HAs anyone purchased LiTime batteries?

[H&H Fishing]

Can purchase 3 100ah 12v Lithium's right now. I am just wondering about real world experience....

[06 SB]

They are cheaper for a reason. There are different types and qualities of cells, better BMS, durable connections, number/type of sensors and designed for a marine environment. You may get them to work for TMs but surely not for cranking. Do a search for Amazon Lithiums and more threads will appear than a the power all jackpot.

[CJ1]

There are 3 or so brands that look identical inside. I purchased power queens as they were cheaper by a good amount over LI time. Other than 1 bad one starting out they have been working great. You can get them with 200 amp bms with enough surge for a cranking battery. I am going to pick up some SOK's to test also. Cj

[jrh_67]

I just bought a 100ah to run my electronics and so far so good but I haven't had it long. Also bought the amped outdoors bluetooth monitor for it so I can keep an eye on it. I use two 100ah Ionics for the trolling motor and I love them but thought I'd give the Li Time a try to compare. I will say it came VERY nicely packaged with a bunch of information about the company and how they stand behind their products etc. but the jury is still out on how well they do. I haven't had it long enough to give a long term review but so far so good. I wouldn't hesitate to buy another one and hell it came with a 5 year warranty so if I get 5 years out of a $300 battery I won't feel bad about it. They were formerly named amphere time and got great reviews but but for some insane chinese reasoning they changed their name to the stupid Li Time. If you go to the amphere time website it now directs you to Li time. They're the exact same battery so check out the reviews on web...

[JohnN]

I just bought three of their 100ah trolling motor batteries. The price difference was too significant to resist. But the jury is out - I'm not sure I made a good decision.

Right now I am using just two of the batteries for a 24v TM. I plan to upgrade to a 36v once the new MK brushless motors are out.

I've had the boat out twice and the trolling motor worked great. No issues. I actually ran is at power level 9 (trolling just for the heck of it) for two hours without a blip.

Here's where the jury is out: I have a MK 440PCL charger on the boat. I have it set to lithium, but it doesn't seem like the batteries are cooperating with the charger. Two of the batteries seems to be periodically locking up at approximately 12.9 volts. This is happening to one of the batteries in the series and to the battery that is standing alone (which was previously connected in series - I swapped them out). When this happens, the charger seems to turn on and off so that the voltage (per Victron monitor) is flicking back and forth between 14.3 to 12.9. The battery stays at 12.9v (does not increase) regardless of how long I let it do this (I've tried up to two days) and sits as 12.9 when I unplug the charger.

I contacted LiTime, and they said I should discharge the problem battery for one minute, then charge it again. That didn't work, but eventually I got it to work by connecting a device, letting it run for considerably longer than one minute, and then connecting the charger. This seemed to get the battery to accept a charge. But when I disconnected the charger, the battery fairly quickly (30 minutes give or take) stepped down 12.9v as through something was sucking the power from it. The only devices connected to the battery is the bluetooth monitor and the charger. I've done this with both "problem batteries." I've yet to experience this with the third battery, which has been in series the entire time. The only thing the two "problem batteries" seem to have in common is that I've had each of them connected in series with the positive to the load and the negative coming from the third battery that has not yet had a problem. LiTime says these batteries can be run in series up to 48v. I did balance them before connecting in series. And the charger is built for lithium. I am mostly clueless, but guessing the BMS isn't compatible with my setup. This would be very disappointing given the fact that these are marketed as trolling motor batteries and I have one of the most common chargers and setups for trolling motors...

So as I sit here today, I wish I would have bought Ionics from Drewtick as I did for my starting battery. But that's really just in my head so far - the only "problem" is coming from the fact that I've monitored the charging pretty carefully and it doesn't seem to be working. Maybe they'll work great for five years and I'll be happy with them. As I said, the jury is out!

[z520brewer]

My question to many of you who go cheaper and less expensive. How much is your personal time worth? My approach is spend a little more upfront on an established product and use my “saved” time on fishing and my family. Just my thought

[redzone1]

I got 99 problems but juice ain’t one. Go Impulse Lithium and don’t look back!!

[JohnN]

I agree completely on the value of time. I decided $1,000 in savings was worth the risk to try LiTime after seeing the diysolar teardown video. So far they’ve worked great but it seems charging may require either a different charger or easy battery access/extra steps. I’ll try to remember to follow up on this thread down the road once I figure it out.

I’ll 100% buy ionics from drewtick here if these don’t work out. I have another boat where a different charger or charging hassle wouldn’t be a big deal - the LiTime batteries will move there if necessary.

[jrh_67]

My question to many of you who go cheaper and less expensive. How much is your personal time worth? My approach is spend a little more upfront on an established product and use my “saved” time on fishing and my family. Just my thought

It made sense for me because for my situation I really only needed it for a year or two. Like I said I run 2 Ionic 100ah for the trolling motor but my old outboard can't use a lithium for cranking so I needed a dedicated lithium for electronics until I repower. I plan to put a new motor on it in a year or two and then I'll go with the big Ionic cranking battery for starting the motor and electronics. I decided to go this route just to try out the cheaper one compared to the Ionics and when I repower if it's still good I plan on giving it to my buddy for his boat. I'm not a tournament fisherman or anything like that so it wasn't a case of do or die if my battery failed. I just really wanted some real world experience with the Li Time to try them out and run it through the ringer so to speak. I will say that I love my Ionics and Drewtick is the man! He went above and beyond to make me happy when I bought them and I definitely feel more comfortable dealing with him if I were to ever have warranty issues. My trolling motor is on the boat for the long haul hence is why I went with the Ionics for that.

[CJ1]

I agree completely on the value of time. I decided $1,000 in savings was worth the risk to try LiTime after seeing the diysolar teardown video. So far they’ve worked great but it seems charging may require either a different charger or easy battery access/extra steps. I’ll try to remember to follow up on this thread down the road once I figure it out.

I’ll 100% buy ionics from drewtick here if these don’t work out. I have another boat where a different charger or charging hassle wouldn’t be a big deal - the LiTime batteries will move there if necessary.

John, grab one of the problem batteries and use a different charger. A simple power supply set at 14.5 is best. I am betting your charger is the issue. The chance of both series batteries being bad is slim. They most likely would not work at all and the voltage you are saying is low. Charged should be above 13v resting. Cj
If you charger has a AGM setting try that also

[JohnN]

I did try a different charger with the same result. It is a cheap amazon lithium charger, but since it produced the exact same result I am convinced it's the battery. But I haven't tried the AGM setting on either charger. I did a little "research" (googling) and since my charger is flicking the charge on and off, perhaps it thinks the battery is charged for some reason when it isn't. The AGM setting won't click off the way the lithium setting does, so maybe that will be the ticket. Thanks for the suggestion! Will try it.

[chrisntab]

I bought 3 Ampre Time (now Li Time) in Jan 2023, all have died for various reasons and different times. They replaced with two Li Time. I have been running one of the two for 3 months no problem, I just got the 2nd one back. The third has since died.

What i will say is if you have a battery go bad, you will be speaking to someone in China to get a replacement. It takes days to get a response, multiple excuses, to finaly get a replacement. Taken well over a month to get a replacement for the first two AmpreTime from Li Time. Add this headache i just don't know if hooking and unhooking batteries, long waits to get replacemnt is it worth the cost savings on intial purchase

[CJ1]

Yep, we will see on these batteries. BUT the cells for the most part are not the issue, the BMS is normally the problem. One of the ones I got had a bad cell but it was replaced in a week. So at $700 less per battery I am willing to spend a bit of time to see if it is doable for off grid use. Same basic use for trolling and electronic use in boats only a minimum of 8 12v batteries, so yea a bit of $$$$ difference. CJ

[st041986]

I've been running a pair of 100AH Ampere Time (before they were rebranded to LiTime) on my Ultrex 80 for a bit over a year and they have been great. Zero issues. I charge them with a Minnkota PC318 charger

[JohnN]

Update on my LiTime 100ah TM batteries. I can't explain it, but they are now all charging successfully and sitting at the same voltage. I've used them a couple more days since my last post and barely put a dent in the voltage. 8 hours of river fishing (lots of spot lock) brought the two I'm using right now from 13.4v down to 13.2v. I have them set up with USB voltage and temp monitoring with Victron Energy Smart Battery Sense ($40 each on Amazon) and everything seems to be working great now (knock on wood). I can't explain why the voltage was bouncing around initially. If I hadn't been monitoring it, I never would have known. I never had to try the AGM setting on my MK440PCL charger because when I went to do that, everything had finally evened out so I left well enough alone.

[NoCAL]

3 100 Ah Redodos purchased in Nov of 2021. Work perfect and never get below 70% fishing in wind and current. I had one issue that ended up not being the battery but the company was super attentive and walked me through all the tests to rule out the battery as the issue. Very good customer service. They were emailing from China so it was two days to get an answer and move on to the next step. I am very satisfied. Cost was just over $1050 with free shipping.

NoCAL

[MTW]

Update on my LiTime 100ah TM batteries. I can't explain it, but they are now all charging successfully and sitting at the same voltage. I've used them a couple more days since my last post and barely put a dent in the voltage. 8 hours of river fishing (lots of spot lock) brought the two I'm using right now from 13.4v down to 13.2v. I have them set up with USB voltage and temp monitoring with Victron Energy Smart Battery Sense ($40 each on Amazon) and everything seems to be working great now (knock on wood). I can't explain why the voltage was bouncing around initially. If I hadn't been monitoring it, I never would have known. I never had to try the AGM setting on my MK440PCL charger because when I went to do that, everything had finally evened out so I left well enough alone.

that sounds like one or more of the cells were out of balance. happens even to the best of batteries.

[Dirtyeggroll]

Got a 50ah LiTime for $65 yesterday with Amazon prime day. Couldn’t pass it up. Will report on how it works.

[Bass in the grass]

Got a 50ah LiTime for $65 yesterday with Amazon prime day. Couldn’t pass it up. Will report on how it works.

WOW, that’s dirt freaking cheap!

[yam911]

How are folks with Litime batteries monitoring the state of charge?