Drop in Lithium battery replacement for alarm system

Kosmik said:
Ok , I was just saying because my panel sets the charge rate on mine so regardless of increasing the transformer, it would be limited by that.
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I had a quick look at the specs of my system and it look like the 14ah setup is within the capability of my panel with the higher spec transformer.

Battery.jpg
 
We still have supplies of Ultratech 8AH/20AH and higher, Securiprod 50AH, LR Comtronics 20AH (not listed on our site loadshedbuddy.durban) but selling like hotcakes if you are still convinced that LifePo4 is the way to go.

We have also just got in fresh stocks (200) of the 7AH LR Comtronics LifePO4 at very favourable prices.
 
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What's the draw on an average alarm system?

Possible to replace the 7ah battery with one of these?
 
BrandonJ said:
We still have supplies of Ultratech 8AH/20AH and higher, Securiprod 50AH, LR Comtronics 20AH (not listed on our site loadshedbuddy.durban) but selling like hotcakes if you are still convinced that LifePo4 is the way to go.

We have also just got in fresh stocks (200) of the 7AH LR Comtronics LifePO4 at very favourable prices.
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Loadshedbuddy.durban ? ... is this related to @Thor
 
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BrandonJ said:
We have sold over 200 of the LR Comtronics Version , and hundreds of the Ultratech - people are replacing these in alarms and gate motors and not reporting problems.

Be careful about connecting in series and parrallel applications though. In these cases balancing of the cells is very important.
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30802610.jpg


LiFeP04 4 life
 
BrandonJ said:
We were admittedly cautious, and still are . many people feel that it's working for them though.
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Mine's been in for about 8 months now, no issues yet ( paradox MG5050 and a vestech 7ah bat ).

I would not use it in my gate motor though, even the ones you stipulated above have a max current of 8A, my motor is drawing 10-11A on open/close ( big sliding gate and a old D5 Evo ). Thought about the redtech? larger one but the high discharge still worries me as that one states it can only sustain for 3-5 secs and my gate runs longer than that.
 
Rickster said:
What's the draw on an average alarm system?

Possible to replace the 7ah battery with one of these?
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Check your transformer.

DC Output Voltage:
  • 5V + USB x2 (2A)
  • 1x 24/48V (PoE 1G) (0.4A)
  • 1x 9V/12V (Selectable) (2A)
  • 4x 12V (5A)
But I would just leave the battery and replace the transformer output. A lot of companies wire externals directly the battery power ( Blue wired my radio to it ), its not fed off the panel.
 
BrandonJ said:
Only 6 of these LR Comtronics batteries left, will probably be sold by today. Securiprod also sold out. We have received over 3000 units of the ultratech battery though. Will be loading on our site.

As much as we promote the fact that these batteries are not a good fit for many applications, and the manufacturers are giving the same story, anecdotally we have technicians reporting having replaced 100's of alarm and gate motor batteries with these without problem.
View attachment 1489545
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At what point isn't it anecdotal any more?
 
BrandonJ said:
The D5 motor is supplied by the manufacturer with 7.2amp batteries. That is the standard, there is likely an issue with the motor if that's not enough.
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7.2ah but they allow a high constant discharge burst with SLA.

1678373269710.png

LifePO do not behave the same, that have a max and then a peak burst which is usually around 3-5 secs.

1678373449736.png

LiPO is another story but we aren't talking about those. A LifePO might work but my worry is that discharge. Possibly I'm reading the motor wrong and the 10-11A figure is total over the period vs per second, not sure how that works but its the one reason I haven't used it on my gate and most have clear warning about high current motors and LifePO. The EVO smart is able to I believe.
 
BrandonJ said:
Well, many on the forum here mock us because we caution against drop in lithium replacements. However many suppliers and technicians are reporting no adverse affects from using these batteries in their alarms and gate motors. how it all pans out in the long run, and whether these users actually realise 500 , 1000 or 2000 cycles - which is what the economics are based off, is another matter entirely that will become apparent after most of these batteries start reaching the 500 cycle arena.
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Fair post.

My experience is as follows: new 7ah lead acid battery with the alarm in 2021, died about a year ago. Replaced it with a 18ah lead acid, died about 6 months ago. 7ah Lifepo4 since about 6 months ago, and only once did it run flat because I unplugged the alarm and forgot to plug it back in LOL.

But I agree, time will tell.
 
BrandonJ said:
Well, many on the forum here mock us because we caution against drop in lithium replacements. However many suppliers and technicians are reporting no adverse affects from using these batteries in their alarms and gate motors. how it all pans out in the long run, and whether these users actually realise 500 , 1000 or 2000 cycles - which is what the economics are based off, is another matter entirely that will become apparent after most of these batteries start reaching the 500 cycle arena.
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My anecdotal evidence.

Lead acid alarm battery . Lasts 2 hours . Alarm Dies during stage 6 loadshedding.

Battery lasted 6 months.

Lithium drop in replacement. Lasts the full 4 hours . Has been going strong for 6 months. Haven't needed to reset the alarm once
 
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As an alarm battery, I think it's fine. Alarm systems do not draw high current so the nature of the lifepo and is ability to be discharged and recover takes the fore. It won't charge faster but it should retain its charge better as well as more and deeper discharges.

Now in the case of using one in a gate motor: for swing gate and light/short sliding gates, it should be fine as long as it's within the continous and peak discharge range. If it's over that, there is risk on the battery and the components. With the larger current motors and big gates ( For example mine is 2m high by 4m long Clearview), its a problem, I think based off the spec sheet and gate lcd output.

The main issues are the bms cutoff recovery, which may require the battery to be kick started by a separate charger but by the same token, if a lifepo got hammered that badly, likely a sla would be dead or severely damaged as well.

2c
 
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