First of all, while Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) sounds like Lithium Ion, the two battery types are very different. Without going into all the chemistry I don’t understand, here are the important differences. Lithium Ion batteries are slightly lighter and have a higher “energy density” but less stable under pressure and heat and can catch fire. These are the type of batteries you can’t take in your suitcase on a plane. Lithium Ion batteries are good for high consumption electronics that need as light a battery as possible.

Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries are a newer technology and are good for slow drawing applications like fish finders. They are safer to store and last longer than Lithium Ion batteries, which last a pretty long time already.

I happened to stumble upon this ExpertPower 12V 5 Ah Lithium Iron Phosphate battery on Amazon while looking for an affordable Lithium Ion battery. It had good reviews and is comparable in run time to the 12V 7Ah Sealed Lead Acid (SLA) battery I’ve been using.

It weighs 1.625 lb compared to the 4.25lb SLA battery and takes up much less room. It also starts off with a much higher charge of 13.8V compared to the 12.5V the 2 yr old SLA starts off with.

Amazon currently sells the ExpertPower battery for $39.99 but doesn’t ship it to HI. I bought a cosmetic blem from Amazon for $28, which wasn’t much more than the original SLA was, and that cosmetic blem was shipped directly from ExpertPower to me.

Kind of sounds too good to be true so let me run the battery on a few outings and let you know how it performs.