$236? Very much doubt finding a "decent reputable battery" at that price point, you would be in deep budget / random quality territory. SOK would be considered the cheapest decent reputable battery and they are in the 450 range, similar to AO lithium.
Lol, "decent reputable battery" are just words. While I agree with you that taking the gamble with these super cheap budget batteries isn't worth the risk/hassle, for some people a $236 that meets 80% of their expectations would be considered "reputable" and "decent".
I wanted better than that and compared SOK, Aolithium and Powerurus. I think SOK is the best of the three and Powerurus perhaps the worst, but even the Powerurus is heads and tails better than any $236 battery. I went with Powerurus because:
- $730 total for 12v 200Ah, bluetooth BMS 200A. @Will Prowse gave a glowing review to the 100Ah version (except he didn't like the sticky foam inside the case, which all that foam is perfect for my bumpy mobile setting) and it's one of the few 12v lithium batteries he recommends on his website. Free shipping, no tax, free 10A charger (the charger will be helpful this winter)
- Powerurus customer service has knocked my socks off. They have answered my literal 15-20 questions I have asked them, a few before the sale, but most of them after the sale. They reply usually within 24 hours, sometimes longer when they have to contact one of their engineers to answer some of my more technical questions.
The SOK was about $1000 for similar. Aolithium only comes in 100Ah versions (200A BMS though, which 2x100Ah in parallel gives 400A...impressive but overkill for my use case) and physically fitting 2x100Ah in the tight space I have to put it was not going to work, plus the Aolithium at the time was not quite as good of a deal as the Powerurus. Powerurus nailed it in terms of quality and price, at least for me. So glad I didn't pull the trigger on the Weize, because that thing is now a piece of junk, according to Will's latest teardown of it!
My only real gripe of the Powerurus is the cells are not perfectly balanced, but they are not horribly so either. Unless you build your own pack or pay a high premium for perfectly matched cells, this is going to be the case with mid to low-budget lifepo4 batteries.
@sunshine_eggo has given me sage advice on how to use my Victron IP22 charger as a bench power supply to slowly edge the four cells back into better balance. Even just a few weeks of using his method has improved my battery. I used to get BMS cutoff at 14.0v due to one cell being higher than the others, but now the BMS doesn't cut out anymore at 14.0v and it completes the charge through the absorption and float stages. I'm happy about this. I might try to see if I can push it to 14.2v next spring, but even if I don't, I am very pleased with this battery. The bluetooth range is decent - I can
sometimes get a connection in my large pickup truck with a canopy with the battery installed on the floor in the back of a 17' trailer, with several pieces of furniture and metal walls in the line of sight. Sometimes it catches the connection in the cab of the truck just long enough to get a read on the status of the battery, then drops a few minutes later. This is impressive in my book.
aolithium.com
