Adding a new 300ah Battery to an existing one

[ylwjacket]

I have a Life Blue battery with Victron gear to run it. I am going to add another 300ah battery to it.

What all do I need to do this? I will probably take it to a dealer to do, but if it's not too complicated, I could do it myself.

I am thinking
- battery (can this be same spec, or does it have to be Life Blue? they retired the one I have)
- the one I have is about 5 years old. should I replace it, and get a twin?
- battery cut off switch for the second
- is there other controllers and such?

Thanks much.

[ylwjacket]

Looks like it works in parallel without extra equipment. In the Victron manual, it says to call or email them with the charger model to make sure it will work, so I will do that.

[StogieMan]

Which battery do you currently have? Can you take a picture of it? Pretty sure that you would need to add the same exact battery capacity to make it work. I have two 300Ah’s low temps ones currently and they’re still in production so I’m curious.

I thought about adding a third 300Ah one for a total of 900 Ah’s and I emailed Larry at LifeBlue to ask about adding an additional same capacity battery later on down the road and this was his response below:

“No problem, you will not harm our batteries. At any time in the future you can add additional capacity to your battery bank. Each LiFeBlue BMS will function autonomously. Give me a call if you need more explanation.

Let me know if you need anything else or have any other questions.

Thank you,
Larry
LiFeBlue Customer Service”


Ours are about 2 1/2 years old but I’m strongly considering just replacing them with some Victron batteries for ease of integration and communication with all of our Victron gear and want to make everything Victron but will have to spend some additional money adding a Victron specific BMS. I’ve had no issues with the LifeBlue batteries as they are rock solid and can strongly recommend them to any one. I also love that they have built in heaters.

The only thing that you may need to upgrade is maybe some wiring depending on what you currently have, fuses and update the battery information on your Victron solar charge controller and battery shunt if you have any of those installed. If I remember correctly per LifeBlue’s manual you can only use them in parallel but please research this to confirm.



Edit to add:

Actually, it says it right on the battery - "For Parallel connection Only"

[daleyocum]

Battleborn gave me the opposite advice when looking to add batteries. They really want them to be a matched set to get the full capacity. Otherwise what happens is the better batteries do all the work. You would think the less strong batteries would help out as best they can but because lithium batteries have a flat discharge curve they weaker ones may not get in the game like you’d think they would.

If you want the full capacity on the labels Battleborn would tell you to get a set the same age and capacity.

To answer your other question, properly fitting in 900ah in an Interstate could be quite a Tetris exercise.

[StogieMan]

Originally Posted by daleyocum

Battleborn gave me the opposite advice when looking to add batteries. They really want them to be a matched set to get the full capacity. Otherwise what happens is the better batteries do all the work. You would think the less strong batteries would help out as best they can but because lithium batteries have a flat discharge curve they weaker ones may not get in the game like you’d think they would.

If you want the full capacity on the labels Battleborn would tell you to get a set the same age and capacity.

To answer your other question, properly fitting in 900ah in an Interstate could be quite a Tetris exercise.

Yes, this is exactly the reason why I reached out to the manufacturer to get it straight from the horses mouth. I’ve always read and understood otherwise that you should only add it at the same time or shortly after but it appears that it doesn’t make a difference due to the BMS which actually makes sense.

Yup, this is the other reason why I was considering the Victron 330 AH’s batteries which are a smaller footprint but albeit way pricier for Tetris purposes.

If the OP wants to make sure and confirm - you can contact Larry at:

Larry
LiFeBlue Customer Service
920-543-3764

Edit to add Larry's email:
sales@lifebluebattery.com

[JeffKim]

I was wondering about this since there might come a time I want to add more batteries. I don't have Battleborn but they say two years on their website:

Lead acid battery manufacturers will state: “do not mix old and new batteries. Doing so will reduce overall performance and may cause battery leakage or rupture.” They also recommend replacing all batteries within a bank at the same time.

A partially used lead acid battery will drain energy from a new one, reducing the total amount of battery power available.

This is not the case with Battle Born LiFePO4 batteries. You can add new batteries to your original Battle Born bank up to two years down the road without damaging, reducing lifespan, or harming them in any way.

Reading another discussion, no one can think of a reason why not (unless the old ones are seriously degraded) and the BB two year limit seems arbitrary.

[ylwjacket]

Thanks, good info. I'll post a Pic of the battery, but it's model is LB12300-HC.

On their website, it's a discontinued model.

Here's a link:

https://www.lifebluebattery.com/home...ed-models.html

[StogieMan]

Originally Posted by ylwjacket

Thanks, good info. I'll post a Pic of the battery, but it's model is LB12300-HC.

On their website, it's a discontinued model.

Here's a link:

https://www.lifebluebattery.com/home...ed-models.html

Looking at the specs, I really don’t see a difference and the reason why I would love to see a pic unless you can point out the difference to me.

Reach out to Larry and see what he says about adding newer batteries to your rig.

I’m also willing to sell these at a discount if you’re interested just let me know.

[daleyocum]

Originally Posted by JeffKim

I was wondering about this since there might come a time I want to add more batteries. I don't have Battleborn but they say two years on their website:

Reading another discussion, no one can think of a reason why not (unless the old ones are seriously degraded) and the BB two year limit seems arbitrary.

As a person who saw their 5 Battleborn batteries get so out of balance as to need to be replaced, I don’t think BB is making it up. That thread is here. That was a very expensive mistake! Not the same as what the OP is wanting to do (add new batteries to a mid-life existing set) but it might be a clue as to what would happen. I can guarantee all the batteries won’t charge and discharge at the same rate. Will it matter in the end with a different brand of battery? Hard to say. It sure mattered in my case with five BB batteries all at different parts of their life cycle due to my wiring mistake.

[ylwjacket]

[ylwjacket]

Originally Posted by daleyocum

As a person who saw their 5 Battleborn batteries get so out of balance as to need to be replaced, I don’t think BB is making it up. That thread is here. That was a very expensive mistake! Not the same as what the OP is wanting to do (add new batteries to a mid-life existing set) but it might be a clue as to what would happen. I can guarantee all the batteries won’t charge and discharge at the same rate. Will it matter in the end with a different brand of battery? Hard to say. It sure mattered in my case with five BB batteries all at different parts of their life cycle due to my wiring mistake.

Just looked at your thread, and I was going to wire it the way you did the 2nd go round. I have done some reading on it, and it seems that's the way to do it to balance the LifePo's.

[StogieMan]

I did some Googling and took a look at both spec sheets and can’t figure out what the major difference is between the HC and & LT models. Some minor differences and the LT having heaters. Actually, your HC can actually be installed in either series or parallel configuration. Other than that I couldn’t find what HC means. (High Capacity?)

If it was me, with that age on the original battery - I would choose to put in a set of two new identical ones. The original has some on age on it and why take the risk. Or speak with Larry and see what he recommends. You could put in another one knowing that you may need to replace the second sooner than later.

Daleyocum had another issue with wiring that you should be aware of though so that thread is a good read and something to be aware of.

Attached are the spec sheets:

[waninae39]

all lion batteries need to the same, age, date, make and model

if not, they will not charge properly

[ylwjacket]

Yeah I am thinking I will have to get 2 of the same.

[uncle_bob]

Hi

*Might* it be ok to go with a mix? Sure, it might be. It also could turn out to be a disaster.

If you can afford to match up two brand new batteries, that's by far the best way to do it. There are all sorts of silly little gotcha's that can come up. If one battery decides to "go to sleep" that's not at all a good thing.

Bob