New EW 280 AH LFE Batteries - Comments and Questions

[DDW]

Unfortunately with a Victron battery system you are single sourced on the batteries? That is what kept me away.

 

[Frosty]

Unfortunately with a Victron battery system you are single sourced on the batteries? That is what kept me away.

Yes, but.... does anyone combine brands of batteries in a bank?

I guess I never thought about doing that. e.g. I have a bank of Battleborn batteries in an RV and if I changed would just match up a new set of whatever brand battery

The Battleborns were given to me when a friend changed to Epoch batteries -- I don't think it occured to him to combine brands either.

Then I have Victron in the boat and in another installation.

Maybe I've just been assuming you would always want all of one brand? I've always gone that way so it's possible I'm just going by habit.

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If you meant it the opposite way, that with Victron batteries you need to use a Victron BMS, then I think that's true. But not sure why you wouldn't want to do that anyway.

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In the third possible way, using Victron components but not their batteries, I think tons of people already do that. Multipluses, BMV's, Orions, etc. with many different battery brands.

******

If I decided to go with another brand of battery in future, I really wouldn't have to change much. They would most likely come with a BMS built in (so I'd drop my Victron external BMS). I'd keep the BatteryProtect on my loads (no reason not to), the BMV, the Orion, and the Victron solar controllers.

 

[DDW]

If you are replacing the whole bank, you'd probably use the same brand. The problem arises when you are say in Petersburg Alaska, and one or two batteries go Tango Uniform. How to I replace them? This is already a problem with LFP but will get to be less so. It isn't possible to fly them in since Lithium doesn't fly, so you might be waiting for several weeks for a replacement. Of forever, if Victron obsoletes them. Under these circumstances I'd buy a battery locally and hook it up, without much regard to brand. Or I could even buy a few AGMs or flooded and use those.

The issue is (as I understand them) the packaging of series connected batteries without the necessary electronics, but with proprietary cabling to hook of the proprietary BMS. Mainly I gather it is the taps to measure cell imbalance and perhaps temperature sense as well. If this was standardized with multiple vendors, then OK. Or if everything needed is inside the sealed box, OK.

As long as you are an overnight UPS delivery from a Victron dealer (and they keep supplying them) then you are good to go. Even then, though, single sourcing often implies higher pricing. Victron batteries are currently well over 2x/AH the price of quality batteries like Epoch, and nearly 8X the bargain brands.

I developed an aversion to single sourcing from a career in the consumer electronics business, and still suffer the aversion.

 

[Frosty]

I guess if something happened to all my Victron batteries on a cruise, and I had access to another brand of (presumably internal BMS) LFP batteries, then couldn't I just buy them and drop them in just like you are saying you would, in extremis? Then I'd just have a "Brand X" LFP bank. Should still play fine with my Victron components, and with the Orion XS between the engine start AGM and the LFP house bank, I don't strictly need the "Allow to charge" signal to protect the alternator.

I could also go with AGM's if I had to, since my Victron batteries happen to be about the size of Group 27 or 31's.

Seems like with another brand of LFP, I would just not use my Victron BMS, but everything else could pretty much stay the same. Or am I missing a key point?

I'm thinking that there is no brand of LFP battery that anyone would just randomly mix with another brand (in a non-emergency).... is there? I don't see anyone doing that, not that I see every installation. Do people mix and match?

I'm not trying to talk you into Victron batteries. Far from it. I'm just somehow missing the issue that is exclusive to them (except for you need to use their BMS with their batteries; but then you use the Epoch BMS with Epochs, the Battleborn BMS with Battleborns, etc.

Unless you are comparing to "rolling your own" LFP. I just don't see too many people doing that these days. Then I guess you could just carry spare cells.

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Price, sure. I see they are now nearly double what they were when I bought them -- I might not have considered them at today's prices; but I would imagine that has something to do with current economic "things"?