Lead crystal battery

[Poley82]

Hi all.

Just wondering if anyone has installed a lead crystal battery in their car or camper. They sound great.

Time for a new auxiliary battery in the Patrol and looking at putting it in the boot and making a custom drawer and fridge slide set up. Most like be installing a dcdc charger as wanting to put a solar panel on the roof. Any experiences or tips would be greatly appreciated.

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[the evil twin]

Haven't used one myself yet. Cheaper than LiFePo4 but heavier.
I am a little suspicious of the small supply base for Crystal Batteries if they are so darn good you would think a lot of manuf would be churning them out, great for the environment etc etc.

Redarc claim their equipment is compatible and just treat them like an AGM for recharging, control etc. so no specialist charger req'd is another advantage

FWIW I still use Lithium only because at this stage it has the runs on the board, lighter, does higher current with less voltage sag etc and is pretty much proven in the real world.
If the crystal jobbies are indeed better in every parameter except weight as is claimed by the manuf then at about 2/3rds the price they would appear to be the better choice

Ballpark $600 for Crystal against ballpark $1,000 for Lithium in a 110 AH is what I have seen but $ can be much higher depending on the Lithium equalising/charger method.

[the evil twin]

Thought I would add that unless you operate in extreme temps a lot of the advantages of Crystal (and some for Lithium) are moot anyway.

For example
-there is no point in having a Battery that will perform down to, say 4 volts, when the equipment you run off it shuts down at say 11 volts due to low voltage sensing or will be damaged by excess current.
-there is no point having a battery that will take a charge acceptance rate of, say 50 AH over one that has 30 AH when you have a solar panel array that only supplies say, 10 AH.

If that is the case a quality AGM will do the job of the Crystal at a considerably lower cost.

[Yeti's Beast]

Can I just add that the supplier in Aus is not the manufacturer. There is only one company selling them and they are just a sticker company. As mentioned if they are so good why don’t more companies sell them and I have also seen that they don’t sell them in the US. Which is one of the worlds lagest markets.
Things that make you go hmmm


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[10G]

Thought I would add that unless you operate in extreme temps a lot of the advantages of Crystal (and some for Lithium) are moot anyway.

For example
-there is no point in having a Battery that will perform down to, say 4 volts, when the equipment you run off it shuts down at say 11 volts due to low voltage sensing or will be damaged by excess current.
-there is no point having a battery that will take a charge acceptance rate of, say 50 AH over one that has 30 AH when you have a solar panel array that only supplies say, 10 AH.

If that is the case a quality AGM will do the job of the Crystal at a considerably lower cost.


Can I just add that the supplier in Aus is not the manufacturer. There is only one company selling them and they are just a sticker company. As mentioned if they are so good why don’t more companies sell them and I have also seen that they don’t sell them in the US. Which is one of the worlds lagest markets.
Things that make you go hmmm


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Very good points fellas, they're the type of discussion points that make sense. Hard to go against that type of clear common sense thinking.