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LiFePo4 12v

PeterT

Ultra Member
Premium Member
I've been lugging my old school 12v 55 A-hr deep cycle battery to the flying field forever. I don't need anywhere that kind of charging capacity anymore & pretty sure one of my arms is longer. Been looking at these LiFe batteries because I can same capacity for a fraction of the weight. Or better et buy less capacity to suite my needs. I'm familiar with the chemistry in smaller cells, but just wondering if anyone is running them in boats or RVs or whatever they are intended for. Suspect they require dedicated charger for that chemistry. Also reading some specs they come with integrated discharge protection? (I assume so you don't discharge below some threshold voltage & they are pooched?). Are there names you like/don't like? Probably wont buy till next spring anyways but just wondering.
 

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Alexander

Ultra Member
Administrator
My Honda motorcycle came with a lithium battery installed instead of the usual 7ah power sports battery. The battery management system in the battery has a cut off voltage to prevent over discharge. It also allowed for the use of a regular charger. Some chargers like Noco Genius come with a lithium battery setting but depending on the battery you might not need it
 

George

Member
I use this that i got off eBay for about $22 free shipping, i use it to charge my car batteries also i make battery packs from old laptop lithium ion batteries, its a great little charger that also does different charge and discharge rates and monitors the battery cells, it’s basically a smart charger, lots of YouTube videos about its uses. It does all types of batteries.
It’s a Chinese knock off of the imax pro, but it works really good
BB4BA2E2-DF5C-4176-8EB7-CD13FCD340B6.jpeg
 

PeterT

Ultra Member
Premium Member
I do have selectable LifePo4 setting on my RC charger which I can feed with my bench power supply. I just assumed it might be capped output for smaller capacity cells. But I'll have to go back & check for sure, it might be perfectly fine (if not more) than the dedicated LifePo3 wall plug chargers like the CTEK I screen grabbed.
https://www.progressiverc.com/products/icharger-406duo

For weight based applications, seems like Life are slowly displacing lead based batteries. The price/capacity has dropped from a few years back. Kind of makes sense, they hav ebeen in power toools & whatnot for a long time, these are just bigger bundles.
 
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