In my never ending quest to hold off on purchasing Lithium batteries yet window shop relentlessly, I came across these.

www.bigw.com.au/product/s306-100-100ah-12v-lithium-iron-phosphate-battery-lifepo4-rechargeable-rv/p/9900025594
LiPo4 100AH 12 volt for $258. That's half the price of a Renogy 100AH, which also uses pouch cells.

If they are not dodgy then that could be very tempting

Cheers

Phil

According to MyDeal, the sale ends in 3 days on 1st July.
www.mydeal.com.au/queens-12v-200ah-lithium-iron-phosphate-battery-lifepo4-rechargeable-rv-4wd-100a-bms-advanced-battery-management-system-over-charging-over-discharging-over-temperature-protection-10427944

The URL has "queens" which I'm assuming means Power Queen is the manufacturer. That may help with finding reviews.
ipowerqueen.com/

I bought mine about 2.5 years ago and it was nearly $1,000 for a 125AH battery. My reasoning at the the time was that I wanted the best achitecture (cylindrical was considered the best at that time) with the best battery management system. But technology being what it is, it's not all that unlikely that the one you've highlighted is just as good. And since the ad specifically highlights the problems with 'cheaper' batteries, perhaps theirs is actually well built and with a decent BMS. It's worth reading up on what makes a good battery and then comparing ... for all I know things might have changed over 2.5 yrs

Blurb sounds good and price is phenomenal. I like that lots of specs are given but I think if you want a fridge you would need 120ah. Mind you you could have two for what I paid for my 120 only a year ago.

Their comparison of safety and fact of new cells vs possible used cylindrical might be a bit misleading tho since I believe that for some reason cylindrical cells are not usually lithium iron phosphate (as opposed to lithium ion). I believe that lithium iron phosphate has much higher safety (against thermal runaway) and therefore should be the only type considered. The suggestion to test capacity using discharge by light globe is also laughable.

Although I am running a battery (purchased off the Woolies website) which I suspect is pouch cells (no proper blurb was supplied and I'm not going to cut it open) my only reservation is that perhaps we should now go for prismatic cells which supposedly have less chance of rupture but are more expensive but with a little more weight. I was told at 4wd Superstore that their cheaper lithium iron phosphates are pouch and more expensive are prismatic. Who knows tho. Without cutting the things open it's impossible to assess the quality of parts, soldering ... etc and I'm not sure I could tell anyway unless I had good and skimpy both cut open in front of me.

I'm still a bit wary of the risks so won't sleep above mine (and have a temperature alarm probe taped to it as well as a smoke alarm directly above) but maybe I'm a luddite. It also doesn't help confidence that they are all made in China and the consequences of getting it wrong are dire.

Select to expand quote

BluewaterBound said..
I bought mine about 2.5 years ago and it was nearly $1,000 for a 125AH battery. My reasoning at the the time was that I wanted the best achitecture (cylindrical was considered the best at that time) with the best battery management system. But technology being what it is, it's not all that unlikely that the one you've highlighted is just as good. And since the ad specifically highlights the problems with 'cheaper' batteries, perhaps theirs is actually well built and with a decent BMS. It's worth reading up on what makes a good battery and then comparing ... for all I know things might have changed over 2.5 yrs

Is your battery with cylindrical cells lithium ion or lithium iron phosphate? I didn't think lithium ion phosphate came in cylindrical.

I have a Kings 200ah LiFePO4 battery sitting behind the steps in my companionway. If it were to catch fire, I'd be screwed. I replaced all my electronics when I fitted it.

200ah makes a huge difference to my confidence when I'm out in my boat for a week or 2. I'm so much more comfortable not having to worry about running my fridge, lights, and tiller pilot. It gives me so many more options when the weather turns bad. I can hide in a bay and keep myself sane with my phone, laptop, watching sailing channels on youtube or cooking up a feast till the weather comes good. You can charge them pretty rapidly too. No need for me to be a power nazi when I have someone on board with me for a few days.

That big W battery looks exactly like the Gentrax one in the Outbax store ad below (although without the printed name) so it's a good discount.

I wonder why the VoltX one is so much more expensive from the same store. The VoltX is the brand I have although I have 120 amp hours.