Which battery for camper van?

[SJWhitten]

I am having a custom camper van built. I am planning all lithium for power, including 12v AC. I have two main questions. First, how important is it to have a heated battery? I live in the south, and the batteries will be inside the living space of the van, which will hopefully be above freezing when I need to charge the batteries. And second, most important question - what brand to buy? I see VERY inexpensive Paoweric 300Ah and XZNY 310Ah. $1.30-$1.65 per Ah. And then I see Battle Born at almost $9 per Ah. What is the risk/downside of the cheap batteries? Are they a fire risk? Are they likely to fail sooner? I saw one review that did a tear down of Paoweric, and it looked cheaply made to me. I couldn't find a tear down of XZNY. Is there a good middle ground? I saw a review Will did of SOK, and he seemed reasonably pleased with it. What about Renogy batteries? Thanks for any and all advice you can provide this newbie!

 

[robbob2112]

Friends don't let friends by Renogy.

Battle born is all hype and price. LiTime and WattCycle are as good or better. Will has torn down both, the WattCycle 12.8v100ah most recently.

I ordered a Wattcycle 12.8v300ah to use under my desk, should show up in a week or so. I have a number of LiTime things and it is all quality stuff.

Make sure to use the right fuses in the right places and you are golden. We can help you with a wiring design. Read my answer thread, first link of my signature

 

[Zapper77]

I'm impressed with Vatrer, solid build, good wiring, Bluetooth is just ok (poor range [metal case] and data is limited to one battery at a time), cells balanced good, BMS settings can be modified Overkill app. Edit to add: pulls full capacity 235Ah

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CRNMKYK9/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[BrunoTPM]

There are a couple of recent youtube videos on compact xzny 280ah and 310ah batteries with LTCP that you might want to look at.