Ecoworthy...any good?

[Miggs]

Hi, I am considering the transition to Lithium on my Autotrail motorhome and just trying to compile a theoretical shopping list. Regarding the battery, I notice that the Ecoworthy 280ah is available for £395 with discount from some suppliers and since this is a considerable saving on the £699 Fogstar for example I am curious if there is any quality issues with them?
I notice that Offgrid do not offer them, hence the question.
Being an Autotrail with a Sargent EC700, I will need to do the relay trick to isolate the original split-charge relay, anyone seen a step by step guide on this process?

 

[tonka]

Cant help with the Autotrail side but did DIY on my Burstner (2014) last year..

2 x Ecoworthy 100amp. I was planning Fogstar but these came up on Facebook at only a month old at a good price.
Added the Victron smart shunt for battery monitoring.
Removed the fuse providing the split charge / alternator and fitted the 30amp Victron B2B.

I was never happy with my solar panel and after seeing an offer on ebay for 2 x 170w panels for £112 i also swopped those out and changed the solar regulator again for Victron mppt and went straight to the leisure batteries. Later added the CBE battery maintainer to keep the engine battery topped up. That was last August, done a few rallies and van been parked up over winter with no EHU. All batteries working fine and no issues.

Ebay always seem to be the best place for prices when they have their discount offers on. Ecoworthy sell direct on there and prices can be cheaper than off their own website. Even on ebay make sure you shop around, Ecoworthy themselves put same items on at different prices. There is the question of backup and customer service as they have no UK base that i know of, just distribution. I had to email with a technical charging question and received a prompt reply with required details. I guess if you buy with a credit card and via the likes of ebay / Amazon you are covering your back in case of a product failure.

 

[Richard n Ann]

On my Elddis the wire from the starter battery for the split charge relay comes into the fuse box circuit board on a plug, I'm going to snip it off there and extend it up to the victron Battery to Battery charger, then put 2 new 6mm 10awg wires to the new battery with a midi 30 amp fuse on the positive, err think that's about it

You may find the other end of the positive on the circuit board plug at the engine battery connection box, disconnect it and see if the plug goes dead, then you've found it

 

[Miggs]

then put 2 new 6mm 10awg wires to the new battery with a midi 30 amp fuse on the positive, err think that's about it

Thanks for that, are you sure 6mm is big enough? I read 16mm for a 30amp dc/dc.
i might have misunderstood though lol.

 

[Richard n Ann]

Thanks for that, are you sure 6mm is big enough? I read 16mm for a 30amp dc/dc.
i might have misunderstood though lol.

My dc to dc charger is only the 18 amp one. The 6mm cable is rated at 52amps (so it says on ebay) so 30amp midi fuse will protect the cable

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[Richard n Ann]

Found this chart online. 10awg is good for over 30 amps with my 1m cable run

 

[fishplug]

Will Prowse did quite a good test / teardown that you might find helpful.

I would personally add a good quality MRBF terminal fuse directly on the battery terminal.

It's highly unlikely that the battery will fail, and even if it fails the BMS 'should' prevent it from leaking a huge amount of power into the rest of your system - however....

Not strictly speaking 'necessary' and possibly being over cautious but fire in my van is absolutely the last thing I want.

 

[gus-lopez]

I notice that the Ecoworthy 280ah is available for £395

I haave one for the van but not fitted yet.I purchased after watching a test & teardown by a spanish you tuber. I have been using it as input to a low voltage solar input on a power bank for the house. Now parked up as we have 2 x 51,2 volt ecoworthy batteries for that so I will shortly be installing it in the van.

here is the question of backup and customer service as they have no UK base that i know of, just distribution

Nor do they here in spain as they are shipped either from Germany or the Czech republic. like you any queries,technical questions, have been answered by return email with follow ups to ensure I was happy with the answers.
As to guarantee fortunately I have never had to use it but just on delivery here they offer that if there is the slightest damage in transit then it will either be replaced immediately or a full refund if preferred ,no questions asked.

 

[Neckender]

I have had two 100 ah eco worthy batteries in my VW Transporter for 18 months now and they’ve performed fine.

 

[Barti Ddu]

I've got a 100aH DC House lithium which is a rebranded Ecoworthy. Working a treat in my Autotrail PVC.

I didn't bother with a relay to disable the Sargent split charger, just removed the appropriate fuse when I fitted a Victron B2B.

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[Affinite]

Hi, I am considering the transition to Lithium on my Autotrail motorhome and just trying to compile a theoretical shopping list. Regarding the battery, I notice that the Ecoworthy 280ah is available for £395 with discount from some suppliers and since this is a considerable saving on the £699 Fogstar for example I am curious if there is any quality issues with them?
I notice that Offgrid do not offer them, hence the question.
Being an Autotrail with a Sargent EC700, I will need to do the relay trick to isolate the original split-charge relay, anyone seen a step by step guide on this process?

Offgrid have a good guide to bypassing the split charge relay here
I found it useful when I did my B2B installation recently.
BTW I cant remember the exact reason now but simply pulling the fuse wasnt an option for me

 

[Jev88]

I've used Ecoworthy panels in the past without complaints.
Now using Fogstar 300ah.

City Electrical have amazing prices on large panels.

 

[mry716]

Bought two 100ah early Dec 24 and am really pleased with them - they certainly provide consideraby more 'life' than the old Gel batteries and in about 75% of the space and just less than 1/2 the weight. I had MK Gel high quality batteries and on Amazon the Ecoworthy LifePo4 were 10% cheaper than the Gel batteries. Amazon regularly have offer on Ecoworthy so check before you buy for 2-3 weeks min.

 

[CueBall]

I have the EcoWorthy 280Ah battery in our Swift, along with a whole host of other VE kit, including the Orion XS 12/12 50A B2B charger. We actually struggle to stress (test) the battery properly in 2-3 continuous days/nights. I deliberately left EHU unplugged over a long weekend recently, to see if I could get it down below 80% and I still couldn't - Though that's due to the 430w City Electrical solar panel on the roof and the 30A VE MPPT messing up my testing, even on cloudy days lol.

The battery will happily soak up the 50A from the Orion XS too (minus a few amps for the fridge on 12v when driving).

Time will tell, but so far, in the 4-5 months since I installed it, the battery performs really well, especially for the money and the fact that I can't get it below 80% SOC (reported by the VE shunt) is probably a good thing. Although I really need to put it through some proper cycles, so might toggle the MPPT to off in the app next time, so I can get a good discharge on the battery before re-charging it again. The shunt is already reporting correctly when I compare it against the manufacturers SOC voltage chart, so it would just be for my peace of mind more than anything.

 

[AlanandMayya]

Hi, I am considering the transition to Lithium on my Autotrail motorhome and just trying to compile a theoretical shopping list. Regarding the battery, I notice that the Ecoworthy 280ah is available for £395 with discount from some suppliers and since this is a considerable saving on the £699 Fogstar for example I am curious if there is any quality issues with them?
I notice that Offgrid do not offer them, hence the question.
Being an Autotrail with a Sargent EC700, I will need to do the relay trick to isolate the original split-charge relay, anyone seen a step by step guide on this process?

I bought an inverter from them that failed after a few days. After much argument I got nothing. They just walked away from their 3 year guarantee. I would have sued in the Small Claims court but they have no UK presence so enforcement would be impossible. Beware.

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[Peter Beeston]

I have 2 x Ecoworth 280ah batteries on my Autotrail. Connected via a Victron SmartShunt to a Victron Multiplus. Other Victron equipment including a Raspberry Pi with touch screen with the Victron Venus OS to monitor both the 240v and 12v systems.

 

[Lenny HB]

My dc to dc charger is only the 18 amp one. The 6mm cable is rated at 52amps (so it says on ebay) so 30amp midi fuse will protect the cable

Found this chart online. 10awg is good for over 30 amps with my 1m cable run View attachment 1033342

That is all a bit irrelevant, it is the volt drop that is important the current carrying capacity of the cable just means it won't burst into flames at that current.

 

[Richard n Ann]

That is all a bit irrelevant, it is the volt drop that is important the current carrying capacity of the cable just means it won't burst into flames at that current.

Yes It does say "maintaining a 2% or less volt drop" on the screenshot

 

[helzie2020]

Bought two 100ah early Dec 24 and am really pleased with them - they certainly provide consideraby more 'life' than the old Gel batteries and in about 75% of the space and just less than 1/2 the weight. I had MK Gel high quality batteries and on Amazon the Ecoworthy LifePo4 were 10% cheaper than the Gel batteries. Amazon regularly have offer on Ecoworthy so check before you buy for 2-3 weeks min

I use camel camel camel.com website to monitor prices on Amazon. You can set an alert as well as see historical listed prices.

 

[mry716]

THANKS !
Did not know about Camel site - it will be most useful !

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