Lithium Batteries for the RV, Good or Not so Good?

[JAG1]

38 minutes ago, AH64ID said:

On the flip side I've seen many a battery fail from lack of use, it's not an easy life either. A standard lead acid battery discharges at approx 5% per month, so in 4 months the voltage on a good battery could be down below 12.5V and dropping fast in the winter. 

 

My RV charger will automatically recharge the batteries every 30 days or so depending on resting voltage. RV does sit mostly during cold months. Also if I unplug the shore power cord and then when reconnected it will recharge the batteries. If I use a small probe I can push and hold a recessed button for 5 seconds and it goes into equalize mode for boiling off the sulfates. I think it goes to around 15.5 volts during that phase. I really like that charger made by Xantrax and is one of the good older versions. Only problem Is one of the two paralleled batteries doesn't lose as much electrolyte as the other battery which could mean factory wiring is not so good. 

 

It's amazing how it's so important to the factory that they convince you, that you never want buy another new RV.. What a f.o.r.d. it was when new. 17 years later..... still finding shortcut workmanshipt. Spelled correct here. 

[AH64ID]

34 minutes ago, JAG1 said:

My RV charger will automatically recharge the batteries every 30 days or so depending on resting voltage. RV does sit mostly during cold months. Also if I unplug the shore power cord and then when reconnected it will recharge the batteries. If I use a small probe I can push and hold a recessed button for 5 seconds and it goes into equalize mode for boiling off the sulfates. I think it goes to around 15.5 volts during that phase. I really like that charger made by Xantrax and is one of the good older versions. Only problem Is one of the two paralleled batteries doesn't lose as much electrolyte as the other battery which could mean factory wiring is not so good. 

 

It's amazing how it's so important to the factory that they convince you, that you never want buy another new RV.. What a f.o.r.d. it was when new. 17 years later..... still finding shortcut workmanshipt. Spelled correct here. 

 

Which Xantrex charger do you have? I have one of their inverters in my 5th wheel is like it. 

 

My Progressive Dynamics PD4655 does 15 minutes of "equalization" every 21 hours once it drops to float/storage. I can also manually select Boost/Normal/Storage modes, which is handy. I personally don't like leaving batteries on a tender when they aren't being used so after the charge drops to 0.0A I turn my battery switch off and just monitor voltage. I did that in September and when I turned the batteries back on 2 weeks ago they were still at 13.1V. If the voltage is above resting voltage the charger is providing that voltage, even if the battery is not absorbing any.