From all that I’ve read, the laptop (et al) fires that occurred with lithium had to do with with a ‘hotter’ chemical mix that relied on cobalt which provided even greater power density (e.g. uber smaller batteries), but made charging parameters far more critical, which if violated led to formation of dendrites, thus the combustion hazard.
The lithium RV type batteries of your concern (Lithium-Iron-Phosphate) do not contain cobalt, and are much more forgiving – charging algorithms while important are not nearly as critical – in fact in many cases (depending on one’s particular OEM charger type) there may not even be a need to upgrade to a different charger type.
The other important safety feature is the proprietary multi-function BMS system that a manufacture designs which also prevents charging below say 32df (in most cases – though the battery can still be discharged down to about 0df < >, however, indoor placement or a warming blanket can mitigate this issue) while yet another issue (as previously mentioned) is by preventing deep excursions into the battery’s extreme lower capacity limit, as well as prolonged over-charging – I believe this is most likely the reasoning used by Expion…
As far as charging voltages go, check with your manufacturer, but in our case (using one Aims Li 100a/hr) 14.4 to 14.6 Bulk mode at about 60% ampacity works well to 100% SOC (state of charge), thereafter with charger switching to float at about 13.x, though float mode is not necessary or harmful – BTW, many charger algorithms for ‘wet-cell’ already come this way (but verify first…). It should be noted too that lithiums should not be equalized – the balancing of individual cells is the job of the BMS (battery management system)…
With the right charger (and/or solar charge controller), and by simply following the manufacturer’s recommendations you should have no problem whatsoever with LiFePo4’s, and benefit from the fact that voltages remain nearly constant throughout the entire discharge range…
Case in point, once when running a Coleman air conditioner (via an inverter) we inadvertently lost track of time until we suddenly realized that the battery was down to a very lowly 6% SOC (Per Victron), though the compressor was still running along quite perfectly!!…As I said this was because of our own oversight and not a recommended practice – lol!
JMO, Phil
