Lifepo4 vs li-ion batteries. Pro and cons

ESK8 Electronics
1

Why would anyone still be choosing lithium ion over Lifepo4? Why are 18650 lithium-ion such as Samsung 25R and 30Q are still so popular if Lifepo4 have these amazing features?

Pros:

  1. More constant discharge rate
  2. Less battery sag
  3. More life cycles
  4. Deliver higher discharge rate
  5. Safer
  6. Faster charging time
  7. Larger overcharge tolerance
  8. Higher working temperature

Cons: Lower capacity (easily compensated with more parallel cells) Slightly higher price tag

What are good lifepo4 batteries these days?

2

Cost (which I consider to be more than “slightly”) and availability of genuine cells brought me to Lithium-ion (Samsung 25r) instead of LiFePo4 (A123 is the main manufacturer as far as I know)

3

That’s a good point, but the cells are worth it, a 12S setup with lifepo4 could replace a 10S with li-ion for a much better performance and range.

I wonder if anyone knows a good source to get genuine ones.

4

Not entirely sure where Boosted orders them from. Might be directly from the manufacturer but they seem to be dormant.

5

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?587606-Disassembly-of-a-DeWalt-36v-Battery

This is a way to get them cheaply :slight_smile: It might be risky because you never know how many of them are good and how many are bad, but I would give it a try if I had more money :smiley:

6

To summarize this topic. No one uses LiFePO4 because it has a higher cost compare to Li-ion in terms of money and property of the cell.

1 Like