Direct swap of a caravan AGM battery for a lithium battery

[Hawkear]

Eagerly waiting to resume goldfield travel in our underused caravan.
Noticed that the existing AGM battery is on its last legs. Considering just swapping it out for a Lithium battery without changing anything else.
Would doing that cause any harm to the lithium battery?
I'd be quite happy to put up with an adequate performance even if less than optimal as we generally stay at powered caravan park sites.
The weight and longevity advantages of a Lithium battery seem compelling rather than spending on another AGM.
Any thoughts?

 

[Jaros]

Get the Lithium batt--just be careful keeping the charge up.

 

[PeterInSa]

Re Your Charger see below for additional info.

I think one of the important things with Lithium vehicle./van batteries is the Float Voltage , I have read this elsewhere as well as, from the article below

(A float is unnecessary, since li-ion batteries do not leak charge, but a floating voltage under 13.6 V is fine.)

So I would check your charger's Float Voltage as I have seem a Solar Regulator/AGM Battery at 14.0v on Float.

https://battlebornbatteries.com/charging-battleborn-lifepo4-batteries/
Note I am not a Lithium professional, like you, I am looking at going Lithium in our Caravan.

 

[Simmo]

The charging profile is different so you will need a DC /DC charger.
Get one with a solar input too.

 

[Nightjar]

AGM's , have served me faultlessly for decades, no change here.

 

[Kiwi01]

Eagerly waiting to resume goldfield travel in our underused caravan.
Noticed that the existing AGM battery is on its last legs. Considering just swapping it out for a Lithium battery without changing anything else.
Would doing that cause any harm to the lithium battery?
I'd be quite happy to put up with an adequate performance even if less than optimal as we generally stay at powered caravan park sites.
The weight and longevity advantages of a Lithium battery seem compelling rather than spending on another AGM.
Any thoughts?

You will need to change your battery charger over to one thats suitable for lithium. The agm charger will end up damageing your new lithium. If you have solar on the van make sure you have a good DC to DC regulator as well that can be set to lithium. Enerdrive have very good pdf's on there web site for how you should wire everything up. There are cheaper lithium products out there but I believe Enerdrive are one of the best, also with them they have people only a phone call away to help, you don't get that service from the cheaper ones.

 

[MadDoctor]

Eagerly waiting to resume goldfield travel in our underused caravan.
Noticed that the existing AGM battery is on its last legs. Considering just swapping it out for a Lithium battery without changing anything else.
Would doing that cause any harm to the lithium battery?
I'd be quite happy to put up with an adequate performance even if less than optimal as we generally stay at powered caravan park sites.
The weight and longevity advantages of a Lithium battery seem compelling rather than spending on another AGM.
Any thoughts?

Disclaimer; my knowledge is based on personal research when we upgraded to lithium 3 months ago. We tripled usable battery capacity and tripled solar input for a 25kg net gain.
There won't be any longevity advantage unless u set it up right, as mentioned by others above.
First thing u should do is work out how much usable capacity u are going to want. U may remember there's some other electric items you've only used in a c/park, but it'd be handy if u were free camping.
Next, look at the specs of the quality brands, like Mueller, Enerdrive, Custom, Powerpaul. Go through the specs and understand what they all mean, compare them to each other and what Ur needs will be. If the battery is tucked out of the way, how u monitor the battery is important too.
There is no such thing as a lithium battery that just be hotswapped or "dropped in" for Ur existing AGM battery. It is marketing hype, and all bs. A lithium battery's BMS doesn't have a DCDC charger built into it.
There is lots and lots of batteries out there, all diff specs. So now that u know how much capacity u need, and understand the specs, go shopping (we'll, look anyway).
Personally, I would steer clear of any orange branded batteries out of WA, other than that, I chose Powerpaul.
Setup:
* Watch Ur basics like adequate cabling.
* All charging equipment must have a lithium charging profile, otherwise Ur battery will not charge fully, and Ur wasting your money on capacity and the battery will not last. U won't have a warranty either.
* Yes, get a DCDC charger to suit the battery u want.
* If u have solar, u could get a DCDC charger with a regulator built in, or for an extra kilo or so, get a standalone Regulator and wire it up to add to Ur DCDC output.
*No-ones mentioned AC chargers. I assume if Ur in a CPark a lot u have an AC charger to top up Ur battery too? This also needs a lithium profile.

You can spend a fortune on the battery. It's the heart of Ur system. Depending on Ur budget, don't skimp too much. It's not an ad, but we went with a Powerpaul Australia Mercury 330A battery that was locally assembled, used the same cells as Enerdrive and was about half the price.

Goodluck

 

[MadDoctor]

Disclaimer; my knowledge is based on personal research when we upgraded to lithium 3 months ago. We tripled usable battery capacity and tripled solar input for a 25kg net gain.
There won't be any longevity advantage unless u set it up right, as mentioned by others above.
First thing u should do is work out how much usable capacity u are going to want. U may remember there's some other electric items you've only used in a c/park, but it'd be handy if u were free camping.
Next, look at the specs of the quality brands, like Mueller, Enerdrive, Custom, Powerpaul. Go through the specs and understand what they all mean, compare them to each other and what Ur needs will be. If the battery is tucked out of the way, how u monitor the battery is important too.
There is no such thing as a lithium battery that just be hotswapped or "dropped in" for Ur existing AGM battery. It is marketing hype, and all bs. A lithium battery's BMS doesn't have a DCDC charger built into it.
There is lots and lots of batteries out there, all diff specs. So now that u know how much capacity u need, and understand the specs, go shopping (we'll, look anyway).
Personally, I would steer clear of any orange branded batteries out of WA, other than that, I chose Powerpaul.
Setup:
* Watch Ur basics like adequate cabling.
* All charging equipment must have a lithium charging profile, otherwise Ur battery will not charge fully, and Ur wasting your money on capacity and the battery will not last. U won't have a warranty either.
* Yes, get a DCDC charger to suit the battery u want.
* If u have solar, u could get a DCDC charger with a regulator built in, or for an extra kilo or so, get a standalone Regulator and wire it up to add to Ur DCDC output.
*No-ones mentioned AC chargers. I assume if Ur in a CPark a lot u have an AC charger to top up Ur battery too? This also needs a lithium profile.

You can spend a fortune on the battery. It's the heart of Ur system. Depending on Ur budget, don't skimp too much. It's not an ad, but we went with a Powerpaul Australia Mercury 330A battery that was locally assembled, used the same cells as Enerdrive and was about half the price.

Goodluck

Another quality brand ... Victron. I think this might have been the brand that used the same cells as my Powerpaul one for half the price.