LifePO4 (lithium) Batteries. Separating Myths and Facts @4xoverland

One reason I can see for a lithium starter battery:

You are building a race car and want to save weight, cost and longevity be damned.

For a 4x4 overland vehicle you are 100% correct.

Very informative.
The complex nature of these batteries was very well explained.

The beard suits you , like an aging guru :)

Lithium batteries run my house.

So based in the discussion, battery boxes in the back of a 4WD are no longer compliant? Is the standard retrospective?

Wait wait, I have been using a LifePO4 battery to start my car. It's a cheap one, almost same price as a standard car battery. Should I replace it? Is it going to blow up if I continue using it?
I have this battery since begining of this year

Also why do people rate lithium in amp hours to suit the boomers. It should be KW or KWh.

Spot on

Any chance you could condense all that to 5 minutes, maybe just the facts? I am far too busy to watch all that. If you were doing a build, I'd watch, but man, too long. Ciao

As long as lithium batteries spontaneously combust when thermal runaway due to an external heat source remains I will never fit them inside a vehicle. No electronic battery management system can prevent this. This will lead to offgassing of lethal compounds and the resulting fire cannot be controlled by any fire extinguisher because the electrolyte contains it's own source of oxygen. I will continue to use lead acid leasure batteries until solid state lithium batteries have been developed without the risk of fire. Mobile phones, laptops, aircraft and car carrying ships have all caught fire despite battery management and active cooling systems. Perhaps I'll wait for sodium batteries before changing

Thank you Andrew, appreciated 👍

I'm building a suburban, the lithium batteries will most likely be under the vehicle on the opposite side as the fuel tank. Separated by the drive and water tanks.

Using LifePO4 as a starter battery is a complete phoney side track.
Putting a LifePO4 as a house battery under the bonnet for convenience is an important discussion.
I've had a LifePO4 under bonnet for 7 years and 90,000k's - only problem was faulty battery monitor shunt -
2016 Prado.

The most objective supplier on the planet here, but nobody can convince me that the manufacturers have any idea of what the effect of hours of brutal corrrugations will be on the inevitably dodgy looking mechanical restraint of the BMS gubbings, which always looks designed to chafe cables and fatigue its soldered joints. Show me a perspex LiFePO4 battery casing with military / aviation grade cable management visible and maybe I'll abandon AGM.

Great video, reinforced a lot of what I had learned and some new things.
Keep up the good work

Great work . A LOT of " De-mystification " right here , today .

Good video Andrew. I've run a Hybrid lithium starter/deep cycle extensively for the last three years, and my experience is 1) A huge advantage is the recharge time, which for me negates the limited capacity (80ah) as I have a simple set up and never park up for more than 2-3 days. The lithium will charge at 100 - 150amps (which is limited by my alternator), so it gets to around 80% in 20-30 mins.
2) The battery is designed to shut off with enough reserve capacity to start the vehicle, which works and manages this risk.
3) My vehicle has the battery under the seat, and I doubt I'd go down the same route if it were under bonnet due to the cost benefit vs a lead acid + lithium deep cycle (plus dcdc).
4) I still worry about the BMS reliability. While it's been fine, if it goes then the battery is a paperweight even with a jump start. Time will tell if this is a concern, there's no reason a BMS can't be as reliable as an ECU, but electronics are so easy to get wrong. This is the main concern for me, particularly for any remote touring.

If a lithium battery only takes up half the space for the same lead-acid battery, isn't a good reason for under-bonnet lithium, that you can have a "half-size" starter battery, with another half-size lithium for accessories. all in the one pre-existing battery tray? It's obviously going to work out more expensive, but provides a legitimate option for people with nowhere else to put a secondary battery?

Very informative, thank you Andrew!

I have Amptron 48 volt Lithium batteries running my house (off grid in the Wheatbelt). I delt with Frik at Amptron and he is an extremely knowledgeable guy and provided me with top quality customer service. I would thoroughly recommend Amptron in Perth.

Fricken good stuff

🤔 ... 🇦🇺 AUSSIE Company (Brisbane) Graphene Manufacturing Group $GMG will give LifePo serious competition with their Aluminium Ion cells late 2025:
✅ Fire proof/ puncture inert/ short inert/ no thermal runaway = seriously safe
✅ 300-400% Capacity over LifePO
✅ 60x Faster Charging !

Enerdrive says its batteries can be discharged down to 20% to prolong life. Going below 20% may reduce battery life.

Andrew, changed the batteries in my caravan to lithium ( Blue Nova 105's) and what a pleasure. I have a Victron 30-amp DC to Dc to charge when travelling and a 600-watt panel on the companion's roof. In hind sight I should on replaced the two lead acid unit with one LIFEP04. Great information from all your vlogs. Regards

Thanks for this video, it’s really good to get factual information from a manufacturer.