Question for Will Prowse

[ChippyLuke]

Hi Will - if your reading this. I'm from Perth, Australia. We have a local business called Itechworld that claim to be on the cutting edge of everything 12v eg regulators, lithium batteries, inverters etc. Due to there local proximity and value for money, I have purchased some of their equipment ie jump starter, mppt regulator. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any comparison video reviews for things like their mppt charge controller. Would you be interested in hosting one? I'm interested to see how their gear rates against world market. Just fyi, I am not affiliated with this company in any way, just a consumer. Thanks for your time!

 

[Will Prowse]

Thanks for recommending the business, but at this point it is getting difficult to keep up with every new product being released lately.

I usually focus on products that are a good value AND easily accessible globally. I get multiple emails every single day from random companies and startups, and there is simply not enough time in the day for me to even read the emails. Especially while keeping an eye on this forum and my websites.

I do encourage everyone to make their own videos if they can. Try some basic tests and see what you find. Most of my test/review videos can be replicated. I usually do simple testing and find problems quickly. If Australia is a big market, I am sure you could help a lot of people by making some videos.

 

[Lazzar]

If Australia is a big market

Especially for Bluetti AC200, can't wait for it to get here.

 

[Lazzar]

mppt charge controller

Just get a Victron and you can't go wrong.

 

[ChippyLuke]

Thanks heaps for your prompt responses. Well done with the vids Will. Keep up the good work. I'll be watching. As for Victron, was toying with the idea of getting the Smart Solar 100/30 but over double the price of this one I got from Itechworld. Also like to support local business where I can, especially after this while covid thing. I'll have to try to organise a test of my controller then. Thanks again guys

 

[gnubie]

A lot of this stuff is just badge enginering despite what the seller might say about being specially designed, built to work especially well with their other products etc.. A quick search on aliexpress found them. You can probably Google around with the information there and find more details about them.

 

[ChippyLuke]

Yeah fair enough. I hadn't thought about looking on there. Oh well, you live and learn. I agree, allot of companies try to up sell by saying this product works best with another one of our products. As it is, I'm not going to purchase their lithium battery to use with the controller. Was looking around for something cheaper. Anyone got suggestions for cheap lifepo available for Aus? Meanwhile, I'll check other threads. ?

 

[gnubie]

Only from what others have posted, Amptron. No idea if its any good, but at least the specs don't suck like so many other lifepo4 batteries on sale in Australia. There are some good expensive ones though, but again, you need to pay attention to the specs (charge / discharge rates etc) as there's expensive ones that suck too.

 

[ChippyLuke]

Ok, so that's another thing, I'm going to hook up a 3000 watt inverter to my battery. It'll be more power than I'll probably use but I like to er on the side of caution. What discharge rate wild I require in a battery? The inverter would have a 350 amp fuse but no battery has that sort of discharge rate anyway. How does that work?

 

[gnubie]

If you want to get 3kW out of the inverter 12V is possible but the current is getting pretty nasty, at least 250 amps but assuming the inverter is really capable of it more like 315 amps once losses in the inverter are accounted for. You'll be putting several 12v batteries in parallel to get there even if you get a high discharge rate battery from offroad

You could go down the DIY battery path too. 24V is worth considering at these sorts of wattages.

 

[ChippyLuke]

What do you think of these?:

DT 12V 120AH LiFePo4 Lithium Iron Battery

The Lithium Iron Phosphate battery is the ultimate in weight versus power technology. This is a drop in replacement for your Lead-acid battery, and will require no change to your stock charging system. LiFePO4 contains no poisonous lead, no acid, and does not create gasses during charge, as...

www.access12voltwarehouse.com.au

 

[gnubie]

This battery has a massive 200A BMS unit which means you can run up to 2.4kW @ 200A continuous from the battery. Most normal lithium batteries on the market only have a 100A BMS.

Standard Discharge 25°C
Max. cont. current: 100A
Max.10sec.pulse: 150A
Cut-off Voltage: 10V

Not really confidence inspiring when the product page can't even agree with itself. Then there is that special Deutsche Technologies logo too. Put it in the same class as all the ebay solar panels that slap German approved on them.

 

[ChippyLuke]

Yeah I didn't notice that. I might call them about that one. I've been in there and spoken to them before and was seriously considering buying them.?

 

[ChippyLuke]

Ok, just spoke to them. Does this make sense; he said that they have a 200amp bms but will require two batteries to get that 200amp discharge rate - so essentially drawing 100amp from each?

 

[gnubie]

TBH it sounds like they are just trying to cover the error (or deception). The page clearly states you can draw 200 amps from the battery, continuous, in the text description next to the battery. Since the batteries are completely self contained it has nothing to do with adding another battery.

It doesn't necessarily mean the battery is no good, just that the current it can really sustain is 100 amps (pending a test of course).

There may be a time limit on drawing 100 amps, but that time limit may be quite OK based on how long you need to run what ever it is that is drawing all that power. If you have a 2kW kettle connected and it takes 5 mins to bring a full load of water to boiling but the batteries can sustain 200 amps (100 a piece) for only 20 minutes, that's fine so long as you allow enough time between making another bucket of coffee for the BMS to cool down etc.

 

[Haugen]

You have to remember that if you are drawing 200A out of a 120Ah battery, you are not going to do it for very long. Something like 36 minutes and your tank is empty.
At that price point, you can get at least 280Ah with a definite 200A chatge/discharge rate if you DIY.

 

[ChippyLuke]

Really? You mean, build my own battery?

 

[gnubie]

Heap of discussion around DIY batteries elsewhere on the forum. The main points to consider is quality of the cells and BMS, but that's largely been buttoned down now with good suppliers having been sniffed out; and warranty.

If you buy a battery from an actual in country business locally, or even from the other side of the country and it fails (or fails to perfom as per spec) you can get it replaced reasonably easily. If a product sold in Australia is defective you do not bear the costs of getting it back to the seller, no matter how hard the seller kicks and screams. It's all laid out bare on the ACCC's web site. Of course if you send it back at the seller's expense and it turns out you broke the thing by misuse etc, you can expect a bill.

If you buy bits from overseas, you are largely on your own unless the seller happens to be particularly good and will send out replacements without ever seeing the failed thing. Even if they do you can still be without a working battery for an extended time waiting for that slow boat from China.