Bad 12V battery after 3 years

[Snakebitten]

I'm pretty dang happy with Bluetooth Voltmeter reporting 13.25V, even after disturbing the truck intentionally a few times, just to see it recover within a few minutes.

That's amazing, considering that's still the OEM battery in the pack.

By the way, the OEM Auxiliary AGM is on the kitchen counter and "isolated", it's sitting at 12.9V. So it's still apparently a healthy auxiliary. But at 7AH and being AGM, it doesn't have much to give to a thirsty underhood AGM.

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[CoolDuDe919]

I'm pretty dang happy with Bluetooth Voltmeter reporting 13.25V, even after disturbing the truck intentionally a few times, just to see it recover within a few minutes.

That's amazing, considering that's still the OEM battery in the pack.

By the way, the OEM Auxiliary AGM is on the kitchen counter and "isolated", it's sitting at 12.9V. So it's still apparently a healthy auxiliary. But at 7AH and being AGM, it doesn't have much to give to a thirsty underhood AGM.

I assume then even this slightly slimmer one you previously linked would still require modifications to the battery enclosure? Seemed fairly straight forward in the other thread, other than needing to confirm the best connections to extend the cable. This seems like a better option long term compared to just going with the 14ah from oriley? Twice the AH plus some of the voltage benefits of the lifepo4?

 

[Snakebitten]

I assume then even this slightly slimmer one you previously linked would still require modifications to the battery enclosure? Seemed fairly straight forward in the other thread, other than needing to confirm the best connections to extend the cable. This seems like a better option long term compared to just going with the 14ah from oriley? Twice the AH plus some of the voltage benefits of the lifepo4?

Since I was (am?) in the testing phase, I didn't modify anything in case I pulled the plug on the experiment.
My truck has the factory underseat storage and there is an end-space that sits just adjacent to the auxiliary AGM enclosure. So I set the LFP down inside the underseat storage space and strategically trapped it on all 4 sides with the other products I store under there. It's not going to move.

The only modification I made to the truck was to drill two holes in the underseat storage enclosure so that the battery cables wouldn't be molested by anything.

I'm 99.9% sure that I'm going to declare the LFP a legitimate solution for my truck. I might modify the AGM battery enclosure to accept the LFP, but I might not.

 

[HammaMan]

I might modify the AGM battery enclosure to accept the LFP, but I might not.

You know where to keep out an eye for it at. Mine was $50 delivered, so long as you don't want it right away, one will show up. Mine came from a 2kW PPOB truck.

 

[WhatsGolden07]

if you got 3 years, consider yourself lucky. Many of us have had to replace ours in 0-2 years

This was just me at 5 months.

 

[CoolDuDe919]

Since I was (am?) in the testing phase, I didn't modify anything in case I pulled the plug on the experiment.
My truck has the factory underseat storage and there is an end-space that sits just adjacent to the auxiliary AGM enclosure. So I set the LFP down inside the underseat storage space and strategically trapped it on all 4 sides with the other products I store under there. It's not going to move.

The only modification I made to the truck was to drill two holes in the underseat storage enclosure so that the battery cables wouldn't be molested by anything.

I'm 99.9% sure that I'm going to declare the LFP a legitimate solution for my truck. I might modify the AGM battery enclosure to accept the LFP, but I might not.

Well i got mine installed today, the 20Ah was on sale, so i just went with that vs the 30ah.

Fairly straight forward, except i did have a few casualties with some tabs, one on the cover and one on the bottom of the tray, but everything still stays together well.

Maybe 10-15min with a multi tool. I trimmed out the top on the upper/top part of the tray, but left it on the lower part, that gave just enough room for it to squeeze in and be very snug to hold it in place, while still having the brackets for the bolts that attach the upper part of the top tray to the bottom part.

Also replaced my AGM under the hood, walmart was out of stock of the everstart platinum, so i went with the FVP from menards, have that in our 18 expedition for several years without issue.

Charged up the lifepo4 overnight with the PL2320 i got for doing FDRS updates since it has a mode for it.

Between both things, i hopefully should be good for a long time, and with the extra boost of the lifepo4, hopefully i shouldnt have to hook up the battery charger overnight to try and get through regular OTA updates after they would fail several times.

Any thoughts on upping the charge % a bit with forscan as well?

 

[Snakebitten]

@CoolDuDe919
You should be fine, but do you have any way of measuring resting/static voltage with a "dormant" truck?

I'm just selfishly desiring to compare notes with the few folks that have taken this approach. It would be encouraging to be able to definitively declare that this setup guarantees a 13.x volt resting voltage on every truck.

From my setup, x = .25
So 13.25 Volts is what the truck sees when it's woken up. That's plenty of headroom for the electronics onboard.

Regardless, welcome aboard!
Thanks for sharing

 

[CoolDuDe919]

@CoolDuDe919
You should be fine, but do you have any way of measuring resting/static voltage with a "dormant" truck?

I'm just selfishly desiring to compare notes with the few folks that have taken this approach. It would be encouraging to be able to definitively declare that this setup guarantees a 13.x volt resting voltage on every truck.

From my setup, x = .25
So 13.25 Volts is what the truck sees when it's woken up. That's plenty of headroom for the electronics onboard.

Regardless, welcome aboard!
Thanks for sharing

Which battery monitor did you get, was it the Ancel BM300? I had thought about getting that to keep an eye on things, so i can add some data as well.

 

[Snakebitten]

Which battery monitor did you get, was it the Ancel BM300? I had thought about getting that to keep an eye on things, so i can add some data as well.

There's a bunch of listing of the same voltmeter.
It makes it SO much easier to know exactly what is going on and when.

 

[CoolDuDe919]

There's a bunch of listing of the same voltmeter.
It makes it SO much easier to know exactly what is going on and when.

Got it on order!

Also, I was just looking around online and saw this diagram, its for the F-250, but looks like they put two of them back to back. Bigger engines, but i thought this was mainly used for electronics/etc, so interesting in that ford may have sort of already figured this out, at least on the f-250's, and did this to help?

 

[Snakebitten]

I think there's an F150 with 2 auxiliary batteries. Is it the ProPower 2KW?

 

[Jmitchelltfo]

Also, I was just looking around online and saw this diagram, its for the F-250, but looks like they put two of them back to back.

Unless I'm mistaken, those batteries are wired in series for a 24-volt load in that system.

I know myself and @Snakebitten wired ours parallel for a "traditional" 12v setup. We just increased the amp hour capacity of our auxiliary system.



On another note.......I posted my experience with the X2 battery on the Powerboost FB group. Some of the people over there either didn't understand it at all (even though I posted several pictures) or just wanted to argue that they knew exactly how I was going to melt down my pickup like 3 Mile Island.




Two week update with my X2 setup.


1. Resting voltage is still at 13.2-13.25 every time I've checked it. I installed my monitor yesterday, so now I can track it better.

2. I also have scrolled back and forth to keep an eye on how the battery charges while my pickup is running, and it seems that the BMS is very good at tapering the charge. It will charge at whatever voltage the DC/DC setpoint is showing and back off quickly to a low amp level.

3. I don't know where the SOC is pulling its data from in this gauge, but I would assume it is the auxiliary battery since it never says anything less than 100% .......unless I selected the wrong PID.

I think this will be a great solution for me. If it ends up being a 10 year solution that I can move to my next Powerboost.......I guess we will see. But even if it isn't, I will probably be able to use the warranty to get $200 worth of store credit for an AGM if I don't want to play with LFP again.

Looking good so far though!

 

[CoolDuDe919]

Unless I'm mistaken, those batteries are wired in series for a 24-volt load in that system.

I know myself and @Snakebitten wired ours parallel for a "traditional" 12v setup. We just increased the amp hour capacity of our auxiliary system.



On another note.......I posted my experience with the X2 battery on the Powerboost FB group. Some of the people over there either didn't understand it at all (even though I posted several pictures) or just wanted to argue that they knew exactly how I was going to melt down my pickup like 3 Mile Island.




Two week update with my X2 setup.


1. Resting voltage is still at 13.2-13.25 every time I've checked it. I installed my monitor yesterday, so now I can track it better.

2. I also have scrolled back and forth to keep an eye on how the battery charges while my pickup is running, and it seems that the BMS is very good at tapering the charge. It will charge at whatever voltage the DC/DC setpoint is showing and back off quickly to a low amp level.

3. I don't know where the SOC is pulling its data from in this gauge, but I would assume it is the auxiliary battery since it never says anything less than 100% .......unless I selected the wrong PID.

I think this will be a great solution for me. If it ends up being a 10 year solution that I can move to my next Powerboost.......I guess we will see. But even if it isn't, I will probably be able to use the warranty to get $200 worth of store credit for an AGM if I don't want to play with LFP again.

Looking good so far though!

It part # shows it fitting some raptors, etc, and the way the terminals are laid out and the connector cable, it seems to be in parallel, which still means 12v i think?

https://parts.lakelandford.com/p/Fo...tery-Battery-Cover/64860364/FL3Z14A099CA.html

That x2 seems sweet to have its own app/etc. I caught the 20ah eco-worthy on sale for $47.99, so not a bad deal there! Ill update everyone once i get the bt monitor in from amazon and see where my voltage is sitting.

 

[Gros Ventre]

It part # shows it fitting some raptors, etc, and the way the terminals are laid out and the connector cable, it seems to be in parallel, which still means 12v i think?

https://parts.lakelandford.com/p/Fo...tery-Battery-Cover/64860364/FL3Z14A099CA.html

That x2 seems sweet to have its own app/etc. I caught the 20ah eco-worthy on sale for $47.99, so not a bad deal there! Ill update everyone once i get the bt monitor in from amazon and see where my voltage is sitting.

Parallel means 12VDC & double Amp-Hrs; Series means 24VDC & same amp-hrs.

 

[Snakebitten]

1. Resting voltage is still at 13.2-13.25 every time I've checked it. I installed my monitor yesterday, so now I can track it better.



3. I don't know where the SOC is pulling its data from in this gauge, but I would assume it is the auxiliary battery since it never says anything less than 100% .......unless I selected the wrong PID.

I imagine that the BMS is using the voltage reading of both batteries combined to evaluate SOC. (rather than one battery or the other)

It's just that with the LFP Auxiliary battery having the influence it appears to have on raising the resting voltage of the 2 batteries combined, the BMS sees 13.25V. Since it's programmed with AGM voltage expectations, that's enough voltage to rank as 100%. ??

I'd like to hear @HammaMan give his explanation, since I am just shooting from the hip in my basic understanding of such things.

So........
You and I need to put a couple of fire extinguishers under the passenger rear storage compartment? ???

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