Voltax lifepo4 lithium battery

[hippyhunter]

Was into turning my river sluice into a portable recirculating setup during the current lockdown. As i wanted the option to run it indoors i went with 12v bilge pump setup. The hard decision was power. Options where agm deep cycle @30kg (f that. Too much weight for any sort of hike from the car and usable battery and maintenece is a hassle. Saw lifepo4 4 batteries and though they sounded perfect. Preferred known brand where $1500 for the size i wanted. That was too expensive for my budget.. Found this voltax brand with not a great deal of forum information about them. the one i got was their premium model (voltax plus) in the purple and black box. The things i liked about it was it had a battery meter which is only found on some of the more expensive ones. Also it is ip65 rated. I could not find any others at all that had an actual water resistance rating. I felt that was pretty important for my use as other brands have told me warranty is voided if it gets wet at all. This battery has 2 year warranty. Uses prismatic cells & Weighs in at 9.5 kg which is awesome. Have used it with a rule 2000gph (8amp?) pump for 3 hours so far and the battery meter reads 80% so it seems to be of good capacity. Will know for sure after a full test i guess. Hopefully it gets past the 2 year mark also of course. Overall so far it seems like a pretty decent option for anyone using a 12v pump with a highbanker or mini trommel. They had a cheaper one for $450 also but that didnt have a battery meter built in and used cylinder cells. I really really wanted a built in battery meter tho so went their premium model

 

[hippyhunter]

This is the one i got for $650. Just noticed they are sold out at the moment on ebay though

 

[Feral]

Looked at this brand as I was chasing a 12 to 18 AH battery. Thought something seemed a bit screwy as in price is to good to be true. If your bilge pump is pulling 8 amps, it should power it for around 20 hours. Maybe a bit more. would be interesting to hear hour long it lasts for.

 

[Mike678]

Go the Goodies ! Watched all episodes !

My young teenage nephews saw the repeats and it blew them away !

 

[Feral]

Think you posted in the wrong thread Mike

 

[Mike678]

Sorry but it is Hippyhunter's avatar . Can you see it ?

I can even remember him saying that ! It struck a cord with me !!!

 

[hippyhunter]

Looked at this brand as I was chasing a 12 to 18 AH battery. Thought something seemed a bit screwy as in price is to good to be true. If your bilge pump is pulling 8 amps, it should power it for around 20 hours. Maybe a bit more. would be interesting to hear hour long it lasts for.

I w as s a bit concerned also feral. The way they advertise as 60% off and being under half the price of brands with a bit of reputation. I was LESS concerned about it than i was about spending $1500 for a reputable brand (with no extra features). I spent hours trawling the net for any info i could find on these, solar king, and renogy. These where the 3 i could afford. Solar king had a bit of chat about aome saying they r happy, some less ao, but the killer there for me was no battery meter and the distributor telling me that if they get a drop of water the warranty is void . Not great for my use needs. The renogy had mostly good feedback, but not very much. Also no water resistance. Couldnt find stuff all feedback or forum talk on the voltax (maybee a few at most), so i figure thats because fairly new to the market.
After that i was getting reaearch fatigue so just pulled the trigger. Lol.
Have used as i said for over 3 hours so far (maybee closer to 4) and the battery meter that was reading at 81% last night soon after use is now at 84%. Seems at least close to right capacity but will know after the weekend.
If capacity is correct and it lasts past the 2 year warranty and still in good nik i will be happy. Will teport back on the capacity when i get the details over the weekend.
So far am.feeling pretty good about it all :Y:

 

[hippyhunter]

Go the Goodies ! Watched all episodes !

My young teenage nephews saw the repeats and it blew them away !

Vyv wasnt on goodies that i can remember mike.(thoigh that might have been a cool episode. Goodies meet the young ones)
You where in the young ones though werent you? Hehe

 

[Feral]

lol Sorry Mike. Had a killer day today and am a bit knackered. Saw his Avatar and that Pommy winey voice jumped into my head. Didn't join the dots with what you said :/

Goodies was a good show

 

[hippyhunter]

Am probably looking at about 10-12 hours out of the battery feral. Its only 100ah. They do have 200ah in the plus series which ahould net 20hrs with an 8amp pump. I have 7 hrs up so far and the meter is telling me 30% remaining so seems on track. Am just running the rule pump in a bucket in the bathtub as a test. Is naking a whirlpool in the bathtub. Haha. Will probably get a victron lithium charger before i give it another charge. Am a bit reluctant to use my ctek charger on agm mode.

 

[hippyhunter]

I ended up running it for 8 hours then decided to abort until my lithium charger arrives. Battery was still reading 25% under load when i unplugged. Went up to 30% within a few minutes. Then after an hour checked the meter again and it read 51% and seems to have stabalized there. I assume i could have run for another 2-4 hours. I'll finish the juice remaining & do a proper test next weekend after my new charger arrives then report the results. Seems ok so far though.

 

[Feral]

I ended up going with a name band from a battery shop. I told them what it was for and it would need to last minimum 90 minutes with a 9 amp draw. The way it was explained to me by 2 separate shops was that the LifePo4 allow a deeper draw. Previous battery types had the stored energy but you could not use all of it. Where as LifePo4 allows you to use almost all the stored energy. In their words, " LifePo4 are almost double the capacity". Wrong way to say it but understood the meaning.

Ordered a 12AH with the assurance that it would last close to 2 hours with a 9amp continuous draw. If I don't get that it will go back.

 

[grubstake]

I ended up going with a name band from a battery shop. I told them what it was for and it would need to last minimum 90 minutes with a 9 amp draw. The way it was explained to me by 2 separate shops was that the LifePo4 allow a deeper draw. Previous battery types had the stored energy but you could not use all of it. Where as LifePo4 allows you to use almost all the stored energy. In their words, " LifePo4 are almost double the capacity". Wrong way to say it but understood the meaning.

Ordered a 12AH with the assurance that it would last close to 2 hours with a 9amp continuous draw. If I don't get that it will go back.

I reckon you need a LiFePO4 with about double that capacity to deliver long service with so much current draw.

1.5 hours x 9 amp = 13.5 Ah, but you also need to leave a reserve of 20% of battery Ah capacity to avoid over-drawing, which will shorten the lifespan of even LiFePO4 chemistry.

IMHO, 20-25Ah would be the minimum battery size for your application.

 

[Feral]

That's what I was looking at. But the "Experts" told me no, 9 amp draw for 90 minutes to 2 hours use, 12AH will be perfect. They had to order it in so waiting for it to turn up. If it doesn't last it will go back. One of the benefits of buying local, no return postage costs

They kept saying that the LifePo4, to work out run time with a known Amp draw is almost double an AGM battery

 

[grubstake]

Your 'experts' sound completely clueless. Amps x Hours = Amp Hours. If you're drawing 9 amps for 2 hours, that's 18 amp hours used. But since you should avoid drawing down more than 80% of LiFePO4 battery capacity for maximum life, you'd need at least a 22.5 Ah battery to handle the load and 25-30 Ah would be a better choice IMHO.

 

[hippyhunter]

I am starting to wonder grubstake if the quoted ah of lifepo4 batteries is the "usable" amount and regulated from over discharge by the bms.... for example woth that thaeory a 100ah lifepo4 battery actually has 120ah of batteries internally and the bms cuts off your usage after 100ah is used. So hence they rate it as 100ah because that is the amount u can use. Not certain about it but am starting to think that is whats going on. So for ferals example an 18-20 ah battery should be enough for his two hours as the bms will regulate usage to not go undercharge

 

[hippyhunter]

I really get the feeling i will get the full 12 hours with an 8amp draw on my 100ah battery though. Just going from what the meter actually built into the bms is telling me. I assume it wont cut out until the meter reads 0% but cant tell for aure until next weekend as it was at 25% remaining under load when i finished up the other night.

 

[Feral]

When I pick the battery up I will be asking again on expected run time with that 9 amp draw. It will be going back if I don't get what I'm told. Time will tell

 

[hippyhunter]

When I pick the battery up I will be asking again on expected run time with that 9 amp draw. It will be going back if I don't get what I'm told. Time will tell

I think what they where trying to say about the ah is lifepo4 batterys have double the USABLE ah compared to agm batteries due to agm batteries not being able to use the full stated capacity wheras lifepo4's pretty much can. As far a draw goes using a 1amp applience for an hour will draw 1ah on any type of battery. So with a lifepo4 if you want to run your 9v pump for 1 hour you want a 9 or 10ah battery. For 2 hoirs you really want 18 (20-25ah would be best to have a little extra juice up your sleeve if needed. Keep in mind the pump might draw in excess of 9amps at times i think you might just get an hour and 15 minutes from the 12ah battery you have coming but thats stretching it. I really really really think you would require at least 20ah if you have any chance of 2 hours

 

[Feral]

Well Ill be a monkeys Uncle. I had my doubts on the Battery Dudes math but it seems he was right. Full info on the pump it's a 12v 105w air pump. The online calculators I used all said a draw of 8.75 amp. They 12AH battery I got should of died at the very most 1 hour and 20 minutes, give or take a couple. Said to them if it didn't do 90 minutes I will be bringing it back. Looks like it's a keeper. 1 hour and 55 minutes. There was a small dip in the pump sound then it bounced back. Reckon that will do. Very happy

DryPower is the brand and purchased from the local Battery World