Alarm Battery Charging

[HadEnuf]

When these kak, I will replace them with LiFeP04 drop in replacements from ACDC. [snip] . . . . . They re now only slightly more expensive than lead acid so make sense due to their much higher charge cycle capacity.

I recently bought a couple of the usual 7 Ah lead acid batteries for R250.

The price in Soldierman’s link for a LiFePO4 was nearly R1100. Do you have a better source ?

I just managed to find the ACDC link on my phone and their price is R899 for the 8 Ah LiFePO4. Still a lot more than the lead acid kak.

Edit : although there is a price penalty, I note what you said about charge management capability and the ability to withstand damage normally caused by severe discharge.

[SoldierMan]

I recently bought a couple of the usual 7 Ah lead acid batteries for R250.

The price in Soldierman’s link for a LiFePO4 was nearly R1100. Do you have a better source ?

I just managed to find the ACDC link on my phone and their price is R899 for the 8 Ah LiFePO4. Still a lot more than the lead acid kak.

Edit : although there is a price penalty, I note what you said about charge management capability and the ability to withstand damage normally caused by severe discharge.

The link was just to show the product.

I bought mine at ACDC quite a few months back and it was R950 I think, so if you can get them at R900 it's a good deal.

This is what the local competition offers Freedom Auxillary Range FW12-7 7.5Ah 12V LiFePO4 Battery at R874, but that's excluding shipping. BlueNova and Freedom Won are both SA companies.

[oafpatroll]

I recently bought a couple of the usual 7 Ah lead acid batteries for R250.

The price in Soldierman’s link for a LiFePO4 was nearly R1100. Do you have a better source ?

I just managed to find the ACDC link on my phone and their price is R899 for the 8 Ah LiFePO4. Still a lot more than the lead acid kak.

Edit : although there is a price penalty, I note what you said about charge management capability and the ability to withstand damage normally caused by severe discharge.

I'd be buying the 8ah at R899. That compares favourably to quality 15Ah lead acids which is what I need to use to prevent them dying due to discharge so not comparing them ITO absolute capacity but rather utility for my application.

EDIT: The current price for a CSB AGM deep cycle 15Ah which I what i've been using is R1089 from the company i normally get them from. You can get cheaper lead acid batteries of nominally the same capacity but i have found over the years that these or equivalents outlast them substantially. IOW, like everything else you get what you pay for in the batteries.

[DaavG]

lithium-ion 12V 10ah

Which brand as a matter of interest?

Thanks for the replies so far.

Interestingly there doesn't seem to be an external charger solution... Maybe I was asking the wrong question

[sAnD.mAn]

BlueNova 8ah working just fine in my alarms.

cheapest I found was from EnergyOn.

You may need to get F2 to F1 lug adaptors as the bluenova uses a slightly larger lug than the lead acids

[30.06]

Thanks guys, very interesting. I am looking for replacement batteries for my panel garage door that takes two smaller ones but they don't last long when there's an outage.

[HadEnuf]

BlueNova 8ah working just fine in my alarms.

cheapest I found was from EnergyOn.

You may need to get F2 to F1 lug adaptors as the bluenova uses a slightly larger lug than the lead acids

Good to hear, and thanks for the tip, whatever F2 and F1 lugs are I’ll ask the shop.

Looks like I’ll replace with these LiFePO4 types as my old ones die.

[golof]

Interesting topic. I actually contacted Bluenova regarding using their lithium batteries on my alarm and this was their response:

I trust you are well and hereby wishing you and yours an all-that-is-good-and-amazing 2022!

Preferably the charging circuit for a lithium battery should do a bulk charge of at least 14.2Volt, with a subsequint float charge of 13.6Volt.

The 14.2Volt charge is needed in order to ballance all the internal cells. You mentioned major power outages in your are?

That is the biggest problem that is facing us country-wide. The standard lead-acid batteries are just not lasting since they are being

drained close to to the point of failure on a daily basis. Going the lithium route is better since a lithium battery contains a

BMS (Battery Management system) which monitors all internal cells and can protect the battery in the event of low voltage.

However extended and consecutive periods of load shedding also wreaks havok on lithium batteries, by causing the internal cells

to become unbalanced. It is for this reason that it would be advantagious if you could invest in an extra battery charger that makes

provision for the bulk charge voltage of at least 14.2Volt. This is where the unballance in the cells due to extended periods of

load shedding gets recovered. The Centurion D5 gate motor and paradigm alarm systems does the two-stage charging algorithm in

their charging cicuit. So it is unfortunate that yours only does 13.6Volt.

A good charger to look at would be any of the Victron Smart Blue chargers as sold on Takealot, Leroy Merlin, Live Copper and various

other sites.

https://www.takealot.com/blue-smart-...v/PLID72805894

Above I have added the link to one of the models as sold by Takealot. This can be used in conjunction with your current charger.

Warmest Regards

Marcellino Johannisen
Support Technician
www.bluenova.co.za
021 205 2000

[sAnD.mAn]

Good to hear, and thanks for the tip, whatever F2 and F1 lugs are I’ll ask the shop.

Looks like I’ll replace with these LiFePO4 types as my old ones die.

https://www.geewiz.co.za/batteries/1...ngle-unit.html

This should help

[Davidc]

Most new batteries offered as drop in replacements for gate motor/alarm batteries have a charging circuit built in to them to be compatible with the standard charger.


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