Deep cycle LiFePO4 batteries are one of the best options for off-grid portable power. One of the best parts of going with a deep cycle battery is the affordability in comparison to portable power stations. LiFePO4 power stations, at this point, are somewhat expensive, and most of them have high capacities, to begin with.
For deep-cycle batteries, you still have the freedom to go with very low to high-capacity batteries with varying output and input power. In this review, I’m looking at this LANPWR 12V 6Ah LiFePO4 deep-cycle battery. Yes, this is a tiny battery compared to the 50Ah and 100Ah batteries I’ve reviewed, but it’s still interesting to know that consumers can find a tiny one like this useful. Let’s take a closer look.
What’s in the Box
The battery and the manual are in the box for the LANPWR battery. That’s it. This battery does not use post bolts. Instead, it has F2 built-in terminals. I’m not complaining that there isn’t much in the box, considering that this is a mini battery and probably one of the most straightforward deep-cycle batteries you could own. It could have been helpful to have a piece of paper showing a few examples of how you could use the battery.
Power Capacity
The nominal capacity of this LANPWR battery is 6Ah, and the Nominal Voltage is 12.8V, so to get the Watt Hour, you have to multiply the two numbers, and so this battery has a 76.8Wh capacity. This is a small capacity for a deep cycle battery, but I’m reviewing this battery for what it is, so a low capacity is not a problem. I’m more curious about the efficiency I can pull out of it.
Battery Efficiency
So for the capacity efficiency test, I used my load tester to connect to this LANPWR battery. The load tester automatically started pulling about 12.6V and 4.5A (56W), so I just left it like that and waited for the battery to be fully depleted. After about an hour and 13 minutes, I was able to pull 5.4Ah, and that gave me a 90% efficiency on the Amp Hour side. However, I got a 66Wh reading from this load test, which gives me an 86% efficiency rating. These types of deep-cycle batteries usually score near 100% efficiency, but this one fell a little short for some reason.
I’m sure it does have the 76.8Wh capacity it says it has, as I could reach the 6Ah nominal capacity nearly, but I think my Amperage during the load test was too low.
One thing I almost forget to mention is that this LANPWR battery uses LiFePO4 battery cells. LiFePO4 batteries can deliver many more charge cycles than Lead Acid batteries. How many more? Lead Acid batteries can get 300-500 charge cycles, while LiFePO4 batteries can get about 4,000.
Output Power
When using a battery, you will only want to use low-wattage appliances. I have done a video review for this LANPWR battery, and a Youtube user named Knapp’s Nest informed me that these mini batteries are meant to be used with low-powered radios that can last for a very long time, even with a 76.8Wh capacity.
However, I went a little overboard for my testing to see what this battery could take. I used a 300W Baseus Pure Sine Wave inverter and connected the clamps of the inverter to the Positive and Negative battery terminals. This LANPWR battery could power the inverter flawlessly, and even better, I plugged in a mini crockpot and set it to low. The inverter could continuously power the crockpot at its 58W power usage. I kept the crockpot running at its low setting until the LANPWR battery was fully depleted.
Also, I forgot to mention that this LANPWR battery could output 76.8W of continuous power. So running the crockpot at 58W was no problem for the battery. I used a watt meter to measure how many Watt Hours I was able to pull from the battery through the inverter and got 50Wh, which is to be expected because of the capacity being converted through the inverter.
For the next test with this LANPWR battery, I got it charged back up to 100%, and this time I ran the crockpot at high, giving an output of 91W. 91W power usage is supposed to be too much for this battery. Still, surprisingly this LANPWR battery was able to run the crockpot at its high setting until it was fully depleted of its capacity.
I’m sure at a certain high enough wattage, the battery would stop supplying power to the inverter, but even 91W was still enough for the battery to power; I was able to power the crockpot for about 35 minutes with a 91W power usage; which is pretty good and should give you an idea of just how long you can run a very low 1W to 5W appliances using this 6Ah battery.
Recharging the Battery
To recharge this battery, I used an Ampere TIme 14.6/10A battery charger, which was able to recharge this battery with no problems. I connected the positive and negative clamps from the battery charger to the F2 terminals on this LANPWR battery, and it was able to charge. You can also recharge the battery using a 30W solar panel.
Size and Weight
Considering that this battery has a very low capacity, it is tiny. The battery has a length of 5.9 inches, a width of 2.4 inches, and a height of 3.7 inches. This battery weighs 1.7 pounds. So you can easily move this battery around wherever you want.
Structure and Material
This battery has the same build quality as most other deep-cycle batteries, which means that it’s made of ABS plastic.
When it comes to the internals of the battery, this one has everything that you can expect with its Battery Management System (BMS) providing overcharge, overcurrent, over-discharge, short circuit, and high-temperature protection; basically, all these protections allow the battery to shut off before any damage is caused to the battery itself or whatever it’s powering. This battery is also UL-certified.
Conclusion
I had a good time testing out this LANPWR 12V 6Ah LiFePO4 battery. It’s small, and it’s not meant to power high-wattage appliances at all. However, it can be useful for powering low-wattage appliances that can last hours. This LANPWR battery is small, lightweight, low priced and uses LiFePO4 battery cells that will last for many years.
P.S.: This article and video are reposted from a YouTube influencer, whose YouTube channel is "Charger Harbor" and Blog at: https://www.chargerharbor.com/review-lanpwr-12v-6ah-lifepo4-battery/