Lithium batteries with non-lithium.

[UncaMike]

I research a lot. I get a kick outta learning from folks that have “Been There, Done That”. From what I’ve been reading the latest and greatest technology regarding vehicular batteries is Lithium Ion.

Not sure if it is because they are new or really are better but they cost an arm and a leg.

So I am wondering if I could replace just one of the pack at a time. Is mixing LI batteries with Non-LI batteries a bad idea for any reason?

“Help Me Mister Wizard”

Thanks bunches for your advice and assistance. HAGD!

[jrollf]

Short answer.. no you shouldn't mix LifePo4 "lithium" batteries with lead acid.

They run different voltages, charge at different rates, and use different charging profiles.

[litzdog911]

Not recommended.

[JHinman]

How many batteries do you have, and how many do you need to replace?

If you have a typical trailer with two batteries on the tongue, replacing the two with one LiFePo may be sufficient. That is what I did in my first conversion, and could get easily three days of summertime camping before I needed to charge up. That is with dry camping in a TT, no AC use and not much need for heat.

Check that your converter has a lithium charging profile.

Many TT have the converter some distance from the batteries, and since the charge rate is low (0.2C or lower) the wires are fairly small. You can still charge your Li battery, but it may be slower than it would be if you had short, fat wires.

[arcaguy]

As others have said, don't mix LiFePo and lead-acid. One saving grace is that one 100 AH LiFePo battery is equivalent to 2 100 AH batteries of any other chemistry. You should go do a lot or reading and watching on diysloarforum.com and Will Prowse on youtube. Will is a whiz at solar power and he does a ton of product review. Heck he even has videos on how to make (really assemble) your own batteries. With a little sweat equity and some reading and watching you can probably get into LiFePo for about the same as lead acid technology. Good luck.