Lurching towards Lithium

Posted on February 15, 2024 by Michael

Melissa’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean we don’t have the power? We’ve been motoring all day long. Surely the batteries are charged now!”

Sadly, Melissa’s brow spent much of September and October a-furrowed. Our 440 Amp Hours of Lifeline AGM batteries were aging and and could no longer deliver the juice they once did (Something I can relate to). Even with good sun on our solar panels and the Balmar 110 amp alternator running, the batteries would not accept as much power when new.

Our old Lifeline batteries. These were top of the line when we left the dock in 2017. Somehow it escaped my attention that they were almost seven years old

I should have foreseen this crisis. When we were preparing the boat for this cruise, I was busily adding new instrumentation and communications equipment. We now sport Garmin Radar and wind instruments, an electric toilet, an AIS class B transceiver, and Starlink internet in addition to a not inconsiderable number of power hungry devices already aboard.

Oh and a 2000 watt Victron inverter charger! Let’s not forget that. That inverter opens up a veritable Pandora’s box of amp sucking geegaws that seem to mysteriously find their way onto the boat. This isn’t a new phenomena. A quiet battle has been raging on Galapagos about supply and demand since the beginning. Even as I type, Melissa is wondering out loud if we could install a washer/dryer combo in the V-Berth. Check out some of our earlier posts on the subject Here and Here.

By the time we reached San Diego it was clear that we would need to replace the old batteries. My first instinct was to simply buy another set of Lifelines. That would be the easiest route. But who wants to do things the easy way? Not us!

We had been hearing that regular cruisers were now installing Lithium batteries (technically Lithium Iron Phosphate, or LiFePO for short) onto boats with great success. This particular chemistry is now widely available and has addressed many of the safety concerns of earlier Lithium battery types.

Thus emboldened to consider a serious upgrade to our power system, I began to research, perseverate, ponder and cogitate on the myriad choices available. There are so many great resources available on the subject and it is amazing how much effort folks put into creating great advice and content. Links to some of the articles and channels that helped me are below.

After much hand wringing, I bought two 460 Amp Hour Epoch batteries. These things are an amazing value and have features I would never have considered possible in a battery. For example:

300A Max Continuous Discharge (500A 30s Discharge)
230A Max Continuous Charge (300A 10s Charge)
Built in 500 Amp Class T fuse
IP67 Rated, Dust and WATERPROOF
HEATED – Internal heating for below 0C charging
BLUETOOTH – iOS and Android Apps
CANBUS Communication allows BMS to communicate directly with Victron OS
Mountable ON/OFF Switch
Mountable Battery gauge

Our two Epoch 460 AHr batteries. These are an 8D form factor. On the right hand side, you can see the power switch and a row of dip switches for setting up series/parallel configuration. The power switch is an especially useful safety feature.

Out of this impressive list of features the fact that I could integrate the Battery Management System (BMS) with the Victron equipment I had was intriguing. This means that the battery would tell the charger what it needs. Charging batteries correctly is the key to a long and useful life. Living with lead acid batteries on a boat it is difficult to give them the love that they need; don’t discharge below 50% capacity, do bring them up to full charge often, AGMs prefer one charge profile while traditional wet cell batteries want to be charged differently.

Each battery came with a well made set of 700mm battery cables. These made the installation that much easier.

Each battery came with a well made set of 1 meter battery cables. These made the installation that much easier.

Now, the battery can tell most of the charge sources (not all) what it needs. The Victron Multiplus charger and both solar chargers are controlled by the Epoch BMS. The Balmar alternator is not that intelligent and special considerations have been made to ensure that the alternator maintains both a safe charge profile and is itself protected from working too hard.

Any project of this magnitude requires more than just a pair of batteries. I installed a Victron Cerbo GX to provide the communications interface between the various charge devices and the batteries but it does so much more. The Cerbo offers a number of digital and analog inputs for displaying alarms, tank levels etc. It also has a built in web server which provides visibility and control of all of the various Victron devices. And since the Cerbo is networked via our Starlink router, that visibility and control is available anywhere in the world.

One concern I have is the reliability of these fancy new batteries in extreme conditions. For example, would a lightning strike destroy the BMS, rendering the whole battery useless? I don’t have a spare BMS but plan on acquiring one. This worry led me to maintain a set of traditional wet cell batteries for the engine and windlass. They are three inexpensive (Interstate) Group 24 batteries that are used only for start and windlass duties but if the worst should happen, I can switch them over to provide power to the house and vital navigation electronics. While it would be difficult and expensive to plan for every dark contingency, I feel this strategy provides some old school redundancy. Let’s hope I never need it.

This is the power distribution diagram for Galapagos. Note that a Victron DC-DC 30 amp charger is used to supply charging voltage to the Wet Cell batteries. Click on image for a larger view.

One potentially controversial decision I made was in how the I use the alternator to charge the LiFePo batteries. Because the BMS can disconnect the batteries from a charge source for a variety of reasons, there is a risk that the alternator could be unceremoniously disconnected from the batteries. Alternators do not like to be dumped. Who does? If this happens a large field voltage spike is generated which can destroy the rectifier diodes. For this reason, provisions must be made to prevent such an occurrence or minimize its effects if it does happen.

Conventionally, the alternator would be charging a lead battery and the LiFePo bank would be charged via a DC-DC charger. That way there is always a battery to charge into. But when I was sourcing my Victron charger, all I could get was a 30 amp charger (I think a 50 amp charger is now available). Since my alternator can comfortably deliver 75 amps to the LiFePo bank I would be missing out on all that juice, something I am loathe to do.

So I have reversed the process and charge the lead battery from the LiFePo bank using the DC-DC 30 amp charger. To mitigate any risks of damage of a battery disconnect, I have installed the Balmar APM-12 protection module to our alternator which will clamp field voltage spikes to prevent damage to the diodes and other electrical devices. I also have a manual field disconnect switch which I can use if the batteries are approaching 100% State of Charge. Additionally, I have de-rated the alternator using the Belt Saver feature on the regulator to keep the alternator running a lower operating temperature, about 80 degrees C at present.

The DC-DC charger and the Cerbo GX module.

If I acquire a second, larger DC-DC charger, I may reconfigure this setting. For now, I am comfortable with the risks. The likelihood that both batteries would go offline at the same time seems fairly low. Maybe I can buy another Epoch battery and then further minimize the risk.

So far, I have been ecstatic about how this new system is working. I have taken the 920AHr house bank down to 13 percent SOC and charged it back to 50 percent in 4 hours. If I run the generator and the alternator and solar at the same time, I can put 150 amps into the house bank without worry. Well, I still worry, but less than I used to. I love not having to to charge the bank up to 100% SOC. For a cruising sailboat that is a big deal.

We are presently anchored off of Isla San Geronimo, about a third of the way down the Pacific coast of the Baja Peninsula. Today we motored for about three hours until the wind got up and we sailed the rest of the day. The graphic below depicts our energy demands and production. This is probably not totally accurate as it does not correctly account for the power generated when the alternator was running. Maybe I need a smart shunt.

One of the many nice features of the Cerbo GX is the ability to create a Victron Remote Monitor (VRM) account. With it you can not only control your Victron devices but gain insights into your energy production and usage.

This is a long post and most readers are likely bored silly. Hopefully it will help those of you that may be considering the switch to LiFePo batteries. Remember, this is just one data point by a guy on the internet. Do your research and make decisions based on your own circumstances.

Here are a few of my favorite resource as I began this journey.

Off Grid Garage :This guy is very knowledgeable and entertaining. He is an Australian dirt dweller but well worth a visit. Lots of youtube videos about LiFePo and various battery monitoring systems.

MV Intrique He has a couple of videos on the Epoch 460 AHr batteries and has done a good job of explaining some of advantages of these batteries.

Panbo An excellent review of the Epoch Battery with a tear down. This site gave me great confidence in the build quality of these batteries.

Marine How To If you have done any research into batteries and charging, You have visited Rod Collins’ site. He has done a lot for the DIY community. Rod had a massive stroke two years back and is slowly recovering. If you find his articles useful, think about donating to his site.

Gui Mods The Cerbo GX is a Linux based platform so of course smart folks have hacked the interface and made it better. I highly recommend the Gui Mods. This video is a primer on what the mods do and how to install them onto your Cerbo.

We’re in Hot Water!

Posted on January 23, 2019 by Michael

When we first took over Galapagos, Melissa and I felt as if we had just bought the Queen Mary. Stepping up from our sweet Cal 34, Moonrise to big ‘ol Galapagos was intimidating and exciting all at once. To paraphrase Bernadette Peters in The Jerk, It isn’t just about the waterline, its all the stuff.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jfug0oN1Jt8[/embedyt]

Of all the stuff that came with Galapagos, nothing could seem as luxurious as a hot water heater. Hot water from the tap? Just like home? What a time to be alive!

It wasn’t hard to slide into such decadence and when I began to re-plumb the whole boat with PEX tubing and new faucets, I knew that I wanted to update the old water heater and get it out of the engine room. So in January of 2017 after much perseverating, measuring and no doubt boring Melissa to tears with technical minutia, I bought an IsoTemp SPA 15 Marine water heater.

For the uninitiated, marine water heaters have an electric heating element, just like the units you have at home. But they also have a small heat exchanger that connects to the cooling system on the boat’s engine. That means you can have hot water just by running the engine for half an hour. The SPA 15 is tiny, only 4 gallons, but that is more than enough for Melissa and I to enjoy showers, wash dishes, and do all the usual domestic chores that can make living aboard a sailboat seem almost normal.

The main reason I chose this particular water heater was that it could fit, just, beneath the sole of the aft cabin. Getting the water heater off a shelf in the engine room not only freed up space for storage there, it placed a fairly heavy container down low, where heavy things should be on a boat. This allowed me to secure it in place; confident that it would stay there in the event of rough weather or, heaven forfend, a rollover. It also simplifies the design and use of the the engine’s cooling system with the heat exchanger since no external header tank for coolant is required.

This area beneath the aft cabin sole made sense as the center of our water system. There was room to locate the water heater, water pump and a simple manifold for the hot and cold water. The PEX tubing and fittings have proven to be quite reliable and really easy to use and modify.

For almost two years we have enjoyed what would have been an unheard of luxury when we first started sailing. In fact we may have grown a little complacent about having hot water and I suspect that Galapagos, like most boats, can sense when her owners are taking her, and her stuff, for granted.

In hindsight I shouldn’t have been too surprised when one night, lying in my bunk, I heard the water pump come on for half a second. Three minutes later, the pump bumped on again. Checking the faucets on the boat yielded nothing. Finally, pulling up the sole in our aft cabin, I could see a small trickle of water. Just an innocent little trickle. It could be anything. A loose PEX fitting, probably. In two years of cruising with lots of bumpy weather, things are bound to jar loose. I would have this fixed in no time I thought.

Sadly, all the easy things were ruled out and I could now see that the water was coming from under the water heater. If I wanted to learn anything more or have any hope of fixing this leak I would have to remove the tank from my super snug location under the cabin sole. I began to question the wisdom of locating the water heater there and was dreading the process of disassembling the bracing and fittings.

But bitching and moaning wasn’t going to stop the leak. And if I didn’t stop the leak we would lose precious water and, quelle horreur!, Melissa wouldn’t be able to have a hot shower. That was a future too smelly to contemplate for long. Onto my belly I slithered and an hour or so later, I had the tank out. It got a lot easier after I had reinstalled and removed the tank a few times as I tried and failed to understand where the water was actually coming from.

The water tank removed and in the shop. In trying to locate the leak, I had thought something obvious might reveal itself without too much effort. I filled the tank with water and looked for air bubbles. No such luck.

This is the heating element and the associated controls that I removed while trying to locate the leak. The electric heater element is mounted through a plate that has a rubber gasket that acts as a seal on the tank. In conferring with the manufacturer, the gasket was mentioned as a point of failure and replacement gaskets are sold on the IsoTemp site.

After disassembling the tank’s electrics and eliminating the rubber gasket, a failure point suggested by the manufacturer, I had nothing left but the stainless steel tank itself. As you can see in the photos, the SPA tanks are encased in a hard plastic case with a foam insulation. Since I really had nothing to lose, I carefully cut the outer plastic casing and started cutting away the foam insulation so that I could see the steel tank.

Here you can see that I am well and truly committed to finding this leak. By removing a hard plastic band from the middle of the tank, I could remove the bottom half of the cover. I then had to cut away the foam insulation that covered the steel tank. At the bottom, you can see the pin hole leak.

But even with the steel exposed and the tank full of water, I couldn’t find the leak. No, the tank had to be under pressure. Fortunately I was able to pressurize the tank without having to put it back under the sole by using some spare PEX tubing, fittings and a hose bib in the engine room. Voila! the leak finally revealed itself. I had suspected that the weld had somehow failed but as the photos show, the pinhole leak is actually a little above the weld. It is troubling that the tank failed after almost exactly two years and we are wondering if another leak will develop at some point in the future.

Finally!

In researching how best to repair the tank, a few of options were presented. Some people have had good luck with JB Weld and if we were far away from services, we would have taken the epoxy repair approach. Melissa has never seen a problem that couldn’t be solved with epoxy and was ready to go that route.

But since we were only a short dinghy ride and walk from several welders, I thought it might be a more durable repair to just have the pinhole spot welded. Walking down the streets of La Paz, carrying my leaky, disassembled water heater, I knew that I had arrived as a cruiser. I also felt a bit like a local; no self respecting Mexican would throw away a perfectly good water heater just because it had a leak. Everything can be repaired and made useful again.

A short walk from Marina de la Paz I approached the men at Taller de Soladura el Chicote (Chicote’s Welding shop) and pointed to my little leak. One of the men took my tank and soon a few other guys were gathered round including a very old man that did not do or say much but seemed to have some position of authority in the business. Was he the elder Chicote? One of the guys did a bit of grinding, selected a welding rod and took my tank over to the welding station. The welding machine ran for all of five seconds and my pinhole leak was no more. Total cost: 150 pesos. About 7.50 USD. The shop seemed pretty busy but I think my job was so small they just took care of it while I waited. It took all of ten minutes and I was schlepping my tank back down to the dinghy.

The guys at Taller de Soladura el Chicote look over the tank. It was a quick, easy repair for them.

Once back on the boat, I filled the tank and put it under pressure again to see that the weld was holding. Huzzah! No leak. I reassembled the plastic case as best I could and sprayed expanding foam inside to provide a bit of insulation and to give the bracing and mounting hardware something to work against. It was a glorious site seeing the tank installed and holding water pressure. Let’s hope we get many more hot showers out of this tank.

A phrase that seems to pop up in our conversations chez Galapagos is “In for a penny, in for a pound”. There were moments in this project that made me question how much further down the rabbit hole I really wanted to go. Many of our adventures keeping our boat in good repair seem to involve a decision to push on, despite the evidence that we are in over our heads. But one of the luxuries of this lifestyle is an abundance of time. Time to read, enjoy the beauty of the world around us and time to expend ridiculous efforts where normal people would have just pulled out a credit card and bought a new water heater.

Once again, Melissa and I have proven to be abnormal. What’s the most ridiculous repair you’ve done on your boat?

Dirty Diesel Done Cheap

Posted on January 16, 2019 by Michael

In early December we crossed the Sea of Cortez from San Carlos/Guaymas to Bahia Concepción. Finally, we were away from the boatyard and all the tasks that come with getting a boat ready to launch.

After some initial uncomfortable beam seas, Melissa and I enjoyed a fairly pleasant crossing with light winds. We had the headsail out and the engine running, making perhaps six knots. Evening was fast approaching and we knew that we would be anchoring at night. No one likes to anchor in the dark but we had anchored in Bahia Santo Domingo a few times before and we had our GPS tracks to follow and permit safe entry into the bay.

A few miles out from Punta Concepción The engine slowed to an idle and then just died. I furrowed my brow. Melissa looked at me, waiting for an explanation or at least some calm assurance that this was perfectly normal behavior.

“WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!” I shouted, pulling at my hair. I may have wet myself a little.

No, I did not do that.

Melissa and I swung into action taking the roles we have perfected over years of sadly similar mishaps. I furrow my brow, concoct an uninformed theory on what just happened and then go below to figure things out. Meanwhile, Melissa works out a strategy to keep the boat safe or keep us moving in the direction we wanted to go. That is how we have handled all previous crises. Just check out Badda-Bing-Badda-Boom or How I Spent My Summer Vacation for more examples.

The fuel filter system I installed on Galapagos almost five years ago. The two filters and the fuel valve below them allows me to change filters quickly if one becomes clogged. An electric fuel pump, lower left, pulls fuel from the tank.

So, my ill informed theory on why the engine died was that the fuel filter was clogged with some algae that had blossomed in our fuel tank during the hot Mexican summer in the boat yard. Common wisdom has it that you should keep your diesel fuel tanks full when placing your boat in storage. This prevents water from condensing in the tanks as the hot, humid air cools in the evening. This moisture collects at the bottom of the tank and forms a warm and inviting location for a kind of algae that loves to munch on diesel fuel. Fuel systems that are heavily infected by “the bug” can quickly clog their filters, especially if that fuel is agitated by bouncy seas or heavy weather. I only had my tanks half full when we put Galapagos away back in June and I secretly worried that this might give me grief at some point.

Theory in hand, I went below and switched the primary filter from number two to number one. I looked at the bowls of both filters and did not see any water but I was troubled by a little sediment that had settled at the bottom of the bowls. Had we been infected by the dreaded bug?

I asked Melissa to try the engine and it started right up. Theory validated! I explained my concerns to Melissa. We would have to keep an eye on the filters but we could proceed to our anchorage safely.

This little box allowed me to install a small relay to run the electric fuel pump when the ignition switch is turned on. I also installed a manual switch to run the pump in the engine room when I am replacing the filters. The switch in the lower center part of the box is for the Balmar Alternator.

After about ten minutes, my brow was slowly unfurrowing when the engine died a second time. My theory was starting to unravel; The second filter couldn’t be that clogged that quickly, could it? And something else was bothering me. Something was missing when I had been down in the engine room but I couldn’t figure out what it was. Some noise… a clicking sound.

With the boat quiet, I went below again. When I had installed the engine, I added an electric fuel pump to pull fuel up from the tanks. Diesel engines are fitted with small mechanical pumps but if the engine is too far above the fuel tank a small electric pump is used to provide additional pressure. This little pump runs whenever the ignition switch is turned on and its familiar little clicking noise was what I was missing.

In a few moments, I found the problem. A connector inside my little control box had worked its way loose. A minute after fixing this issue, we restarted the engine again and were on our way. As we lay at anchor later that evening, I reflected on the pleasure of knowing Galapagos so well that we can hear and feel when things are working well and when something is amiss. Having installed, replaced or at least touched every part of this boat, Melissa and I have a lot of confidence in our abilities to keep her running smoothly.

But visions of algae kept clogging my brain. The fuel filters weren’t dirty yet, but maybe I should have a look in my tank. How old were those filters anyway? Four, five years? They had about 500 hours of run time on them which meant they should be replaced. Pretty soon, I had worked my self into frenzy, certain that if we didn’t act soon, the engine could quit at any moment and maybe even be damaged because I was too lazy to check my fuel.

Melissa documents the process with her Iphone. Some people post pictures of their lunch, or cute cats. We post pictures of hydrocarbon eating algae.

And so once we were settled in La Paz, Melissa and I began to explore the wonders of our diesel fuel tank. Since, as usual, we didn’t know what the hell we were doing, we took an incremental approach. I used a small pump that attaches to our ever handy Ryobi cordless drill and pulled a sample of fuel from a hole located on our inspection port. Looking back, I think all this sampling and filtering was mostly an excuse to delay the inevitable. It certainly gave me time to accept my fate and think about how to pull 40 gallons of dirty diesel from the tanks with as little drama as possible.

Pulled a small sample of fuel before we went too crazy; just to see if there was crud in the tank. Spoiler alert: there was crud in the tank.

Michael examines the fuel sample in his laboratory.

We used a coffee filter to filter out the debris. At this stage we were still in denial about how dirty the tank really was.

With proof in our jar that there was stuff floating around in the fuel, we began to think of how to clean this fuel. At this point, we did not have enough containers to suck the fuel out and store it elsewhere so we could have good look at the bottom and walls of the tank. So we just used our hand drill pump and Baja filter and drained the freshly filtered fuel back into the tank. We did this for a couple of hours and the stuff we saw captured by our filter would curl your injectors.

If you don’t like the smell of diesel, stay out of the kitchen. The access plate to our tank is right in front of the galley sink. That means just about all other boat activities stop while we attend to the fuel. The metal cylinder is called a Baja filter and it contains three screens which provide progressively finer filtration.

Very shortly after beginning to filter our fuel, we sucked up this thing. Sure looks like pond scum to me. The white piece looks like silicone sealant of some sort. After seeing this, we knew we had to empty and clean the tank.

We were getting so much debris from from filtering the fuel that our Baja filters were clogging up quickly. Melissa had some No-See-Um netting that we used as the first filter. This netting is finer than mosquito netting and worked great.

After this initial effort of filtering fuel back into the tank, We were now solidly convinced that a more comprehensive cleaning would need to take place. That meant fuel storage and so our search for inexpensive fuel containers began. Just like the good ol’ U.S. of A, if you put the word “Marine” or “Boat” on a product in Mexico, it is magically much more valuable and therefore expensive. Fuel cans at the nearby chandleries were about 800 pesos (40 USD) each We needed six containers. You can guess that we took a pass on spending 240 dollars on this project, however nice these fuel cans might be.

Instead we went to the Home Depot in two trips and bought six 20 litre fuel cans for 71 pesos (3.50 USD) each. Now it is true that these cans are not as rugged as the nice containers at Lopez Marine. They are also not yellow and I really wanted yellow because everyone knows that yellow cans are for diesel. And we had to schlep These cans back on a collectivo while being warily eyed by concerned Mexican ladies. But at 71 pesos each, I am willing to flaunt social nicieties and use red instead of yellow. We sold half of these containers after this project.

Our Collection of fuel cans used to hold the diesel we pulled from the tanks. The dark red cans we bought from Home Depot here in La Paz for this purpose. With all of our cans and buckets, we had 40 gallons of storage available. After the tank was as clean as we could make it, We used our Baja filter and a fuel siphon to pour the fuel back into the tank. In this way, the fuel got filtered twice.

As we filled container after container with diesel, we could begin to see the bottom of the tank. I used a scotch bright pad to scrub the bottom and sides while there was still some fuel in the tank to loosen any reachable grunge and then pump it out. While we were getting some solids during the whole process, we never saw the horrifying clumps of goo like we did at the beginning of this project. I should also add that I had added Star Tron Tank cleaner to the fuel and let it slosh around in there for a day or so to help loosen the crud from the the tank walls. I have been using the Star Tron Enzyme Fuel Treatemnet on Galapagos since we bought her.

Michael trying to look for bits of grunge to wipe up. We were both stiff from being crouched over this hole for hours.

After emptying most of the fuel from the tank, we could finally see this little sump area where the dip tube stands. This part was very difficult access and we were disappointed that we couldn’t clean it as well as other parts of the tank.

Using a length of Pex tubing left over from re-plumbing the boat, I was able to reach most of the tank’s corners where debris likes to collect and suck it up.

Here you can see the baffle inside the tank and the blue tubing I used as part of our vacuuming system.

The walls of the baffle look grungy but wiping with a rag did not yield much dirt. You can never achieve perfection with a project like this.

After pulling 40 gallons of fuel out of the tank and cleaning it as best we could, we were ready to put the fuel back in the tank. Using our Baja filter again, we siphoned the fuel from our fuel cans back into the tank. We also used those same containers to buy more fuel from a nearby Pemex station and ferry it to the boat. Right now we have about 80 gallons of fuel aboard, enough to last us a few months. Being able to refuel the boat in this way gives us greater flexibiltiy and we can take our time and filter the fuel without feeling rushed at the fuel dock.

This is our Baja Filter. The tall cylinder holds the three filters you see on the left. The filters provide progressively greater filtration in the order shown. In practice, that green filter on the far left gets almost all of the abuse and Melissa had to clean it with soapy water and a brush more than once.

Along with our fuel polishing project, I changed the Racor primary fuel filters, and engine’s secondary filter. At this point I think we are protecting our precious Beta Marine engine better than most boats. We have never had the engine shut down because of a clogged filter and, Lord willing, we never will.

Little Cunning Plan

A plan so cunning you could stick a tail on it and call it a weasel

Category Archives: Galapagos

Lurching towards Lithium

We’re in Hot Water!

Dirty Diesel Done Cheap