We have been very happy with our Lithium RV Battery upgrade. Our lead-acid batteries were no longer holding a charge, it was time to upgrade our RV batteries, we selected to go with Lithium batteries for our RV. The Lithium RV Battery upgrade was simple to complete and required no special tools.
Our current chassis battery bank consists of eight 6-volt, 100-amp hour lead-acid batteries. The batteries are wired in series to create a 12-volt system.
Once we started noticing issues with the stock batteries, we began looking at options of replacing with the same lead-acid batteries, upgrading to AGM, or Lithium Iron Phosphate. This was a tough decision, cost being one of the biggest factors. I felt based on our lifestyle, we would benefit from Lithium batteries.
Now that the battery type decision is out of the way, which Lithium battery would be the right choice. I have noticed many RVer’s using a particular brand in all their videos, so initially, I thought this choice would be easy. After some research, I found many of those users were either issued batteries at no charge or with discounts. With the cost of these batteries, I can understand taking advantage of this for providing a video product review.
I started making phone calls to specialty battery and solar installation shops all over the country for off-grid RV living. One thing I noticed, none of these shops were using these same batteries as all the RV videos. After compiling a list of the brands these specialty shops were using, I started doing research on each of these brands. I decided to select LifeBlue Battery as our new Lithium battery bank. https://www.lifebluebattery.com/
With our current battery bank, we have 800-amp hours. Lead-acid batteries provide using only 50% of the battery usage, basically leaving us about 400-amp hours of use. Lithium allows for almost 100% use of the battery bank amp-hour.
LifeBlue offers 100-, 150-, 200-, and 300-amp hour batteries in a standard battery, or a low-temperature version. The low-temperature version prevents damage in cold weather, automatically warming the batter to a safe charging temperature before allowing a charge. The built-in BMS system offers 8 different protection modes including, over and under voltage, over and under temperature, over current, short circuit, and more. Our unique Bluetooth App communicates directly with the battery without an internet connection.
I personally liked the footprint of using three 200-amp hour batteries, with the room in our battery tray to add one additional if needed. I selected the low-temperature version since at times we do find ourselves in freezing temps during the winter. Using three 200-amp hour batteries provides us with almost all usable 600-amp hours. Compared to the current lead-acid setup, I still ended up with more usable power.
The change-out was simple and only took about 45 minutes. The 100-amp hour lead-acid batteries weigh about 56 pounds each for a total of 448 pounds. The replacement 200-amp hour Lithium batteries also weigh about 56 pounds each for a total of 168 pounds. Big win for the weight difference.
Each battery has Bluetooth for easy communication with the battery bank. The Battery Monitor System (BMS) app is great for the instant status of the battery charge and health.
