Will my RV Lithium battery catch on fire?

Not all Lithium batteries are created equal!

Dear Mike: 

Thanks for your excellent presentation at Alumapalooza. We were ready to order a lithium battery but our son has some reservations about safety. He said, for example, that he cannot use a lithium battery in his plane because the FAA said it tends to explode.

Thoughts? Best - Cindy C.

Dear Cindy,

Great question. And I can certainly see why your son is concerned about your safety if you upgrade to Lithium RV batteries. There are few things scarier than a fire in an RV.

It’s in the news!

Every week we hear or see about Lithium battery fires in the news. Many of these fires are spectacular and terrifying. For example, here’s a Tesla with a battery fire. Wow!

Could this happen in my RV?

Not likely at all. That’s because not all Lithium batteries are alike. Most (perhaps all) Tesla EV batteries use Lithium-Ion chemistry. It has the highest possible energy density, but also tends to go into avalanche failure mode if something goes wrong like physical damage or overcharging due to BMS failure. And that’s also when you get spectacular fire/explosions in some cell phones, hoverboards or electric scooters.

But RV batteries use Lithium Iron Phosphate chemistry

And that type of battery isn’t susceptible to avalanche failure meltdowns with explosive fires.

From everything I’ve studied, LiFePO4 (Lithium Iron Phosphate) batteries are much safer and don’t have explosive meltdown/fires. And LiFePO4 is the chemistry of virtually all RV Lithium house batteries.

Final analysis…

I think all modern Lithium RV batteries from well known manufacturers are perfectly safe, and certainly offer a lot better performance than any lead acid or AGM batteries. So go ahead and upgrade to Lithium batteries in your RV (if you can afford it)…😁

Let’s play safe out there - Mike