refried beans, alternator test with 150Ah of LFP
refried beans
I had picked up some dehydrated refried beans to test. I had not checked the unit pricing or how much beans it actually made. Mixed up half of it this morning and used it for breakfast burritos with some fajita chicken leftovers, cheese, and sour cream.
I’m sure it’s just my gringo tastebuds, but I can’t tell much difference between brands of refried beans, with the exception of those doG-awful low fat ones. The dehydrated ones did not disappoint.
Let’s look at a price comparison based on current WM prices on the web:
- Mexicali Rose (dehyrated, bagged), 16.75c/oz reconstituted with 2 cups water
- Rosarita (canned), 9.3c/oz
- Isadora (retort bagged), 8.9c/oz
- Great Value / Walmart (canned), 6.3c/oz
The dehydrated beans are quite expensive. Well worth it if you are hiking with access to stream water, but maybe not for normal residential use. The GV beans taste fine but for me the retort bags are easier to store in the van: lighter, flatter, and fold up really flat when empty. Easier to store partial portions in the tiny fridge. I still buy both canned and bagged depending on what’s on sale and my present cupboard stocking level.
alternator charging 150Ah of LiFePO4
I had to push to get the battery bank down to 50% last night, but I did want to see how the larger bank would affect acceptance. I cranked up the van and when the VSR clicked in the bank was taking ~33A. I suspect this will be ~40A nearer the lower knee (~20% state of charge). We’ll see if/when this happens. It’s also possible we have hit the wall with resistance1 and any further current increases voltage sag and self-limits current.
comments
mastodon comment thread for this post
-
chiefly due to running the NEG return through the chassis rather than dedicated wire to the starter batt. ↩