LifePo4 Battery: Using the Best of Both Worlds: Battery Technology: Eco20/20

LifePo4 Battery: Using the Best of Both Worlds

The LifePo4 Battery is a very viable option for use in most electronics as well as in digital applications. Using lithium ion phosphate makes this the best choice in a large capacity battery for higher powered applications including lap top computers, many power tools, electric wheel chairs, and electric bikes. In addition, it is a good choice for use in electric cars and buses.

This is considered to be a hybrid battery type because it is both as safe as lead acid batteries but as powerful as a lithium ion cell. However, this battery has several big advantages to give it an edge over its competition. The first of these advantages is fast charging. Lithium ion batteries take two different steps to be fully charged, a process that can take up to four hours to complete. The LifePo4 battery is fully charged in about half of that time and only needs one step to reach that full charge.

Another advantage of the LifePo4 battery is that it has greater overcharge tolerance. If you overcharge a lithium ion battery you have pretty much destroyed it. The LifePo4 battery also has a safer performance record and is far less expensive than the lithium ion cells. In addition, the charger system that you use for the LifePo4 battery is far simpler to use. Lithium ion batteries can sometimes have serious failures that can cause them to burst into flame and the charger that they use is fairly complicated for the average user.

A lithium ion battery has a cycle life of about 400 charge/discharge cycles. The LifePo4's cycle life is around 2000- five times as long as the li ion battery. Considering the typical use for many of these batteries, the expense of buying them and the chargers that they need, it is no wonder that frustration is common.

Finding a battery that works well, does not take forever to charge or does not require a degree in nuclear physics to understand can be daunting. Whatever you gain by choosing safety and price, you lose in power in most cases. The LifePo4 battery can be the battery compromise that many people are looking for, offering the strong performance of a lithium ion battery along with the price and safety of a lead acid battery.