The demand for portable and reliable energy solutions has never been more critical. From remote cabins tucked away in the wilderness to the bustling streets of cities electrified by electric vehicles (EVs), the need for batteries has emerged as a driving force shaping modern lifestyles and industries.
Lithium Iron Phosphate, or LiFePO4, batteries are a type of rechargeable lithium-ion battery that has gained significant attention and popularity due to its unique properties and advantages. These batteries are used in a wide range of applications, from portable electronics to renewable energy storage and electric vehicles.
LiFePO4 batteries are suitable for off-grid living, providing power for cabins, remote homes, and isolated locations where traditional power sources are not available. They are also are suitable for marine and recreational vehicle (RV) applications because of their ability to provide consistent power over extended periods, even in harsh environments.
We recently got an interesting battery from GOLDENMATE. It is the GOLDENMATE12V100AhLiFePO4LithiumBattery. As the name suggests, it is a 12V battery with a capacity of 100Ah and the battery chemistry is LiFePO4.It’s BMS has severalsafety features and the manufacturer claims 5000+ cycles of usage.
This is the review of the GOLDENMATE 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 Lithium Battery. We are writing this review after using and testing the battery for its capacity, charge and discharge currents, safety features, and many more. Continue reading the review to find out about the same.
Let us quickly unbox the package and take a look at the contents. As this a battery, there is not much in the box except the battery itself and a very minimalist user manual. The manual has some basic information regarding the charging and discharging parameters of the battery. We highly recommend you note those numbers as you don’t want to pull or push extracurrent than what the battery is capable of.
The battery is neatly tucked in thick pieces of Styrofoam on top and bottom with good padding on the sides as well (not shown in picture).The possibility of damage to the battery in transit is very less.
On the outside, the GOLDENMATE 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 Lithium Battery looks very similar to regular batteries. You have two M8 screw terminalson the top for positive and negative contacts. There is a nylon strap on the top for us to easily carry the battery unit.
The odd thing about the battery terminals is both the positive and negative terminals came with same orange color caps. Although there are markingson the body next to these terminals as “+” and “-”, it would have been nice to provide red and black color caps for the battery terminals.
The GOLDENMATE 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 Lithium Battery comes with loads of features and most of them are directly associated with the BMS of the battery. Before looking at the BMS in detail, let us briefly understand the basic spec of the battery. First of all, it is a 12V battery with a nominal voltage of 12.8V. So, if you are planning to use one, you need to get yourself an appropriate inverter and a battery charger. Next, the rated capacity is 100Ah.
With a nominal voltage of 12.8V and a capacity of 100Ah, the total energy of the GOLDENMATE 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 Lithium Battery is 1280Wh. We will test the capacity and other important features on the next section.
Coming to the important aspect of lithium batteries, the BMS; this particular model comes with tons of safety mechanisms.We tried to look for the datasheet of the BMS but there are no proper results.The BMS is rated for a continuous discharge current of 100A. For charging the battery, the standard charging current is 20A, which translates to 0.2C while the maximum charge current is 50A, which translates to 0.5C. GOLDENMATE claims the battery and BMS lasts for more than 5000 cycles. This significantly higher than lead acid counter parts that typically have very less charge discharge cycles (usually anywhere between 200 and 500).
Next, the BMSboasts short circuit, overcharge, over-discharge, over current, as well as high and low temperature protection. Many LiFePO4 batteries (or lithium batteries in general) have high temperature protection but it is good to see the GOLDENMATE 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 Lithium Battery having both high and low temperature protection.
Let us now see the results of some tests we performed and analyze the performance of this battery. Before that, we tried to access the internals of the battery by removing some screws on top (WE DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS).Unsurprisingly, the positive and negative wires are not single wires but a bunch of wires running in parallel. There are ten 14AWG red wires running to the positive terminal and four 10 AWG black wires to the negative terminal.
For our first test, we fully charged the battery using a 20A lithium battery charger. The battery came almost fully charged (we believe that lithium batteries must come with 50 to 60% of charge while in transit). So, it didn’t take that long for us to get a fully-charged signal on the charger.
Now, we connected the battery to a 3000W (peak) pure sine wave inverter and to the inverter,we connected twoheaters as loadand set a current draw close to 20A (19.6A) as this is equal to 0.2C. We hooked up a battery tester with a shunt to monitor the battery parameters. The battery voltage was around 13.3V and with a load drawing 19.6A, the total power draw (combination of heater and the inverter) was roughly 260W.
The over-discharge protection of the BMS kicked in and shutoff the output when the battery voltage fell to 10.3V even though the specifications say discharge cutoff voltage as 10V. The battery tester showed the capacity as 99.04Ah and total energy as 1268Wh. This is just 1% less than the rated capacity of the battery, which is acceptable.
Now, we charged the battery using the 20A lithium battery charger. It took almost 5-1/2 hours to fully charge the battery. The open circuit voltage of a fully-charged battery was 14.3V.
We once again performed a discharge test but this time, we set the discharge current to about 40A (for a 0.4C discharge) by connecting a bunch of heaters and blower fans. The total power draw from the battery was roughly 524W.Even this time, the capacity reported by the battery tester came at 99.08Ah, which is similar to the previous test.
If you look at the specifications of the GOLDENMATE12V 100Ah LiFePO4 Lithium Battery, it says the charge temperature range is 0°C to 50°C, the discharge temperature range is -20°C to 60°C and the storage temperature range is 0°C to 45°C. While exploring the guts of this battery, we noticed two temperature sensors and thought one is for overheat protection and the other is for low temperature protection.
To test this, we connected the charger and while the battery is charging, we sprayed some freeze spray on the tip of the temperature sensor to instantly reduce the temperature of the sensor. As expected, the BMS shutoff the charging instantly. Very nice to see low temperature protection being implemented in “new” brands.
An important point to remember about the GOLDENMATE12V 100Ah LiFePO4 Lithium Battery is it is not a SLI Battery or Starter Battery. So, if your intensions are to replace your car battery with this, then it will not work.
What are some possible applications of the GOLDENMATE12V 100Ah LiFePO4 Lithium Battery?RVs and off-grid electricity systems are a couple of major areas where the usage of LiFePO4 batteries is increasing rapidly. Simply pair the battery with some solar panels, a capable MPPT charge controller, and a decent inverter to store energy from the Sun and use it to power all your electrical and electronic devices.
Camping is another popular application of the GOLDENMATE 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 Battery. In the heart of remote wilderness or at the edge of pristine lakes, the traditional power grid remains a distant dream. The combination of a LiFePO4 battery and a small inverter can liberate campers from this constraint, enabling them to power essential devices, from LED lanterns and portable fans to communication devices and entertainment gadgets. With an extended cycle life, LiFePO4 batteries ensure that the enchantment of the outdoors is not compromised by the limitations of power sources.
Small EVs such as the Razor MX350 or golf carts can also take advantage of theGOLDENMATE 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 Lithium Battery. Even though we couldn’t test the 5000+ charge/discharge cycles, such high number means you don’t have to worry about buying a new battery very often.
Is 12V not your style? Do you need 24V or 48V battery? Don’t worry. You can connect up to four GOLDENMATE 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 Batteries in series for a combined voltage of up to 48V. Alternatively, you can connect up to four batteries in parallel to increase the capacity up to 400Ah.
The listing price of the GOLDENMATE 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 Lithium Battery is $330 but the selling price is $310. With coupons and other discounts, you can get this battery for less that. This battery also comes with a 2-year warranty.While the performance and capacity are good for the price, we feel at least 3-year warranty would have been nice as some of the other manufacturers are giving even better warranties (5- to 10-years).
Overall, we really liked the GOLDENMATE 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 Lithium Battery. Its price is comparable to some of the other brands and in our testing, the battery performed very well. The capacity and energy came within 1% of the rated values, which is very acceptable.
The BMS has several crucial safety features such as overcharge, over-discharge, short circuit, over current protection. It also has high and low temperature protection. As its discharge temperature range is between -20°C to 60°C, you can use this battery is very cold climates without any stress.
If you are looking for a decent lithium battery for your RV, Solar, off-grid, golf cart, camping, or small EV applications, then theGOLDENMATE 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 Lithium Battery is a worthy option. It definitely gets our thumbs up.
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