CBE 516 Charger for Lithium?

[Alshymer]

Hi
I have just today found out after 7 years of using my 100ah Relion Lithium battery as recommended initially by Admin, that I never changed the Lead/Acid setting to Gel on the above charger!! Whoops.
I have a 2017 Ducato 2.3 multijet, no B2B, a 75/15 Victron MPPT solar charger and rarely use hook up.
Should I change the setting now to ‘Gel’ or continue as previously as I have never had a problem and the battery is still performing well?
Or perhaps I should change the CBE charger?
Regards

 

[Alshymer]

P.S. My CBE 516 does not have the desulphate mode.

 

[Okta]

When I had a Relion battery and a CBE516 charger I left it on lead acid rather than Gel. The Gel has a slightly higher voltage of 14.3V but also comes with an 8 hour absorption phase before dropping back to a holding voltage of 13.8V. The lead acid setting is 14.1V and only has a 90 minute absorption phase before dropping back to a 13.5V holding voltage. The shorter absorption phase and lower holding voltage of the lead acid setting is kinder to the LiFePO4 battery. The 14.1V may slightly under charge the battery but when you are on an EHU you don’t need it full and this is also kinder to the battery long term. After 7 years without the lower voltage causing a problem I would definitely suggest sticking with the kinder setting.

 

[Alshymer]

Thank you for your reply. I was thinking much on the same lines so it is good to have it confirmed.
The main reason I asked the question is that I am changing the Relion for a 280 ah Eco Worthy battery although the Relion is still working well.
I couldn’t resist the price but just hope my current settings will be good for the new battery.
Kind regards

 

[Nabsim]

Look at what the battery spec says for charging voltages and use what fits that best.

Personally I would turn off the charger when battery are full rather than let it float. That's what I used to do on Gel settings before I got a couple of Victron 30A chargers that support Lifepo4. This is because I am rarely on sites but do use a generator to keep battery up in Winter

 

[merl]

It's hard to get concrete proof of how charge profiles WRT floating alter a Lithium battery's life expectancy because the nature of the issue requires time and widespread lithium use simply hasn't been around long enough to find out. One thing that DOES seem to becoming very clear is that Lifepo4 isn't particularly fussy and actually very tolerant of charge profile which is born out by the fact that you've supposedly been charging them wrong for seven years and they are still working fine. Personally I'd leave it exactly as it is, it's obviously perfectly OK.

 

[Okta]

I think the battery manufacturers suggest using a Gel profile for charging because AGM profiles are likely to have too high a voltage and lead acid profiles may be too high or too low. The extended absorption phase of Gel is probably the lesser problem. However if like the CBE516 the Lead Acid profile voltage is very similar to the Gel one then the shorter absorption phase may make it the best choice. @merl I agree LiFePO4 are very tolerant and not fussy.