Epoch 300AH Heated?

[drysideshooter]

Hello all. My wife and I are in the process of switching from our much-loved truck camper to a travel trailer. The trailer will have 600 watts of solar on it. It comes with a 12V fridge, which will be the single biggest consumer of power, unless we are running AC, which will be with the generator. We are going to go with LifePo4 batteries. We were looking at 3 Battle Born 100AH heated batteries, but after watching some video's and doing some reading, we are seriously considering a Epoch 300AH heated battery, probably the one without the Victron comms. They seem to be a well-regarded battery. The 300AH uses different construction than the 100AH trolling motor battery that Will took apart, but I assume it's still good quality? The battery would go in a steel locking box on the tongue of the trailer. The dealer has them custom made by a local fab shop. I think the IP21 rating of the battery means it should be okay in a closed box?

Does anyone have direct experience with one of these batteries? Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[JeromeS13]

I have two of them in my van. They work as expected and have been great so far.

 

[drysideshooter]

Thanks JeromeS13. Do you have the version with the comms, or the other one?

 

[JeromeS13]

I have the basic version, no comms.

 

[Alkaline]

Non Serviceable is an issue with the cheaper one, any battery can go bad so consider getting the roypow version that you can open up. Also the Sun Fun Kits 300HP is another alternative and similar in price but can be opened up and has options to add victron comms and can do standby heating. The SOK 280 is also very good, can be opened up and probably has the best price, HOWEVER, it is metal so potential for rust.

Here are some others to consider:
Kilovault 300
Battleborn 270
Millertech 300

 

[JeromeS13]

Non Serviceable is an issue with the cheaper one, any battery can go bad so consider getting the roypow version that you can open up. Also the Sun Fun Kits 300HP is another alternative and similar in price but can be opened up and has options to add victron comms and can do standby heating. The SOK 280 is also very good, can be opened up and probably has the best price, HOWEVER, it is metal so potential for rust.

Here are some others to consider:
Kilovault 300
Battleborn 270
Millertech 300

Reasons why I went with Epoch vs the others:

- Black Friday 20% off (made each battery $879.20 before shipping)
- Smallest "footprint" of a 300AH battery that I could find

Plus, they're in Atlanta if something goes wrong during the 11 year warranty.

 

[drysideshooter]

I ordered the non-comm 300AH a bit earlier. Epoch was really fast at answering questions via email, which was impressive. Part of the reason with going with the non-comm version is that if we ever decide to add a 2nd battery, another one of those will fit in the box with the first one, and the comm version is slightly too big to fit 2 of them. I asked about warranty, and they said if it can't be resolved they pay for shipping both ways. I also received an additional 10% off coupon through email as I had added one to my cart and then didn't check out. Seems like a really solid deal.

 

[Alkaline]

- Black Friday 20% off (made each battery $879.20 before shipping)

Wow that is heck of a deal, surprised they didn't advertise it more.

 

[F29DCB]

I'm ready to pull the trigger and buy 2 of these.
any teardown photo's would help before I buy.
they are currently $1099 including the 15% off.
would like to see that $897 black friday deal again.

 

[Magrathea]

My only suggestion is that you buy these batteries from someone other than Epoch themselves, the batteries are good, but the support is non existent. Don't expect these to have any warranty whatsoever. see my post here: https://diysolarforum.com/threads/epoch-batteries.80671/

 

[KITROBASKIN]

Epochbatteries has been fine for me but did not have to deal with any problems. Over 10 years I have been on a flashlight forum (CPF) and members there use 18650batterystore; really have not heard support issues at all.

My take is that they are ordering from China but specifying certain parameters/features for their product.

The fact that currentconnected (excellent reputation here at diysolarforum) now stocks EPOCH batteries says a lot about quality/value.

BattleBorn is pretty thoroughly out of fashion here on this forum; not worth the extra cost. You could research some of the cheap direct from China products if your risk threshold is higher than mine.