Cost of upgrading the LiFePo4 battery bank

All of the materials are in now to figure the total cost.

I visited the Pacer Group in Fort Lauderdale this morning, it was a grotty day, windy, rainy and expensive! Actually cheaper than Amazon, but still it's a lump of money.

The new batteries from Chins cost a total of $420, including shipping and tax. 

I paid $525 for the 18' of 4/0 AWG Red, 18' 4/0 AWG Yellow, 6' of 1/0 AWG Red, 6' of 1/0 AWG Yellow and a Blues Seas 4 Position Switch ( Continuous rating of 300Amps ). That worked out about $80 less than Amazon.

I have previously purchased a 300Amp Fuse block, 100Amp and 300Amp fuses, a 300Amp Terminal Block, appropriate Heat Shrink Tubing. All in all, the cost of the project so far is just over a $1000. It had better be worth it.

The next challenge is to get the old cables out of the conduit tubes that run from the stbd side of the bilge to the port side adjacent to the holding tank. Then !!! pulling the new 4/0 cables through the conduits. Lots of lubricant will be involved. The 4/0 cable is Tinned Fine Strand, so it does bend nicely, it came on a spool with an internal pin of about 4" and the conduit smallest radius is about 6" so bending is not an issue. 

The folks at Pacer Marine Group were really helpful, they cut and rolled the wire in less than 10 minutes. There Store has lots of good stuff - I purchased the Blue Seas 4 way switch as it is much smaller than the one ordered from Amazon which just won't fit where I hoped. Pacer has probably every item you could want from Lugs to Switches, all sizes of Heat Shrink, Terminal blocks and every type of wire.  Impressive. The front desk team were really helpful and had a great attitude.  I'll probably go back again for some future project. 

Meanwhile, I need to get down to getting this job done and I do have a ton of work keeping me busy, and We Want To Go Sailing.   Our next opportunity is to celebrate my Birthday, following that is the Fellowship Race on February 15th, that should be a great sail! Saturday Race to Lake Worth, Sundary, Race back, Sunday evening it's Chilli Cookoff.   Hmmm, going to be a challenge to cook chilli while racing South on the Ocean from Lake Worth to Hillsboro Inlet.   Will the new batteries be installed by then???? I'm trying!

See you on the water.

Installing the new LiFePo4 batteries.

Installing the final (?) two LiFePo4 Batteries. 

January 12th. 2025

Between Work, Home and Family, I keep squeezing time for the boat. In the works is the last part of the upper deck refinishing of the non-skid areas - The Coach Roof which extends from forward of the mast to the sides of the companionway hatch. It's all masked off, I have the painting materials and the weather is looking good to get it done.

Meanwhile the final pieces for the addition of the 4th & 5th batteries are arriving despite one package getting damaged before it was even delivered. Waiting on the Switch, Terminal Block, additional Fuses and the Terminal ends.  I have to go to Fort Lauderdale to get the 4/0 AWG cables ( Red & Yellow ). The Batteries are on the boat but I need to make the hold down straps and secure them with the Stainless Steel Footman Loops. 

Of course theirs Work too! That helps pay for the upgrades & maintenance on Eximius. And I have a Family too! Peggy & I have a life and a Granddaughter whom is really a major part of our lives. She loves Ice Skating and we get to see her skate nearly every week. As she skates several times a week, it's easy for us to fit in a couple of hours to go see her. Love that kid.

Ok, it's time to do some work, Sewing, Taxes, and Home maintenance. 

Wednesday Jan 15th.

Taxes are done, 4th and Final coat on the Cabin top non-skid. Got some sewing done. 

Most of the Parts for the new Battery install have arrived and I checked with Pacer Group in Fort Lauderdale and they have the cable in stock. I should get them this week, 14' of each 4/0 AWG Red and 4/0 AWG Yellow.

I have figured out where the components will be located. The new +ve Fuse Block and the -ve Terminal Block will be located on the inside of the storage area with the two new batteries, the -ve Terminal post will be located on the base of the main battery compartment and the new 1/2/Both/Off switch will take up the space of the old switch, may need to move the existing -ve Terminal Block near the old swtich as the new switch is much larger.

Now to get some sewing done. I have to pay for all of this stuff.

See you on the water.

Adding Chins Batteries

The additional Batteries Arrived.

The new Batteries arrived on Jan 3rd, about the time I expected them anticipating delays due to the holidays.

I was initially concerned that they were not the 'Smart' / 'Bluetooth' models as the EE-BMS did not find them. There is no indication on the outside of the batteries that suggests they are the 'Smart' type. The three existing batteries on the boat are all Chins Smart 100Ah 12.8v LiFePo4 batteries, the same as I ordered.

Reaching out to Chins customer service and sending them an image of the battery labels, I asked if they could confirm the batteries are 'Smart'. Overnight, Peggy asked if they show up on the Phones list of nearby Bluetooth devices. DUH! So I checked, and they did show up. Well that's annoying. 

In the morning Chins replied that I should use the BAT-BMS not the EE-BMS - Duh#2. I really should RTFM. So I downloaded the BAT-BMS and it found the one battery but not the second.  Another email to Chins. They responded in a couple of hours advising that I should charge them and then discharge and recharge them. "some batteries require a simple charge and discharge before they can be linked.".

Ok, that worked.

I put one battery on charge using a LiFePo4 4Amp Charger. It was only 50% charged according to the charger.

After charging it overnight I disconnected the charger and attached a bilge pump that was sitting in a bucket of water. Discharged for 5 hours but still could not see the battery on the BAT-BMS app. 

Charged it for another few hours and then it showed on the App.

Left it charging until it showed 100% on the App.

Then I repeated that process on the second battery and the same outcome. Now both batteries show on the BAT-BMS app and both are charged 100%

With the batteries ready, I placed the order for the additional Fused Terminal Block, Fuses and Switch. They should arrive next week. I'll head down to the boat tomorrow and confirm if I need to upgrade the wiring from the battery box to the Victron Multiplus Inverter Charger.

I'm busy working this week, so not going to get much on this project done plus, I'm expecting the order from Jamestown Distributors so that I  can complete the refinishing of the top deck. That should take 4 days with two trips to the boat each day.  So a busy week.

We're getting there.

Update - Thursday Jan 9th. 2025

As per the plan ( and Chins advice ) I wired the two new batteries in parallel and left them connected for 24 hours.

Result: Both battery packs are within 0.01 volts of each other, the highest and lowest cells are similarly within 0.01v 

Before you jump on me for the thin cables --- I checked the current flow and it was initially a max of 1.2amps and quickly dropped to 0.9.

Just for my records. 

Here's screenshots of the two batteries displayed in the BAT-BMS after the 24hours of Parallel connection.

I like that the App allows for switching between each of the connected ( connected to the App ) batteries rather than have to back out and select another battery in the EE-BMS

The rest of the equipment is on it's way and should arrive this week. I'll go down to the boat today and check if I need to upgrade the cables from the batteries to the Victron Multiplus.

Should be able to get to finish this upgrade next week.

Target date is January 23rd - hope to get the boat out with some buddy boats.

See you on the water.

Short Update Friday January 10th.

Amazon has lost part of my order for the components of the upgrade. Just a delay of a few days I hope.

I was able to take the batteries down to the boat and physically put them in their new home. I had to relocate some consumables - Oil, Coolant, Greases etc. I found some were duplicated so I brought them home. The bag containing the extras actually felt heavier than the two LiFePo4 batteries. 

I updated the wiring diagram as I'm going to have to relocate some of the cabling between the Selector switch and the Shunt & Victron Multiplus.  

Again, see you on the water.

Adding a Forth & Fifth LiFePo4 Battery

Adding a LiFePo4 Battery

We have a 300Ah of 12.8v LiFePo4 Battery Bank consisting of 3 100Ah 12.8 Batteries in Parallel.

Because we have the power, we're converting our Propane Gas Cooker to an Induction Cooktop and an Air Fryer Combo Oven. That's a bit much for 300Ah, even adding one more battery would make a substantial difference.

Our 3 batteries can be charged at 50Ah each, or 150Ah and that is less than the output of our 100Amp Alternator. Although, when we had the alternator tested a couple of years ago, the shop ran it up to 150Amps and we have it tuned down to 75% by our Balmar 618 external regulator.

Ok, so what do I need to change in order to add a 4th or even a 5th battery.

First all of the batteries have to be similar. The original are all Chins 100Ah 12.8v Smart LiFePo4 Batteries and they only have around 30 cycles out of 2000+. I have just purchased 2 identical batteries. When they arrive I'm going to disconnect the existing 3 batteries, charge the new battery with an standalone charger and then put all of the batteries in parallel for 24 hours. They should balance out within a few millivolts of each other. Then I'll reconnect the batteries.

The fuses in the Positive lines are to protect the wiring, so they will limit the Amps below the Ampacity of the existing wires.

Adding the additional batteries should not be an issue. We're not looking to get higher ampage, but more Amper hours. ie. The ability to run our Inverter to power our Air Conditioner or our Electric Induction cooktop or the Air Fryer combo for a longer time.

Where to locate the new batteries?

This is a challenge, the existing battery box is not large enough to add any more batteries, so they will have to be located elsewhere. There is a storage area immediately forward of the battery box, it's currently used for fluid storage ( Oils and Greases ) and a few miscellaneous things, easily moved to a new location.

How to connect the new batteries.

The cables from the Bus Bars must all be the same length to each battery. So I'll make up 2 sets of Positive cables and negative cables to match the length of the existing cables. 

In order to keep the wires all the same length, I'll update the wiring to the following diagram.

The Battery +ve cables will all be the same length and so too the -ve cables. I may have to make all new cables if the existing cables are too short to reach the new battery terminals. 

The Battery On/Off switch will be replaced by a 1,2,Both,Off switch. The new Busbar will have similar 100A MRBF fuses just like the existing +ve Busbar. This will allow isolation of either of the battery banks.

The new Switch should fit inside of the hole for the existing switch and it can be flush mounted, should be an easy swap out.

The terminal block fuses are 100Amp MRBF fuses

However, the Alternator has a max output of 100Amps and the Victron Multiplus has a max charging current of 120Amps. The Multiplus has a max output of 3KW but we'll never normally reach the max, the Multiplus would draw 250Amps at Max inverter output.

Using the BoatHowTo website wiring calculator, it confirms that 4/0 AWG cable size.

I need to check the cables to the Inverter. The Ampacity of 4/0 AWG is 300amps. So that wire size would be good. The connections on the Multiplus are M8 Bolts. I have a hydraulic crimper that has M8 crimp dies ( for lugs that have a 8mm diameter).  

Expensive! 4/0 Cable is required to go from the Connection to the System all the way from the Battery Selector Switch. That's about 10' or 20' round trip. Checking online, 20' is about $180 but have to get 30' ( 15' +15' ) just to ensure there is enough cable and that's $270 ( 15' of 4/0 Red & 15' of 4/0 Black, I could not find Yellow on Amazon, but did on the Pacer Group website, and it is available by the foot and is local in Fort Lauderdale. Win Win. 

So the switch and the fuse terminal blocks will be from Amazon and the cable will be from Pacer Group.

This is coming together nicely.  I contacted Chins about the 5 batteries in Parallel and they advised that I follow the procedure I had described above.

Now I just have to wait for the arrival of the Chins. They are shipping from California and it is Holiday week ( Christmas ) so I don't expect them for at least 7 days. Of course, then it will be New Years mid week, so that might delay them a few more days. So it looks like they will arrive in January, I'll order the other items then and should be able to put this all together by the end of January.  Then it will be time to remove the Propane system. I'm actually getting excited to be making this upgrade.

I'll add a link here to the next post on this project.

See you on the water!

Paul

New Dock - New Fenders

Our new dock needs a big fender

The old dock height was a bit lower than the new dock ( hey, this is South Florida and just about every dock rebuild results in raising the height of the dock to maintain the structural integrity of the Sea wall), and the tidal range is also slightly higher ( closer to the coast ).

So I purchased an Inflatable Fender from Amazon. A friend had purchased something similar for his 44' Tollycraft before starting in the Great American Loop and by all accounts is still going strong.

I chose the long cylindrical version and must admit it's pretty good for $100.

The fender seems really well made, welded seams, strong attachment points ( SS D-Rings ), however!!!

The inflation valve is not the same as on our Zar Dinghy and I have an adapter for the Zar on our Electric Inflator pump, it does not fit the valve of the Fender! Grrr. The nearest I could find was on Amazon.

It does not fit with that Orange seal, but I replaced that with an 'O' ring and that works just fine, the leakage from the valve during inflation is not enough to be any issue at all.

I'll have to figure out an easy method of switching the adapters over from the Fender Adapter to the Dinghy Adapter, right now I'm using Gorilla Tape It's not that we use the inflator pump that often.

My only concern is that the material (PVC) may decay due to UV in the South Florida Sun, so time to upgrade the fender before it's first use.

Using Sailrite Boat Blanket material, I made a cover that includes most of each end.

It's a simple cover, darts at the ends to wrap it around the curved ends and 2" Velcro Hook material to close the cover around the fender.

The plan is to hang the fender over the edge of the dock between two pilings.

We'll only take the fender with us if we are planning to raft up with another boat, that's typically about once a month.

All of our other fenders are covered in the same material. It has lasted without any deterioration since 2016 = 8 years. So the new fender should last.

The result is impressive enough that we'll buy a second fender, I have plenty of the material to work with.

See you on the water.

Replacing the Opening Ports on our Catalina 34

Replacing our C34 Cabin Opening Ports

I'm pretty sure that the opening ports on Eximius are Original. Most of them are severely crazed and several have worn out hinges so when they are opened they do not stay open.

Time to replace them - while they are still available.

I purchased Six new Lenses from Catalina Direct and had them on the boat for a couple of months while other stuff got crossed off the high priority ToDo list.

The new lenses are the Opening Port Lens, Lewmar 7-1/2" x 14-7/16", Upgrade. The new Lenses are tinted a smokey shade and I'm really pleased with the finish. 

In all I purchased 6 lenses, 6 pairs of locking dogs and 12 Replacement Hinges.

Opening Port Spring Hinges

Opening Port Locking Dogs

The process of replacing the lenses is simple.

Attach the new Locking 'dogs' to the new lens, the recess around the large holes is on the Inside of the lens. Then remove the nut holding the old lens to the hinge and attach the new lens. I used the new Bolt, Washer and Acorn nut.

Before I attached the new Lens, I checked the condition of the hinges. They have a spring which extends a tab into the indents of the moving part. At least one of the, plastic, springs were broken. To replace that spring, the hinge pin has to be removed. This was not an issue on most of the hinges, but a couple of the frames were overtightened at some time and the hinge pins were now below the surface and could not be removed without removing the inner part of the frame. I'm not prepared to do that right now, so those hinges will have to wait till later.

It took about an hour to replace the three Opening on the port side of the cabin, most of the effort was due to my body being reluctant to enjoy the opportunity of a bit of extra Boat Yoga.

I'll probably replace the other three later this week.

As I did not have to replace all of the hinges, I have several pieces left over - never a bad thing, I'll just have to remember where I put them!

See you on the Water.

Moving to a new dock

 We moved Eximius to a new Dock

Back in August this year, our Dock-lord advised us they were selling the house that Eximius was docked at for the last many years. Once we overcame the 'Oh Heck, we have to find a new dock' syndrome, we started calling our sailing buddies to find out what was available but not listed on the many 'Docks For Rent' websites and apps.

We, OK, Peggy, would scroll through the many docks for rent listings online only  to confirm that we could not afford any of them, and those that were just within our budget were too shallow for Eximius.

Surprisingly it did not take many phone calls to the members of the Hillsboro Inlet Sailing Club ( HISC ) to actually find a dock that was within budget and suitable.

We made an agreement with the owner and both of us agreed it would be best if we waited till the end of Hurricane Season. Our current dock was a Hurricane hole, we've been through two Hurricanes, one with no damage the other had minor damage when a piece of 4"x2" 'flew' over the house and struck the top of our mast knocking the Wireless Wind transducer hard, destroying it in one blow ( pun intended ) 

The new dock is much closer to the Ocean but is West of the ICW and the canal has a bend in it which will mitigate East winds. Best feature, other than being a beautifully maintained dock, is that it's less than an Hour from the Ocean and only 3 bridges compared to our old dock which had 7 bridges including an FEC Railroad bridge which can be down for up to an hour, was tide bound and the bridges were on lock down for a couple of hours each workday morning and evening. It really limited our ability to get the boat out and completely ruled out any chance of a day sail.

So, on Monday this week, we moved the boat to the new dock. We spent a couple of hours cleaning up the old dock where some of our dock lines had been in place for nearly 9 years and, after thanking our hosts, we set off down the North Fork of the New River.

We timed it well and had 10 minutes to spare when we were within sight of the Los Olas Blvd Bridge.

After calling in to the bridge tender, we just dawdled North towards the bridge, past the, now empty, remains of the temporary Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show docks which occupy most of the East side of the ICW between the Los Olas bridge and the Bahia Mar marina.

During the Ten minutes of hovering just South of the Bridge, we heard several other boats call into the bridge tender requesting they be put on the list of boats waiting for the bridge opening.

The Los Olas Blvd Bridge opens on the Hour and Half Hour, didn't happen! Normally it takes a minute or so for the tender to stop the traffic, check for pedestrians and cyclists and lock the gates down before unlocking the bridge and starting the Opening process.   didn't happen.

After a couple of minutes some of the other boats called the bridge tender about the opening. It happens, sometimes life interrupts and things don't go to plan. Was there a problem with the traffic, perhaps an emergency vechicle had notified the bridge of their imminent arrival, in which case the bridge would remain down until they passed.  Wasn't that!

We tried calling the bridge tender by phone. That meant navigating close enough to the bridge in order to read the phone number on the plaque on the South East side of the bridge. No Answer.

With the bridge not opening, now nearly 20 minutes late, I asked Peggy to call 911 perhaps the tender had had a medical emergency and needed assistance.  Just as Peggy was about to dial 911 the Bridge Tender announced on the radio that the bridge was about to open.  PHEW

No big deal to be delayed by the late opening of the bridge, but it did mean we would have to wait a half hour for the Sunrise Bridge to open as it opens on the 45s and15s.   But again, not a big deal.

We dawdled the short distance from Los Olas Blvd Bridge to Sunrise Blvd Bridge and even then had to pull a few donuts as the current was pushing us towards the bridge.  Again, no big deal and now we were back on schedule.

Only two more bridges to go:- Oakland Park Blvd Bridge and Commercial Blvd Bridge, we smoothly passed by them and then had to figure out the canal which led to our new dock.  Of course, I had put a marker on our new Chartplotter indicating the 'Turn' so we had no issued recognizing the entrance.

We slowed to a crawl as this was new territory for us, we didn't know the depths and how wide or narrow the canal would be as we entered from the East.  Once we were in sight of the new dock, I figured the best option would be to motor past it and turn 180º so that we could tie up with our bot pointing to the East ready for our next trip out.

The home owner must have seen that we were approaching the dock and kindly came out to help us secure the boat. We ran lines to the dock poles and made a few adjustments. It's the King Tides time of year, so we needed to allow for the boat to rise and fall about 3 to 4 feet, we're used to doing that so again , no big deal.

We took our time wrapping up the boat, it was getting late and Sunset was approaching. With everything packed up, we arranged for an Uber to take us back to the old dock in order to pickup our Truck.

It took just over 10 mins for the Uber to arrive, not the best Uber experience, the car was almost a wreck and I really felt that the rear wheels were going to fall off each time the car breaks were applied. The young female driver was probably working full time as Uber or perhaps also going to school. We didn't get to interact very much with her, she was listening to a Spanish You tube channel and it kinda put a hold any conversation.  At the end of the journey, I gave her 5 ***** on the Uber app and a decent Tip, no comment.  

We picked up a rubber mat that we had left at the dock and, now in the dark, we set off home.

Pizza for a quick dinner, we were surprisingly exhausted but I think it was more due to the stress of the past few weeks.

Next morning I went down to the boat to check all was well and did a couple of hours work on the boat - that's another story.

We're back into feeling good about our boat and our dock. The Stress should ease up over the next few days, even though there is a late in the season Storm expected next week - we'll know by Saturday if we should take down the Canvas in preparation.

Boating - Gotta Love it!

We're nearer to the water - so See you there!