> But no one seems to want to float-charge this thing for extended periods of time, and I certainly don't want to have an explosion risk while I test that out.
You still seem to be missing the use case here, which still does not involve any extended periods of floating.
You seem fixated on building your own UPS with your own controller. Go for it, lead acid sounds like it might be the right choice for you.
However, for a solar generator like this one, LifePO4 is the cost effective solution.
Fancy VLRA batteries like the Trojan do suffer fewer deficiencies around DoD and partial charging, but they cost just about as much per capacity as LifePO4 and still offer significantly fewer cycles.
So, sure, if you don't care about lifetime costs/cycles, leave battery charged most of the time, or want to build your own charge controller, then lead acid could be a better choice.
However, for a solar generator, LifePO4 is better in almost every way.
You still seem to be missing the use case here, which still does not involve any extended periods of floating.
You seem fixated on building your own UPS with your own controller. Go for it, lead acid sounds like it might be the right choice for you.
However, for a solar generator like this one, LifePO4 is the cost effective solution.
Fancy VLRA batteries like the Trojan do suffer fewer deficiencies around DoD and partial charging, but they cost just about as much per capacity as LifePO4 and still offer significantly fewer cycles.
So, sure, if you don't care about lifetime costs/cycles, leave battery charged most of the time, or want to build your own charge controller, then lead acid could be a better choice.
However, for a solar generator, LifePO4 is better in almost every way.