Maine Sail you are killing us! We read your reports on how amazingly your 400amp bank is working and that after a bunch of full hi-amp cycles it is stronger than when you first built it and then tell us that we mere mortal sailors can't have one!
You can certainly have them, no one is holding you back.
I however believe in safety, and I care about your wallet. I'm also the guy getting the emails from folks have ruined thousands of dollars in batteries because they essentially
read what they wanted to hear eg; "drop-ins are great" or followed some
fan-boy advice, "you don't need a BMS", "go ahead and float its fine" etc.. For far too many LFP experimenters it has stung them in the arse in a huge way.
While I am a huge proponent of LFP house banks,
done correctly & safely, I will not mislead anyone on what LFP is and how to do it safely for both your wallet and vessel. The absolute biggest hurdle for most LFP converts is in
losing the lead acid mentality. I do believe that one day a drop-in battery can work, but in order to do that safely and get your money's worth, it must be able to communicate externally and the system design, implementation & safety parameters need to be done correctly. The closest we have to a "drop-in" today, that is what I consider a
legitimate marine LFP system is the
OPE-Li3 system
If you take the time to study it, and implement it correctly, you can have a good system. If you're considering today's non-communicable LFP "drop-ins" I would suggest you've simply not studied or read enough to implement a safe LFP house bank system that you will get your money back out of..
Unfortunately most boat owners don't, won't or refuse to accept the costs to do it correctly, hence why I, and others, have stopped any long distance LFP consulting. Once the ABYC standard is out I may go back to custom built packs but until then I won't and I will let Mastervolt, Victron or OPE Li3 take that liability..
I do have a lot of my consulting work out there, and it is working fine, but most of those builds were by very competent EE's, or guys like Stan Honey, who had a very good idea of what they were getting into.
There is a reason so few of us in the field are left doing consulting or design work as well as a real slimming of cell availability and BMS manufacturers who make a BMS suitable for a marine application. I know Dimitri of CPA / House Power BMS stopped selling his BMS for similar reasons I stopped long distance consults, folks trying to cut corners. Heck Even one of the best in the industry bowed out of the "retail" marine LFP business last year, Genasun. Alex is still doing Li work only now for the Government where the design parameters are followed to a T...
I am not trying to stop anyone from going LFP I just prefer to see them get their moneys worth not get stuck with some poorly designed product for the marine market..