Lithium Battery Installation Video

Nov 6, 2006
9,885
Hunter 34 Mandeville Louisiana
Saw this today and thought it was a good article on lithium batteries to replace lead acids. Understand that these are very expensive and probably not really economically justifiable except for full time cruisers..
 
May 24, 2004
7,129
CC 30 South Florida
Would like to hear how those batteries are on reliability. I don't like to be among the first to try out new technology and surely not in an ocean going vessel. I think we got our first microwave oven about 10 years after they first came out. I would be concerned about the rate of false shutoffs and failures to reset. I agree the investment would need to be economically justifiable. When they fly a company representative from the UK to the Caribbean you know the cost of the job was up there.
 
May 17, 2004
5,032
Beneteau Oceanis 37 Havre de Grace
I enjoyed watching the video, but I think the setup they used has some of the pitfalls Maine Sail had talked about in the past. In particular, Brian mentioned how the batteries could disconnect themselves all at once, putting a surge on the bus from changing sources. It seems like Delos was still working on a way to prevent that. Maine Sail had recommended using batteries that communicate with charge sources to prevent those problems.

When they fly a company representative from the UK to the Caribbean you know the cost of the job was up there.
The Delos site explains the setup they used along with links to vendors and buying bundles. For European customers the site points directly to that company. The company may have sent out the rep to ensure Delos had a good experience to get their recommendation. The bundle seems to run about 9K.
 

Gunni

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Mar 16, 2010
5,937
Beneteau 411 Oceanis Annapolis
He is using his AGM starter battery and an echo charger as charger “fuse” to take excess load in case of LifePO battery shutdown.
 
May 24, 2004
7,129
CC 30 South Florida
The Delos site explains the setup they used along with links to vendors and buying bundles. For European customers the site points directly to that company. The company may have sent out the rep to ensure Delos had a good experience to get their recommendation. The bundle seems to run about 9K.

Yes, it figures they would not send a rep if you are installing wet cells at $900. My limited experience with smart lithium batteries has not been that good. When your new lawnmower fails to start after 4 uses and mailing a replacement battery is the manufacturers best solution it makes me doubt if their reliability is up to snuff. Had a chance to see the insides of a Tesla car battery and it seems like an array of hundreds of AA batteries. I was informed that it was normal that some cells would fail from time to time but that the whole battery would continue in service until it was determined it needed service. Their shop had the computer capabilities to determine which specific cells had gone bad and just replace those until the next required service. Like the technology but don't know if is ready to be implemented in boats.