I have read that the older RV Converters that do not detect lithium batteries will only charge LiFePO4 batteries to 80% of full charge. That being said if you only charge your LiFePO4 to 80% over the life of your batteries you will get more charging cycles. Question: Is it worth upgrading my WFCO converter?
RV Lithium Converter Upgrade
- Thread starter 2wincam
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You need one good charging source to charge the batteries the way they want/need to be charged. - usually either a good solar array or a good lithium charger. In my MotorHome I put in a Victron Multiplus inverter/charger. That was it does both charging and gives me the inverter power I need.
If you always incompletely charge the lithium batteries the BMS never gets a chance to balance the cells. Then one cell will drift low and one cell drifts high. On charging the high cell will trigger the bms to cutoff because it gets too high, and the low cell will trigger low voltage disconnect when using because it is too low. Your battery will not have the capacity you paid for and I have read stories here where it got really bad and was hard to fix. Just make sure you have at least one source that charges it to full.
If you always incompletely charge the lithium batteries the BMS never gets a chance to balance the cells. Then one cell will drift low and one cell drifts high. On charging the high cell will trigger the bms to cutoff because it gets too high, and the low cell will trigger low voltage disconnect when using because it is too low. Your battery will not have the capacity you paid for and I have read stories here where it got really bad and was hard to fix. Just make sure you have at least one source that charges it to full.
chrisski
Solar Boondocker
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- Aug 14, 2020
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I would think that's just the opposite since lead voltage charge is higher than lithium voltage charge. Charging to lead specs could overvoltage and overcharge your lithium's.
It does depend on the inverter. A multistate charger that has an absorption or float could do what I mention above, but there are quite a few factory RV chargers that charge to a constant voltage 13.6 volts regardless of the state of charge, which is closer to 90%.
My opinion is I got a lithium charger and the rare time I use my charger, it is set to 14 volts, or around 95%. I only turn this charger on after several cloudy days, otherwise the sun recharges the batteries. In two years, I've only turned it on twice to test it.
If I'd kept the constant voltage charger that came with the RV, I'd have been fine.
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