Lithium batteries what do you have

[The Shakeys]

Thanks guys, I like the look of the Roamer which is the cheapest, from what i can see they are dealers of only Lithium batteries. Where as the cheap Chinese maybe good but I do have to consider safety with Lithium

Roamer are made in China if you reas their website. Designed in UK only.

 

[Rio340]

Did see them. Designed in the uk, are you sure? Their certificates show the batteries are not even theirs, but they are just slapping another name over them, that's not just a big no-no and illegal but makes you wonder what would happen if there was actually a serious issue, and not just a duff product several months latter but say a fire for example, property loss or god forbid worse ...injury? I mean for example I wonder if they even have product liability insurance for example. I cannot see how that could even be possible with illegal labelling! If something did go wrong what would happen, would you be left trying to claim from yet another conveniently vanishing Chinese "drop shipper" for example? As with most things, Buyer beware. If it looks too cheap well.....there are probably very good reason why. At the end of the day, the first port of call to protect oneself and ones family sadly, is so often oneself !!

 

[Googlebot]

Ecotree I have.

Been well impressed with them so far.

 

[Slabraider]

KS Energy are good batteries well built with cylindrical cells, be aware there are fakes out there though. KS are aware that some Chinese company is making fake batteries and advising customers to be careful as when they tested them they were substandard.

EcoTree Lithium are very good and also built to a high standard with cylindrical cells. I am getting some fitted shortly. They are a Victron dealer too so they can supply all the accessories at a good price. A friend of mine put me on to them, EcoTree helped design the system with them and fitted them for free. It was the free fitting and design help which made my mind up in the end.

If you want to go all out there is always Transporter Energy. These are the best of the best they are built in USA and sold as Battle Born over there. They are the most expensive but indestructible! The NHS fit them into ambulances to power life saving equipment which is one hell of an endorsement.

 

[cmcardle75]

Did see them. Designed in the uk, are you sure? Their certificates show the batteries are not even theirs, but they are just slapping another name over them, that's not just a big no-no and illegal but makes you wonder what would happen if there was actually a serious issue, and not just a duff product several months latter but say a fire for example, property loss or god forbid worse ...injury? I mean for example I wonder if they even have product liability insurance for example. I cannot see how that could even be possible with illegal labelling! If something did go wrong what would happen, would you be left trying to claim from yet another conveniently vanishing Chinese "drop shipper" for example? As with most things, Buyer beware. If it looks too cheap well.....there are probably very good reason why. At the end of the day, the first port of call to protect oneself and ones family sadly, is so often oneself !!

I don't understand why this would be illegal. They've supplied all the test certificates etc. The battery is manufactured by the Beijing XD Battery Technology CO Ltd and there is no attempt to hide this. It has been rebadged, with a 3 year warranty by the supplier.

As you would expect at this price point, the cells are prismatic, but discharge current is limited by the BMS, so this shouldn't be a problem. Indeed, the 300Ah Bluetooth BMS version is limited to 0.5C, which is probably not ideal for people with large inverters, but shouldn't present any cooling difficulties.

My inverter is 150W, so I don't anticipate problems. I want Lithium so I can off-grid for weeks at a time, not dry my hair and make coffee from pods!

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[Motorhomer14]

I have now purchased the under seat 200aH battery from Roamer, should be in stock around July. I understand some concerns on here about this company not being well known. Apparently Steve from Roamer will do a tear down maybe some point this year but currently stock delivery I believe is an issue same as most suppliers I have been in touch with due to Covid and a tanker doing a U turn

This is a quote below from Steve on a separate forum

"
Hi Guys! This is Steve at Roamer Batteries, happy to answer any questions

First off, I've had T4s and T5s for 10 years and currently have both a T5 4Motion and a Crafter 4Motion which I converted myself and now rent out for ski holidays in the Alps via Roamer Vans. You can see pics of our vans on our Insta page roamervans So I know my way around off campervans and VWs in particular. The battery business was born from a love of off grid camping and frustration at the limited generic options available (and a lot of spare time over lockdown haha!).

Yes they are manufactured in China but on a quality controlled production line and we use high quality components - prismatic cells, busbars and 2 different customised BMS setups. We are a UK business, ship from our warehouse in Yorkshire and provide full UK warranty support.

We offer 3 capacity options (100Ah, 200Ah and 300Ah) and two BMS options. The first gives you Bluetooth monitor and the ability to tweak settings, but is only for single battery installs (no parallel or series connection) and limited to 150A continuous discharge. The second options is a more heavy duty BMS, we dropped the Bluetooth in favour of a higher continuous discharge rating and the ability to parallel or series connect. All batteries have standard protections - high/low voltage etc and we also added low temperature charge protection.

We can also make completely custom batteries - any case shape or size, voltage, capacity or power output. This has been really popular with overlanders in particular, as we can build a battery to fit a specific space. I've also been able to make some amazing batteries for people including a 24V 600Ah beast! The seatbase design started off as a custom battery but I decided to make this a main line product as it works so well. As far as I know, 200Ah of lithium is the biggest battery that can be fitted into a T6 seatbase?

This will be our second batch of seatbase batteries so I've been able to tweak the design slightly - the dimensions are now 330mm x 290mm x 180mm high so it'll now squeeze between the floor brackets, and beneath a swivel seat (the first design sat on the rails and it poked up slightly at one end). We had to reduce the size of the BMS from a 150A to a 120A continuous discharge but that seemed like a small compromise. I'm happy to do a teardown video when the next batch arrives (end of April) but in the meantime, you can see a typical layout and construction in BobbyBasics's post above."

 

[Motorhomer14]

Some pictures taken from T6 forum

 

[68c]

I have now purchased the under seat 200aH battery from Roamer, should be in stock around July. I understand some concerns on here about this company not being well known. Apparently Steve from Roamer will do a tear down maybe some point this year but currently stock delivery I believe is an issue same as most suppliers I have been in touch with due to Covid and a tanker doing a U turn

This is a quote below from Steve on a separate forum

"
Hi Guys! This is Steve at Roamer Batteries, happy to answer any questions

First off, I've had T4s and T5s for 10 years and currently have both a T5 4Motion and a Crafter 4Motion which I converted myself and now rent out for ski holidays in the Alps via Roamer Vans. You can see pics of our vans on our Insta page roamervans So I know my way around off campervans and VWs in particular. The battery business was born from a love of off grid camping and frustration at the limited generic options available (and a lot of spare time over lockdown haha!).

Yes they are manufactured in China but on a quality controlled production line and we use high quality components - prismatic cells, busbars and 2 different customised BMS setups. We are a UK business, ship from our warehouse in Yorkshire and provide full UK warranty support.

We offer 3 capacity options (100Ah, 200Ah and 300Ah) and two BMS options. The first gives you Bluetooth monitor and the ability to tweak settings, but is only for single battery installs (no parallel or series connection) and limited to 150A continuous discharge. The second options is a more heavy duty BMS, we dropped the Bluetooth in favour of a higher continuous discharge rating and the ability to parallel or series connect. All batteries have standard protections - high/low voltage etc and we also added low temperature charge protection.

We can also make completely custom batteries - any case shape or size, voltage, capacity or power output. This has been really popular with overlanders in particular, as we can build a battery to fit a specific space. I've also been able to make some amazing batteries for people including a 24V 600Ah beast! The seatbase design started off as a custom battery but I decided to make this a main line product as it works so well. As far as I know, 200Ah of lithium is the biggest battery that can be fitted into a T6 seatbase?

This will be our second batch of seatbase batteries so I've been able to tweak the design slightly - the dimensions are now 330mm x 290mm x 180mm high so it'll now squeeze between the floor brackets, and beneath a swivel seat (the first design sat on the rails and it poked up slightly at one end). We had to reduce the size of the BMS from a 150A to a 120A continuous discharge but that seemed like a small compromise. I'm happy to do a teardown video when the next batch arrives (end of April) but in the meantime, you can see a typical layout and construction in BobbyBasics's post above."

 

[paddymcc]

I'm interested to hear how you get on. I am considering the seat base model as it will fit neatly in my Hymer battery compartment an I doubt that I will ever need more than 200Ah from what I have read about lithiums

 

[Motorhomer14]

I'm interested to hear how you get on. I am considering the seat base model as it will fit neatly in my Hymer battery compartment an I doubt that I will ever need more than 200Ah from what I have read about lithiums

Will keep you updated, I will do a Vlog of the installation as well

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