From what I have heard they are reputable but pricey....The Timeusb also has a very good reputation but at a lower cost.
Have similar thoughts, but want to do what is best for the battery. My boat is trailered and stores in my barn. LifePo4 battery is only for my trolling motor, nothing else. There are periods of time maby a month or so where the fishing slows down and more joy riding takes place where the electric motor is not used. Lots of articles on keeping the battery at a storage charge when not using for a period of time. No mfgr has actually stated how long that period of time is ! Folks often mention putting a load on the battery to drop it down to a storage charge, but no one mentions what they use as a load to drop the charge. Battery does have a fancy built in battery monitor that sends info to my phone, so monitoring it is not a big problem.My understanding is that the recommendation to store at mid-level charge (50-60%) is more for long term storage. Not sure if not using the boat for a few weeks or more is really going to break anything.
I'd just see how things go . . . maybe run your blowers while you are closing up the boat to draw the batteries down a bit. If the battery is sitting at around 13.2 volts, it is probably fine.
I have a set-up where the solar charging brings the batteries up during the day and the parasitic loads draw things down a bit at night. Overall the batteries stay at well above 50% capacity during boating season.
My problem seems to be more over the winter is that the charging to the battery shuts off (via LTCP) as the temperature gets to 32˚F, but the parasitic drains continue until around 4˚F (IIRC), thus draining the battery to a low voltage shut off point.
I'm concerned if you have something to drain the battery down it might be too much, or require some sophisticated regulation process (timer).
I used to have a couple when LiFePO4 batteries were relatively new to market. They are great batteries but not really worth the price premium these days. Many other good options.
Using the boat everyday is a dream we all have...lol...at best a couple times a week is more accurate. There have been periods of time when it sits for weeks and that is my concern. There are days when you go out with a fully charged batter but due to conditions it doesn't get used then might sit for weeks before getting out again. Just looking for a way to drop the charge down while it sits for a period of time and wondered what others use.
For weeks I would not be concerned. Just don't charge them up right away until you are going to use it again. Typically, the only thing that would happen is that you might only get 2000 charge cycles vs 3000 charge cycles...probably more than you would do in your lifetime anyway.
All these batteries are LiFePO4. If they were a different chemistry, the voltage would be WAY different and would not work where a substitute for a 12V battery is used.
I have a Victron IP65 charger that has a power supply mode that would be perfect.
Been around lipo batteries for well over 15 years and all function far better when dropped down to a storage level of charge. Those that have been stored at near full charge have had much shorter life spans or decreased run times. No big deal to discharge them to storage charge. With my Timeusb, it tells you how long it takes to drop down to whatever you want.
Not a " have to" just the mfg recommendation for max life.. Easy enough to do, so why not ?
I do store mine at that level but if you don't, might get 2,000 cycles instead of 3,000 cycles.
I was thinking about doing the jumper cable thing, but concerned about the amount of current that the LFP batteries would soak up.
