Can someone please sell me on Dakota lithium. What am I missing?

[Will Prowse]

I have had zero interest in reviewing or testing their batteries because they seem overpriced for the features and capacity. It honestly looks like a $400 relabeled battery for the price of a battleborn or Discovery.

Am I missing something here? I've read the spec sheets multiple times and I am not seeing the justification for the price.



I would love to be proven wrong though! Are there any Dakota lithium owners here? What lead you to purchasing from them instead of any of the other options available these days?

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Perhaps they command a premium because they are "tough" and "punchy?"

 

[Crowz]

Are those the ones that have the remote keyfob you keep on your keychain and allow you to "wake them up" after they turn off from being run down?

Basically you can't get stranded by running your cars battery down if its the one I had seen an ad for.

 

[Crowz]

I found one like I was talking about and after reading the amazon ads it seems the dakota one is just an overpriced regular battery.

A lithium-ion upgrade for your car, but not the one you’re expecting

We try out a 12V lithium-ion battery upgrade for your car.

arstechnica.com

 

[andrew-d]

The only things I can see different about them are:

1. The 11-year warranty, which is (IMO) not worth the price premium. I can see why some people might find that attractive, though.
2. They sell some batteries with a very high surge capacity; this one claims to be able to do 1000A for 2s, and 900A for 5s, which is pretty large for a 135Ah 12V battery.
3. They have batteries in a ton of form factors; every common automotive size, for UPSes, etc.

Not worth it for me, but maybe useful for people that want an off-the-shelf drop-in with no thinking required?

 

[Will Prowse]

Perhaps they command a premium because they are "tough" and "punchy?"

And they put the American flag and "USA" all over their website despite their products being manufactured and sourced from China.

 

[JeromeS13]

The main reason I'm looking at them is because they have a 12V "560" AH battery in a relatively small form factor. I'm pretty constrained on space and outside of a DIY, that battery would be the most capacity I could fit in a small space.

 

[timselectric]

If they really want you to review it.
Make them regret the decision. lol

 

[Will Prowse]

The main reason I'm looking at them is because they have a 12V "560" AH battery in a relatively small form factor. I'm pretty constrained on space and outside of a DIY, that battery would be the most capacity I could fit in a small space.

Oh interesting. Li Time has a 430Ah 12V battery in a small form factor. They also have some 100Ah that are micro sized. What size inverter are you connecting to that battery?

 

[Will Prowse]

If they really want you to review it.
Make them regret the decision. lol

They have not reached out ? which is a bad sign. Usually when I search my youtube email inbox (sometimes 100 emails a day), every manufacturer you can think of has reached out. It scares me when they don't lol.

When I need a free product, I just search my email inbox, and some time in the last five years their marketing department or someone offered to do sponsored videos. I deny all sponsorship, but I can usually get the product for free when I ask.

 

[Aridom82]

They have not reached out ? which is a bad sign. Usually when I search my youtube email inbox (sometimes 100 emails a day), every manufacturer you can think of has reached out. It scares me when they don't lol.

They probably know what is going to happen if you review it...

 

[sunsurfer]

After seeing the 48v(12v series) battleborn BMS fiasco on youtube (battle born had the video yanked), I would put them in the $350 relabeled category also. Over priced relabeled is the worst but there seems to be lots of it going around nowadays.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

After seeing the 48v(12v series) battleborn BMS fiasco on youtube (battle born had the video yanked), I would put them in the $350 relabeled category also. Over priced relabeled is the worst but there seems to be lots of it going around nowadays.

Missed this video...

 

[sunsurfer]

Missed this video...

Ok, so it was on the youtube channel projects in paradise. His friend had 8 12v battleborns 4S2P for a 48v system. He went over to see a melt down and some of the batteries melted/burned with holes and the like with some fire. Luckily they where in a shed. What happened was a few of the batts got out of balance and the BMS did NOT shut down when a couple of batts got to 18v. The cells ran away and cause damage. Battleborn replaced the batteries but only if they took down the video. It was only up for a few hours.

The real question is, why did more then one battery BMS fail to disconnect? Thats pretty bad odds and more then likely defective BMS's. How many of those batteries are out there in the wild with faulty BMSs?

 

[DIYrich]

10 amp battery charger and free shipping. You should review the charger.

 

[iSkiDoo]

Battleborn replaced the batteries but only if they took down the video. It was only up for a few hours.

Extortive warranty replacement practices seem pretty shady.

 

[Lt.Dan]

11 year warranty? Gross.

2000 cycles? Barf.

Thank god it comes with a sh*t 12v 10a charger though!

 

[Aridom82]

Extortive warranty replacement practices seem pretty shady.

they were probably in panic mode

 

[JeromeS13]

Oh interesting. Li Time has a 430Ah 12V battery in a small form factor. They also have some 100Ah that are micro sized. What size inverter are you connecting to that battery?

I saw the Li Time but I don't think the 400+ AH versions have internal heating pads. My van currently has a 2K inverter, but I may upgrade to a 3K in the future.

 

[Supervstech]

I purchased a few of their UPS size drop ins, for my customers tankless water heater battery backup… worked fine, if weak output capability… no experience with their larger setups… likely marketing to the battleborn customers looking for a lower priced battery with a similar warranty.