Upgrade 100amp to 270amp DF lithium ion

[Rufus519]

Just wondering if you can upgrade your 100amp dragon fly lithium ion battery for the 270amp in a Passport 189?

Thanks

[travelin texans]

Originally Posted by Rufus519

Just wondering if you can upgrade your 100amp dragon fly lithium ion battery for the 270amp in a Passport 189?

Thanks

I know nothing about lithium batteries, but with 100 amp FLA batteries that's 100 amp hours of run time at 12 volts.
So I'm assuming that's 270 amp hours of run time at 12 volts. Can't see where that would hurt a thing, they'll just run longer before dead.

[xrated]

Originally Posted by Rufus519

Just wondering if you can upgrade your 100amp dragon fly lithium ion battery for the 270amp in a Passport 189?

Thanks

First, just for clarification here.....You Do NOT have a lithium Ion battery, you have a LiFePO battery, which stands for Lithium Iron Phosphate....two very different battery chemistries. That can also just be shortened to LFP.

So in answer to your questions about the swap. There should be no reason that you could not swap the 100AH (amp hour) battery for the 270AH, as long as you have the room in your camper to physically do so. Swapping the two exact same chemistry batteries is similar to buying a heavier duty battery for say a trolling motor because the smaller one doesn't last long enough.

Some other considerations involved: Depending on the size of the existing converter/charger, you may want to upgrade it, in order to provide more current for charging. If you use the same converter/charger (CC), it will still work, but obviously take longer to charge the new battery as it 2.7 times the capacity of the 100AH battery. For example, if your present battery is run down to 20% SOC (State of Charge) and it takes the CC 3 hours to fully charge it to 100% SOC, figure that it will take approx. 8 to maybe 8.5 hours to fully charge the new battery. That is why I'm saying that depending on what size CC you presently have, you may or may not want to upgrade to a new CC that is capable of providing more charging current....and of course the new one would have to be compatible for LFP batteries.

You may also have to replace some of the wiring/cable that is involved in the charging circuit and output from the battery in order to utilize a larger amperage CC.

Another thing to be aware of....all of the LFP batteries will have a BMS (Battery Monitoring System) internal to the battery, but some battery's BMS have different features than others. It is imperative that the BMS has provisions to be able to stop charging of the battery when the core temperature of the battery gets down to around 32 degrees F. Damage can occur to the battery when that happens, so make sure that whatever battery brand/model you select, does in fact have a low temperature cutoff to guard against charging at lower temperatures.....again, normally around 32 degrees F.

Hopefully that will give you enough info to make a decision, but there is a lot of info out there on LFP batteries and how to maintain them and how to use them, and how to monitor them as far as how much of the battery capacity has been used.....AH available vs. AH used.

[JRTJH]

^^^ What Vernon said....

For most people, the motivation to install a larger battery is so they can have and use more battery power during the time between charging...

If you consider installing "more than double the battery capacity" your next focus on your "entire battery system" should be on assuring that you have adequate capacity to keep it charged. It does no good to have a 100 amp/hr capacity battery that you can't fully charge when dry camping and replace it with a 270 amp/hr battery while using the same charging system... After the initial charge is depleted, then your "total battery capacity" is fully dependent on the ability to recharge, so keeping the same charging system will limit the new 270 amp/hr battery to "near identical performance" as the old, smaller battery.

You can only get "out of a battery" what you are able to "put into the battery".....

[xrated]

Originally Posted by JRTJH

^^^ What Vernon said....

For most people, the motivation to install a larger battery is so they can have and use more battery power during the time between charging...

If you consider installing "more than double the battery capacity" your next focus on your "entire battery system" should be on assuring that you have adequate capacity to keep it charged. It does no good to have a 100 amp/hr capacity battery that you can't fully charge when dry camping and replace it with a 270 amp/hr battery while using the same charging system... After the initial charge is depleted, then your "total battery capacity" is fully dependent on the ability to recharge, so keeping the same charging system will limit the new 270 amp/hr battery to "near identical performance" as the old, smaller battery.

You can only get "out of a battery" what you are able to "put into the battery".....

Thanks John, and just so he knows......Vernon = xrated.

[MaxBottomTime]

Your dragonfly has a BMS, but also likely has a heater built in to allow the battery to warm before accepting a charge. Super useful. Very few aftermarket batteries have this, so in some ways it will be a downgrade.

You may also consider picking up a second battery and wiring it in parallel.

[Stircrazy]

Originally Posted by Rufus519

Just wondering if you can upgrade your 100amp dragon fly lithium ion battery for the 270amp in a Passport 189?

Thanks

simple answer, yes, they are both dragon fly and have the same features you are just increasing your capacity. exactly the same thing people do with GC2 batteries when they take the crappy little one the dealer sells with the rv and put 4 six v batteries in. don't worry about larger solar or charger unless your goal is to long term boon dock all summer with no power hook ups. if your normal camping is the weekend and you just want to be able to go up to a week on your battery then come home and plug in, you will be fine. Going to a bigger battery isn't going to magically make you use more power, if you keep your usage the same it will just extend how long you can be without hookups for. So, if your 100AH LFP gave you say 4 days, this should give you 11 days if you use power the same. If you're upgrading to be able to run more power things while you're camping then you won't extend your time as much.

To give you an example I used to have a normal small 80AH battery in my camper that if I went camping in the lait fall where I had to run the furnace, I would be at 50% in a little over 24 hours. I upgraded to two GC2 batteries and that let me extend to 3ish days of running the furnace before I hit 50% and I then added solar which changed it to never running out of power as long as I had 4ish hours of sun a day. Now I have changed the GC2 batteries to one 270AH home built LFP battery which will easily let me go 8 Days running the furnace 24/7 in total darkness. I like being over capacity in case I have an issue with my solar or I hit a stretch of bad weather that lowers the solar output. The side effect of this is I went from 160lbs of batteries to about 48lbs and also about 1/3rd the space so the batteries moved inside a closet, and I reclaimed the outside space as storage.

the only factor would be if the space the battery is in can handle the larger battery