I tried to DESTROY the new LiTime Trolling Motor battery (what I found may surprise you)

[@TonvanderReijken]

Well done Ross, great setup and demo of the capacities of Li-Time LiFePO4 batteries. I'm using them as well and got great support from their Germany based support department. Great value for the money especially around Black Friday.

[@rosslukeman]

Hi Ton, thanks for tuning in, and good to hear you enjoyed the video! Awesome to hear you went with these batteries and good to know you tried the support team out. I thought about contacting them with a random question so I could report on their response, but did not end up taking the time for that. Thanks for sharing your experience around their support quality. As far as the pricing, yes, they are definitely a great value. Thanks again for tuning in and leaving your thoughts!

[@herkko61]

I really appreciate how much time you use to make your videos plus your articulation is great, English is not my native language but I understand everything. Thank you!

[@rosslukeman]

Hey thanks for tuning in again! I appreciate the kind words. This was my first battery test so this was my best guess of a "torture station" to test out what a battery can do. Great to hear I am coming through clearly. Thanks for stopping by and for your comments!

[@paulkroeker8038]

Thanks Ross, LiTime looks good and is reasonably priced even here in Canada. I’ll consider these for my upcoming project.

[@trkrieger1478]

Awesome set up. I've been looking at these batteries for my boat and you definitely sold it there

[@anglersnw]

Awesome tests - I just bought two of these batteries for my trolling motor and am excited to test them out. Thanks for your hard work

[@rosslukeman]

Thanks for stopping in, and I'm glad you enjoyed the battery tests! Great to hear you got some of these batteries, they seem pretty solid. Best of luck out there and feel free to report back what you think once they're installed.

[@jamelcampbell4984]

Thank you, I had just received my 3 100ah lifepo4 batteries group 31 type from LiTime, good to know I made a good choice.

[@rosslukeman]

Awesome, I'm glad that helped you feel more confident about these batteries! They seem to be pretty solid. Thanks for tuning in-

[@schoocg]

Very nice demonstration and agree Li Time currently price , performance and internal build quality is better than most twice their costs. Seeing way too many hyped up brands BMS failing to do what they should or flat getting fried.

[@mannyfragoza9652]

very professional testing. I like the Li Time battery. The Marine model seems to be quite large compared to the most batteries i seen reviewed.BTW thank you for the info on the 20 amp standard battery charging for Lithium batteries. I was thinking on buying a Victron 25 or 30 amp charger. I may just stick to the 20 Amp.

[@qhew]

you are so easy to follow! love your board setup. as a new battery it meets it’s specs. wondering if it will still meet specs, esp capacity, after a few hundred cycles (say 10% of it’s 3000 cycle life) in normal use. (i’ve seen reviews of cheaper li cordless garden tools & there are many user reports of batteries failing early & not holding charge. of course, such batteries may have much poorer management systems which could contribute to early failure.)

[@rosslukeman]

Hey there, thanks for the kind words! I'm glad you're digging my demo board. I think you bring up a good point in that a lot of these batteries are using cells from a few key manufacturers, but the BMS varies from company to company. They do have a 5-year warranty and 4000 cycle life at 100% Depth of Discharge. We may have to wait a few years to see how they do. Overall I thought it was really solid, but time will tell.

[@jaschembra]

Great video! We bought 2 of these batteries for our RV - haven't installed them yet - we were charging them with a 20amp charger to get them charged to connect them in parallel. The charger stopped at 65ah and would not turn back on. We sent the charger back to AMZ. Bought a Victron 15 amp charger and the battery won't take any charge. We are measuring 12.6 volts on each battery. LiTime has told us it is due to the overcharge protection and to put a small charge (30W) on the battery and discharge for 5 min., after 30 min the battery should return to full charge and reflect 13.33V and above. We don't have an inverter - my question - if we put them into our RV and run the slides, 12 v lights, etc. and the battery depletes (we have a shunt/monitor), do you think we could then plug in our shore power to restore the charge on the battery? Our charge controller (Prog Dyn) doesn't fully charge lithium, but we have the pendant to boost the charge. I thought of not using the pendant first, to see if we get at least to 85% charge. Sorry for this lengthy comment. :) You're good at what you do!

[@LiveAboveTheClouds]

Very nice detailed testing. Appreciate you taking the time and effort! Just subscribed!

[@BarkyWalrus]

My TM is completing its charge before the end of my multiplus’s minimum 1hr absorption time. The BMS seems to cycle on and off and present a lower voltage and the multiplus doesn’t know how to handle resulting in voltage spikes from 13-15.5v or higher. I lowered the absorption voltage and that helped a bit, but it still an issue with a shallow discharge of the battery or a large load that tricks the multiplus back into bulk.

[@Jeffrey-s6z]

I have the same issue while using the recommended LT charger. Like you mention this is an over voltage protection from the BMS. Once I place a load on the battery the resting voltage came back to normal for a charged battery. My last charge I stopped early to prevent the cycling. I don't know if doing a partial charge will be harmful to the battery long term. Safety features can be annoying, but I hope they continue to improve this charging issue.

[@BarkyWalrus]

@@Jeffrey-s6z I've had a few back and forth messages with LiTime about it. They offered to return my TM batteries. I purchase the LiTime 100ah Max. When they reach a full charge event the BMS is not reporting a voltage of 12.8v like the TMs and the Multiplus seems to be much happier. I still encountered the BMS cutting off and a small voltage spike every few minutes. I turned down my charge current below their recommended .2c charge rate and that seemed to stop the issue. I hope with a few cycles I will be able to increase this until I find where the happiest charge rate is.

[@JamesWhite-tg4kw]

So what did you guys figure out do you just charge it up to say 90% or 95%

[@BarkyWalrus]

@@JamesWhite-tg4kw LiTime offered to take my TMs back. I sent them back and I purchased the 100ah Max. I think I ran across other people having the same issue on the 230ah low temp protection. I wonder if the way the BMS behaves is a feature of all of the low temp charge protection BMSs on their batteries. The Max do not have LT protection. At a full charge event they are reporting a full charge voltage and not reporting 12.8v. I was able to get my TMs more stable by reducing charge current and lowering the absorption voltage to 13.8. 13.8v is below the voltage the batteries need to balance and are not 100% charged, but damn close. Ultimately for me, the main issue for charging is using my multiplus inverter. My solar charge controller has better control over absorption and I don't overcharge the batteries. I think TMs work best as a trolling motor battery where you just fully charge and slap in the boat. Trying to use them as a RV house battery that will be shallow discharged, charged and then floating was not going to work for me.

[@kevindennis1177]

Great video Ross. Question: I purchased a LiTime 100Ah battery a few months ago. Does not have the low temp protection. If I were to buy another with the low temp protection, could I put these in parallel since they aren't exactly the same?

[@rosslukeman]

Hey Kevin, thanks for tuning in. In my estimation I would go for it. Or you could set up low-temp shutdown in your chargers, and use the regular batteries. Whether the batteries do the shutdown, or the chargers, either one will suffice.

[@Kenta59]

Low temp protection, it’s always a small sensor on top or on one side of the battery but if you have your charger connected and doesn’t pull any powers from the battery the cells will still be frozen when the surrounding temperature has heated the battery enough and the sensor thinks it’s warm enough The sensors should be mounted between the cells to get this right. What do you think? If you don’t pull any power the cells won’t heat up enough before the sensor allows the battery to charge or am I missing something?

[@Rhoadskill]

Good info. Thanks for sharing.

[@rosslukeman]

Good to hear you got something out of it! Thanks for tuning in-

[@betterl8thannvr]

There is an undocumented "feature" of this battery that causes the overcharge protection to trigger when it hits 100% charge instead of letting the charger detect that charging should stop. The problem is their overcharge protection causes the voltage to drop by .5-7v, which is enough to make a charger intended for battery backup/maintenance think that the battery needs to be topped off and try to charge it while it is in protection, which basically results in the battery never coming out of overcharge protection and never getting topped off. For use in e.g. a van this probably isn't an issue, because partially draining the battery resets the protection but I use it as a backup to grid connected power, and I had to return it because of that "feature" ensuring that it was never able to take a charge.

[@twiki1963]

If you’re using a trickle charger, would turning that mode off (or not using a trickle charger) solve that problem?

[@frederick-x4g]

i have a simple question can i charge this type of battery in a regular outlet at my house

[@tshirley05015]

I wonder if it would provide enough amps to jumpstart an automobile? Great Video!!

[@rosslukeman]

My rough guess would be yes, especially with that surge capability. Thanks for tuning in!

[@stevecarlisle3323]

The low temp shutdown costs a fair amount more than without, 30 to 40CDN. More of the solar chargers with good reviews have a low temp probe for batteries, so depending on your application, you may not need the low temp shutdown

[@rosslukeman]

You make a good point, a lot of chargers have their own low-temp shutdown. Although some of them say in the programming, if the battery has it, don't turn it on for the charger. Thanks for bringing this up!

[@NMLongshot]

I had a pair of those I tried to parallel. The BMS sleep mode is a problem if you try to parallel them. The ones I had would not work well in parallel; only one would "wake up" and the other would not turn on until the voltage of the first battery dropped. I would not use these batteries in parallel. I suspect they are fine in series.

[@RobinsonMastering]

Did LiTime respond with a solution to the parallel sleep mode issue?

[@NMLongshot]

@@RobinsonMastering they did not. However, they allowed me to return my batteries and get a refund.

[@randyjones1311]

So I bought this battery last week but had no lithium charger so I purchased a noco 10 battery charger with the lithium charger built. Contacted litime about this charger he said it should be fine but would take longer to charger. What is your opinion.

[@randyjones1311]

Same battery your testing.

[@rosslukeman]

Hi Randy, thanks for tuning in. The Noco is fine, it's just 10 amps, so will recharge at 10Ah per hour. So it would take 10 hours to charge this battery from empty. Hope that helps!

[@ZiggZagg11]

I was wondering about how the cold charge would reset after it warmed up... I have a 230+ with cold charge protection that I bought during the black friday sale and currently have it installed on my rv with solar charging installed... I know (I am in the desert winter camping) it is going to get cold enough soon and was a little unsure how it is going to work... If I was going to have to manually reset it or something... I am assuming that it works the same as your 100amp battery here... 😊😊😊

[@rosslukeman]

Good deal, yes I would assume it will come back online just like this one did. Perhaps your charging sources will keep it warm enough that you don't have to find out about the reset thing! Have fun in the desert, check out Sonoran Desert National Monument if you're out that way. Good times...

[@jab376]

Great explanation.

[@rosslukeman]

Thanks, glad you got something out of it!

[@covecarpentry]

howd you get a grey screen on your victron app?

[@covecarpentry]

figured it out, cool

[@rosslukeman]

Glad you got it! Thanks for tuning in- *For anyone else reading you tap three fingers on the iPhone to do zoom mode.

[@atburke6258]

The BMS was obviously modified to allow the 5 sec overload. But... are the cells any different? What would be the change to the 4 power cells that would allow the overload to be without harm to them> Is LiTime just allowing the customer to abuse the battery for marketing purposes even though it will shorten the battery life? By the time the abuse would be noticeable the battery might be several years old. Then the customer has to prove the failure was from over advertising and not his fault? Just asking... A T Burke

[@rosslukeman]

Well it has a 5-year warranty, so if it breaks before then, supposedly it's on them to replace. I don't think the 5 second overload is going to get things very hot. It's supposed to let you surge your trolling motor for a short duration without the battery cutting off. I would think that longer durations / heat buildup would kill the battery. But for 5 seconds, it seems like not a huge deal to me.

[@waltdorman1100]

So you're not using this battery if you're ice fishing lol 👍

[@JamesWhite-tg4kw]

That's what I was wondering. I just took it that it wouldn't charge up at 32°

[@georgewashington7444]

Lithium Phosphate batteries can be used down to -4*F but cannot be charged below 32*F Some batteries have built in warmers. Putting batteries in an insulated container can possibly allow charging below freezing due to BMS creating a bit of heat. It is best though to have a cold temp shutoff if batteries are unmonitored outside.

[@vet137]

Good video!

[@rosslukeman]

Thank you!

[@RPSTiger]

Other than saving the energy into the other battery, I don’t understand why you didn’t just use the stoves for the entire test as they have the ability to be variable loads…….

[@rosslukeman]

Because the stoves are not variable. They are either on or off, 1000 watts or nothing. I tested that, and they are pretty cheap $15 stoves. So the dial only dictates how often they turn on, at full power.

[@RPSTiger]

@@rosslukeman Yeah I get it... I sure wouldnt want one of those for a stove then..... I like my little space heater 250W,500W,750W,1500W Works great on the lower settings with my 2000VA Victron and doesnt put such hard surges on the equipment.

[@tjsmith3060]

I'm thinking the trolling motor battery with the high surge capacity would work better in golf carts.

[@josepmorancho1477]

As always a very interesting and advance testing video. I have a doubt. How does the multiplus and the batery with internal bms interact to limit charge/discharge current as i do not see a Cerbo control center?

[@rosslukeman]

Thanks Jose! Charge was done by programming the MultiPlus charge settings. Up to 120 amps on this model, but reducible in the programming. The Cerbo can't control that, it's the MultiPlus internal programming. As far as discharge, that depends on the loads you put on the MultiPlus, which is why I had to make up a scenario of 1 stove + 1 charger set at reduced power, to get it in the discharge range I was looking for. Great question, hope that helps. Thanks for stopping in!

[@josepmorancho1477]

@@rosslukemanThanks Ross but i am a little bit confuse. I understand that in standard cases it is BMS who tells to multiplus the right current charge based in the battery charge status and conditions (temp, cell voltage balance, etc) and in discharge mode the max current discharge allowed. However, as in the video case the battery bms and the multiplus are not connected, you need to manage the charge current by programming multiplus. Am I right?

[@dan32one44]

No one is testing these batteries while charging on solar to 💯 percent to see if the bms turns off my battery keeps turning off while I leave it connected to charger controller none of my other batteries do that..hmm I returned it.

[@rosslukeman]

Thanks for sharing your experience Dan! I will look into it...

[@miguelsalami]

It's pronounced (LeeTime) not Lie Time.

[@rosslukeman]

I don't know man, I just don't know on the pronunciation. I think they should have left it Ampere Time, or maybe asked a native English speaker. Nice batteries though.

[@adrianwhite277]

Li is for lithium so I guess you can say it however you want

[@miguelsalami]

@@adrianwhite277 The Company would like their batteries pronounced Lee not Lie Time ie (They don't Lie)

[@TheBeagledogxxx]

I have two of these in my bass boat. Unreal power

[@rosslukeman]

Thanks for sharing your experience with these batteries!