I had to replace my UPSs a few weeks ago on short notice due to hardware failure, and I ended up getting a few LiFePO4 ones as a stopgap since they were on sale and I’d always wanted to try them. So far, so good. Curious if anyone else has switch to lithium UPSs from lead-acid and how that’s going for you.
I have a big 20Ah, 48v e-bike battery that I’ve used with a sine-wave inverter for standby power, and it’s a bit over 11 years old and going strong. So, as far as the batteries in these are concerned, I am cautiously optimistic that they’ll last close to the 10 years they’re advertised as. The electronics and inverter…we’ll see, I guess.
Bonus question: While we’re on the subject, has anybody tried those drop-in replacement 12V LiFePO4 batteries for regular UPS’s? Supposedly, it says the BMS in them can work with the lead-acid chargers in UPSs and safely charge them, but I’m not sure I trust that.
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A while back, I had asked my UPS vendor at work what he thought, and he wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about them. Mostly said the batteries couldn’t be recycled, yadda yadda. I’m taking his opinion with a grain of salt since the most frequent thing he does on our maintenance contract is replace the lead-acid batteries in our big, central UPS. With the lithium battery models being rated for 5-10 years, I’m guessing there might be some conflict of interest at play lol.
I see no reason why they would be worse, other that the initial purchase price.
That was more or less my thought. Once I gamed the discounts and coupon codes I had, they were actually less expensive than the lead-acid ones I was originally going to get (unfortunately these do not have the serial monitoring connection which is why they’re still a stopgap).
I guess my main concern is if the charge controller and such are more prone to failure than in their lead-acid counterparts.
Suppose I can deal with lack of monitoring for a few months and see how these fare.
I’ve used 12v LifePO4 drop in replacements in my UPS and they’ve been good for 2 years now. Although I should test them to see if the capacity is still there. I’ve only had a few seconds of power out over the past 2 years.
What brand of UPS did you buy?
Good to know. I’m always wary when they say the lead-acid charger will work. One of the things I read somewhere was that the voltage for the lead acid charging was a bit too low to fully charge the lithium ones. I’m assuming the BMS will take care of not feeding it a constant trickle charge that lead batteries like but lithium batteries hate.
Not sure if these are no-names (probably are lol) but GoldenMate is the brand. I’ve got two 600W and one 800W model. Had a few discounts and coupon codes, so got them for almost 30% off. So far, so good.
They lack the PC connection for monitoring, so they’re not going to be my permanent ones, but they’re working well enough so far as a stopgap (my two old UPSs both died around the same time).
Yes the lead acid charging will be low (unless they put a buck converter to compensate).
But I see that as a good thing. LifePO4 lasts longest (lifetime, not single charge) on 80% max 20% low. So not charging to 100% should make them last really long.
Good point, and yeah, makes sense. I knew that about the 80/20 range, but didn’t consider that the lower charging voltage would work toward that benefit.
GoldenMate is the brand
I am in need of replacement batteries and a couple of new UPSes, mostly just due to age and failure too.
A quick google and I mean, they look entirely reasonable and priced on-par with more traditional ones.
Probably going to pick one up, thanks for surfacing a thing I did not know existed.
I once asked a salesman for a different product (not an UPS), why they still use lead acid batteries in their products. He said they’re easier to replace and readily available… I could hook up pretty much any car battery from the shop around the corner to that machine.
But I’m not sure if I like the failure modes of the traditional UPSes, either. I’ve seen several badly maintained ones in some smaller companies. And on the next power outage, they last like 6 seconds and are practically useless. And I’ve removed one lead acid battery that definitely didn’t look okay any more. Not sure if that’s a fire hazard with that battery type… But there’s that. And I’m comparing 20yo neglected devices which I removed somewhere, to their more modern counterparts with better monitoring, better battery management systems etc.
I don’t have any valuable insight on LiFePO. Sounds good to me. They generally have some advantages over Lithium Ion. And they’re bound to appear in every other electric car, bicycle, some solar installations in the near future. We might as well put them into our UPSes.
I’ve also read the recycling process is way more complicated for lithium cells. While it’s easier to recover the lead. And we have a proper infrastructure for that and 99% of the batteries get returned (or something like that). I certainly hope we make some progress with LiIon and LiFePO as well…
