12V LiFePO4 Battery Pack LF120A1, Deep Cycle Rechargeable 153.6Wh 12.8V 12Ah Lithium Iron Phosphate Batteries

Review of talentcell LF120A1 batteries.Planned use: cpap machine backpackingI bought a specially designed charger for LiFePo4 batteries. This is important. The charger is a "CTEK (56-926) LITHIUM US 12 Volt Fully Automatic LiFePO4 Battery Charger", $95, bought from Amazon. It is engineered to provide the right voltage waveforms to correctly charge LiFePo4 batteries. The voltages are just different enough to make a lead acid battery charger worse than useless. With the right charger, the batteries will be fully charged after a couple of full charge and discharge cycles.In order to have any idea what was going on with these batteries, I also bought a "HiLetgo DC 6.5-100V 0-20A LCD Display Digital Ammeter " for about $12. This little beautiful device would give me the current, voltage, power and total watt hour consumption. This is how I know that these batteries put out 145 wH of energy against a specification of 153 wH. This was close enough for me and about 95% of what was claimed. I know this after testing with a 12 volt to 120 volt converter and running a 60 lamp for two hours. See the pictures of the test rig.The LiFePo4 batteries were, for about 3.2 lbs, enough to run my cpap machine without a humidifier for two nights in a row without recharging. I also tested this with the watt meter attached and used a single battery to provide 54 wH for the first night and 63 the second night to run the cpap. The battery still had about 30 watt hours remaining after another test. So, with two of these batteries I can be out five days (4 nights) with a safety margin.They are worth the $82 each that I spent.Regarding running a cpap: first of all, forget about the humidifier for backpacking. Humidifiers are power hogs. You'll need at least two of these 153 wH batteries to make it through a single night. Not practical for backpacking.Second, a more subtle issue is that some cpap machines only have 120 volt inputs, while others will accept 12 volt dc input voltage to run the cpap. Still others accept other voltages like 14.5 or 19 volts dc.I tried to use a Dreamstation Go cpap that only allowed 120 volts input. This required a sinewave converter, which I bought. But, unfortunately, there are power losses with conversions and there are two, one that I would carry outside the cpap, and a second one internal to to the cpap. The end result is that 80% of one of those big LiFePo4 153 wH batteries was consumed during a single night instead of 50%. This was a fail. I ended up using an older Phillips Respironics cpap, which luckily had a 12 volt input, for the above testing. No sinewave converter required. Just plumb the battery 12 volts to the input of the cpap and everything worked beautifully and efficiently. (Leave the humidifier at home).Overall, if you buy a medical cpap battery you can easily spend $300 for a battery that will get you through one night. Or you can spend a little more than that and get two of these 153 watt hour LiFePo4 batteries plus a specially designed charger plus the watt meter plus a sinewave converter plus some cables and have an overall solution the will give you more power and still be very lightweight and reasonable cost.

When I first got the battery I didn't use it for a few days and then checked the voltage and it was completely dead. I asked Amazon to replace it, which they did promptly. I checked the new battery and it had a weak charge, so I charged it to full and took the charger off. I noticed that it the voltage would drop off steadily and relatively quick over just a few days without a load. Then I read on another site that LiFePO4 batteries need a heavy charge when initially put in service in order to balance all cells, so I charged the battery for 24 hours. Since then I notice that the battery holds a charge well and no longer drains without being used. While using the battery I find that the 12Ah rating to be a fair rating for the capacity. If you buy this battery, be sure to put an extended charge on it the first time. After that, a normal charge to full capacity should do the trick. I realize now that the first battery issues were probably due to not giving a proper charge right away.

I would absolutely purchase additional batteries based on customer support.Phenomenal customer support. I bought two 12V 12aH batteries, and one of them is acting weird. I sent an email to TalenCell through their website and had a reply in less than 24 hours. I am currently engaged in a troubleshooting dialog via email with TalentCell.I will update this review as the troubleshooting continues.It should be mentioned that I am using a kill switch, LED, battery monitor, and in line fuses with the battery in question. This battery will provide amperage to a parallel resistor load no problem, but will not power my ham radio transceiver, Icom 706MkIIg. Let's call this battery #2.The other battery, battery #1, without the added components powers the radio just fine.Even when I remove the components from battery #2, it will not power the 706.3/22/2021I have tried several different methods of charging and I still cannot get battery #2 to power the radio. I removed everything I added to the battery (monitor, switch, LED) and connected it to a bench power supply and two DMM, one to monitor current and one to monitor voltage. The battery appears to top out at 14.2V at which point the amperage falls to 0.I installed all the components on battery #1, and it works no problem. It will power the monitor, LED, the switch functions, and it will power my radio.I am still engaged in troubleshooting with TalentCell via email to see if I can somehow get battery #2 working before I return it.3/23/2021TalentCell customer support was very good for me. I know others have had different outcomes, but for me they have been great. I did contact them directly through their website.The representative I spoke with had me clearly explain what the issue was, and provide some evidence that the battery was doing what I said it was doing. Once it was verified that the battery in fact was not performing correctly, they are replacing the battery.I am upping the number of stars from 3 to 4 for now, and will continue to update this review as I use the batteries more.3/25I couldn't get it out of my head why the bad battery was behaving the way it was, so I took a shot in the dark and emailed the representative I had been speaking with and asked if a schematic of the BMS could be sent. Within 15 minutes I received a full datasheet with schematic. The datasheet is in both English and Chinese, and all of the critical information I am interested in, is in English!I know others have had different results, but my customer support from TalentCell has been great!! When the new battery arrives and I can verify it's performance I will update to 5 stars.3/29/2021The replacement battery arrived today, right on time. It appears to have shipped via Amazon. I have not yet tested it as I have been very busy, bit will update when I can.4/15/2021The replacement battery charges very well with the TalentCell 14.6v charger (available on Amazon). These batteries are a good value for the price. I suggest using a proper LiFePo4 14.6v charger wit them to get the best performance.I would buy more TalentCell products without hesitation.

I purchased two of these 12AH in order to have a power backup for my 12V Ham radio station. I also own a couple of the 6AH cousins of these. Same reason, good quality backup 12V power that is not too heavy or weighs a ton. The smaller one's are great for HT or QRP rigs.Although it does not show it in the description, Mine came with 9 inch long, pre-tinned, ring terminals that are 'maybe' 14 gauge. They connect to the battery via Phillips head screws and washers. It looks plenty secure for a 12AH, or even a 24AH (two of these in parallel). I have two in parallel for my short time backup.I like a LiFePO4 battery mostly because you can deep cycle them for many more cycles than an equavilent AGM battery. They also have a built in battery management system which makes life simpler. Great for portable 12V lighting. I have also purchased a 12V to 5V USB power converter board that can turn these into a power bank for cell phones and tablets.If you can afford a little extra $, I highly recommend these. If short on $, the AGM batteries work fine, just be aware a good AGM will do about 300 deep cycles. This battery is good for 2000 deep cycles, more if not fully cycled.

Like another reviewer, I purchased this battery because it is lightweight enough to take on hikes for powering my HAM radio gear. I verified today that the MoHoo foldable solar panel can be connected directly to the TalentCell LF120A1 without needing a solar charge controller. The solar panel charged the battery at a rate of nearly 5 Amps until the charging voltage at the battery reached 14.4 volts. At that point, the BMS, internal to the battery, opened the current pathway and charging abruptly stopped. That is OK with me. I was able to use the battery to power a transmitter at 60 watts.I will update this review after making a summit climb where I will use the solar panel, battery, and the radio to contact other HAM radio operators. By the way, I am planning to use a Prism Zenith 5 kite to pull up 130' of aluminum wire to act as the antenna. From the 10,000' summit, I should be able to make a lot of contacts.