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Battle Born Batteries


dewilso

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Does anyone here have any experience with these batteries ? I've been in email contact with the company, with questions several times over the past couple of weeks, I've always received prompt, complete replies, even on Sunday. But looking for actual users experience.

https://battlebornbatteries.com/

Dave W. KE5GOH

Stuck in the 70's ---

In E. Texas

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Looking at the price of them if I was selling them I would reply to you 8 days a week, actually if the numbers are correct it looks like a great deal. BUT for me I would need some reviews as I have never heard of this battery. Maybe you could volunteer to try them out for them and advertise your results...keep all of us informed on performance. It's a lot of cash to shell out for an unknown item. GL if you buy them and let us know how they work

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Don't you need a dedicated charger as well?  

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I have never heard of these batteries before.  I took a look at their website and they don't really have any customer feedback anywhere that I can find.  They do have some good information and some nicely produced videos.  I don't know how long the company has been around, but it can't have been that long, so it is hard to say what their track record is.  My only concern is their claim you can use their batteries with any standard charger.  Everything I know about Lithium batteries says do not float them.  They say a standard float on their batteries won't hurt them.  I'm not sure how to reconcile this.  Maybe they have some circuitry in their battery that deals with this, but they don't really explain it anywhere I could find.

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Personally... I would probably steer clear for the time being. What sends up a red flag for me is the fact that they only offer 1 battery and the other equipment they offer for sale is very much lower end. If the equipment they offer (chargers, inverters, controllers, etc.) are targeting that particular spectrum of the market then I would tend to think that their battery is also likely to have been manufactured to target the same segment. They may just be a fledgline company and this is just their initial lineup, but I would wait to see how they shake out.

Digging a little deeper... They are selling a dragonfly energy battery. A company out of Reno, NV that is a fairly new startup less than a year old. They are partenered with Dynavolt (out of China) for manufacturing. Dragonfly was originally an R&D company. Their own claim to fame is in their "patented, environmentally friendly" manufacturing process that reduces manufacturing costs. Their focal demographic is selling OEM batteries "serving the marine and RV industries."

Dynavolt... "...their first U.S. investment, gives them access to technology that is expected to lower their manufacturing costs."

My opinion: Wait and see.

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These are some of the BEST people that I've dealt with. I (we) wanted to make sure that my inverter/charger, Morningstar solar controller, and Trimetric were set correctly, they (BBB) contacted the companies to get the proper settings to best match their batteries. Never before!

I'm excited to get these, they'll get a good workout going to Alaska! I have both a residential Refer and chest freezer in the FT....going fishing this time up there.

Dave W. KE5GOH

Stuck in the 70's ---

In E. Texas

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  • 1 month later...

I've had their 100 amp battery in my 18ft travel trailer for a week now, and I'm a happy camper. Once I ordered, it arrived in a week. Battleborn was very good to work with. I replaced my lead battery with this lithium one, and have been charging while driving, and with my solar panel, just like before. The new one has not dropped below 13 volts, even in 45f weather where the propane heater kicks in every 30 minutes or so. For me, the 30 pounds of weigh I dropped was also big load off my trailer. Now, I'm thinking I may not need to continue to carry my generator!

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  • 1 year later...

This past Winter in Florida I put 4 100 watt Renogy Solar Panels on my 2011 Roadtrek RS-Adventurous camper van, bought 3 100 Ah Battle Born Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries along
with a Victron SolarSmart MPPT 100/30 controller with bluetooth and a Victron monitor also with bluetooth and a Li-BIM battery isolator necessary for lithium batteries. 

I downloaded a wiring diagram from explorist.life.com (an afiliate company)that shows how to connect all this stuff, what size wiring I need (made my own 2 ga. and 8 ga. cable wires!),
and fuses, circuit breakers, etc. 

Then I built a wooden battery box to hold the stuff. I put the battery box behind the 
driver’s seat as my 750 watt Tripp Lite Charger/Converter is close by under the driver’s seat, and the batteries are not affected by weather. They weight a lot less than regular batteries, can almost discharge completely and don’t give off gases! The Battle Born Batteries company
were great and answered all my e-mails either the next day, or the same day! They said my three lithium batteries and 4 solar panels will work O.K. with my Tripp Lite Charger/Inverter and they have an article showing how to adjust the Charger/Inverter.
I have no experience with solar panels, lithium batteries and controllers and monitors
but I followed the diagram, watched some YouTube videos and read the Battle Born Battery company articles on setting up solar.

The solar panel installation was easy as the plugs can only plug in a certain way and I screwed 
the brackets to the roof with the self-tapping screws Renogy provided, put adheasive caulking under them and leveling caulking around them (preventing water leaks is most important).

I also put a 12 fuse box in the battery box and ran a positive/negative wire through my cabinets to the inside back of my camper van where I now have a 12 volt TV, and a large 12 volt fan for boondocking, which should save me money and enjoy nature, rather than crowded noisey campgrounds that are going up in price each year. Sorry, this is  just my opinion.

The only thing I haven’t done is connect the wires from the battery box (I have them rolled up
against the outside of the box) to the van's inverter/charger, chassis battery and replace the van’s 
battery isolator with my new Li-BIM battery isolator that works with lithium batteries. I could connect them but I want to find a professional to connect everything to the van. My solar setup
is running great, but it is a separate system right now.

Battery Born Battery company does not do installations, but they gave me a list of affiliate RV
companies that do. I am in Florida right now and heading out West in few days and right now I’m looking for a small shop that will just connect the final wiring.

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Have had 6 of them for about a year, Not cheap, but probably the last house batteries I will ever buy and many advantages over Lead acid. Many inverters and converters can be programmed to charge them.

Call Battle Born and they can tell you if you can use the charger you have. Biggest advantage is you can charge at 1C in bulk, till battery reaches 100% SOC, and of course can use the full capacity, so my six  100 amp/hr batteries at 180 lbs total, will more than equal  the usable output of four 8d agm batteries at 640 lbs total, and take up less than half the space and charge 4 times faster.         Only drawback is the second mortgage I had to take out to buy them:D

 

 

 

 

Edited by jcussen

Foretravel 40ft tag 500hp Cummins ISM  1455 watts on the roof, 600 a/h's lithium in the basement.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I recently bought two 100 ah lithium batteries from another company and I couldn't be happier.  My research found that there are at least three other companies besides BB that offer (apparently) identical batteries.  I believe they all use the same (made in China) lithium cells, same BMS and all have pretty much the same specs and warranty.  The only real difference I could find was the price.

BB seems to aggressively solicit customer reviews and they are uniformly good, but so are everyone else's reviews.  I saved $100 per battery over BB's price, but we all have different priorities - price, reputation, etc - so do your homework.

FWIW, I considered using my almost new PD charger, but it didn't have a lithium setting and several "experts" I consulted all said the same thing - the non-lithium battery charger would work, but I would give up a significant amount of capacity and speed of recharging.  I went with a "constant current, constant voltage" converter that is set to 14.58 volts (all the time) per the battery manufacturer's recommendation.

I added a second 100 ah battery just because it was so easy, but I found that a single 100 ah lithium battery gave me more actual capacity than my dual two year old T105 batteries.  The single lithium would easily run lights and TV overnight then recharge to full SOC from my 1800 watt gennie in less than 1.5 hours.  

Other than the initial cost, the lithiums win hands down in about every respect and if you really sharpen your pencil they are not really much more expensive.

John, Jean and Mea the Super Springer Spaniel
2019 Entegra Aspire 44B
2022 Jeep Cherokee TrailHawk
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2 hours ago, Hill_Country said:

I recently bought two 100 ah lithium batteries from another company and I couldn't be happier.  My research found that there are at least three other companies besides BB that offer (apparently) identical batteries.  I believe they all use the same (made in China) lithium cells, same BMS and all have pretty much the same specs and warranty.  The only real difference I could find was the price.

BB seems to aggressively solicit customer reviews and they are uniformly good, but so are everyone else's reviews.  I saved $100 per battery over BB's price, but we all have different priorities - price, reputation, etc - so do your homework.

FWIW, I considered using my almost new PD charger, but it didn't have a lithium setting and several "experts" I consulted all said the same thing - the non-lithium battery charger would work, but I would give up a significant amount of capacity and speed of recharging.  I went with a "constant current, constant voltage" converter that is set to 14.58 volts (all the time) per the battery manufacturer's recommendation.

I added a second 100 ah battery just because it was so easy, but I found that a single 100 ah lithium battery gave me more actual capacity than my dual two year old T105 batteries.  The single lithium would easily run lights and TV overnight then recharge to full SOC from my 1800 watt gennie in less than 1.5 hours.  

Other than the initial cost, the lithiums win hands down in about every respect and if you really sharpen your pencil they are not really much more expensive.

What are the three other companies?  Are you sure all the batteries have the same cells and BMS?  Battle Born says max voltage should not be over 14.5  volts.

Edited by jcussen

Foretravel 40ft tag 500hp Cummins ISM  1455 watts on the roof, 600 a/h's lithium in the basement.

 

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42 minutes ago, jcussen said:

What are the three other companies?

My younger Brother is doing a van conversation, instead of BB he went with Renogy. Got a great price on them $1K for 170 AH (?). He has Brent trying to contact them for some setup information for a few weeks. They don’t respond to the customer service emails, the woman who answers the phone hasn’t a clue...but will have someone call back, that hasn’t happened - yet. Great price, but I don’t know how good the deal was. 

Edited by dewilso

Dave W. KE5GOH

Stuck in the 70's ---

In E. Texas

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26 minutes ago, dewilso said:

My younger Brother is doing a van conversation, instead of BB he went with Renogy. Got a great price on them $1K for 170 AH (?). He has Brent trying to contact them for some setup information for a few weeks. They don’t respond to the customer service emails, the woman who answers the phone hasn’t a clue...but will have someone call back, that hasn’t happened - yet. Great price, but I don’t know how good the deal was. 

That is a good price, Their website states a 5 year prorated warranty. Battleborn has a 10 year exchange policy and always answer the phone and can even tell you how to set up your charger to charge them correctly. To me it was worth the extra money.  If BB has blems or have them on sale, you can get the 100 a/h model for $900 shipped with no tax. [If outside Nevada]

Foretravel 40ft tag 500hp Cummins ISM  1455 watts on the roof, 600 a/h's lithium in the basement.

 

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We had a small vendor discount and got our Battle Born 100ah batteries for $925 each. We just had one of them we purchased 2 years ago repaired and shipped back to us free of charge by Battle Born. They were very responsive when we contacted them and emailed us the label to ship them the battery with them paying the shipping. They said they would fix or replace the battery and they did! Great service and warranty!

Vicki

 

Vicki, Mark and Sadie 

Fulltime and having fun!

2016 Newmar Ventana LE 

2019 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk 

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On 5/8/2019 at 6:48 PM, Hill_Country said:

FWIW, I considered using my almost new PD charger, but it didn't have a lithium setting and several "experts" I consulted all said the same thing - the non-lithium battery charger would work, but I would give up a significant amount of capacity and speed of recharging.  I went with a "constant current, constant voltage" converter that is set to 14.58 volts (all the time) per the battery manufacturer's recommendation.

FWIW, the PD 9100 series converters with the external Charge Wizard port are easy to make into "constant voltage, constant current" chargers at the voltage of your choice.

The 9100 has the Charge Wizard intelligence in the outboard pendant and it varies the voltage on the control line as needed to implement the 3 stage charging.

All you have to do is replace the Charge Wizard pendant with a fixed resistive voltage divider or a variable potentiometer.  I did this to my 9160 converter 20 years ago so I could manually control the voltage and reduce the current surge in first few minutes of bulk charging to avoid overloading my new Honda EU1000i generator while boondocking.  As a bonus, I was also able to manually boost the voltage as high as 16 volts whenever I wanted to do an equalizing charge.

I also included a switch so I could use either the manual control or the stock Charge Wizard.

The 9100's output voltage is directly controlled by the voltage on the control line, and a constant voltage on that line will make it put out constant voltage up to the converter's maximum current at the voltage of your choice.  If the load draws more than the converter's maximum current, the voltage will fold back so the current stays at the maximum value, i.e. "constant voltage, constant current".

The PD 9200 converters have the Charge Wizard circuitry inside the converter and can't be controlled this way.  Their pendant contains just a LED and switch.

Edited by Lou Schneider
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22 hours ago, jcussen said:

What are the three other companies?  Are you sure all the batteries have the same cells and BMS?  Battle Born says max voltage should not be over 14.5  volts.

No, I don't know that they all use the same cells and BMS, but the specs are virtually identical and the word is that they all use the same cells from China.  From memory, there is Lion, Renogy and AIMS in addition to BB.  Google and you'll find more.  I went with AIMS and the price was $100 less than BB.  I also liked their warranty better as it was much simpler and has fewer weasel words.  The specs were about the same except that AIMS implies that the BMS takes care of the low voltage and low temp limits.  I don't know this to be a fact, though, and don't plan to test it.

AIMS specs a max voltage of 14.6 so I set the converter to 14.58 and find that it varies about +- 0.02 volts with temp.

John, Jean and Mea the Super Springer Spaniel
2019 Entegra Aspire 44B
2022 Jeep Cherokee TrailHawk
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1 hour ago, Hill_Country said:

No, I don't know that they all use the same cells and BMS, but the specs are virtually identical and the word is that they all use the same cells from China.  From memory, there is Lion, Renogy and AIMS in addition to BB.  Google and you'll find more.  I went with AIMS and the price was $100 less than BB.  I also liked their warranty better as it was much simpler and has fewer weasel words.  The specs were about the same except that AIMS implies that the BMS takes care of the low voltage and low temp limits.  I don't know this to be a fact, though, and don't plan to test it.

AIMS specs a max voltage of 14.6 so I set the converter to 14.58 and find that it varies about +- 0.02 volts with temp.

Appears from their website the Aims are $899, same price as I paid for the Battle Borns. Strange in their description, they state in bold letters," WE DO NOT ACCEPT RETURNS ON THIS PRODUCT" As stated in a previous post, BB will pay for your return shipping and send you a new one, wonder how that would work with Aims if you have a problem.

Lion looks the better deal, $799 with a lifetime warranty, which is a little vague. They are 9 lbs lighter than all the other 100 a/h lithium-ions, so would suspect they use some different technologies.

Dewillso has mentioned the problems with Renogy in a previous post.

Curious to what you think the weasel words are in the BB warranty?  From what I have read, BB bends over backward to replace any defective battery. With a BMS would be pretty easy to see if it was a defective battery, or misuse. BB also has hi/lo temp and voltage cutoffs built into the BMS, I left my coach unattended for a week with both vents running and when I came back the BMS had disconnected the batteries, so I know it works. If you find any negative posts on the Battle Born's, would appreciate you linking them

.https://battlebornbatteries.com/terms-conditions/

Edited by jcussen

Foretravel 40ft tag 500hp Cummins ISM  1455 watts on the roof, 600 a/h's lithium in the basement.

 

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On 5/9/2019 at 10:13 PM, jcussen said:

Appears from their website the Aims are $899, same price as I paid for the Battle Borns. Strange in their description, they state in bold letters," WE DO NOT ACCEPT RETURNS ON THIS PRODUCT" As stated in a previous post, BB will pay for your return shipping and send you a new one, wonder how that would work with Aims if you have a problem.

Lion looks the better deal, $799 with a lifetime warranty, which is a little vague. They are 9 lbs lighter than all the other 100 a/h lithium-ions, so would suspect they use some different technologies.

Dewillso has mentioned the problems with Renogy in a previous post.

Curious to what you think the weasel words are in the BB warranty?  From what I have read, BB bends over backward to replace any defective battery. With a BMS would be pretty easy to see if it was a defective battery, or misuse. BB also has hi/lo temp and voltage cutoffs built into the BMS, I left my coach unattended for a week with both vents running and when I came back the BMS had disconnected the batteries, so I know it works. If you find any negative posts on the Battle Born's, would appreciate you linking them

.https://battlebornbatteries.com/terms-conditions/

I'm not trying to steer you to any product, that's why I didn't mention what I purchased in my first post.  Just now, I googled BB and all the retailers are listing $949 for the BB 100 ah batteries.  The AIMS are going for $849.  Several of the retailers have indicated to me that they will sometimes cut prices.  Prices may be different tomorrow.

Again, I don't know anything bad about any of these brands.  Do your homework, like I did, and compare price, warranty, specs, etc. and make your decision on what you see.  I hope you enjoy the lithium battery system as much as I have.

John, Jean and Mea the Super Springer Spaniel
2019 Entegra Aspire 44B
2022 Jeep Cherokee TrailHawk
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  • 3 weeks later...

Battle Borne batteries are excellent. When I bought my RV a year go it sat in storage, the original POS (piece of s&!*) batteries were dead. When I went to https://BattleBornBatteries.com and saw the price I also fainted, then I also found them on https://www.solar-electric.com where they were $859 each, free shipping, no tax. I bought 2 as fast as I could type the order; I haven't seen the on sale since but they may be again soon now that it's getting close to summer.

These batteries are excellent, they have an internal battery management system that protects the battery for temperature or low battery (10%) when either of these happen the battery will shut off to avoid damage. You can use the battery in freezing weather but cannot charge if below freezing, the BMS controls all this. These are basically "idiot proof" and I was looking for that in a battery. Also, you buy 2 and just replace your current house batteries without any issues, I did mine (after taking many photos and tagging each cable so I wouldn't screw up). PLUS LIfePo4 batteries can be used down to 10% not the normal 50% like lead acid. Do the math and you'll see that you'll have these batteries over 10 years and in the long run you'll save money, have 90% usage and never worry the batteries. I know it feels like passing a stone to pay for these, but they're worth it. Battle Born has a terrific product and an excellent 10-year warranty.

As soon as I can find somewhere to install more for me than the 2 I have under the steps I'm buying 2 or 4 more! Maybe if Battle Born sees this they'll give me a discount??  Also, if you go to trade shows and Battle Born is there they sometime have show discounts, probably what I initially got from the site above.  

Good luck!  

Lisa

Edited by Lisa's RV Experience
typo
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  • 2 weeks later...

I keep going back and forth on these Battle Born batteries. Currently I have two AGM group 31 Duracell batteries that I bought at Sam's Club for $189 each. I bought these batteries over 4 years ago and they are still going strong.I charge nearly exclusively with 420 watts of solar. I just returned from a 9500 mile trip and the batteries are still working perfectly. I take them down to about 75% every night. I travel January, February and March and then every other weekend. I boondocking 100% at various shooting and motorcycle events. Have not used my generator bin years. To replace them with nearly $2,000 worth of lithium ion batteries doesn't seem to make sense on the surface. Granted if I need two more AGM batteries I won't get them for $189 each like I did during that Sam's Club special. so I'll keep reading great threads like this waiting for my batteries to expire and then hopefully the cost of lithium-ion has come way down.

RoyB

South of Boston

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On 6/13/2019 at 4:37 AM, rbertalotto said:

I keep going back and forth on these Battle Born batteries. Currently I have two AGM group 31 Duracell batteries that I bought at Sam's Club for $189 each. I bought these batteries over 4 years ago and they are still going strong.I charge nearly exclusively with 420 watts of solar. I just returned from a 9500 mile trip and the batteries are still working perfectly. I take them down to about 75% every night. I travel January, February and March and then every other weekend. I boondocking 100% at various shooting and motorcycle events. Have not used my generator bin years. To replace them with nearly $2,000 worth of lithium ion batteries doesn't seem to make sense on the surface. Granted if I need two more AGM batteries I won't get them for $189 each like I did during that Sam's Club special. so I'll keep reading great threads like this waiting for my batteries to expire and then hopefully the cost of lithium-ion has come way down.

Assuming your statement: " I take them down to about 75% every night." means you take them down to 75% FULL (SOC of 75%) and not down to 25% full then you have sized your lead acid battery pack perfectly for your power usage.  This also means your 420watts of solar has a very good chance of getting your batteries back to 100% full.  This is perfect for a lead acid setup. 

I see little reason for you to switch to lithium.  

I switched to 400AH of lithium and 650 watts of solar in Jan 2016 and would not switch back to lead acid.

I initially installed lithium because in our then 29' gas MH only had room under the entrance steps for a pair of golf cart batteries and I didn't feel comfortable with putting 4 or even 6 golf cart batteries in the storage compartment just forward of the entrance door. Too much weight in a small footprint at 280 pounds for 4 and 420 pounds for 6.  Plus I would need to go with AGM since it is a sealed compartment and I put the inverter and solar controller in the same compartment.  Pricing AGM makes lithium cost easier to justify.

I have since moved the inverter, controller and lithium into our 36' diesel pusher.  I installed them in a cabinet in the bedroom which held 4 drawers. Still have one drawer left.  Moved the solar panels and now have room for a 3rd 325 watt panel.

What I love about my Lithium:

--  Never needing to get the batteries to 100% full.  A must every 5-7 days for decent life for any lead acid.

--  No concerns if we have several days of heavy cloud cover and the SOC drops to 30% or so.   I can easily kick in 80AH in an hour or so of gen run time.  NOTE: even with light to moderate cloud cover we get enough solar in 9-11 hours of daylight to keep from depleting the battery charge too quickly.  Once the sun comes out I get plenty of charge back in the batteries. 

We generally use between 100AH to 200AH in a day.   A full day of cloudy weather with occasional showers will still put 40-60AH or more in the batteries in 9-11 hours.  

Al & Sharon
2006 Winnebago Journey 36G 
2020 Chevy Colorado Toad
San Antonio, TX

http://downtheroadaroundthebend.blogspot.com/

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