LiFePo battery opinions sought...

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Simon G

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Dreamer Fun Camper 5
OK, I'm ready for war...
Which LiFePo batteries are 'best'? Fogstar, Renogy, Offgrid's own, EcoTree, Titan, Eco-Worthy...or even AliExpress and/or Temu?? To be clear, I'm looking for plug & play replacement for the current (dead) LA's. Already have DC-DC/B2B (yes, I know it's the same thing...) and Li compatible mains charger.
Have at it... :LOL:
 
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It depends.to some degree on what you want and how much you want to spend... probably a better resource for information is U tube they pull them apart and stress test them to a far greater degree than your average motorhomer.I went for self build Ali express and the same(jbd) BMS as used by fogstar Bluetooth and heaters 2 X 320ah £550 and am happy with them but as prejudice is in play I wouldn't waste my time recommending them on a forum like MHF.In general people will recommend what they have..but have no personal experience of others
Just off to get my tin hat
 
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Ecoworthy 200Ah Lithium battery . . But it direct from Ecoworthy it's £184(ish) - same battery,same company BUT bought via eBay was £140(ish) Don't ask me why as it's exactly the same battery !
 
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Factors in LifePo4 battery cost, apart from quality of the cells is whether the BMS can be monitored by Bluetooth or other means, and whether the battery has heater pads for use in colder conditions. More costly would be cell balancing adaptors.

You need to decide if you need sophistication or not.
 
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Simon G said:
To be clear, I'm looking for plug & play replacement for the current (dead) LA's.
Click to expand...
No such thing just marketing BS.
You already have a B2B, you will need to change your solar controller if it's not compatible, sometimes the mains charger can be used but best to change it.

Fogstar are good for a low cost battery with excellant customer support.
 
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Lenny HB said:
No such thing just marketing BS.
You already have a B2B, you will need to change your solar controller if it's not compatible, sometimes the mains charger can be used but best to change it.

Fogstar are good for a low cost battery with excellant customer support.
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Thanks Lenny - No solar yet...
 
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I fitted 2 Roamer batteries and so far they have performed well, their customer service is spot on..
 
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We had a Sterling 120ah lithium for a few years which was reliable and problem free. Recently changed to a Fogstar Drift 280ah due to larger capacity (BMS claims 299ah) and attractive then sale price.

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Kannon Fodda said:
Factors in LifePo4 battery cost, apart from quality of the cells is whether the BMS can be monitored by Bluetooth or other means, and whether the battery has heater pads for use in colder conditions. More costly would be cell balancing adaptors.

You need to decide if you need sophistication or not.
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Thanks. So how do I find out about the 'quality of the cells'? Kind of why I started the thread...
 
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Simon G said:
Thanks. So how do I find out about the 'quality of the cells'? Kind of why I started the thread...
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Quality of the cells is not as critical as many would have you believe for MH application B Grade will make No noticeable difference .
Far more likely to fail is the BMS,it is also there to protect you and look after the cells.
Unless you are going to start cutting the top off the battery you only have the word of the retailer/importer who only knows what the supplier in china has told them.Your main safeguard is a retailer that you think will be around to honour the warranty in N years time,but if we look at it on a cost per yr basis if the last half the claimed life they.are no dearer than LA and have had many advantages
 
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"the best" - well they probably all are for a given set of specific circumstances....

As for 'plug & play replacement' then I'm sure you already know that a 100Ah lithium will give you the same amount of usable power as a 200Ah AGM/Lead Acid one, but it's always worth saying out loud just in case you didn't... :D

I'd start with deciding on the 'features' you need and then matching those with your budget and that should narrow down your choices from the various brands.

Will you be using them in cold weather? If so, something with a low temperature protection system might be important. Some are even self heating.

How do you want to monitor the state of charge? If you already have a shunt and a way of monitoring that, then bluetooth and WiFi on the battery itself might not be all that important.

Is low cost more important to you than warranty / support?

Do you want to fully integrate your battery into your Victron Cerbo GX (Venus OS) and then pull this data into your Raspberry Pi powered Home Assistant so that you can create automations that trigger certain actions based on the remaining current such as use an ESP32 to trigger a bank of relays that isolate the non-essential power drains in order to maintain sufficient power to run medical equipment or your fridge / heater and to send a notification to your phone? No? That's just me then.... :D

Have a look at Will Prowse's channel on YouTube. He does really good test / teardown reviews of different batteries. I bought my first Li Time batteries based on one of his reviews and they've been excellent. I did get lured in by the Black Friday sale and got a Fogstar Drift Pro which is a really nice unit, but other than scratching my nerdy itch to connect it into my van IoT infrastructure I could just as easily carried on using the LiTime. In fact, I still have them and haven't actively sold them because I'm half tempted to keep them.

As for the Temu / AliExpress question... I'm happy to buy small 'non critical' stuff from AliExpress. I got a rechargeable torch recently which is cheap and certainly doesn't have a billion lumens like advertised, but for a couple of quid it's really good for camping and when I inevitably drop it / lose it / break it I won't care. Would I buy lithium batteries for my van from there? No.

That said, I do know people who have, and they've been perfectly happy. I'd just always have a niggling doubt in my mind about them so wouldn't be comfortable or happy with my purchase.
 
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No-one has mentioned KS Energy. I fitted one four years ago, followed by a second some months later. Useful bluetooth app. Only recently added a B2B, having previously relied on 300W of solar. Still using (rarely) the fitted CBE 16A charger set to 'gel' on the rare occasions it needs it.

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I am playing with Fogstar 300ah this week. Battery shutdown after first night despite saying 48% charged the day before.
I've worked out I hadn't run enough cycles for the BMS to calibrate (I think) and 24 hour charge via my admittedly small but lipo charger has topped it up.
Turned charging off now it is full and will see how it performs the next few days.

Also have a shunt ready to fit that will give me more useful info in future.

Disconnecting the RV split relay (it's far beefier than a Euro van in our old RV) takes more thought but then it does have chunky interconnect cables for what the Americans call Emergency Start.
 
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RowleyBirkinQC said:
We had a Sterling 120ah lithium for a few years which was reliable and problem free. Recently changed to a Fogstar Drift 280ah due to larger capacity (BMS claims 299ah) and attractive then sale price.
Click to expand...
Screenshot_20250317-140606_Fogstar Drift.webp
Our's comes up 0.2 shy of 300A/H, I feel cheated now, :ROFLMAO:
 
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Jev88 said:
I am playing with Fogstar 300ah this week. Battery shutdown after first night despite saying 48% charged the day before.
I've worked out I hadn't run enough cycles for the BMS to calibrate (I think) and 24 hour charge via my admittedly small but lipo charger has topped it up.
Turned charging off now it is full and will see how it performs the next few days.

Also have a shunt ready to fit that will give me more useful info in future.

Disconnecting the RV split relay (it's far beefier than a Euro van in our old RV) takes more thought but then it does have chunky interconnect cables for what the Americans call Emergency Start.
Click to expand...
I've been running a Fogstar 230AH for 15 months now.
I found the Fogstar app totally unreliable until I'd done the first 5 or 6 cycles.
Since then the app has been within a couple of percent of what the Victron Shunt says.
Just low drains of 1.5 amps or below makes it drift out of sync a bit as the BMS can't detect low drains but each time the battery is charged to 100% the BMS resets correctly if it is out.
 
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I chose Roamer because I liked the way they are constructed and have active cell balancing. I think it is worth paying a bit more for a good BMS, quality cells and a serviceable case. I am not fussed about having a heated battery because it is very hard to quickly heat large prismatic cells evenly, no good heating the outer layer if the core is still frozen. Bluetooth is useful because I can turn charging and discharging off and on but it is not essential.

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Jev88 said:
Battery shutdown after first night despite saying 48% charged the day before.
I've worked out I hadn't run enough cycles for the BMS to calibrate (I think)
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Yes, I had all sorts of odd behaviour with mine when I first installed and charged it. What it was reporting was way off but having spoken with Fogstar support they told me to ignore it for a while and do a couple of cycles as it's normal for it to be a bit squirrelly to start with.

Sure enough it's settled down now and while it's not as accurate as the Victron Smart Shunt, it does give an approximation that's consistent with the true state of the battery rather than just plucking random numbers out of thin air like it did to start with!
 
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headlight said:
I've been running a Fogstar 230AH for 15 months now.
I found the Fogstar app totally unreliable until I'd done the first 5 or 6 cycles.
Since then the app has been within a couple of percent of what the Victron Shunt says.
Just low drains of 1.5 amps or below makes it drift out of sync a bit as the BMS can't detect low drains but each time the battery is charged to 100% the BMS resets correctly if it is out.
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It's not just Fogstar all BMS behave similar as they will not register low current drain. If the van is sitting on the drive with just a small current drain they will drift out. Mine recently were at 53% reading from the shunt which is accurate, the BMS said 90%. A quick charge to 100% and all back in sync.
 
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Vikdikdok said:
Ecoworthy 200Ah Lithium battery . . But it direct from Ecoworthy it's £184(ish) - same battery,same company BUT bought via eBay was £140(ish) Don't ask me why as it's exactly the same battery !
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I was told that because they sell on ebay & Amazon the cannot undercut the prices that they sell at.
 
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As someone earlier said, I can only comment on what I have experienced so far. I fitted a Renogy 100ah (no heater or BT) a few months back. Also a renogy shunt and B2B 50A charger with MPPT, as well as Fogstar Li mains charger. Not fitted the panel yet as waiting for warmer weather and I only get weekends to tinker.

Feedback is battery seems to work fine and soon charges with the engine supplying 50A reported by bluetooth app.

I've not really used EHU much since as the engine keeps it full.

The Renogy apps are awful. Shunt data is unreliable at best and always needs to be reset.

Conclusions based on experience:
Battery does it's job. Would I get a larger on or one with BT access, maybe, but it works fine.

I can leave it all to get on with things and it does work (so far), not run out of power yet.

If starting again would I choose Victron components for the DC, shunt and solar charger, at a lot more £, probably as I'd like apps that work.

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dogster said:
As someone earlier said, I can only comment on what I have experienced so far. I fitted a Renogy 100ah (no heater or BT) a few months back. Also a renogy shunt and B2B 50A charger with MPPT, as well as Fogstar Li mains charger. Not fitted the panel yet as waiting for warmer weather and I only get weekends to tinker.

Feedback is battery seems to work fine and soon charges with the engine supplying 50A reported by bluetooth app.

I've not really used EHU much since as the engine keeps it full.

The Renogy apps are awful. Shunt data is unreliable at best and always needs to be reset.

Conclusions based on experience:
Battery does it's job. Would I get a larger on or one with BT access, maybe, but it works fine.

I can leave it all to get on with things and it does work (so far), not run out of power yet.

If starting again would I choose Victron components for the DC, shunt and solar charger, at a lot more £, probably as I'd like apps that work.
Click to expand...
I forgot to say if anyone is considering these components and have specific questions just shout and I'll try to answer.
 
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dogster said:
As someone earlier said, I can only comment on what I have experienced so far. I fitted a Renogy 100ah (no heater or BT) a few months back. Also a renogy shunt and B2B 50A charger with MPPT, as well as Fogstar Li mains charger. Not fitted the panel yet as waiting for warmer weather and I only get weekends to tinker.

Feedback is battery seems to work fine and soon charges with the engine supplying 50A reported by bluetooth app.

I've not really used EHU much since as the engine keeps it full.

The Renogy apps are awful. Shunt data is unreliable at best and always needs to be reset.

Conclusions based on experience:
Battery does it's job. Would I get a larger on or one with BT access, maybe, but it works fine.

I can leave it all to get on with things and it does work (so far), not run out of power yet.

If starting again would I choose Victron components for the DC, shunt and solar charger, at a lot more £, probably as I'd like apps that work.
Click to expand...
I've got Renogy b2b with mppt and after a lot of research bought a Junktec kh series shunt with BT and screen (available without screen about £10less) mine was £40 and is very accurate and a nice app that was developed with extensive customer input
 
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cyberyacht said:
No-one has mentioned KS Energy. I fitted one four years ago, followed by a second some months later. Useful bluetooth app. Only recently added a B2B, having previously relied on 300W of solar. Still using (rarely) the fitted CBE 16A charger set to 'gel' on the rare occasions it needs it.
Click to expand...
Agreed fitted my KS Energy four years ago too and they have performed flawlessly..
 
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