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Thread: Where to start?

  1. #21
    Site Team Ynot4me2's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by luisbeal View Post
    SOK batteries are made in China and have a 7 year warranty. Dakota Lithium and Battleborn are made in the USA, and have 11-10 year warranties.
    Most lifepo4 cells come from China. Even in batteries made or assembled in the USA including the top brands we've all come to love.

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    Quote Originally Posted by luisbeal View Post
    SOK batteries are made in China and have a 7 year warranty. Dakota Lithium and Battleborn are made in the USA, and have 11-10 year warranties.
    Not really. They are assembled in USA and some components are made in USA, but the heart of all lithium batteries are the cells and those unfortunately are made in China. Yep, even for Battle Born. They are proudly "designed and assembled" in the USA. Sorry to burst your bubble but the reality is that cells made in USA are pretty much non-existent at this time.
    Chad
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  3. #23
    Seasoned Camper
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    While I am thinking of it, and we are on batteries. How long does the on board charger take to charge a regular wet cell battery? Would it be quicker to hook a generator to a battery charger to charge the battery? We do not boondock very often, but last time we did seemed to take forever to charge the battery with just the generator hooked to the camper!

  4. #24
    Site Sponsor SolarPoweredRV's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by PTParker View Post
    While I am thinking of it, and we are on batteries. How long does the on board charger take to charge a regular wet cell battery? Would it be quicker to hook a generator to a battery charger to charge the battery? We do not boondock very often, but last time we did seemed to take forever to charge the battery with just the generator hooked to the camper!
    Your Lead Acid batteries will charge rather fast up to 80% (Bulk Charging), however, it can take up to 8 hours to fully charge the batteries (Absorption Charge). This is due to the internal resistance of the Lead Acid battery. On the other hand, Lithium batteries (LiFePo4) can absorb energy very fast and can go from near 0% to 100% in as few as two hours. This is just one more advantage of switching to Lithium batteries (LiFePo4).
    David and Peggy
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  5. #25
    Long Hauler DaveMatthewsBand's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by luisbeal View Post
    SOK batteries are made in China and have a 7 year warranty.
    Dakota Lithium and Battleborn are made in the USA, and have 11-10 year warranties.
    Nope. (and the warranties are pretty much irrelevant)

    Battleborn and Dakota (and Renogy, and Victron, etc.) buy their cells (the actual batteries inside the box) from China.
    ALL the so-called "American made" brands source nearly all the internal bits from China.
    They just assemble them here. People who spent the money on Battle Born and other so-called high-end brands have an illusion of superior quality but the truth is you're just paying more for the battery to be assembled here.
    They will have better tech support, but for most people this isn't even necessary since lithium is so reliable.

    Also, regardless of how long any brand warranties their battery, any and all lithium batteries should "work" 20 to 30 years!
    The warranty period just says that the battery capacity will be at least 80% of what it was new, at the end of that time period.
    That's all it means.
    If the capacity isn't above 80%, which is extremely unlikely unless you just abuse the crap out of them, you get a new battery. But it does NOT mean the battery will only last that long, far from it. The SOK which costs HALF as much as a Battle Born will last every bit as long (at least 20 years!).

    If you want to save even more money just source the cells and BMS (from China) yourself and build your own batteries. Plenty of people do this and the cost is typically a quarter to a third the cost of a brand name battery of equal capacity.

    In full disclosure, I have 4 Battle Borns in my Reflection but if I had known 3 years ago (when I bought them) what I know now, I would have just built my own. For the $4,000 I spent on my 400ah of lithium I'd have close to 1000ah of batteries that were made in the same factories and last every bit as long as Battle Borns.

    Also, someone else mentioned that lithium batteries can be used "down to 20%" this is also wrong.

    You can take them nearly down to zero.

    A couple years ago we were boondocking and I forgot to switch the fridge over to gas and when we woke up our lithiums were at 15% but I still had enough "juice" to use the microwave and make breakfast then watch TV for half an hour while also using the lights and charging my laptop and phone!

    The batteries were at about 10% when the sun came up and our solar panels started charging them back up again.

    I constantly see incorrect information about lithium and solar being posted online which is why I started the "Solar-powered Grand Design RV" Facebook group about 2 years ago. We currently have over 3,000 members, all GD owners and all we talk about is solar.
    Swing by sometime.

    Ed
    Last edited by DaveMatthewsBand; 10-24-2021 at 09:34 PM. Reason: Resistance is Not Futile, It's Voltage Divided by Current.
    Resistance is Not Futile, It's Voltage Divided by Current.


  6. #26
    Seasoned Camper
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    Quote Originally Posted by SolarPoweredRV View Post
    Your Lead Acid batteries will charge rather fast up to 80% (Bulk Charging), however, it can take up to 8 hours to fully charge the batteries (Absorption Charge). This is due to the internal resistance of the Lead Acid battery. On the other hand, Lithium batteries (LiFePo4) can absorb energy very fast and can go from near 0% to 100% in as few as two hours. This is just one more advantage of switching to Lithium batteries (LiFePo4).
    I am not going to spend $1000 dollars for a battery that I will only have a need for maybe once every 3 or 4 years! Almost all the campgrounds in our area have at least electric and water, only time we boondock is in Cades Cove in the Smokies, and that is just every few years.

  7. #27
    Long Hauler DaveMatthewsBand's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by PTParker View Post
    I am not going to spend $1000 dollars for a battery that I will only have a need for maybe once every 3 or 4 years! Almost all the campgrounds in our area have at least electric and water, only time we boondock is in Cades Cove in the Smokies, and that is just every few years.
    Haha, I wouldn't either. Luckily you don't have to.
    There are plenty of good brands out there now selling them for MUCH cheaper.

    How about $400?

    Check out this link


    But to answer your previous question of "How long does the on board charger take to charge a regular wet cell battery?"

    It depends on how far you let your battery get depleted and if you've damaged it by depleting it TOO far down.
    Each time you use a lead-acid it loses a small amount of it's original capacity and each time you run it down below 50% you do damage to it that makes it charge slower and slower. So there's no way to really say how long it will take for YOU to charge YOUR lead-acid battery since we don't know how you've used or abused it. But the reason a lot of folks recommend switching to lithium is the fact that you're not going to be able to damage them because they have a built in management system that prevents damage and the fact that they will take a charge MUCH faster than lead-acid. So 2 hours on a generator. Instead of all day. Personally, I'd rather spend the money to have lithium than keep buying gas for the generator and listening to it run all day. But to each his own.



    Resistance is Not Futile, It's Voltage Divided by Current.


  8. #28
    Site Sponsor SolarPoweredRV's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by PTParker View Post
    I am not going to spend $1000 dollars for a battery that I will only have a need for maybe once every 3 or 4 years! Almost all the campgrounds in our area have at least electric and water, only time we boondock is in Cades Cove in the Smokies, and that is just every few years.
    I agree, I have often argued that you do not need an elaborate Solar System with a large Inverter unless you are boondocking on a regular basis.

    However, because the Lithium batteries perform so well and allow you to use 100% of their rated capacity, I highly recommend that every camper should make the switch to Lithium (LiFePo4) batteries. And, while the OEM Converter will charge your Lithium battery to as high as 80%, I recommend switching out the Converter to a Lithium capable Converter within 1 year of installing the Lithium battery.

    If you go to Amazon, you can find several 100ah Lithium batteries for $359, currently, that is a very good price and close to the price range of switching to AGM batteries, or converting to a pair of Golf cart batteries.

    Again, the performance of the Lithium batteries in RVs is well worth the investment, especially if you consider how long they will last when compared to Lead Acid batteries.

    PS: I also recommend either disconnecting your battery cable, or installing a battery cut-off switch that completely disconnects the battery from the coach whenever you are storing the RV.
    David and Peggy
    2019 Ford F350 Lariat, 6.7L Diesel, Dually, Long Bed
    Running with 20k Reese Goosebox (Love It) and Ford Factory "Puck" system.
    Stopping with 8,000 lb Disc Brakes and Titan Hydraulic over Electric Brakes system.
    Powering all this fun with 1200 Watts of Solar, two Tesla, Model S, battery modules, 24 volt Victron Inverter.
    2018 Solitude 310 GK

  9. #29
    Seasoned Camper zadiemay's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Conner58 View Post
    https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-200-Wa...bap_m_rp_19_sc

    This is what I have for now works well nice because you can move it around . Also bought a 30ft extension cable. Last weekend we had decent sun got 38ah one day . Going to install solar on the roof later just thought this was a nice easy way to start being it comes with everything needed.

    Does this Renogy plug into the port on the side of the RV? or do you need to hook up directly to batteries?

  10. #30
    Long Hauler
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    Quote Originally Posted by zadiemay View Post
    Does this Renogy plug into the port on the side of the RV? or do you need to hook up directly to batteries?
    The solar panel(s) need to connect to the charge controller, somehow, then to the batteries.


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    Mark & Mary. Full-timing across the USA (and Canada)!
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