Li Time LiFePO4, no frills, serious value

Ben Stein

Ben Stein

Publisher of Panbo.com, passionate marine electronics enthusiast, 100-ton USCG master.

14 Responses

  1. Bob says:

    These look very promising. I’d love to go this route, but unfortunately my boat is wired such that The two separate banks provide both load and starting to their respective engines. As I understand it, these cannot be used for starting purposes. Have I got that right?

    • Ben Stein Ben Stein says:

      Bob,

      You’re correct that these, and most LiFePO4, batteries aren’t designed for engine starting duties. We are beginning to see engine start rated LiFePO4 batteries hit the market. Like the early LiFePO4 batteries, it’s kind of the wild west. Some of those batteries appear to have carefully designed BMSes or even supercapacitors, while others seem to be the same battery with start slapped on the side.

      However, it may not be as hard as you think to separate house and start duties. You could then leave your starting duties to lead-acid and move house to LiFePO4. The difficulty really comes from how the loads are connected to distribution.

      -Ben S.

  2. Grant Jenkins says:

    Great review as usual, Ben, and an interesting option. Thank you for your detailed and (I’m sure) time-consuming research. The LiFePo landscape continues becoming more diverse and appealing!

  3. David says:

    Nice to see a review of LFP battery at this price point. With the inherent safety of LFP cells and now the decent quality of a typical BMS this seems like an excellent option for the average cruiser. Having multiple batteries (separately fused?) should help reliability issues along with a lead starter battery/bank that can be used for emergencies.

    As with any conversion to LFP the charging side has to be addressed and there are several ways to do that which also vary in cost/complexity/ease of use. Though I was able to setup my LFP/lead system with out any of the following devices a typical system might include a B2B charger, alternator protection device (if charging LFP directly), alternator regulator that monitors the alternator temperature. Also a shore charger that isn’t set to float, or not set to float above 13.4v.

  4. Dan says:

    I just considered the Li Time battery but settled on 300 ah batteries from LPFMax because of its Bluetooth and low temp heaters and priced at about $1k each. This is somewhat of a risk as I could not find a significant number of reviews and I can’t afford to take a battery apart to see how it is built but the price is incredibly attractive with lots of features found in higher end batteries. Additional cost of install is b-b charger that allows control of load on alternators and upgrades to Magnum inverter charger for support of Lithium batteries, about $600.

  5. Mic Fite Mic Fite says:

    I have nearly this same battery. In 2021 I had my boat set up for the switch to LiFePO4 batteries and was just waiting for 750Ah bank of golf cart batteries to die. I didn’t know their age and so didn’t want to dump them prematurely. And also was watching the LiFePO4 offerings evolve rapidly. Wouldn’t you know it, they died just days before we were set to go cruising that summer. In an effort to “save the cruise”, I ordered a Ampere Time 12V 200Ah Plus (200A BMS) from Amazon for $880 and had it in 3 days! Nobody else could deliver so quickly. Dropped it in, changed the settings on the Wakespeed WS500 and it has been working great ever since that June 2021. I have pulled more than 210Ah out of it on a couple of occasions as measured by a Victron SmartShut. I’m just one data point, but a satisfied customer.
    So yes, a very good value from LiTime at $630 (for the 100A BMS version).
    On the LiTime website, I see that they are starting to offer batteries with more features on some batteries such as low temp cutoff and internal heating, etc. All good options that will hopefully migrate throughout the product line.
    I’d like to see a little better engineering but I have to say that at this price point what you are getting seems pretty darn good.

  6. Tim Ebert says:

    Would four of the 12v 200ah = 48v system on my polaris ranger EV be a good choice to replace my 8 lead acid batteries. I’d also like the self heated battery since I’m using it in Wisconsin yr round . ?

  7. Lewis Graham says:

    Hello Ben,

    Do you know any of the details regarding cell balancing on this battery? Is it active or passive? Does the BMS handle the transition from CC to CV charging?

    Thanks

    • Ben Stein Ben Stein says:

      Hi Lewis,

      The balancing is passive. I haven’t been able to find ratings for the amount of passive balancing the BMS can do.

      I don’t believe any of the BMSes handle the transition from constant current to constant voltage. Instead, that’s determined by the battery pack’s charge acceptance. The BMS can stop charging, but it doesn’t limit current or change the voltage of the charge energy.

      -Ben S.

  8. Adrian says:

    wakespeed has a concern regarding drop in lIFepO4 batteries that use BMS’s that do rapid disconnects at the end of their charge cycle. Do these 200+ show that behaviour ?I.E would a wakespeed WS500 not work charging these directly ? ( I want to make use of the high DOC and not run the WS to a FLA starter battery – B2B for instance>

    “…In many cases, these drop in batteries use disconnects as a normal part of charge control. Unfortunately, these batteries make it impossible to anticipate disconnects because of the lack of suitable forewarning. “

  9. Denis says:

    I ordered a Weize 300 ah lifepo4 from Amazon for $1099. It claimed a smart shunt and 10 year warranty with a California location. I took a chance but figured I’d be dealing with Amazon.
    It arrived a few days later with a very slim manual that said 5 year warranty, or maybe 2 year warranty. The “smart BMS” had no bluetooth or anyway of knowing what was happening inside the sealed box. Nobody ever answered the phone in California about warranty or any other questions and the email responses from China seemed canned and ultimately useless.

    Returning it was a hassle because Weize is a “3rd party seller” but eventually I did get it all done and Amazon paid the return shipping.
    In its place I ordered a pre assembled 300 AH Sun Fun Kits battery from the folks in Baton Rouge. It cost a few hundred dollars more but customer service, the substantial manual and testing documents, and visibly robust build quality are well worth the price differential in my opinion.
    It is working out great, I’m surprised how much better and different it is from lead acid. I now watch my recharging for fun instead of worrying about running low on power.

    • Ben Ellison Ben Ellison says:

      Thanks, Denis. SFK — https://www.sunfunkits.com/ — is an impressive operation and I particularly like their emphasis on transparent pre-testing and repairability.

      Also, if I have Ben Stein’s math right, your self-heating 300Ah SFK at $1,645 — or $0.51 per usable watt hour — beats all the other LiFePO4 batteries on his list… except for the various Li Time models. But it also has what looks like comprehensive Bluetooth app access to the BMS.

      Well played, sir.

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