Lithium Battery Brands

[mgnuttall]

I am getting ready to upgrade my batteries to a Lithium battery. I have come across one by Dakota Lithium that is rated at 280 AH. This battery is 14.6"x 7.7"x 10.75" so it will fit in the same space as a regular deep cycle. I had been leaning toward the Battle Born batteries, but their 270 AH battery is much larger and I would only be able to fit one of them on my tongue on my 25G. The Dakota Lithium also has internal heating like the Battle Born. I noticed that the Dakota battery has a discharge rate of 200 amps while the Battle Born GC3 could do 300 amps. Using my 2k inverter, I should be fine with the 200 amps.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks

[howson]

mgnuttall -- I can't speak to the Dakota Lithium, but as an owner of four 100aH Battle Born batteries I am completely satisfied with their product. They aren't the least expensive -- SOK (I think?) is the brand others have gone with and they seem quite satisfied with them. ( Country Campers , Brian, should chime in here in a few.)

BB didn't have their Game Changer when I bought my batteries. Nice option.

Howard

[mgnuttall]

mgnuttall -- I can't speak to the Dakota Lithium, but as an owner of four 100aH Battle Born batteries I am completely satisfied with their product. They aren't the least expensive -- SOK (I think?) is the brand others have gone with and they seem quite satisfied with them. ( Country Campers , Brian, should chime in here in a few.)

BB didn't have their Game Changer when I bought my batteries. Nice option.

Howard

That is what I have found doing my research. The Dakota Lithium seemed good also and are about the same price. I just can't find much info on their quality or reliability. The only reason I would buy them instead of the Battle Born is the size and being able to put two of them on my tongue and get 560 AH. I may still go with the Battle Born just because it appears to be the standard.

[Country Campers]

I agree that Battle Born seems to be the "standard" but at a price. I have the Lion Energy brand, along with others here and have been satisfied with the performance. With all the "new" players that have entered from my searching I think that SOK is a pretty good product for the price. If I did not have the Lion I probably would go with the SOK 206 ah batteries, I am just not convinced that BB is worth the money. I would also suggest 2 batteries instead of just one. If you have 2 and one fails for some reason you will still have 1. Having one large battery and if it fails you will need to find another soon. Failures are few and far between but I like to have a plan.

Brian

[ncitro]

I have six Lion Energy batteries and I've been very happy with them. When I did mine nobody was making more than 100ah, so that was not an option. Over the winter I set up a battery backup system at home with five 48v 100ah SOK server rack batteries and they've been great. I'd consider that brand for the rig as well.

[Scott'n'Wendy]

I bought Ampere Time's (LiTime now)100ah battery. Will Prowse seemed to think they were a well built battery so I went with it. A tad cheaper then BB..
Their 240ah battery is $799.

[markandkim]

We're using Power Queen 100ah LI batteries. Great so far. $319.00 ea.

[allenrude]

Using Chins 100AH for the last year. So far good price and performance. Answer emails promptly. I have 5 so far and will add a 6th this summer..

[Yoda]

I am getting ready to upgrade my batteries to a Lithium battery. I have come across one by Dakota Lithium that is rated at 280 AH. This battery is 14.6"x 7.7"x 10.75" so it will fit in the same space as a regular deep cycle. I had been leaning toward the Battle Born batteries, but their 270 AH battery is much larger and I would only be able to fit one of them on my tongue on my 25G. The Dakota Lithium also has internal heating like the Battle Born. I noticed that the Dakota battery has a discharge rate of 200 amps while the Battle Born GC3 could do 300 amps. Using my 2k inverter, I should be fine with the 200 amps.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks

Mike excellent advice from a lot of good folks You mention your inverter being 2K and at 85% efficiency(guessing) you need at least 196 amps available 2000W/12V = 167 amps at 85% + 196A. It would be best to verify you inverter power needs, but I suspect a 200A BMS should work

In my case for my Victron Multiplus 3000/120 I need a minimum of 400A available and a battery bank recommendation of 400 to 1200AH per the manual
Now from my research the price of Lithium is dependent on really two things - the grade of cells 3000 - 5000 cycles (call them grade B)or the grade A 8000-10000 (Battleborn). Then there is the BMS. Most cheap brands are 100A, some 150A with no cold charge protection. The better one are 200A and have cold charging protection and heat, and Bluetooth

I am still looking and researching. Pay attention to the battery specifications, BMS output and cycle life. Will Prowse is also good on information. Also send test emails to the customer service department with a few performance question such as cycle life and cold charge protection and see if they respond, and if they do can you even understand the answers. I was sold on SOK, but if you go to the Facebook SOK site there are a lot of issues - granted, but most are probabluy user error. As I can use my Multiplus and Cerbo GX to control the charging temperature, the cold charge protection is not super important. I can also build heating pads and have the Cerbo GX turn them on and off.

Good luck on your research and please post back on your decision.

Keith

On edit Battle Born is now 3 to 5K cycles - I remember them being much higher.

[mgnuttall]

Mike excellent advice from a lot of good folks You mention your inverter being 2K and at 85% efficiency(guessing) you need at least 196 amps available 2000W/12V = 167 amps at 85% + 196A. It would be best to verify you inverter power needs, but I suspect a 200A BMS should work

In my case for my Victron Multiplus 3000/120 I need a minimum of 400A available and a battery bank recommendation of 400 to 1200AH per the manual
Now from my research the price of Lithium is dependent on really two things - the grade of cells 3000 - 5000 cycles (call them grade B)or the grade A 8000-10000 (Battleborn). Then there is the BMS. Most cheap brands are 100A, some 150A with no cold charge protection. The better one are 200A and have cold charging protection and heat, and Bluetooth

I am still looking and researching. Pay attention to the battery specifications, BMS output and cycle life. Will Prowse is also good on information. Also send test emails to the customer service department with a few performance question such as cycle life and cold charge protection and see if they respond, and if they do can you even understand the answers. I was sold on SOK, but if you go to the Facebook SOK site there are a lot of issues - granted, but most are probabluy user error. As I can use my Multiplus and Cerbo GX to control the charging temperature, the cold charge protection is not super important. I can also build heating pads and have the Cerbo GX turn them on and off.

Good luck on your research and please post back on your decision.

Keith

On edit Battle Born is now 3 to 5K cycles - I remember them being much higher.

Good information. It sounds like I still have more research on this.

[FLGuy]

Just bought a WanRoy 200Ah directly from their site. With their current coupon deal it was only $450. The thing is huge 4D battery box size. I plan to use heater pads if needed because it doesn't have low temp charging protection built in.

[Yoda]

Just bought a WanRoy 200Ah directly from their site. With their current coupon deal it was only $450. The thing is huge 4D battery box size. I plan to use heater pads if needed because it doesn't have low temp charging protection built in.

Please report back on how it works - interesting battery

It has 2000 cycles at 100% DOD. Love thier 8000 cycle advertisement at 50% DOD - to me a little misleading.. It appear to be a 100A BMS.
https://www.wanroytech.com/product/1...phate-battery/
Amazon has more information
https://www.amazon.com/WANROY-Lightw...st_sto_dp&th=1

Thanks
Keith

[Jlawles2]

With any lithium battery be aware that high discharge rates can lead to lots of heat. Remember most testing on high discharge rates are done in controlled environments where the battery has ample air flow around it to help dissipate the heat, placing a battery in a camper with essentially no air flow will affect the heating. Also if you stick the battery in a box the heat builds faster.