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Thinking of swapping your batteries aboard your boat to lithium and hoping it's simple? Probably not. Check out this video to find out why. Whether you need a remote consultation design or perhaps inviting us aboard your boat, Pacific Yacht Systems is here to help. Check out the links in the description below. Hey everyone, Jeff Cote here with Pacific Yacht Systems. We've got a question from a fellow boater. Tom asks, "Hey Jeff, can I just drop in lithium batteries on my boat and will it just work?" So, Tom brings up a good point and there's a lot of marketing out there that says that you can simply install lithium batteries in your boat. And I wish it was so easy. And it's true, in some instances it will work. But the question is, is there such a thing as a typical boat? And the answer is no. There are so many permutations of electrical systems out there that is simply not one-size-fits-all. If there would be, then I wouldn't even be here. The electrical system would be a system and everyone would know the system and there would be no conversation about it. But boats vary not only in their looks and their sizes and what we do with them, but also in their electrical systems. So, when you're thinking about installing a lithium battery aboard your boat, one of the constraints that you might have is what you've got to take in consideration is your charging. So, lithium is a different charge profile than a lead-acid battery and that can be AGM or flooded. And so, one of the first questions you've got to ask yourself when you're going to be switching your batteries or your house bank to lithium is my charger compatible with lithium batteries? And it gets a little bit more complicated in that because the reality is if you're going to have different battery chemistries on your boat, you're not realistically going to have a charger that can output on charge line one AGM and on line two lithium. So, it gets a little complicated, right? So, you might have a charger that you're going to maybe set for lithium, but it can't charge your engine batteries anymore. So, now no need to panic. It's not to say that this is so complicated it can't be done, but it isn't drop-in replacement. So, generally what we end up doing is we'll have maybe a high output charger recharge the lithium batteries, and we might also disconnect a different charger legs that worries about the engine battery. And what we might do in that instance to recharge the engine battery, which might still be uh for example AGM or maybe a bow thruster battery bank, or it could be a stern thruster battery bank, it could be a windlass battery bank. If we're going to have different type of battery banks, what we might end up doing is using what are called DC to DC charging converters. And these can be programmed, so you could have maybe your house battery bank, which is lithium, uh charge a lithium charge profile, and instead of just paralleling that battery bank to your bow thruster battery bank, now instead of using a battery combiner, which is a device to parallel, instead we'd use a DC to DC charging converter. So, really like in anything, the devil's in the details, right? We wish it was easy, but it's not always. So, first thing uh if you're going to lithium is ask yourself, how do my batteries recharge from battery chargers? The other one, and I briefly touched on it, is if you have battery combiners on your boat, and many of us do, that is for instance, if your alternator's outputting, it might output to your engine battery. And how do your engine battery recharge your house battery? Well, if you've got battery combiners, you're not going to want to charge or share a charge from your alternator to your house, especially if the battery is being configured for a lead acid profile, and now your lithium wants a different charge profile. So, not only are battery chargers something to think about, but also if you've got any battery combiners. And the way again to solve that is with DC to DC charging converters. So, instead of just simply having both batteries being parallel, you're basically effectively taking one charge voltage and you're taking that and you're modifying it and tailoring it to the other batteries charge profile. They're awesome. They come in various sizes and that's how I charge my house battery is charged via uh either the alternator or the inverter charger to a lithium charge profile and I share that charge with my engine battery via a DC to DC charging converter. Mine on my boat is 30 amps, there's also 50 amps and I'm sure in the future there's going to be bigger and bigger models to come as well. You're going to want to consider your solar controllers. Are your solar controllers uh set to AGM profile, lead acid, or a flooded? Are they compatible to lithium batteries? So, you're going to take that into consideration. So, all your charging, right? Basically, we talked about battery chargers, we talked about battery combiners and we talked about solar. And then the last thing and not the least is considering your alternator output. Are you going to have your alternator go directly to engine battery and share the engine battery to the house via DC to DC charging converter, which would work? Some of some of some other of us want to have more output from our alternator and so what we're going to do is we're going to have basically a high output alternator uh driven by an external regulator and there's going to be videos about this you can check on the website. And that external regulator, either Wake Speed or Balmar, is going to be set up for a lithium charge profile set up to not overcharge the batteries set up to not drive the alternator too hot and uh it's going to do so and then from the house batteries, like in my boat, I'm going to then share that charge to other battery banks aboard the boat. So, as you can see, it's not drop-in replacement. That's what some battery manufacturers want you to think cuz they just want to sell batteries, which I can't blame them. But, there's no harm in doing your homework and figuring out what's right for your boat. If you've got further questions that you might want to ask us, uh check in the link in the descriptions below and we're always looking for ideas. Thanks for watching. Hey fellow boarders, we're going to be doing a lot more tech talk videos. If you've got any suggestions for future videos, leave them in the comments below. Once again, thank you for watching.