Renogy 170ah LiFePo4 @ $1082 on Amz. <= 50 cents a watt hour.

[Bigbillsd]

If you buy them make sure you use one of Wills Affiliate links to start your search to help him support his work! Like this on: One of Wills links to start your search on amazon...

I just pulled the trigger on 4 of them. Hopefully Will gets a taste of the purchase. I had them in and out of my cart a lot this week so who knows how Amz will treat that.

-Bill

 

[Bigbillsd]

They are still down at .497 cents a watt, but now the site says "Limited Time deal" Which it did not say a couple days ago. I had been hoping they would get down to $980 like they were last spring but I now seems unlikely. Of course there is tomorrow.. cyber monday. If they do go down I will be talking to Amz to credit me! LOL. These look really good to me for a 170ah drop in. I did also buy lugs with 1/2" holes so they can be put in parallel.

I wonder when Will can get one to dismantle... (not mine!)

-Bill

 

[Mac6792]

Great deal but can only be connected in parallel

 

[Bigbillsd]

I will use them in my motorhome... Parallel is all 99.9% of us will want to use due to everything being 12v. I looked into moving to 24v but for what we use it would be fairly problematic. Especially since my 7500w diesel genny is started from the house batteries. I wondered how many amps that would draw from a buck converter...

 

[mojo]

I will use them in my motorhome... Parallel is all 99.9% of us will want to use due to everything being 12v. I looked into moving to 24v but for what we use it would be fairly problematic. Especially since my 7500w diesel genny is started from the house batteries. I wondered how many amps that would draw from a buck converter...

I have three of the 170AH Renogy batteries in my 40ft Newmar. I installed them with 1000W of solar about three months ago. They are working great so far, but I have not attempted a deep discharge. I did have once instance with the solar charge controller "glitched" and sent 20V to the batteries. The BMS worked as advertised and disconnected. I cycled my battery disconnect switch and everything came back up just fine.

I wasn't concerned about scaling to 24V either. The loss in efficiency is more than made up for with the price point of the batteries. Additionally, I did not have to replace the inverter or add a DC-DC step-down converter for the rest of the RV.

I am also interested in a teardown. Maybe since the 100AH batteries are down to $599 on Amazon, he will pick up one for a teardown. Per the spec sheet, they have cylindrical cells like a Battle Born and not prismatic cells. Based on the specs, I believe both the 100AH and 170AH have the same BMS.

 

[alex01]

How did you cycle the battery disconnect switch to bring the battery back up?

 

[Bigbillsd]

How did you cycle the battery disconnect switch to bring the battery back up?

You would just turn it off and back on. Then the current incoming voltage would reset the BMS. I also installed a momentary switch and wired a 50 ohm resistor inbetween the two poles on the house battery disconnect switch, based on Will's suggestion in a video I watched a while back.

 

[mojo]

You would just turn it off and back on. Then the current incoming voltage would reset the BMS. I also installed a momentary switch and wired a 50 ohm resistor inbetween the two poles on the house battery disconnect switch, based on Will's suggestion in a video I watched a while back.

I cycled my battery disconnect switch removing all loads. Counted to 10 for good measure. Cycled the loads back on. The Renogy manual states to "disconnect load" to recover from the overcurrent protection in the BMS. link: https://www.renogy.com/content/files/Manuals/RNG-LFP_Manual_V1.0.pdf

 

[alex01]

So I guess I'm getting different answers. What you said would make more sense but I was under the impression renogy requires a special charger to turn It back on.

As per manual:

"The BMS will protect and shut the battery down (0V) when it is over-discharged or short circuited. In these rare cases the user will need to activate the battery using an external device that has lithium battery activation feature. If the Lithium batteries voltage shows 0V the battery is not defective but in its protection setting. Please contact our Tech Support team at 909-287-7100 for any questions about the BMS. "

 

[mojo]

So I guess I'm getting different answers. What you said would make more sense but I was under the impression renogy requires a special charger to turn It back on.

As per manual:

"The BMS will protect and shut the battery down (0V) when it is over-discharged or short-circuited. In these rare cases the user will need to activate the battery using an external device that has lithium battery activation feature. If the Lithium batteries voltage shows 0V the battery is not defective but in its protection setting. Please contact our Tech Support team at 909-287-7100 for any questions about the BMS. "

My case was overvoltage and not an over-discharge or short circuit. Diconnecting the load worked to reset the BMS. I am confident the event was an overvoltage condition because it was recorded in my BMK.

In the reviews for the battery on the Renogy site, one person comments feedback they received from the Renogy technicians that a NOCO Genius G1100 smart charger would be enough to unlock an over-discharged or short-circuited battery. They are $40 on Amazon. link: https://www.renogy.com/lithium-iron-phosphate-battery-12-volt-170ah/