I've been preparing to swap out my old house bank with LifePo4 and am pretty comfortable that I'm about ready to make the switch. I have a couple of usage questions though that I want to understand before I move forwards:
1) Float
I've come to understand that LifePo4 does not need float. BattleBorn says you can float them at 13.6V or below. My charger can be set to 2-stage (i.e., remove the float stage completely). So I can choose between 'no float' or 'low float (13.6-)'. Given that choice are there advantages to using a low-float charging profile? Does leaving the charger on float at the appropriate level have the advantage of basically supplying power if there is any draw while not actually harming the battery as the float voltage is so low? What do you recommend, no float or low float?
1b) With 'no float', if the battery had a draw on it and got down to a certain level, I assume that a typical 'smart charger' would kick back on at some point and bring it back up. Seems like an obvious 'yes' on this one. True?
2) Full Charge
When out on the boat and there will be constant discharge (refrigerator, etc), I clearly want to charge the batteries to 'full' (they are being 'used', not 'stored'). On the other hand, I've read that LifePo4 should not be 'stored' at 100 percent charge. Historically, I come back from a trip, flip the charger on and leave. Obviously, I don't want to hang around waiting until the batteries get to 80 percent and shut the charger off before I go. So, float charge or not, do I really need to make sure the batteries don't get to full charge before I leave for a couple of days or a couple of weeks? I'd be happy to do that prior to winter layup when they are being stored for months, but not each time I use the boat.
Thanks!
1) Float
I've come to understand that LifePo4 does not need float. BattleBorn says you can float them at 13.6V or below. My charger can be set to 2-stage (i.e., remove the float stage completely). So I can choose between 'no float' or 'low float (13.6-)'. Given that choice are there advantages to using a low-float charging profile? Does leaving the charger on float at the appropriate level have the advantage of basically supplying power if there is any draw while not actually harming the battery as the float voltage is so low? What do you recommend, no float or low float?
1b) With 'no float', if the battery had a draw on it and got down to a certain level, I assume that a typical 'smart charger' would kick back on at some point and bring it back up. Seems like an obvious 'yes' on this one. True?
2) Full Charge
When out on the boat and there will be constant discharge (refrigerator, etc), I clearly want to charge the batteries to 'full' (they are being 'used', not 'stored'). On the other hand, I've read that LifePo4 should not be 'stored' at 100 percent charge. Historically, I come back from a trip, flip the charger on and leave. Obviously, I don't want to hang around waiting until the batteries get to 80 percent and shut the charger off before I go. So, float charge or not, do I really need to make sure the batteries don't get to full charge before I leave for a couple of days or a couple of weeks? I'd be happy to do that prior to winter layup when they are being stored for months, but not each time I use the boat.
Thanks!