LITHIUM Batteries! Things to Know Before Converting Your Sailboat

[@amandaw8226]

Hahaha! A mooring. Funny guy earned a chuckle.

[@maryjnorwood3962]

Nice move! Definitely in our future, but not yet. 😎❤️😎❤️😎

[@shiftyourgears]

You guys will love the switch! We have had a lithium (LIFEPO4) battery bank for about 4 years now and we will never go back. I've looked at this brand for other projects due to the low cost I'm excited to see how they work out for you.

[@Spoondrifters]

we are loving it! we'll be posting how it's going soon!

[@redbovine]

If I ever lived on a boat I believe my wife would need about 15 of those with a floating solar barge behind the boat.

[@Spoondrifters]

LOL

[@allynonderdonk7577]

A trick I've been using to charge various batteries off my solar and main lithium bank. You can buy $10 solar charge controllers for lead type batteries. Use the lithium as the charging source and then trickle charge 24/7 any lead acid batteries. You can also do other things with more expensive solar chargers. I've kept my starter battery topped up and good to go for 10 years using the lithium batteries as 24 hour a day sunshine.

[@TheCornucopiaProject-bd5jk]

Not a bad idea but overkill. Check them once a month and top them off.

[@allynonderdonk7577]

@@TheCornucopiaProject-bd5jk So a 10 dollar controller that has saved me buying three $150 dollar batteries isn't overkill. It keeps my battery virtually free of sulfation with a miniscule amount of power daily. Also when the starting battery is overworked or drained it automatically recharges.

[@rickytapper9779]

I have 8, 100Ah Redodo's for my Electric Yacht motor. (48V, 200Ah). I also have a house bank which is Redodo (12V, 200Ah) and I will add 3 more to give me 800Ah for my house batts. These things are great!

[@Spoondrifters]

great to hear! that's in our plans for this summer!

[@tartansailor]

Indeed converting to Lithium is a game changer. Cheers, Richard

[@davidplamondon1827]

I know a lot more about Lithuam batteries now. Thank you and keep those great shows rolling. 😊

[@Spoondrifters]

Thanks for watching

[@iainlyall6475]

@10:33 now that's a good bit of advice. you're the 1st i've heard suggest it and i've watched A LOT of boat upgrade/maintenance channels over the years. thanks.

[@Spoondrifters]

you're welcome

[@BulletproofPastor]

New cheer: Todd-DA!!!!

[@SailingOnward]

We all know it’s “Todd Ah”!!! Well done, Nice video and information!

[@Spoondrifters]

Thanks!

[@crystalzimmerman2042]

i put a conduction stove in my camper , love it, good move

[@Spoondrifters]

we're looking at what it will take to do that

[@japc4326]

I'm still not a fan of Lithium batteries on cruisers, finding a replacement if they go south in some back water location, but your simple explanation of the reasoning you used made sense. They are getting less expensive and more user friendly. Nice job! John

[@Spoondrifters]

That's a great idea!

[@danknox9986]

Nice install. Thanks for posting. I think those of us that have a diesel engine with a dumb alternator need to get a new alternator. The DC to DC is a budget fix but taking advantage of being able to power in your new batteries faster and more efficiently is a big plus and in the long run a money saver.

[@tartansailor]

I would agree with you if you use your engine a short while at a time, For me as a cruiser, I use my engine for many hours at a time. My DC -DC charger is set to limits the current to 20A. Lower current is good for the battery life, limits the heat and risk of fire. An alternator that produces a lot of current gets very hot and it needs to turn fast to cool down, that means your engine must rev fast as well, may be too fast for the situation. That can cause alternator breakdowns. So my opinion is that a cooler alternator is more reliable than a hot one. Cheers, Richard

[@Spoondrifters]

Thanks!

[@BulletproofPastor]

Everything you build needs to last forever.... until you need to change it. Good job Todd.

[@tombstone220]

If/when we meet up again, I’m hiring you for some projects my boat. I’ve been impressed over the course of y’all’s videos 😊 13:16

[@Spoondrifters]

Thanks!

[@Maddie-Girl]

lol I love your wee dog adorable ,,cheers great video

[@Spoondrifters]

Thanks!

[@meatdog]

I use lithium for my off grid living and the Li batteries are extremely heavy. I do not have enough room on my boat for all that I want or need. I'm still figuring out how I'm going to make my solar work. My battery compartment just fits 2 regular batteries. The weight of these you are talking about would save a great deal of weight so thanks for that info. Very helpful. I will look into Redodo and thanks for the link.

[@Spoondrifters]

hope it helps

[@davidwright6950]

I’m just doing the same, I see you put both positives together into a single fuse, how have you sized your fuse and did you upsize the wire gauge after the fuse? Good video and very useful

[@s.simsmamasboy]

Plan ahead ! ! Plus what configuration makes it easy keep cables same length and easy to disconnect and dont go cheap on connectors. DIELECTRIC GREASE is too cheap to not use it on EVERY connection and plug in every circuit. You've done a better than average installation but dont be fooled by size onconnectors. Go by weight. Here are a number of wayys to increase size..thickness .

[@sailingstpommedeterre4905]

Welcome to the world of Lithium batteries. If you create an Electrical Load Analysis (VERY easy to do), you will know exactly what you can (and cannot) power. I created my own ELA, and have been living on my own Solar power system for over 11-years (10-years on boat #1, and my present boat #2).

[@Spoondrifters]

Awesome, we'll look at doing that

[@DavidSmith-hc2xq]

I would like to know how you are charging your windless battery when you are sailing or a dock? Thanks David

[@Spoondrifters]

We use our housebank to run our windlass and it gets charged mostly from our solar panels and generator if the solar is bad. We are rarely at a dock.

[@ralphjansen9205]

Keep the old batteries for when you run aground .Then you hand them over oveboard on your halyard. You could almost roll your boat over. 😂😅

[@Spoondrifters]

LOL

[@davidleavitt1858]

You got a NEW hammer!!! When did this happen?

[@jackchamberlain5993]

video was too short, wanted to see you taking them out of the dinghy on the dock.

[@dangeroustoman]

You can never have to many batteries even lifepo4 ones. The more power you have you can go longer on those cloudy days.

[@Spoondrifters]

feeling it!

[@TheCornucopiaProject-bd5jk]

Fewer batteries is better. What side is your battery cable?

[@Spoondrifters]

we used 2/0

[@Rainmaker60LM]

you can not add new lithium to a bank that has already been in use so you need to do it ASAP if you are going to increase the size of the bank. Also, you can never have enough AH. We have a 24V Lithium bank that is 1200ah and I wish we had doubled it. Its surprising how much quickly they draw down with just basics running.

[@Rainmaker60LM]

@@TimAch-p2c We have 2 or 3 sea water cooled fridges depending on how many we are running but generally 2 are on, lights, hot water heater, computers and phone chargers, instruments, sometimes hair dryers and the inverter on its own has a draw. we also have dc:dc chargers for the main engine agm, generator agm and the bow thruster/windlass agm and electric winchhes. Our AC units run off the generator. my opinion is if you have the room you can never have too much battery capacity. We do not have solar so if we are at anchor or on a mooring and not running the generator then we have a constant loss. Im sure having solar is a big help in the overall consumption.

[@KeepItSimpleSailor]

If you can’t manage on 1200ah 😂😂🤣

[@Rainmaker60LM]

@ I’d like to be able to be on anchor for 4-5 days without running the generator. When you have 4 people on the boat using hair driers, microwave, coffee machine, computer/phone chargers, fridges, freezer, lights….its really not all that much power. Our 5000 watt inverter probably draws 50 amps a day just being on. So again with no solar yes I would like to have 2400ah

[@Spoondrifters]

Thanks for the suggestion

[@BrokePhilanthropist]

I had 200ah’s or 2 100ah battleborn batteries. It would run lots of stuff. I could run 3000 watts

[@BrokePhilanthropist]

Ran my AC for 4 hours at 1600 watts

[@Sailingengineer74]

Are they really drop in replacements for LA batteries utilizing the same chargers?? All lithium batteries do require internal cell balancing, there must be sufficient time for balancing. After finishing CC charge, a CV charge is to continue for an hour (""absorbtion step"") during this time the bms balancer is supposed to do its job. Also the CC charge current is supposed to taper off at the end. Do you have this charging profile? Read the Redodo manual; " if the battery wont give any power or charge - try charging with a lithium carge profile charger " 😂 thus allowing for the balancing to happen. The bms simply cut power to/from battery if cell imbalance.

[@Spoondrifters]

Because of the new system we installed when refitting our boat, we can drop in Lithium and just change the settings on our equipment. Some people will need newer equipment.

[@Stoic-of-Rome]

The chargers/Alt etc all need to be able to charge to the higher top floating voltage that lithium needs otherwise the lithiums will never get 100% charged.

[@Spoondrifters]

yep

[@jeffdege4786]

No matter how much additional battery capacity you add, you'll still want more than they can handle.

[@markleyg]

No.

[@BrokePhilanthropist]

Tin wires?

[@Spoondrifters]

Always

[@timevans8223]

Those batteries have no Bluetooth. Something I think is essential for a boat crossing oceans. They are fine for an RV where the worse can happen is the lights go out. On a boat, you need to know what is happening at cell level. Bluetooth is everything for me

[@Spoondrifters]

They do have ones with blue tooth if that's important to you, they are coming out with this size in blue tooth at the end of the year

[@timevans8223]

@Spoondrifters I built my own batteries. Grade A cells. JK bms with 2A active balancer. Bluetooth so I can see what is happening at cell level. All for less than your batteries

[@adamtedder1012]

If you got room for more. Get more. Im running a 1000ah lithium in a 21 ft boat. UNLIMITED POWER! (INSERT VILLAIN LAUGH)

[@Spoondrifters]

LOL, we are definetly looking to do that

[@jonathanwetherell3609]

I could not convert my house bank to Lithium, there was no house bank. I now have Lithium and all the parafenalia that goes with it. Except Solar, I might not even need that.

[@Spoondrifters]

might not if you're returning to a dock every day

[@jonathanwetherell3609]

@@Spoondrifters Currently most days, so the engine running keeps the Lithium topped up. Do you Americans spell it lithium or lithum?

[@timevans8223]

There is no point in equalising those batteries until you have them at over 3.5v per cell. The voltage of lifepo4 batteries is almost constant from 20% to 80% state of charge. Since most lithium is transported to the consumer at about 40% SOC, you will achieve nothing. Charge them both up in parallel and they will balance.

[@marlinpruett8343]

I found out that you can buy a boat it's been $50,000 on a boat then turn around and upgrade and spend another hundred thousand on it use it for four or five years and sell it for $40,000 what is wrong with this it's just me

[@patrickloring6914]

TAMMY!!! Todd is speaking a foreign language! Fix him!!!

[@Spoondrifters]

LOL