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Battleborn four BB10012 battery bank failure

I looked through the BB manual and no mention of installation orientation.
Screenshot_20230817_141432_Edge.jpg

But now that I've reviewed Wills teardown and your setup...I would discourage any future install with either short side facing down. Especially in the rear overhang in an RV.
 
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OP:

Were the batteries tightly secured and held against each other to prevent the batteries from shifting towards and/or away from each other? If the batteries were allowed to shift, the cables might be stiff enough to transfer pressure forces against the terminals.

I tried, but was not able to view the videos, so maybe you already addressed this issue in one of your videos.

I feel your pain and hope we can figure out whether Battle Born batteries have a design defect.
 
featherlite said:
OP:

Were the batteries tightly secured and held against each other to prevent the batteries from shifting towards and/or away from each other? If the batteries were allowed to shift, the cables might be stiff enough to transfer pressure forces against the terminals.

I tried, but was not able to view the videos, so maybe you already addressed this issue in one of your videos.

I feel your pain and hope we can figure out whether Battle Born batteries have a design defect.
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They were secured and didn’t move at all
 
With a name like Battle Born and a price like a lucrative DoD contract I would expect you could hook those batteries together and drive 50mph in an up armored humvee down a utility line trail with them completely unsecured and they would survive.

Instead we got a battery that was in a RV more nicely restrained than 99% of batteries on earth and it failed and the company won't stand behind its product. For the price they rapee you for, they should just ship you a new one no questions asked.
 
Good discussion.

I am going to take them off my recommendation list tonight. There are simply better options for a fraction of the price.

Few years ago, they were considered a bargain. $900 for a 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 was a steal, because all the other companies were charging $1,200 for the same capacity. That is when we had to build our own packs without BMS, or home made BMS. I was getting tons of emails from people having issues with other batteries or home built. Battleborn was the best around at the time.

Then we had someone complain about a battle born failure on youtube, and that video disappeared. That is strange. I wish they could post it here with some close up picture evidence. Or anything really.

And their tech hasn't improved. Pretty much every company I know is adding new features or certifications, and lowering the price over time. Not battle born.

Really nice people. But I don't know how anyone could survive in this market without making changes and reducing prices. The competition does not sleep.
 
Will Prowse said:
Good discussion.

I am going to take them off my recommendation list tonight. There are simply better options for a fraction of the price.

Few years ago, they were considered a bargain. $900 for a 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 was a steal, because all the other companies were charging $1,200 for the same capacity. That is when we had to build our own packs without BMS, or home made BMS. I was getting tons of emails from people having issues with other batteries or home built. Battleborn was the best around at the time.

Then we had someone complain about a battle born failure on youtube, and that video disappeared. That is strange. I wish they could post it here with some close up picture evidence. Or anything really.

And their tech hasn't improved. Pretty much every company I know is adding new features or certifications, and lowering the price over time. Not battle born.

Really nice people. But I don't know how anyone could survive in this market without making changes and reducing prices. The competition does not sleep.
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Thank you for the forum and all you do for the off grid diy solar community Will. After fighting back and emailing back and forth I did get a call from Roni Ventura this morning giving me the option of granting the warranty battery replacement on all four batteries but that I had to PAY FOR SHIPPING to what I replied ABSOLUTELY NOT; if you’re going to grant warranty it means it is NOT my fault and you shall cover everything as stated on your warranty (ALL OR NOTHING). He then agreed to full warranty replacement free of charge but with the CAVEAT (to which I did not agree to) that IF THE SAME THING HAPPENED (loose terminals inside battery) with any of my five NEW batteries or replacement (four) warranty batteries that they WILL NOT grant the warranty again. Which made me very suspicious change my mind about keeping the five new batteries. So I'll be keeping four of the five new batteries I had recently purchased (as the warranty replacement) and sending one back to them and get a refund for the five new batteries. Plus sending the other two failed batteries. Other than keeping the four original batteries I want nothing to do with battleborn. Leasson learned.
 
guzmane76 said:
Thank you for the forum and all you do for the off grid diy solar community Will. After fighting back and emailing back and forth I did get a call from Roni Ventura this morning giving me the option of granting the warranty battery replacement on all four batteries but that I had to PAY FOR SHIPPING to what I replied ABSOLUTELY NOT; if you’re going to grant warranty it means it is NOT my fault and you shall cover everything as stated on your warranty (ALL OR NOTHING). He then agreed to full warranty replacement free of charge but with the CAVEAT (to which I did not agree to) that IF THE SAME THING HAPPENED (loose terminals inside battery) with any of my five NEW batteries or replacement (four) warranty batteries that they WILL NOT grant the warranty again. Which made me very suspicious change my mind about keeping the five new batteries. So I'll be keeping four of the five new batteries I had recently purchased (as the warranty replacement) and sending one back to them and get a refund for the five new batteries. Plus sending the other two failed batteries. Other than keeping the four original batteries I want nothing to do with battleborn. Leasson learned.
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guzmane76 said:
Thank you for the forum and all you do for the off grid diy solar community Will. After fighting back and emailing back and forth I did get a call from Roni Ventura this morning giving me the option of granting the warranty battery replacement on all four batteries but that I had to PAY FOR SHIPPING to what I replied ABSOLUTELY NOT; if you’re going to grant warranty it means it is NOT my fault and you shall cover everything as stated on your warranty (ALL OR NOTHING). He then agreed to full warranty replacement free of charge but with the CAVEAT (to which I did not agree to) that IF THE SAME THING HAPPENED (loose terminals inside battery) with any of my five NEW batteries or replacement (four) warranty batteries that they WILL NOT grant the warranty again. Which made me very suspicious change my mind about keeping the five new batteries. So I'll be keeping four of the five new batteries I had recently purchased (as the warranty replacement) and sending one back to them and get a refund for the five new batteries. Plus sending the other two failed batteries. Other than keeping the four original batteries I want nothing to do with battleborn. Leasson learned.
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By the way, I just ordered eight SOK 100Ah 12V bluetooth/not heat batteries today, looking forward to getting them very soon.
 
Will Prowse said:
I am going to take them off my recommendation list tonight.
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Ouch. I mean I agree with you and this forum generally doesn’t steer people towards the overpriced battle borns, but these failures just don’t make sense at that price point. People are abusing $300 batteries with what seems to be a comparable failure rate. If they are weak to stand behind their warranty, it makes little sense to spend three times as much.

Hard to buy American if American companies can’t compete. Or aren’t willing to.
 
Greetings all, I've read this thread and the long one regarding Signature Solar vs Sol-Ark. Fascinating and very interesting. I respectfully suggest that a higher level of cynicism is in order. I've been involved with jets and cars and other things my entire adult life. Most owners don't own jets outright, they have loans. If they have persistent "insoluble" faults while under warranty they park the plane, have their lawyer draft a letter to the bank and the manufacturer and stop paying. With a car under warranty you can do something similar. With smaller items, warranty is merely a dishonest marketing technique. The seller makes it as hard as possible to get any satisfaction. Companies that go above this, like Costco does, do pretty well at growing ;-) Information and knowledge is the key. If Will gives a lousy review to BattleBorn now, their sales will suffer, and they know it. They won't honor any warranty claim because they are "nice guys" but they may do it to try to avoid the negative publicity and subsequent sales drop.

When I buy stuff direct from China I recognize 100% that I have no recourse. I just won't ever buy from that seller again, and I'll try to make it known that their stuff is junk.

If you keep in mind some of the above it might lower your stress level when things don't work out as you would like. Also, keep in mind that stuff breaks. Fight back, but remain aware that your "moral high ground" is not something the seller shares.

And yes, the cost of transport of larger items is a huge factor - you gotta take your stuff back to Costco to get your money back.
 
rodrick said:
Makes the chins, power queen, Wiese type batteries look better all the time at a 1/4 to a1/3 of the cost with the same questionable warranty I’ll stick to my diy and cheaper Chinese batteries it’s a lot easier to cut open a 300 dollar battery and play with it and see if its worth fixing
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Better think twice on that: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=chins+battery+failure

If anything this makes EPOCH batteries look good because they have a temperature terminal on the battery terminals and would have detected heat build up.

BUT I would say this just shows you that serviceable batteries are the way to go for long term success, just like your tires, check your batteries and torque them down as needed to ensuring a long successful service life.
 
Good on getting battleborn to fix/service your battery. I did not have any luck, but also didn't know about diysolarforum at that time...

What I can say is that I don't really care about these warranties, when the best companies is being shady about warranties, you guys better hope the other China direct companies don't just fold when issues arise with them.

On the other side many battleborns are now 5-6 years old so this shows real world use, I have some friends still on there original batteries super pleased with the battleborns but they run very low loads like 5-10ah running a fridge.

People say DIY is dead, I say this just proves its alive and still a viable option and yes I agree serviceable batteries should be the standard.
 
KauaiMolokai said:
If you keep in mind some of the above it might lower your stress level when things don't work out as you would like. Also, keep in mind that stuff breaks. Fight back, but remain aware that your "moral high ground" is not something the seller shares.
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The best way to fight back against overpriced un-honored warranty batteries is to not buy them in the first place. Battle Born was ahead of the game when they started but there’s simply cheaper options now that will give you less headache and more money left in your pocket. I like the guys at Battle Born and I’d love to support their business, but they would do well to jump in here and defend their poor warranty service on this thread. If they can prove that the case in question here is NOT covered by warranty and that the user abused the batteries (which doesn’t seem to be the case with the evidence presented) BUT they went above and beyond and offered warranty replacement anyways, that would change my opinion. But this isn’t the first time my opinion of BB has been soured. Like what the heck happened to that Battle Born fire video that disappeared from YouTube? Looks suspicious and fuels all sorts of theories, which may or may not be true. But the evidence presented here looks like design or build quality issues, which absolutely should not be happening with high priced batteries. They have little room for error to command the prices they expect people to pay.

“Hey you got a bad batch, sorry about that, here’s the replacements shipped on our dime and here’s a $300 coupon good for any purchase in the future for your troubles.” But they didn’t say that, looks like they’re hiding behind legal curtains.
 
Tomthumb62 said:
Oof. Anyone got a scoop behind this drop? Comparing to other similar companies? But 84% down is tough to explain away.
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I have no idea. They did have some big announcements for new tech on some of the renewable energy news outlets, but I haven't seen anything released by them since then.

They don't seem to be focused on direct to consumer. I assume most of their sales are as a oem for trailers with their larger batteries. I would personally choose a roypow or discover battery over a battleborn though. Especially for the money.
 
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Sounds like they are going to be a classic example of a company that used to be great but did not keep up with the times and will eventually fail.
It's kind of funny, from these forums I figured out more companies I will NOT do business with then companies I would do business with.
 
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