LIFeO4 Batteries and charging while towing

[SolarPoweredRV]

Does your WFCO actually charge in Bulk mode?
None of mine have. And most everyone else that has checked report the same. They seem to be stuck at 13.6..... And that is with LA batteries.
With Lithiums maintaining a hiigher voltage thru out their charge level, any stock converter will not go into bulk very easy, if at all.
I have seen many people report on this. One wes as low as (IIRC) 52% being the best his stock converter would do with Lithiums.

This 52% State of Charge matches well with what Ray, from Love Your RV, just said about his stock Converter. He ran his OEM (WFCO) Converter charging his Lithium battery bank for a couple of years before recently replacing it. Note: Ray did have a secondary source for charging his LifePo4 batteries when he was Boondocking, as well as his Solar system.

Ray stated that his OEM Converter only charged his LiFePo4 batteries to "Around 53%".

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I will disagree as well. A fully functioning LA charger senses what the battery voltage is in order to deciide which mode to charge at. Since Lithiums maintain a higher voltage than LA batteries thruout most ot their capacity, a fully functioning converter WILL NOT be in the right mode most of the time for Lithiums. In fact one would likely never charge at 14.4 volts as the lithiums will have too high of a voltage unless they are almost empty to trigger that mode.

On edit: I found the voltage that the WFCO needs to"see" in order to go into bulk mode.
10.75 - 11 volts.
Click on this Battle Born link to see why that will not work well:
http://https://1t1pye1e13di20waq11old70-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/BB10012-Spec-Sheet.pdf

Thank you for that info huntindog........if that is accurate (the 10.75 - 11 volts) that would clearly explain why most folks never see the WFCO charger going into bulk mode. I will likely have to rethink my plan on converters/chargers.

I will say however, according to the WFCO manual (9855 that I have), it does clearly state that once it has settled to the float voltage of 13.2, it will stay there until there is some "usage" sensed by the converter.....then it will automatically switch up to the 13.6 absorption setting. No where in that manual does it say what the voltage level has to be down to, in order to put it into bulk.......so you info was a good find....

[huntindog]

Thank you for that info huntindog........if that is accurate (the 10.75 - 11 volts) that would clearly explain why most folks never see the WFCO charger going into bulk mode. I will likely have to rethink my plan on converters/chargers.

I will say however, according to the WFCO manual (9855 that I have), it does clearly state that once it has settled to the float voltage of 13.2, it will stay there until there is some "usage" sensed by the converter.....then it will automatically switch up to the 13.6 absorption setting. No where in that manual does it say what the voltage level has to be down to, in order to put it into bulk.......so you info was a good find....

That is only part of it. The converter can "see" this voltage when it sags from power draws. This can happen pretty easy with LAs as they sag a lot. Lithiums do not sag nearly as much as LAs...

[Scramjet]

This 52% State of Charge matches well with what Ray, from Love Your RV, just said about his stock Inverter. He ran his OEM (WFCO) Converter charging his Lithium battery bank for a couple of years before recently replacing it. Note: Ray did have a secondary source for charging his LifePo4 batteries when he was Boondocking, as well as his Solar system.

Ray stated that his OEM Converter only charged his LiFePo4 batteries to "Around 53%".

For the late model Fords they will charge at around 7 amps through the 7 pin connection and will not damage your alternator. I have over 25,000 miles of towing to prove it. The original converter charger would be ideal for long-term storage on lithium batteries. It does keep them at a middle state of charge which the lithium’s love for longevity. I had the same experience as Ray from Love Your RV. I also monitor it carefully as I enjoy this stuff and have an electronic background. I kept both a lithium charger and the converter on board. My lithium charger is a combo inverter charger by Xantrex.

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I submitted a question to Progressive Industries about their PD9160ALV converter/charger for LFP batteries. In their description, they state that the factory output voltage is adjustable in order to meet different LFP battery manufacturers requirements.....but, it states that it is only factory adjustable. I asked them about buying one that would be set to 14.4V for boost or bulk charging and then the normal or absorption voltage would be 13.4 volts. I will likely not get a reply to this until at least Monday next week, as they are probably closed on the weekends. To me, that would be perfect, as once it drops down to the 13.4 (13.6 from the factory), it would stay there for 3 weeks and then go into another boost cycle. Obviously, if you ran the battery down to less than 100% SOC from usage during that 3 week period, and it needed to be recharged, it would go ahead and do a charge cycle before the 3 weeks time was up.

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Battery cells arrived this afternoon. Perfect condition, zero damage, unbelievably good packaging. I'm impressed

So I broke out the Fluke meter and took a voltage reading on each cell. "A" rated batteries are supposed to be balanced equally and so here is the results.
Battery 1. 3.289 volts
Battery 2. 3.289 volts
Battery 3. 3.289 volts
Battery 4. 3.288 volts
1/1000 volt difference....I'm impressed

[A.Texas.Yankee]

Are those Lishen cells? Studded is good. What BMS are you going to use?

Full Timing Family
2021 Momentum 395MS-R
2021 Ford F450 King Ranch

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Are those Lishen cells? Studded is good. What BMS are you going to use?

Full Timing Family
2021 Momentum 395MS-R
2021 Ford F450 King Ranch

EVE302 The listing also says that they are CATL.....I don't know enough about the different manufacturers to know whether EVE is just the distributor and CATL is the manufacturer or ??? Yea, I thought they were coming with grub screws and nuts.....they must have changed the manufacturing spec....definitely welded studs. I bought a Daly Smart BMS with Bluetooth, 200A model. I purchased it way back in October last year and I'm not 100% sure that it was a good choice, but we'll see.

[A.Texas.Yankee]

EVE302 The listing also says that they are CATL.....I don't know enough about the different manufacturers to know whether EVE is just the distributor and CATL is the manufacturer or ??? Yea, I thought they were coming with grub screws and nuts.....they must have changed the manufacturing spec....definitely welded studs. I bought a Daly Smart BMS with Bluetooth, 200A model. I purchased it way back in October last year and I'm not 100% sure that it was a good choice, but we'll see.

EVE and CATL are two different manufacturers, but both are considered good quality so with either one you should be OK. I think the CATL have higher charge/ discharge capabilities.

The Daly Smart BMS is actually a great product, although you might find the 200amp might be a little underpowered at 12v, depending on your inverter setup. Did you get the common port or separate port

I've been running a 500amp Daly Smart for over six months flawlessly. It's a bit overkill, for now, until I install inverters for 6000 watts of capabilities.

Full Timing Family
2021 Momentum 395MS-R
2021 Ford F450 King Ranch

[Scramjet]

EVE302 The listing also says that they are CATL.....I don't know enough about the different manufacturers to know whether EVE is just the distributor and CATL is the manufacturer or ??? Yea, I thought they were coming with grub screws and nuts.....they must have changed the manufacturing spec....definitely welded studs. I bought a Daly Smart BMS with Bluetooth, 200A model. I purchased it way back in October last year and I'm not 100% sure that it was a good choice, but we'll see.

The Daly is possibly not the best choice but I do not have personal experience. I am sure you have checked out Will Prowse and Off Grid Garage on Youtube. I was impressed with the Overkill BMS. Good luck! You will spend less then I did for my SOK 206ah batteries.

Let us know how it goes.

Brian