The camper season is over, and your travel vehicle is sitting in the garage or in front of the house. Before a long idle period there are things to prepare, like cleaning the water tank – and suddenly the question comes up: What actually happens to the LiFePO4 battery?
The good news: modern LiFePO4 batteries are much easier to look after than classic lead-acid batteries. Still, it is worth keeping a few basic points in mind, which we want to go through here.
Why Storage Matters in the First Place
Every battery loses some energy over a longer period – even when no consumers are connected at all. In addition, slow chemical aging processes take place, which unfavorable storage conditions can speed up.
If you are not going to use your battery for months, you should not simply park the vehicle and forget about it. With a few simple steps you can make sure the battery is ready for use again right away after the winter break or a longer idle period.
Preparing the Battery Properly for Storage
LiFePO4 batteries are ideal for vehicles that also sit unused for longer periods. A few measures can have a positive effect on the battery’s service life:
Optimal State of Charge
Purely from the point of view of cell aging, about 60 % state of charge is considered ideal for very long storage periods. The reason lies in the cell chemistry: lithium cells age more slowly when they are neither fully charged nor fully discharged for a long time.
In practice, however, charging fully before storage is often recommended for vehicles, to build in a reserve for the unavoidable self-discharge and any standby currents.
With tigerexped batteries, self-discharge is extremely low relative to the capacity, thanks to special measures and the decision to leave out power-hungry features such as Bluetooth modules. As an additional special feature, they have a physical switch on the housing that lets you switch the battery off completely before storage – this reduces the self-consumption of the battery management system to a minimum.
Additional Measure
To prevent unwanted currents from flowing, it makes sense to disconnect the battery from the vehicle’s electrical system.
To do this, you can disconnect one battery terminal.
To be able to disconnect the entire electrical system easily at any time, we recommend integrating a battery master switch into the system, which you can now also use for winter storage.
Does the Battery Have to Stay on the Charger During Storage?
No.
A common misconception from the days of lead-acid batteries is the assumption that a battery has to be on a maintenance charge all the time. With LiFePO4 batteries, this is generally not necessary.
tigerexped batteries can be stored switched off for up to three months without needing to be recharged.
Charging continuously throughout the entire storage period usually brings no benefit with lithium batteries and can even keep the battery at its maximum state of charge for an unnecessarily long time.
The Short Overview
- Charge the battery before storage.
- Switch the battery off.
- Disconnect it from the vehicle’s electrical system.
- Run a full charge cycle about every three months.
- No continuous maintenance charge needed.
Putting the Battery Back into Use After Storage
Before the first trip, we recommend charging the battery fully and checking that the vehicle’s electrical system works properly.
If the battery was switched off for a longer period, a reactivation may occasionally be necessary. With tigerexped batteries, this is done with the reset button, which you hold down for about ten seconds.
tigerexped Battery Manuals Download
In the shop you can also find the manuals for the tigerexped LiFePO4 batteries again as a complete download:
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