LiTime 100ah Mini 12v Lifepo4 - How I Done It -

[Dellmassive]

LiTime 100ah Mini 12v Lifepo4 - How I Done It -


"LiTime 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 Lithium Battery, Built-In 100A BMS, 1280Wh Energy" - for £299.99

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what its got:
over charge protection
over - discharge protection
over current protection
high temp protection

what its not got:
low temp charge protection
BT APP or SoC display (so you need to fit a separate shunt if you want a SoC gauge)

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lets take a look. . . . . . . .

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£299.99 --

Amazon.co.uk

LiTime 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 Lithium Battery, Built-In 100A BMS, 1280Wh En

LiTime 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 Lithium Battery is perfect for RV, Solar, Marine & Home Energy Backup. Maintenance-free, 4000+ Deep Cycles. Backup by the best customer support.

uk.litime.com

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+++++++

time to look at the LiTime MINI 100ah.

its well packaged and details the UN3480 for shipping.




whats different about this battery is the "MINI" bit, as in size. . .

Dimensions: L13*W6.77*H8.43 inches (L329*W172*H214 mm)

so its a bit smaller and thinner, but slightly taller.?


+++++++++++++++++++++++

lets see what the website says about it . . . . . .


【Grade A Lithium Battery & 10 Years Lifetime】 LiTime lithium iron batteries have exceptional quality since they are manufactured by Automotive Grade LiFePO4 Cells with higher energy density, more stable performance & greater power. Highest-level safety based on UL Test Reports for the cells inside the battery. It provides 4000+ cycles @100% DOD (6000 Cycles @80% DOD, 15000 Cycles @60% DOD) & a 10-year lifetime compared to 200~500 cycles & a 3-year lifetime in SLA/AGM battery.

【100% Top Protection】 LiTime LiFePO4 battery has built-in 100A BMS to protect it from overcharging, over-discharging, over-current, overheating and short circuits with excellent self-discharge rate, ensuring the LiFePO4 battery's safety level and optimize the 12V battery performance. Our battery is IP65 waterproof, setting you free from worrying to install indoors or outdoors.

【Capacity Expansion & Wide Applications】 LiTime 12V 100Ah battery supports up to 4 in series and 4 in parallel (Max 4S4P) to get more capacity (200Ah, 300Ah, 400Ah) and higher voltage (24V, 36V, Max.48V). Max connected in 16 batteries to build a 48V 400Ah battery system, with 20.48kWh energy, max. 20.48kW load power. Various combinations make it perfect for RV, solar, home storage, and off-grid application. Make a bold trial of your first DIY battery system.

【1/5*Lightweight & More Flexible Applications】 One LiTime 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 battery has a lightweight of 24.25lbs, only 1/5 of a 12V 200Ah lead acid battery (about 130lbs), but equivalent in energy, faster to be fully charged, which makes it easier to carry and more convenient to use. This product is your best choice for outdoor camping power and indoor easy installation. No more worries about overweight and limited capacity.

【Fast Delivery & Outstanding Service】 We are committed to providing you with satisfactory service. Fast delivery because the battery will be shipped from our local warehouses in BD and GBA. Professional technical support, humanized return policy & customer service as we provide easy-to-understand operation manuals & online services with a quick response within 24hrs. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us and we will do our best to support you.


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SPEC wise we have:

GENERAL​

Dimensions: L13*W6.77*H8.43 inches (L329*W172*H214 mm)
Battery Pack Case: ABS Plastic
Protection Class: IP65
Warranty: 5 years
UPC: 791541936056

CHARGE​

Charge Method: CC/CV
Charge Voltage: 14.4V±0.2V
Recommend Charge Current: 20A (0.2C)

BATTERY​

Cell: Prismatic LiFePO4 Battery
Nominal/Usable Capability: 100Ah
Nominal Voltage: 12.8V
Energy: 1280Wh
Cycle Life: ≥4000 times

BMS​

BMS Boar: 100A
Max. Continuous Charge/Discharge Current: 100A
Max. Discharge Current 5 Seconds: 280A
Max. Continuous Load Power: 1280W
Internal Impedance: ≤40mΩ

TEMPERATURE​

Charge Temperature: 32℉ ~ 122℉ (0℃ ~ 50℃)
Discharge Temperature: -4℉ ~ 140℉ (-20℃ ~ 60℃)
Storage Temperature: 14℉ ~ 122℉ (-10℃ ~ 50℃)

PACKAGE​

1* 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 Lithium Battery
1* user manual

..


lets take a look. . .


++++

what its got:
over charge protection
over - discharge protection
over current protection
high temp protection

what its not got:
low temp charge protection
BT APP or SoC display (so you need to fit a separate shunt if you want a SoC gauge)

++++

the bolts come in this little pocket at the top. . .



you get four bolts and two top caps. . .





the battery its self also comes with protective top caps to insulate the terminals - which is nice.






out the box the battery is resting at 13.09v . . . . so about 50% charged.




now the first thing we need to do is get it in a battery box. . . . .



but befoe that. . . .


lets take a look at the paperwork - which comes in a very nice A4 wallet folder thing - Nice touch LiTime.

there is a whole load od stuff in the folder, so lets go through it. . .



first off we have this A4 sheet of LiTime stickers.

they feature this Trendy, bearded, metro-sexual Hipster type bloke.. . .

the stickers promote various outdoories stuff. - not sure ill be sticking the on the van. but a nice touch all the same.



next up was a flyer detailing all the range. . .

they do the whole 12v / 24v leisure thing.

but also 48v / 51v Domestic Solar batteries as well.



there is a quick start - service guide.

that details some of the basics. .





they also show some Cert`s that they have . . .




The manual is interesting. . . . . . and well come back to that later..


++++


for now lest get it in the box. . .



we have a box with a Victron smart shunt,

seeing as this battery BMS has no BT or APP or screen etc - we need to use an external SHUNT to see whats going on,

Voltage , SoC, Temp, etc etc




the battery uses M8 terminals. . .

so we can quickly hook up a MIDI fuse block.





.


we have life . .


the Panel Volt meter reads 13.1v - which is the same as the Fluke meter, so thats all good.




.

right ok, . . .


ready to rumble.





this victron shunt is out of whack. . . and showing 100% Soc - which is not right.

but there is a setting in the menu for that . . . . either start @100% or @last value or @unknown.

ill leave it like that for now, as we can reset the shunt by fully charging the battery . . to get the real 100% SoC.






pic limit . . . .

 

[Dellmassive]

p2


Victron Monitoring . .

the shunt is off calibration atm -

so we need to fully charge the battery to get a cycle in. . . .








+++


ill get a set of 50A andersons made up and conected to the MIDI fuse block.


and well use that for the charge. .





.

 

[Dellmassive]

p3

Install guide. . . .

i mentioned the install guide was interesting. . . i has lots of nice details.

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they cover some nice information that you dont always see from manufacturers. . .


heres some snippits:

size: 260*133*226mm

charge voltage - 14.4v rec (14.2v - 14.6v)
charge current - 20A rec
MAX charge 100A
MAX discharge 100A / 1280W
PEAK discharge 250A - 5sec
4000+ cycles

temp range
Charge - 0c to 50c
discharge - -20c to +60c

long store @ 50% SoC

recharge every 3mnths.

V vs Soc - as wel have no APP, they offer this detail:
0% - 10-12v
25% - 13-13.5v
50% - 13.15-13.2v
75%- 13.3-13.33v
100% - >13.33

series linked - 4x max (48v)
parallel linked = 4x max (400ah)


lov voltage protection system - use charger with lifepo4 wake feature to slow charge.

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lets take a look. - its about 20 pages long.


.






.








.

 

[Dellmassive]

p4. charge + discharge.

 

[Dellmassive]

want more . . . . check out Will P.

 

[Dellmassive]

check out Pro Hobo. . .

.

 

[Dellmassive]

want more . . . . check out Lithium Solar.

.

 

[Dellmassive]

Time to get this charged . . .


right, so i need to add some Fused Anderson IN/OUT connectors.

ill uses those leads to connect to the chargers, inverters, MPPTs, etc etc

plus the box can be daisy chained with other boxes.




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some 8awg silicone flex cable, - https://amzn.to/3HL14Dq

SB50 Anderson connectors, - https://amzn.to/3umysNx

heat shrink - https://amzn.to/3Ul8ZPa

twist stripper - https://amzn.to/3SjoB30

and crimps - https://amzn.to/3SJggqT

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getting the bits together.




cut, crimped, heat shrinked . . . and pushed into the SB50 (the right way round as they have to be correct)




we are adding to the this portable battery box . .



all the NEGs go to this Busbar. . . that's connected to the shunt. - https://amzn.to/47ZVYOi




and the POS go to this MIDI FUSE block. - https://amzn.to/4boaCSk

each SB50 connector has its own blue 60A MIDI fuse.




so we end up with this. . .

a SB50 for IN and SB50 for OUT.



connecting up a Victron IP22 12v/30a/1op - charger to the box, we get the charge under way.





...


there is NO APP on the Li-Time battery. . .

so we need to use a separate SHUNT is we want to know what's going on.

here we see the APP for the charger . . . .

BULK @ 30A going in. . .




and here we see the Vic` shunt reading the 30A going into the battery. . .





...


we are assuming the battery is around 50% SoC for shipping,

so we can expect around 50Ah to go into the battery (50ah of the 100ah ) - lucky for us the Victron charger will log what power that battery takes.


from the install guide:

V vs Soc - as we have no APP, they offer this detail:
0% - 10-12v
25% - 13-13.5v
50% - 13.15-13.2v
75%- 13.3-13.33v
100% - >13.33


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TBC . . . now charging.

 

[Dellmassive]

following day - we are fully charged. . .






the Victron charger is in Storage mode. . .





checking the SHUNT,

we now see 13.5v Float and 100% Soc has been set.




...


checking the charger APP, we can see Storage mode.





with the history showing . . .


47.5ah charged over 1h35m in Bulk mode. ( at which point i disconnected the battery as i has to go out)






but then on my return - i reconected it.

so the charge continued. . . 2m36s Bulk of 1.3ah,

then 2h0m of 27.9ah ABS


then 12h21 storage @ 0.3ah



...




thats the full charge. . . sorted.


adding up the numbers . . . . . its taken a charge of - 47.5ah & 27.9ah = 75.4ah

thats a fair chunk 75ah into a 100ah battery - so we can assume the battery was 25% SoC to start with.?



++++++++++++

this IMHO is one of the problems with BASIC batteries with No APP. . . you have no idea what state they are in.

no much good on a friday when heading out for the weekend - to find out sat morning the battery runs flat?

one option is to just keep it charged all the time?

or spend extra cash on a stand alone SHUNT to keep an eye on things?


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[Dellmassive]

The FULL Discharge . . .

we have now discharged this Litime 100ah battery into the Clayton LPSII,




we tracked the current and voltage all the way daow. . .


around 99% DoD. . . we was still going.. used 99ah so far.




the victron shunt bottomed out to 0% at -92.6ah,

but the battery carried on charging. . .


after hours of pulling 25A to charge the clayton, the voltage was starting to drop, . . . we was down to 11.66v at this point,

which was making the current start to rise,. . . @ 30.69A now.




but showing -97.1ah drawn so far.


at -99ah we stopped the LPSII charge, ( as the 30ah draw was causing volt drop and the LPSII shut off due to a low voltage warning)

and moved over to a smaller charge . . a couple of USB chargers and a DC electronic load tester.





a few mins later we hit the mark - -100Ah, so full capacity !!

drawing under 2A we had the voltage stable at 11.59v.

..



then it happened. . . . .

the BMS cut off the power and we lost the shunt monitor. - was just under the 11.5v mark.






......


+++


happy days then,

full 100ah capacity tested good.

low voltage protection tested good.


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now we just need a charger to wake the battery back up.

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this time we have a NOCO 15A charger,





recharging the battery @ around 15A,

we are back up to 16% SoC already.







....

 

[roadtripper]

this IMHO is one of the problems with BASIC batteries with No APP. . . you have no idea what state they are in.

no much good on a friday when heading out for the weekend - to find out sat morning the battery runs flat?

one option is to just keep it charged all the time?

or spend extra cash on a stand alone SHUNT to keep an eye on things?

That's not entirely true. While a good BMS will do capacity logging you can roughly estimate SoC the same was you can with lead acid. They're not going to be under load in this sort of scenario.

Holding lithium at full charge all the time isn't good for their lifetime, even with a good charger with storage profiles. Lifetime wise you're far better storing them "as is" after an event (so long as they have 30-40% charge) and then recharging to full just before you need the capacity.

Unless your use case is you need them ready to grab and go just charge them before you need them.

I do think the information is useful, but that's more for estimating likely runtime at the current discharge rate as, presumably, if you are drawing on the battery you are in a situation where recharging might not be possible.

 

[Dellmassive]

Fair comment. but it don't work that way in real life AFAIK.

your battery is fitted under the seat or in the rear cupboard. . . . . (assuming standard T6 camper build)

your dc-dc charger is hardwired in, . . so the battery will, most of the time be fully charged. as you drive about ready for a weekends camping.

same with solar - panel on roof, suns out, some charge going into battery - all great.

most people are blissfully unconcerned with there leisure setup - if it works, that's all they care about.

+++

You arrive at Busfest Friday morning.. . . setup camp.

run the LED fairy lights in the evening, got the Fridge cooling the beers. maybe run the heater during the night for the wife.

following morning. . . kettle, hairdryer etc etc.

then midway through the day everything shuts off because the battery is flat. (because you had a cheaper battery with no BMS APP and didn't fit a separate shunt to see what the battery was doing)

people just want to see a fuel gauge style "State of charge" - 0-100% everybody knows what that means.

battery showing 20% - then you know you have to run the engine to put some charge back in.

no battery meter, either BMS or Shunt will leave you in the dark. ( possibly quite literally)


trying to run you leisure battery down to 50% then disconnecting it till the day before your next campout isn't practical.


+++


i do agree that it may be possible to guestimate a lifepo4 SoC from unloaded voltage readings, . . . but every battery is different, so you will have to do your homework before hand to get your volts/verses SoC readings and make a note of them for your specific setup.

And unloaded battery readings is not practical - in the example at Busfest, you are running the fridges, the kids tablets and USB chargers etc etc etc . "Hold one everyone i have to switch everything off for 5 mins to get a unloaded voltage reading to see what the SoC might be."


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No, im going to respectfully disagree with you . . and stick with my original comments.

That you need a SoC meter on your battery setup,

either the battery BMS APP or a Shunt.

++++

Clayton battery meter - very usefull.




+++

here is the Li-Time - no APP or meter . . .

so had to fit my own separate APP to meter out the capacity of the battery . .


in this case i metered out 100ah. to 0% SoC, all very handy info.






...


this battery voltage gauge on the Battery box was useless for the capacity test. . .






....





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Now having said all of that. . . . .

i do exactly as you suggest with all my portable battery boxes. . . ( not the fitted van batterys)

all my Ecoflows, Deltas, @Dellmassive battery boxes etc etc . .

i make sure they are all around 50% mark after I've used them, as i have no idea when they will be used next.

so all these are approx. 50% Soc.

but all have SoC meters so i know exactly where they are.



#GettingReadyForTheZombiApocalypse









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[roadtripper]

My point was to your battery boxes, as that was how you were testing, so we perhaps don't disagree too much.

I'd really like a DC-DC/MPPT that could charge to 80% SoC (or best estimate) as for most people that would keep the battery full enough day-to-day for unplanned things but you could enable full charging when actively going off grid.

I've been doing this with my phones for a long while and can normally get 4 years out of a battery even with daily charging. It's much easier now it's part of the core build on my Xperia, it just does it all the time and I toggle the notification on the days I'm traveling a lot and need full charge.

An opportunity there for Victron perhaps in an all Victron setup. Simple fuel guage display with a "max charging" button for when you need it perhaps. Otherwise folks most expensive and difficult to change battery is the one that gets the worst conditions, and that's just odd as the technology matures.