Are you wondering if AGM or lithium is best for your needs? Click here to find out everything you need to know about AGM vs lithium battery.
Take a look at your smartphone, smartwatch, and laptop computer. Inside each is a relatively new technology: a lithium battery.
Technology for all types of batteries, not just lithium, has exploded in the past two decades. Battery options have higher density, better efficiency, and faster charge times. It wasn't that long ago that rechargeable batteries were a shadow of their current potential.
While a lithium battery is very versatile, it does not work for all situations. That's where AGM technology comes in.
Today we are discussing the difference between an AGM vs. lithium battery. Keep reading for everything you need to know.
Lithium uses lithium ions (hence the name lithium-ion battery) to store and discharge electricity. Like most batteries, a lithium battery has four main components:
When you charge a lithium battery, those positively charged ions pass through the electrolyte from anode to cathode through a thin separator. This movement allows for the creation of free electrons, necessary to generate electricity.
The battery stores that potential energy for later. It only loses a tiny percentage of charge over time. Now the battery is ready to power a device.
When you discharge the battery, the process reverses. Ions return back through the separator as those electrons leave through a positive current collector.
There's a reason that you have seen practically every consumer electronic device use lithium-ion batteries. They are even a primary component in electric vehicles and green energy storage solutions. It's a refined technology that continues to make improvements even to this day.
Lithium is such an excellent choice because of the following:
All of these factors combine to make lithium one of the best overall options for batteries. The battery market is massive, one of the largest in the world. Even lithium killers, such as solid-state batteries, have yet to disrupt this potent competitor.
Of course, lithium has its drawbacks. It excels in consumer electronics and some heavy-duty applications, but the limitations prevent it from being a universal storage option.
The right battery could change humanity forever. It would make our devices last longer and give us plentiful storage for green energy. But for all their incredible utility and efficiency, lithium-ion batteries have a few drawbacks.
Every charge cycle degrades lithium-ion by a tiny amount. That is to say, it loses a portion of its overall charge capacity. This process continues for a couple hundred charge cycles until lithium essentially loses all charge capacity.
Unfortunately, this means that one must change batteries once every two to five years or so, depending on device use and energy needs. If not, battery capacity will be practically nonexistent.
Lithium batteries need an airtight enclosure to function. If you expose them to the air, they catch fire violently and may explode. This can damage or ruin the device that they are supplying.
This means you cannot bend or puncture lithium batteries under any circumstances. Doing so can cause the battery to bloat, which increases the risk of a conflagration.
Another issue with lithium batteries is that they require precious earth resources. Primarily, cobalt from African mines. This is a limited earth resource that causes considerable environmental damage during extraction.
There are ethical concerns as well. There is an incredible amount of slave labor and exploitation required to obtain this cobalt. This makes lithium-ion both unsustainable and unethical, at least at the moment of writing.
Companies must be open about their activities with investors. Unfortunately, many companies in the lithium market do not appear to make any effort to change.
AGM stands for Absorbent Glass Mat. This is a type of lead acid battery, particularly the sealed lead acid (SLA) kind. Like a lithium battery, it uses cells inside a sealed enclosure.
Unlike many lead batteries, these do not require much maintenance. They may have a valve to vent built-up gas, but otherwise they remain sealed. They don't require you to top off the lead acid on a regular basis.
An AGM battery functions in a very similar way to a lithium battery. Electrolytes carry positively and negatively charged particles between the cathode and the anode.
Instead of lithium, the medium is lead in a sulfuric acid solution--hence the name lead acid battery. These batteries are not as energy-dense as lithium. However, they can produce a much higher output than lithium can.
You won't find an AGM battery in your phone or laptop. You won't even find them in an electric vehicle.
These are high-performance batteries that can provide a high level of voltage. They are common in cars and industrial applications, such as forklifts and starter batteries for large trucks. You might also find them in boats, medical scooters, and so on.
Here are just a few of the benefits of using AGM technology:
AGM is a mainstay in industrial applications. It's the reason your car can start in the morning. But it doesn't come without its weaknesses.
AGM, as you may have noticed, has a select few use cases. It does not excel in all conditions and has weaknesses that limit what it is capable of. Take a look at some of its drawbacks.
Most batteries do not do well with being charged or discharged too much. A lithium-ion battery works best between 40 and 80% charge. This reduces degradation and therefore gives it much longer overall battery life.
That said, lithium holds up very well when you charge it much higher or lower than that. Unfortunately, that is not the case with lead acid batteries like AGM.
AGM is much more sensitive to frequent charges and discharges. A lithium-ion battery may have a 100% depth of discharge, while an AGM only has about 80%. Failure to keep this discharge rate in mind means your batteries will degrade much faster.
Take a look at any car battery. They are big and heavy enough that one person may struggle to carry them. This is because lead acid construction requires a lot more space than lithium-ion.
You can cram a sizable lithium-ion battery into a very small space, but lead acid is not that dense. That's why most lead acid batteries will be larger alongside a comparable lithium-ion battery.
Granted, lead acid batteries have much higher output. Even though a lithium-ion battery can power an electric vehicle, it simply cannot compete with an AGM battery output. This size is necessary for high output.
Lithium is very versatile. It can supply small devices like TV remotes that only use a tiny amount of power over long time periods. And like we've said, it can power large electric vehicles.
This is because lithium is very good at adapting output to the needs of its parent device. Unfortunately, AGM is not meant for long-term, low power applications.
AGM can sustain high power for longer periods, such a forklift carrying heavy loads over the course of a workday. Lithium would not be able to do the same as effectively. However, this limits lead batteries to more heavy-duty applications.
So now you understand the difference between these two common battery types. Which one should you use? To summarize, lithium ion is best for the following applications:
AGM is a lithium alternative that works best in specific situations. You should use an AGM if the following apply:
As a general rule, AGM is typically only for heavy duty and industrial applications. Your vehicle is an excellent example. Lithium-ion is much more versatile, perfect for smartphones as much as solar energy storage.
Both are mature technologies with decades of development behind them. They are both reliable, but choose wisely which one you will use for a specific application. Their uses do cross over at times, such as green energy storage and vehicle power.
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