Stark LiFEPO4 Batteries

[wincrasher]

Been thinking about doing another lithium project. This time with Stark Batteries.

From what I'm reading on their site, I'm more impressed with them than the Smart Battery. See the below I've pasted from their website. Note they allude to a temperature control, cell balancing, dedicated BMS and the cell type. These are not the cylindrical cells that are in the Smart Battery.

Q. What advantages does StarkPower “ULTRAENERGY” have from other batteries?
A. StarkPower utilizes the latest advancements in lithium-ion battery technology along with custom features to provide you with the best battery for your vehicle:

Internal cell balancing circuit - StarkPower has a processor controlled, internal cell balancing board inside each of it’s “ULTRAENERGY” batteries to maximize the performance and life of the battery pack

Battery Management System (BMS), StarkPower’s “ULTRAENERGY” has a processor controlled Battery Management System (BMS) inside each case to monitior each cell to prevent over charging, over discharging (voltage draining too low) along with cell temperature monitoring. Should any of the cells reach outside of its alloweable specifications, the terminal power will turn off. These are added performance and convience features to prevent a battery from being damaged or in the event a battery is left unattended for a long time. These added features also prevent the battery from overcharinging when attached to other charging equipement or charing failure.

Best Engineering - StarkPower are the result of years of our own research and development with years of testing. StarkPower lithium-ion battery packs have been designed from the “ground up’ to have a long lifespan and high performance, under a wide range of temperatures. Combined with our strict quality control and mass production technologies allow us to make the best batteries at the most attractive price points.

Prismatic cells - Cylindrical cells only come in certain sizes, that limit the possible shapes and sizes of the starter battery case designs. As such, battery fit into many vehicles may be poor, or impossible as they are too wide, or too tall and creat internal hot spots. StarkPower prismatic cells, on the other hand, are rectangular packages which we can freely design and size according to the size requirements of the battery case. As such, StarkPower offers perfect drop-in fit in most vehicles along with having better thermal management properties.

[gregmchugh]

There is a company that sells the Elite Power battery systems to the RV market, not sure if you have looked at them...

RV Lithium Battery

[booster]

Isn't Stark the company that had the totally incorrect and deceptive information about the PD lithium charger they sell? It was discussed maybe a year ago.

Elite system really looked fairly reasonable for what it is. Interesting to see the connections which have charger and loads separate, which means no inverter/charger like so many of us have. Would have to be independent. Also give range to below zero F for operating range, no disclaimer on charging. Very interesting.

[wincrasher]

I think it was Smart Battery with the statements on the charging.

I called Stark earlier about the temp monitoring and leaving it on the PD charger at 0 amps. They advised me to send an email to the engineer. Actually that is a good sign instead of the phone person just making stuff up.

[booster]

I went back and found the information, and it was Start that had the deceptive information on the charger. It is in your lithium install in the Travato thread.

on edit---The Stark site still has the same blatantly not true charger statements, including that it restarts the charging on signal from the battery. I know they were informed about it as someone from here called them, and have not changed the statements, although they admitted to the poster who called them that it was deceiving. Not a great endorsement, I think.

[wincrasher]

I think they corrected that a while ago. Here is what it says now:

The "ULTRAENERGY" energy storage battery is intended to be used as a direct replacement for lead acid batteries used in energy storage systems. It is best for the "ULTRAENERGY" battery not to be trickle charged but to use advance chargers that turns OFF charging current when the battery is completley charged at 14.6V. StarkPower sells "Smart" chargers for lithium-ion batteries. Using lead acid chargers that charges up to 16V, along with leaving them ON, will damage the Lithium battery over extended time.

[booster]

https://store.starkpower.com/12V-LiF...30A-_p_73.html

Same as it was before.

[wincrasher]

meh. poor wording. don't see anything nefarious in it.

we'll see how they respond to my email.

[mlts22]

I'm curious to know as well. Two of the 125 amp-hour batteries would be good enough for what I'm doing, especially with the fact that I can draw them far less than 50% SoC without damage.

[Oliver]

wincrasher - what are you doing to keep your battery bank from being exposed to high temps ??

For instance, this is an article on information from Elite:

Premature Battery Aging? Suspect #1: Temperature

According to the specifications for GBS-LFMP100AHX cells published on the Elite Power Solutions website, our battery cells are rated for:

Operating Temperature: -20C to 65C or -4F to 149F.

But while brainstorming potential causes for our diminished capacity recently, Elite let me know that in their experience heat has a huge impact – even within that operating range.

They have observed that a 10C (18F) temperature increase over a baseline room temperature of ~23C (74F) results in the number of lifetime cycles being cut in half.

This means at 33C (91F) usable battery life will be cut in half, and presumably to a quarter at 43C (109F). This is VERY substantial.

[wincrasher]

My placement would be under the van where the existing batteries are mounted. It's well ventilated. Not sure they'd see an average above 91 degree temperature. Something I'll have to think about monitoring, even if I do nothing. Maybe a heat shield to keep reflected heat from asphalt surface would be in order, but not sure that would be very effective.

Even if cycles were cut in half - to 1500-2000 cycles, that is still a tremendous life. Most likely beyond the period I'd even own this van.

[ptourin]

I think you're referring to me in the Travato post - check #134 - we talked about the Stark advertising, felt that it was likely misleading, and I gave them a call to check. Here's the main part of the post...

"I called StarkPower today and spoke with one of their support techs. He confirms that the advertisement is a bit misleading, and that the PD chargers simply keep the voltage at 14.6 near 100% SOC, and that the current drops to zero as the battery approaches the charger voltage. He also confirms that the charger does not "restart with low voltage signal from battery", as they state on the website - if there's a draw on the battery so that the voltage drops, the charger will start providing power to ramp the voltage back up to 14.6. So it's working as we assumed it does. "

No problem with PD and their advertising. The problem was with Stark's advertising.