Lithium RV Battery System: Your Easy Guide in 2020

BSLBATT Lithium RV Batteries are a game-changer for the RV world!

When your journey involves countless miles or remote campsites, you need a trustworthy battery that won’t hold you back. Lightweight BSLBATT lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries are maintenance-free, fast-charging, and environmentally-friendly to provide reliable power and peace of mind while you enjoy some well-earned peace and quiet.

Is a lithium RV battery set up right for you? Today we’re talking to an electrical engineer (who also travels full time in an RV) to figure out if and why you should switch to lithium batteries.

Mr Li is our visiting expert. He has equipped his 4th wheel trailer with a BSLBATT lithium battery and also installed Battle Born lithium batteries in his JAYCO GREYHAWK 27U truck camper.

Mr. Li also helped us configure and install 500ah of BSLBATT lithium batteries in our 1979 vintage RV (you can see our system here).

Today, in plain language, we’ll be discussing the cost, functionality, and safety of a lithium system. Our goal is to help inform you and understand if this is an option you should consider.

Let’s dive in!

Is the lithium RV battery technology new or has it been around for a while?

Lithium technology is not a new thing. It’s been around for quite some time, but it’s becoming more and more prominent in larger power applications.

A lot of the reason for it is that manufacturing practices have brought the price down considerably, and battery management systems that keep lithium safe are becoming more and more prevalent and accessible.

What is the benefit of switching over to RV lithium batteries from Lead-acid? Because the price difference is pretty high.

Yeah, in general, I’m a huge proponent for Lithium and going that route because while the price is high, there are so many benefits to Lithium batteries. Some of the benefits are extremely long life cycle, compared to any lead-acid type battery. You should get lifetime life out of these batteries in your coach, even using them heavily

Which is pretty incredible. Actually, over life cycle cost, these batteries should end up cheaper than even a Lead-acid alternative because you won’t have to replace them so often.

We’re using the BSLBATT lithium RV batteries – they have a ten-year warranty and they tell us that we can take it all the way down to zero. Is that true? Is the battery going all the way down to zero?

No, not necessarily. While BSLBATT and a lot of lithium batteries are rated on their ampacity, their amp hour rating is actually how much power you can use out of the battery. So you can take it all the way down to zero out of the one-hundred amp-hours per battery that you can use.

And they have protections and electronics built into every single battery that will actually take the batteries offline if you hit that low.

Safety Features of the BMS Include:

Constant monitoring of each of the four (3.2 Volt) Lithium Cells connected in series required to produce a 12.8 Volt Lithium Battery. This monitoring includes the Voltage of each cell for high or low voltage limits and disconnects the battery from the load or charger, to prevent damage. Each cell is monitored for temperature and excess current drain and again the battery is disconnected from the load if these limits are exceeded. The BMS also monitors the state of charge for each of the four cells and automatically balances their voltages during the recharge cycle to bring all cells to full charge at the same time. This balancing ensures a safe full charge and long battery life. Based on these features Lithium Iron Phosphate Batteries (LFP) are very safe and reliable. Since 2015 BSLBATT Lithium has been monitoring hundreds of Lithium Battery Systems installed in RV’s in the field, without any reported Lithium Battery or Charger failures.

So yes, you can run these batteries until they shut off and you’re not gonna hurt a thing.

They look like Lead-acid batteries to me and they look like they connect like Lead-acid batteries. If I had a Lead-acid battery in my RV, could I just exchange it, and would it be good to go?

In most circumstances, the BSLBATT lithium batteries, yes you can exchange like-for-like especially in an RV.

Most of the RV battery chargers and things like that are going to work great with the BSLBATT batteries.

I would not recommend putting this in like your car – cars have a very, very high current draw to start the car and then low application draw after that. And cars have a lot of transients. There’s a lot of mess in the car power system, due to the alternator, things kicking on and off. A lot of mess that can damage the BMS systems in these batteries.

So, the lithium battery is good for RV, marine, and off-grid use?

If you need a lot of power and you need it in a household type application, yeah they’re a fantastic option. As you said, they weigh so, so much less.

I think these batteries probably weigh about half or less per battery in the same size. But Lead-acid batteries you can really only use about if you have a 100 amp hour battery. You’re only supposed to take that down about fifty-percent. If you take lead-acid batteries down any further than that, you see significant life decrease and damage to the battery over time.

Conclusion

If you want to make the switch to Lithium RV battery system, we recommend BSLBATT Batteries. They manufacture their units in China and each battery comes with a ten-year warranty.

BSLBATT Lithium RV Batteries System is also the best battery for RV solar panels which more people are using for more sustainable energy sources. For any application, the BSLBATT Lithium RV Batteries System line is the best RV Battery on the market today!