]

Question - Does the battery require a special specific charger? I missed the Zoom meeting last night, so pardon me if I'm redundant but what prompted you to get the Li ion over lead acid?

[Riggerdood]

Brian, from what I gathered at the PSHH, it was mainly the greatly reduced weight.

As to charging, many of the newer chargers, including solar charge controllers, have a setting(s) for Lithium batteries. Also, many of the newer lithium batteries have onboard charge monitoring.

[Brian N.]

I ditched my 60Amp-hour (lead acid) battery for a much smaller and lighter AGM 35 Amp-hour battery. I just did not need all that reserve, and saving weight on the smaller P165 made sense. Moreover, the cost of going to Li ion was not in the budget.

Read an article a couple of months ago (by Nigel Caldor, I think) about an upgrade of his boat, including electrical and battery. He decided, to go with conventional lead acid batteries, partly due to factors involving how he plans to charge the batteries (using the existing system) and their intended use. Li ion certainly do pack a lot of energy into a small package, and at some point may become the standard.

[Shesaidno]

In November 2021 I switched to a 15AH Lifepo4 Deep Cycle Lithium battery. $100. My previous battery was 60+ pounds and much more than I needed for my auto pilot and chart plotter. I bought a new $20 controller that has a specific setting for Lithium batteries. An old 20 watt solar panel keeps the battery charged up just fine, and it is super light.

[Dave Scobie]

Regarding the battery question at last night's Zoom meeting: My P21 now carries a ReLion RB60 battery. Group 24, 60 Ah.

So this battery's physical size is the W/D/H of a group 24 or much smaller and has the usable amp hours of a group 24?

[DBthal]

There are some small Dakota Lithium LiFePO4 batteries that aren't outrageously expensive.

https://dakotalithium.com/product/dakota-lithium-12v-20ah-amp-hour-23ah-lifepo4-battery/

Dan

[talbot]

No, I have been using a 5a trickle charger. Same one I've had for years. Yes, the RelIon has standard series 24 dimensions. It just weighs half as much as the AGM it replaced.

[Dave Scobie]

Yes, the RelIon has standard series 24 dimensions. It just weighs half as much as the AGM it replaced.

Thanks for sharing details.

[Quantico Frank]

Regarding the battery question at last night's Zoom meeting: My P21 now carries a ReLion RB60 battery. Group 24, 60 Ah.

Talbot, I'm sorry I had to miss the HH last Friday. That convo has suddenly become very germane to me as I found my battery dead as a duck as I was trying to go out sailing yesterday. I'm taking a hard look at replacing it with your LiPo4 which is currently on sale at WM: https://www.westmarine.com/relion-group-24-rb60-lithium-deep-cycle-battery-12v-60ah-20482949.html.

[talbot]

That's the one I got. So far seems like a good choice.

[Riggerdood]

Here's a pretty good article on Li vs. lead acid batteries. Courtesy of Dave Anzaldua of the FB group.

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