LiFEP04 battery price differences

[ksanders]

What is the story regarding the huge price differences I am seeing between different manufacturers of LiFEP04 batteries.

Battle Born is close to $10 per amp hour at 12V

Others I see are as low as $3.50 per amp hour

Why?

What are you getting that is different???

 

[Comodave]

Rod at marinehowto.com has a great article on LiFePO4 batteries. That may put some insight as to quality and pricing.

 

[mvweebles]

Rod at marinehowto.com has a great article on LiFePO4 batteries. That may put some insight as to quality and pricing.

For LFP, my go-to these days is Will Prowse YouTube, the best of the tear-down channels He's noted significant improvements in quality of the cheap batteries over the last 24 months or so.

My LFP bank is 7x100ah batteries. If I were to do it today, I'd go 400ah (12v) EG4 server rack batteries. Self balancing cells, full monitoring capabilities, and easy cabling. About $1300/ea.

Peter

 

[Simi 60]

Some people wont use the internet to research things and instead believe that branding and high price is the indicator of quality (-;

Not suggesting that's the OP.

 

[Don L]

Rod at marinehowto.com has a great article on LiFePO4 batteries. That may put some insight as to quality and pricing.

Meanwhile he is recommending Li-Time batteries on his Amazon page, which are in that $10-12/ah drop-in LFPs

For a while people like Battleborn had a good deal for drop-in, but that time IMO is over.

Btw I am using 4 100ah Power Queen batteries that were $1219 total

 

[Delta Riverat]

I bought (2) Li-Time 12V, 300 AH (200A BMS) for a grand each a couple months ago. Free shipping, $3.33 / AH.

 

[SteveK]

+1 on Will Prowse YouTube. Not saying his is the only one, but he sure does show you and tell you what he sees when he opens them up. The case is the same, the branding different, the guts, may be the same or different.

Why does amazon have several ads from different sellers of the identical product at differnt prices. Buyer beware. There are many people that believe the higher the price, the better the quaility. There are some LFP batteries assembled in North america, but does anyone really make them from scratch but the Chinese.

After the very high endorsement by Peter & Rod Collins of the renogy LFP :lol: I internet educated myself about many brands and saw differences and similarities.

But after Will took one apart I went ahead and bought 8-100Ah of the smart pouch model, he was genuinely impressed and did not expect what he saw.
How many years before we will know who was right, which is best.

So far I am satisfied.

 

[Bacchus]

Not all that surprising to me. LiFePO are fairly new to volume market and declining price curve continues... some mfg quicker & lower than others not uncommon even with commodity products.

I am not promoting or knocking LiFePO but even AGM prices w/ established technology / product varies from roughly $1/AH to $2 or $3/ AH. Throw in USA vs Offshore/Asian Mfg and variations in $ not uncommon.

Even high volume commodity type products (think flat screen TVs or even RV/ truck tires) can vary in price by 2X - 3X... are they really really equivalent products?

 

[PhilPB]

Prices are definitely coming down

 

[tiltrider1]

The reason for such varied prices is due to several factors.

Was the battery built with A grade, B grade or C grade cells.

Next, what is the quality of the BMS installed.

Is battery fully assembled in China or are the cells shipped to the US for assembly?

What is the warranty? Is it 90 days, 3 years or 11 years?

Then there are standard LiFePO4 vs Server rack LiFePO4. Server Rack batteries have all kinds of additional safety and communication features.

Finally, some batteries have added Victron communication ability.

Eco-worthy batteries are among the cheapest but! No Victron communication. No cold weather shut off (safe to -4 F ). Only a 3 year warranty. On the plus side, no middleman, high quality build reviews on YouTube, only use A grade cells.

A grade means the cell meets the Automotive standard for rapid charge and discharge. Not really an issue with boats.

B grade means the cell didn’t meet A grade standard.

C grade means the cell still meets 80% of original specifications. C grade could be B grade batteries that were stored for over a year or they could be used batteries that no longer meet original specifications.

 

[Don L]

Even if the high priced batteries are "better"................. you can replace them 3 times with the less expensive ones before the prices even out.

Battery "grades" are mostly made up and in the end you have to accept they are what they say they are. China will just relabel then or make up a new grade.

Even if the cells are "bad" and only have 80% of their labeled capacity that is still more than the vast majority need out of them. Plus if in doubt just get another.

BMS "quality" should never matter and your battery should never shutdown on the BMS. Balancing near as I can tell is a story on a white paper tech article.

I went through all these "if" and "what" exercises last Dec and just got the "cheap" batteries, which was 1/2 the cost of the batteries I was replacing. It has been 10 months and they have only been charged via the charger and generator a few times when it rained for days. I have never thought to myself "Wish I had gotten the $900 batteries instead of the $300 ones".

You don't need "The Best" batteries, you need "Meets Use" batteries.

 

[folivier]

BattleBorn cells are built using grade A cells that they test and match and use high quality components to build their batteries. They also are here in the USA and have a good warranty. They're more expensive than others coming from China through Amazon and Ebay, etc. for a reason.
Buy what you want but if you want a warranty from a company that stands behind their product then BB and Victron, and a few others are top quality.
I put 3 100amphour BB batteries in my motorhome and they performed flawlessly.
I also built a 1000 amphour system for my motorhome 12 years ago using Winston 1000 amphour cells and a BMS all bought from Balqon. A good friend is still using these and they are still testing at 1000+ amphours.

 

[rslifkin]

You don't need "The Best" batteries, you need "Meets Use" batteries.

That's exactly it. Sometimes the more expensive item is better, sometimes it's just more expensive. And sometimes it's better, but only in ways that don't matter for your use.

 

[SteveK]

The longer the warranty, the greater the chance of that company no longer existing to honor it.

 

[tiltrider1]

Battleborn batteries are assembled in the USA from cells manufacture in China. Battleborn wants $10,000 for my size bank. They offer an 8 year warranty (they say 10 but the last 2 years are restricted), they offer Victron communication. Does offer battery heating for cold weather environments.

Eco-worthy offers 3 year warranty, has no Victron communications, Does not offer cold weather heating and costs $2,500 for my size bank.

If you live in warm weather (engine room is always between 5-130 degrees F) and do not have Victron components, the choice is very simple.

If you live in a cold environment and have Victron components the choice might be more difficult.

 

[Don L]

If you live in a cold environment and have Victron components the choice might be more difficult.

Do you acturally live/stay on a boat when it is that that cold in the battery storage location?

 

[Don L]

The longer the warranty, the greater the chance of that company no longer existing to honor it.

I look at the a warranty mostly as a measurement of a manufacturer willingness to stand behind their products. But for a cruiser warrantees are mainly worthless. Just want am I suppose to do when the product goes bad?

My Power Queen "cheap" batteries are warranted for 5 years. I am good if they only last that long.

You know the reason products with long warrantees cost more? It isn't because they will last longer, it is because they need to cover the replacement costs.

 

[Simi 60]

Victron communication. Victron componentst.

I have Victron components and my batteries don't communicate with Victron and I don't care.

My AGM never communicated with Victron either