Lead Crystal Batteries

Thread 135895 in Nov last year has some info.
Apparently it is a marketing ploy for a brand of AGM batteries.

a bit of information on LCB's. Not just an AGM by another name. https://trailercamperaustralia.com.au/electrical/12v-batteries/lead-crystal-batteries.html

As Kennell says above.......
"it is a marketing ploy for a brand of AGM batteries"
They are still AGM batteries!
If these are a no cost option go for it.....if at a cost what is the cost and what is the standard 'fit'?

I think the main threat to them is that LifePo4 batteries are at last coming down in price, by 20% so far as I can see.

I bought a 22AH one for my wife's golf buggy and she raves about it every day.for it's light weight and power which doesn't taper off. And that replaced a Sonnenshine that was still in good nick but weighed about 13Kg vs about 2 for the Lithium..

There are some good Youtube videos on lead crystal batteries where a bloke continually discharges one to zero and it comes back time and again. Try that with an AGM.

I think they have a place but are going to be challenged by Lithium

I think the comparative cycle lives between Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries and Lead Crystal in the link mentioned earlier are a bit spurious.
On my sums, LiPo4 batteries are actually cheaper over their life that lead acid and AGMs. But they are lot more expensive upfront. I can't comment on lead crystal but do note they that are not in mainstream use.

This link may be of interest.
Lithium conversion for Kimberley

I've never seen any Lead Crystal batteries in use anywhere - let alone used one myself.

I'm wary of lots of "superiority", and "exceptionally long life", claims about new products - unless they're backed by independent verifiable testing, over a wide range of typical use scenarios.

Most of the stated Lead-Crystal claims are merely marketing BS. How they can claim an 18 yr life, when the battery has only been on the market for a couple of years, beats me.

The lead-acid battery manufacturers are fighting back against Lithium - but it's been a losing battle for them.
Lead-acid batteries have remained very little different in their principle of operation, from the first lead-acid battery in 1859.

However, one Lead-acid manufacturer has developed an interesting new design of Lead-acid battery - and that manufacturer is Firefly, with their Carbon-Graphite Oasis Foam Cell battery.
Firefly was spun off from efforts by Caterpillar to develop a vastly superior battery with no exotic materials in its construction.

Firefly didn't achieve everything that Caterpillar sought - but they have made a quantum leap in Lead-acid battery design.
The Firefly Carbon-Foam Cell battery comes very close to Lithiums performance as far as repeated and deep cycling, with little damage - but without Lithiums massive charging demands problems.

The problem is that the Firefly batteries are in short supply, with Firefly proposing total production of 200,000 Firefly Carbon-Foam batteries for 2018.
The Americans alone use multiple millions of batteries annually, so it's going to take a while for Firefly batteries to gain traction, and up production sufficiently to meet worldwide demand.

Fortunately, the Firefly battery is easily built on existing Lead-acid battery production lines, so that makes scaling up production a lot easier.

Meantimes, I'd be very wary of the claims and the whole-of-life, value-for-money, of Lead-Crystal batteries, at their present pricing levels.

Firefly Carbon-Foam cell battery - White Paper

Cheers, Ron.

There are a lot of opinions from people who have never had any experience at all in these.

I have a friend who owns a large battery importing business. Selling to Telcos, RV industry, Solar and recreational. he competes with Betta Lead Crystal but looked into them in detail. There is one other brand apparently.

He did tests on them and said that are different, and can withstand higher discharge values with a longer life. He siad the list price is too high though. You can get htem for a 10% premium over normal AGM if you shop hard.

His conclusion. They are different in that they can withstand discharge down to around 25%. He'd sell them but the Australian distribution is locked up for a few years.

I bought one on this basis a year and a half ago. I guess the jury is out for another 18 months. The best I ever got from an Optima was about 2 - 3 years and 4 years from a Century. Optima are the worst Aux battery solution I have ever had. When I complained Optima said they are not for Aux applications. Go figure.

We'll see.

I was watching a Netflix show a while ago and lithium plate will be the next big thing which has more storage capacity than lithium ion and extremely safe. From memory he's a professor who's been working on it for around 5yrs he has cracked the code shall we say where others have failed but he was still doing more testing over the next couple of yrs to make sure it is as reliable and as good as it can be before it's released. Good to see he's not rushing into it and putting an unreliable and dangerous product on the market which you have to give him credit for. Apparently he was looking for a big investor to help with manufacturing etc. It's worth watching if your interested in that sort of thing.