mitiempo
Member
I have never been a fan of drop-in batteries, even though I sell Victron which are good quality. Of course the Victron solution to drop-in batteries is quite expensive.
A DIY system doesn't have to be expensive - in fact it can be a lot less expensive than drop-in batteries if you search out the correct sources.
For example I have purchased and received 8 Calb CA180 cells @ $80 US each - landed cost in Canada $1179 (902 US) for a total of 400 AH @ 12 volts. BMS is a Electrodacus @ $159 Cdn. Grade A cells for less than any drop-in I know of and I get Victron at cost as I work for a major distributor. At retail the saving would be much greater.
I will be using a Victron DC-DC charger between the engine battery (Fla) and the LiFePo4 bank. My primary charge source will be solar.
With the ABYC regs for LiFePo4 coming soon I believe, at least for marine use, drop-in batteries will be very rare as with the exception of Lithionics they will not pass a survey.
A DIY system doesn't have to be expensive - in fact it can be a lot less expensive than drop-in batteries if you search out the correct sources.
For example I have purchased and received 8 Calb CA180 cells @ $80 US each - landed cost in Canada $1179 (902 US) for a total of 400 AH @ 12 volts. BMS is a Electrodacus @ $159 Cdn. Grade A cells for less than any drop-in I know of and I get Victron at cost as I work for a major distributor. At retail the saving would be much greater.
I will be using a Victron DC-DC charger between the engine battery (Fla) and the LiFePo4 bank. My primary charge source will be solar.
With the ABYC regs for LiFePo4 coming soon I believe, at least for marine use, drop-in batteries will be very rare as with the exception of Lithionics they will not pass a survey.