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EG4-LifePower4 vs EG4-LL Lithium Battery

ssean

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Good Morning,

I'd like to purchase a few rack mount batteries and I'm considering the EG4's from Signature Solar.

EG4-LifePower4 Lithium Battery | 48V 100AH - $1500

EG4-LL Lithium Battery | 48V 100AH - $1700

Is the additional $200 for the EG4-LL worth it over the EG4-LifePower4?

I'm not seeing much difference, other then the LCD screen.

Is there something I'm missing?

Thanks!
 
To follow up on this in case anyone else has similar questions:

EG4-LifePower4 - 5 year warranty

EG4-LL - 10 year warranty

It also appears the EG4-LL should stack/parallel easier due to the location of the breaker.

"It would be worth it to me to get the 2x warranty and the LCD. Plus you get 2x terminals and the breaker isn't in the way if you are stacking and cabling the packs together."

Thanks to @jberger in the following thread:

 
Other than the warranty issue - off the top of my head I know the BMS are from different manufacturers but the actual battery cells packs are identical.
 
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My experience has been to not try and combine the two types in the communication loop. Stick with one or the other. My attempts to make both types communicate with a growatt 5000es inverter resulted in limited charging current to the entire bank of batteries. I ended up using the LL battery as a dumb battery with no connections to the communication ports. SS couldn't make it work either at the time, (couple months ago) not sure if they have figured it out at this point.
 
My experience has been to not try and combine the two types in the communication loop. Stick with one or the other. My attempts to make both types communicate with a growatt 5000es inverter resulted in limited charging current to the entire bank of batteries. I ended up using the LL battery as a dumb battery with no connections to the communication ports. SS couldn't make it work either at the time, (couple months ago) not sure if they have figured it out at this point.
Hey i am running into the same issue as you stated. after removing the communication cable, has it resolved the issue?
 
Hey i am running into the same issue as you stated. after removing the communication cable, has it resolved the issue?
Yes. I am running 11 of the regular EG4 and one of the EG4-LL batteries. All 11 of the regular EG4 are in the BMS communication string to the growatt inverter and the LL version is not connected in the communication loop so it's just operating as a dumb battery with only it's internal BMS. Works just fine this way for several months now.
 
Yes. I am running 11 of the regular EG4 and one of the EG4-LL batteries. All 11 of the regular EG4 are in the BMS communication string to the growatt inverter and the LL version is not connected in the communication loop so it's just operating as a dumb battery with only it's internal BMS. Works just fine this way for several months now.
So i just posted about the issue i had in this post. Check it out
But just to be clear, you've had no issues since then? and everything is charging equally? did you have any alarms go off at all?
the more details the better. thanks in advance.
 
So i just posted about the issue i had in this post. Check it out
But just to be clear, you've had no issues since then? and everything is charging equally? did you have any alarms go off at all?
the more details the better. thanks in advance.
Everything charges just fine, no alarms. Two times over 3-4 months I've had the inverters randomly switch over to grid power to supply loads when the battery SOC was well above the set point where they should switch over (ie battery SOC at 80-90% and the inverter starting pulling grid power instead of running the batteries down to the 25% SOC set point). Both times this happened the inverters switched back to battery power on their own once the batteries were fully charged again. Not sure why this happened a few times and no one else seems to have any ideas either but since it happens so infrequently I am not too concerned. If it does start to happen more often I will simply switch off grid input to the inverters. Very rarely do I need grid input and when I do I could switch the breakers back on.
 
But neither series come with low temp protection or 200a BMS's? Even a 2400w inverter can draw more than 100a, and anything over a 5Kw inverter can draw over 100a, so ...? :unsure:
 
Everything charges just fine, no alarms. Two times over 3-4 months I've had the inverters randomly switch over to grid power to supply loads when the battery SOC was well above the set point where they should switch over (ie battery SOC at 80-90% and the inverter starting pulling grid power instead of running the batteries down to the 25% SOC set point). Both times this happened the inverters switched back to battery power on their own once the batteries were fully charged again. Not sure why this happened a few times and no one else seems to have any ideas either but since it happens so infrequently I am not too concerned. If it does start to happen more often I will simply switch off grid input to the inverters. Very rarely do I need grid input and when I do I could switch the breakers back on.
There is a setting to tell it when to swap and when to charge, if this setting is off a little it can make a big impact. I think settings 12/13 ish off the top of my head.
 
Personally I trust the battery and warranty, and don't need the screen - I'd go for the LiFePower4's!

But that's the point, the ll comes with twice the warranty (10 years vs 5 years)... and wouldn't it be logical that the give the additional 5 years because they believe it'll last longer?
 
But that's the point, the ll comes with twice the warranty (10 years vs 5 years)... and wouldn't it be logical that the give the additional 5 years because they believe it'll last longer?
I think both will last 10+ years. Statistically (I’m a numbers guy) the chances of these failing due to a manufacturers defect after more than 5 years but less than 10 is pretty small. They will likely fall apart from age before they die due to a defect.
 
Any more input from people as to whether the eg4 ll is worth the extra $200?

Definitely not IMHO.

The older/simpler version is less problematic judging by issues discussed on the forum.

I highly doubt you would ever use either warranty.

And I may be biased since I own the older version.
 
Other than the warranty issue - off the top of my head I know the BMS have different maximum input amps (100 vs 200) but the actual battery cells packs are identical.
Please excuse my newness...but would you mind elaborating on this? I too am trying to make a final decision on 4 of one or the other. Thx!
 
Please excuse my newness...but would you mind elaborating on this? I too am trying to make a final decision on 4 of one or the other. Thx!
Hey there. I'm going to update my previous comment but the numbers quoted from the manufacturer in the document I was going through was incorrect. They are both 100a charge/discharge continuous. But, the question is - do you want a screen to look at? If yes, get the LL. If no, go with the lifepower.
 
Hey there. I'm going to update my previous comment but the numbers quoted from the manufacturer in the document I was going through was incorrect. They are both 100a charge/discharge continuous. But, the question is - do you want a screen to look at? If yes, get the LL. If no, go with the lifepower.
Thank you...the $1k savings can be used for hookup incidental items etc. Additionally, I seem to remember Will discussing in a video (don't remember which one) that he would prefer the Lifepower & savings over the LL as he just thinks the info provided by the screen is unnecessary and not very useful for him...or something like that.
 
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But neither series come with low temp protection or 200a BMS's? Even a 2400w inverter can draw more than 100a, and anything over a 5Kw inverter can draw over 100a, so ...? :unsure:
The cells are only rated for 100A continuous I believe so adding a 200A BMS would be worthless
 
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