Good sales on 100Ah and 200Ah LiFePO4 batteries this afternoon. I'm just going to throw my diesel overboard

12V LiFePO4 Battery: 200Ah $374.25, 100Ah $186.75 Delivered
www.ozbargain.com.au/node/865782

VoltX LiFePO4 Battery 12V 100Ah $289 Delivered
www.ozbargain.com.au/node/865783

No thanks! I'd rather spend a bit more on a reputable brand and reduce the risk that the battery becomes the new onboard bbq

What's the likelihood of a LiFePO4 BBQ? I thought the LiFePO4 was relatively safe?

Hopefully low! You get what you pay for though so apart from the "quality" and lifetime of these cheap batteries in general I think it's safe to assume there have been compromises when it comes to safety standards, BMS, and quality control.

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ptsf1111 said..
Hopefully low! You get what you pay for though so apart from the "quality" and lifetime of these cheap batteries in general I think it's safe to assume there have been compromises when it comes to safety standards, BMS, and quality control.

Not necessarily. The Chinese economy is in dire straits at the moment; there is much over capacity in the battery industry and there is a massive markup on lithium batteries here.

However from what I know of these two batteries the first is a pouch cell battery which always sells cheaper than prismatic cells and the VoltX battery does not claim class A prismatic cells so they are seconds or alternatively used as are many other lithium battery cells. This results in each cell not being perfectly balanced with its neighbors and therefore a shorter life and the inability to achieve what should be full charge if all cells are equal. It is also doubtful that the BMS has the capability of top balancing the cells unless the advertising blurb specifically says that it can. Nevertheless the batteries may well be configured to deliver the full quoted power and the capability of delivering at 100 watts continuous is not to be sniffed at.

The best batteries now have a BMS which broadcasts the voltage of each cell in the battery to a phone app.

The game is moving on but given the price of those batteries they are both still exceptional value and will probably give quite good performance.

Interesting, thanks! I need high performance as I also run an inverter but for low consumption and less critical applications it might be an option then although probably still bit of a gamble I suppose.

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ptsf1111 said..
Interesting, thanks! I need high performance as I also run an inverter but for low consumption and less critical applications it might be an option then although probably still bit of a gamble I suppose.

Although VoltX try to bill themselves as something special mine has a crap BMS that doesn't cut out when it is supposed to at 10.8 volts so I have found the battery on a number of occasions down around three volts. I bought it off Woolworths marketplace who give very little support although I have returned the battery to the seller today for supposed testing. I know damn well what it is doing because I bought a tester. It also had an internal alarm go off once during charging and it no longer delivers full capacity after a year and three super low discharges.

I have a theory about Lithium batteries. If the seller puts their branding on the battery it means they intend to stand behind them. They cant fob off complaints. It also means they put in a reasonable size investment and want that business to work. I bought mine from the 4wdsupacentre in Western Sydney with their branding on. All four 120AH. 6 months later they are in good shape. I would be suspect of a no name battery sold by a temporary reseller.