Two Battleborn or one 24V LiFePO4 Powerwall

[HamptonHall]

Need about 1650 watt hours. Pros/cons for Two Battleborn 12 volt 100 amp (in series) for $1,800 or one BigBattery 24 volt LiFePO4 Powerwall Generation 2 new cells 5 kWh (203 AH) for $2,000? Any advice appreciated as this is totally new to me. Thanks

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[ghostwriter66]

Neither .... build the battery out yourself ... thousands of posts on here on how to ... costs will be a fraction ...

 

[Bob142]

Neither .... build the battery out yourself ... thousands of posts on here on how to ... costs will be a fraction ...

Generally agree, except this thread is in the Beginner Friendly "Plug-n-Play" battery subforum...

Need about 1650 watt hours. Pros/cons for Two Battleborn 12 volt 100 amp (in series) for $1,800 or one BigBattery 24 volt LiFePO4 Powerwall Generation 2 new cells 5 kWh (203 AH) for $2,000? Any advice appreciated as this is totally new to me. Thanks

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@HamptonHall, welcome to the forum!

The Battle Born pros and cons have been covered extensively here and should be easy to search for. The biggest con is the price.

The Gen 2 Big Battery Powerwall uses new A123 cells that are one of the recommended budget batteries on Will's other site.
You certainly get much more bang for your buck going with the Powerwall option. Make sure to use the coupon code "diysolar" for 10% off.

 

[HamptonHall]

Thank you ghostwriter66 and Bob142

 

[ghostwriter66]

Thank you ghostwriter66 and Bob142

No worries ...Honestly building your own batteries is as easy as ordering them -- putting them together via bussbars the way you need it configured - and then adding a BMS .... and thus - you get 2X the Battleborn battery for 1/2 the price ... becuase honestly - thats all they are doing except they drop it all in a plastic case

 

[Supervstech]

No worries ...Honestly building your own batteries is as easy as ordering them -- putting them together via bussbars the way you need it configured - and then adding a BMS .... and thus - you get 2X the Battleborn battery for 1/2 the price ... becuase honestly - thats all they are doing except they drop it all in a plastic case

Well...

 

[HamptonHall]

Well...

Is there something missing from your comment? I'm leaning toward using the Fortune 100 Ah cells in Will's "hand truck solar system 2.4kWh". Already bought the Growatt 24V SPF 3000TL LVM

 

[JoeHam]

I would guess that the left out part was that BB does provide a 10 year warranty, quality assembly and perhaps some cell matching. They may also have access to higher quality cells since they buy a bazillion of them.

That said, I enjoyed my Fortune 60 Ah build and have no regrets:

48v LiFePO4 build

For my application I wanted to build a semi-portable system capable of running a 1500w Inverter. Most parts are on the way so here I go. This is also a "proof of concept" thing for me and if I do a second, non-portable install down the road I could easily use the same devices powered by some...

diysolarforum.com

 

[ghostwriter66]

I would guess that the left out part was that BB does provide a 10 year warranty, quality assembly and perhaps some cell matching. They may also have access to higher quality cells since they buy a bazillion of them.

That said, I enjoyed my Fortune 60 Ah build and have no regrets:

48v LiFePO4 build

For my application I wanted to build a semi-portable system capable of running a 1500w Inverter. Most parts are on the way so here I go. This is also a "proof of concept" thing for me and if I do a second, non-portable install down the road I could easily use the same devices powered by some...

diysolarforum.com

So BattleBorn most probably does NOT get a special reserve of "fine" LiFePO4 cells .. they probably do like the 1000's of the rest of the companies like us and find a good supplier and test each one they get in . .. GRADE A .. like the rest of us ...

As for the 10 Years warranty - yeah good luck with that ... lots of caveats in that one ... especially the YOU need to mail it back in -- figure the cost of that ...

Quality assembly just means making the box "purdy" ... anyone can get good quality cells from China - a good solid BMS -- and a good box and do virtually the same themselves ... I just ordered (4) 3.2v 280aH LiFePO4 batteries from China delivered for $80 each (total $320) ... delivery $170 ... Will use a Chargery BMS ($117) which is far superior than BB stuff .. and will place it all in a solid plastic container ($37) ... thus giving me a 12v 280aH LiFePO4 battery for $644 while BB gives you a 100aH for a little over a $1000 ...

Thats why many of us do this ourselves ... so what i am getting for $644 ... BB is charging $2800 .... kinda seems like a no brainer to me ... but then again I do understand why some ppl just feel better having someone else package the stuff up ...

 

[JoeHam]

I doubt I would ever own a BattleBorn but I was just guessing at the most likely reasons people choose them.

The link provided was to one of the DIY builds I did this spring so yeah, I get it.

 

[HamptonHall]

So BattleBorn most probably does NOT get a special reserve of "fine" LiFePO4 cells .. they probably do like the 1000's of the rest of the companies like us and find a good supplier and test each one they get in . .. GRADE A .. like the rest of us ...

As for the 10 Years warranty - yeah good luck with that ... lots of caveats in that one ... especially the YOU need to mail it back in -- figure the cost of that ...

Quality assembly just means making the box "purdy" ... anyone can get good quality cells from China - a good solid BMS -- and a good box and do virtually the same themselves ... I just ordered (4) 3.2v 280aH LiFePO4 batteries from China delivered for $80 each (total $320) ... delivery $170 ... Will use a Chargery BMS ($117) which is far superior than BB stuff .. and will place it all in a solid plastic container ($37) ... thus giving me a 12v 280aH LiFePO4 battery for $644 while BB gives you a 100aH for a little over a $1000 ...

Thats why many of us do this ourselves ... so what i am getting for $644 ... BB is charging $2800 .... kinda seems like a no brainer to me ... but then again I do understand why some ppl just feel better having someone else package the stuff up ...

Thank you for the advice. After further consideration and additional study on the forum, I decided to build my own.

 

[Japera]

So BattleBorn most probably does NOT get a special reserve of "fine" LiFePO4 cells .. they probably do like the 1000's of the rest of the companies like us and find a good supplier and test each one they get in . .. GRADE A .. like the rest of us ...

As for the 10 Years warranty - yeah good luck with that ... lots of caveats in that one ... especially the YOU need to mail it back in -- figure the cost of that ...

Quality assembly just means making the box "purdy" ... anyone can get good quality cells from China - a good solid BMS -- and a good box and do virtually the same themselves ... I just ordered (4) 3.2v 280aH LiFePO4 batteries from China delivered for $80 each (total $320) ... delivery $170 ... Will use a Chargery BMS ($117) which is far superior than BB stuff .. and will place it all in a solid plastic container ($37) ... thus giving me a 12v 280aH LiFePO4 battery for $644 while BB gives you a 100aH for a little over a $1000 ...

Thats why many of us do this ourselves ... so what i am getting for $644 ... BB is charging $2800 .... kinda seems like a no brainer to me ... but then again I do understand why some ppl just feel better having someone else package the stuff up ...

please post link or inbox me the supplier information

 

[Governor]

Japera will you share any of your findings that get? Seems we are at the same juncture.

 

[Japera]

Japera will you share any of your findings that get? Seems we are at the same juncture.

what juncture is that?

 

[Japera]

Japera will you share any of your findings that get? Seems we are at the same juncture.

Initially when I came into this I wanted to build my batteries from individual cells. The 3.2v 6Ah or 3.2v 15Ah single cell versus the 3.2v 280Ah prismatic. Take for an example 15Ah cells are about $10 and if you'd need almost 29 to get the same 280Ah battery and you'd have to solder them yourself. I have not compared the specs of the 280Ah ready made versus me making my own but it already seems like a challenge.

 

[Reed Cole]

Initially when I came into this I wanted to build my batteries from individual cells. The 3.2v 6Ah or 3.2v 15Ah single cell versus the 3.2v 280Ah prismatic. Take for an example 15Ah cells are about $10 and if you'd need almost 29 to get the same 280Ah battery and you'd have to solder them yourself. I have not compared the specs of the 280Ah ready made versus me making my own but it already seems like a challenge.

Spot welding is the recommended practice since the heat from soldering will damage the cells.

 

[Terrapin]

There is the fact that you can loose a cell...potentially several...and still have full voltage at lower capacity. That safety net in a mobile sysytem is the only reason I'd pull the trigger if I wanted to spend too much per watt hour.

 

[NwCali]

I decided to chime in here since I'm new with how I decided to go with pre built versus dyi. I will build some myself, eventually, but for someone who is new and wants to know its going to work and is going to put it in a place that needs some assurances that its not going to burn down something important I would 100% suggest not doing it yourself. I peeked in mine once it arrived and the inner cells are held in place with metal bands (not small ones either) and the outer box is fairly well built as well.

Maybe I've just seen too many dead bodies or had friends die doing stupid tihs (one just a few weeks ago doing something I'd told him he shouldn't do).

Just my .2cnts on why I went the extra cost... Next time I'll diy unless the prebuilts come down in price a LOT, but I will also mount those in a place that if it burns down won't take out my home/life.

 

[JMc]

About getting those DIY cells: I ordered a set of prismatic cells from a Chinese source in early February and by late March they were obviously having problems delivering because no one could provide any proof of shipment. Last week they finally fessed up and admitted my order was “lost in transit” (yeah sure). I ordered two Battle Borns the first week of April and had them ten days later. They work quite well and provide a full 200AH capacity. A battery in hand is worth two on a boat (somewhere).

 

[NwCali]

I recommend getting a tess electric battery 12v 100ah $500ish range and repairable as top comes off . Idk why anyone spend 1k on battle born...I guess if you have the money why not

Just wondering then...I paid $2,800 for a wall battery @ 48 volts and 200 Amp hour (10 KW). Four 12v 100ah batteries would still just make a 48 volt 100 ah battery, right?