Lithium Pros Battery Review:
http://www.nsxprime.com/forum/showthread.php/188095-Lithium-Pros-Battery-with-BMS?p=1840310#post1840310
http://www.nsxprime.com/forum/showthread.php/188095-Lithium-Pros-Battery-with-BMS?p=1840310#post1840310
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Thought I should update this thread for other considering Lithium batteries:
Within the past month I have bought and sold my EarthX 36-series battery. Why? Well, these cheaper ($500 and under) lithium batteries just aren't designed to work in car environments. Failure rate is high in this environment for a few reasons:
1) They are not designed for high charge current. The sudden rush of current to the battery after cranking can be 100+amps from our alternator. I should have checked before ordering my EarthX, but these small batteries are only designed for a MAXIMUM charge current of ~20Amps. Look on the sides of the batteries. I should have noticed before I bought the $350 EarthX, but I didn't until I pulled it out of the package! I gave their technical support a call to see if they would suggest use in my car and they wouldn't. EarthX said they are working on a new battery between their 36 and 48 that should work OK in cars, but they recommend the $700 48 series in the meantime. The only batteries to support high charge currents are the Lithium Pros and other $500+ batteries.
Will the small ones work with the high currents? Sure, but they degrade the cells performance and won't last long. Seems a lot of folks on here have already witnessed that.
2) They are not designed for high sustained discharge current. Most state don't crank an engine over for more than 5 seconds without letting the battery rest and cool down. Google LiFe thermal runaway for awesome pictures if you don't let your cells cool down. Again, the good $800+ batteries (Lithium Pros) have thermistors that measure the temp and use MOSFETs to disconnect the battery bus. Of course, this creates another failure point in your electronics, but it is better than your battery catching on fire.
Even if your cells don't melt, sustained high discharge currents will degrade cell performance and lifetime.
Read all of the warranties from the "cheapie" lithium battery manufacturers (shorai, antigravity, ballistic, etc). They'll only replace your battery once if it fails within the short, pro-rated warranty period. After that, you're on your own.
Otherwise, I would love to have one in my car. I just can't justify spending $900 though for a "good" one. Price is continually dropping , so someday I'll get one. In the meantime with my cold climate, I just bought an Odyssey PC950/ER30 to replace my old PC680. Only 20 pounds and proven reliability....
For all of you running the little lithium iron batteries... good luck!
My $0.02.
Dave
Zoom I don't think there is any significant current draw on the battery when the car is running. That's on the alternator not on the battery. You can start the engine and remove the battery completely and the engine runs fine. There's also a voltage regulator that keeps tabs on all this draw and recharge. A car with a CTSC uses a prelude alternator that supplies significantly less current. It still runs just fine. Cars with massive competitive stereos use higher current alternators.... They too run fine. I believe we are talking about capacity and supply capability with the larger alternators not a situation where current is just forced into components willy nilly. As things need more power they draw more power... Yay home you can supply a small 12V DC device with and remove its wall wart power supply and replace it with one 10X its size. It won't matter. It's just still going to draw what it needs. The larger supply simply ensures that it does not run out of supply capability. I believe this applies in the car too. Supply capability can be increased, and I believe that should actually help save the battery. The battery as far as I known has two jobs in the car: 1. Start the car. 2. It's accessed temporarily when the alternator is tapped out and can no longer meet demand alone. If the alternator can supply more current, the battery is kept charged and is tapped less often. Someone with more knowledge of things can perhaps correct what I'm
Saying but from all I know this is how it works.
Well, it's not true that no one ever reads your posts. I read them and enjoy them (most of the time, anyway). You've provided a good service to all of us, through your posts as well as your parts sales. I hope you reconsider and continue to post here.in conclusion I will just forget about this thread since I have never had battery issues living in FL. carry on
no-one ever reads my posts anymore anyway so im barking up a tree, another reason I don't post much anymore, stopped selling my NSX parts, cuz it gets old, maybe im getting old and just cant take "who cares " problems anymore
I had an Interstate brand battery in my NSX I drive daily for 6 years now never once dead. I don't see why you guys have problems with your batteries maybe because I am in FL where the temp is almost the same all year long.
now my wifes 08 TL typeS has gone thru 6 batterys in the same amount of time and those were all Acura branded batteries. one of the acura batteries actually blew a hole on one of the terminal posts I stopped using acuras brand and swapped to a Walmart unknown brand last week because it was 3AM nothing else was open.
As for saving a few lbs on a battery really? Will those 3 lbs give you that little extra edge you need while racing the civic next to you? or is your mpg going to go up by 1 mile?
in conclusion I will just forget about this thread since I have never had battery issues living in FL. carry on
no-one ever reads my posts anymore anyway so im barking up a tree, another reason I don't post much anymore, stopped selling my NSX parts, cuz it gets old, maybe im getting old and just cant take "who cares " problems anymore
Target fixation on lighter weight is really silly sometimes.
Dave, check out posts 92 and 101. They contain summaries from a lot of time researching these types of batteries. I am not an expert, but I have two hybrid cars with lithium cells, and enough lithium supply to power my home for a day. My NSX has a Lithium Pros battery.
Our starters nominally draw 200 amps on a cold start and around 250 amps on hot starts (assuming 10.2:1 CR, and no superchargers). After starting, there is a current surge from the alternator back to recharge the battery. Granted, it is of short duration, but still, the cheap lithium batteries are not designed for this high current from our 90-100 amp alternators. Each start slowly kills these cheaper batteries.
Also google thermal runaway if you try to crank your car for too long of a period with these cheap cells. That's why thermal protection is important too, as well as MOSFETS to break the bus bar during overcurrent, under/over voltage, and thermal constraints. It is another potential failure point in your car, but worth it in my opinion.
I contacted EarthX a long time ago because I did not like these Shorai batteries. I don't think they are safe for our application. An ATV, sure.
My $0.02.
Dave
Dave that is good info, went through it again and I hear the concerns... I am just not willing to spend $900-1600 on a lithium that has some extra protection circuitry for the cells. You can replace your Shorai 3 times... with no pro-rated warranty you can literally toss it in the trash and still have spent less. I was the first guy to get shorai before Collin ever made his mount or started selling a kit. I must have deep cycled this thing 10 times. And I finally killed it... but it held up to a lot of abuse that kills even regular batteries. I think with some extra care if you get 2-3 years out of it, for may of us it is still the best alternative.
Mac I wasn't attacking either was just a general " I really don't understand " the battery problems other have.
From the little that I read on them while looking it seemed that in order of the battery to have any chance of surviving daily or weekend life it needed a battery management circuit system to deal with the many things that can cause the batter to fail. i.e. heat, under voltage, over voltage, short circuiting, unequal cell drainage.
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