I had 3 x Redodo 12v 100ah batteries and it works well a few times in the first 3 months. After that, when I had issues they were not forthcoming in their reply. Response and attitude are bad for the past weeks. I am still hoping they will handle this well.
I do not quite understand on the comment that you made that on those batteries you can't take the cold so you're saying that if you are in a camper and it's 40 below outside that that battery could have some internal breakdowns because it's too cold to operate?
the reason batteries like this have internal spacers is because the case is designed to fit in existing battery boxes and holders designed for lead/acid batteries. yes, they could make them smaller but then they would not be a standard size and would require custom mounts.
Amazing content. Like a mini-class in batteries. Your service to the boating world (...and the RV world, and the off-grid homestead world, and the .....) is appreciated.
It was nice to see this video a year after its initial release. I bought two of these for my sailboat after 2 Group AGMs failed while we were sailing off-shore.
A good series. I think almost everyone will be looking at lithium replacements within the next 5 years, unless something else even more fantastic hits the market running. The reality though, is that while an E-car needs better power density going forward, a boat (besides dinghy) needs better power collection. I expect the power collection for boats will move slower than battery power density.
After a fair bit of research, I selected a pair of 100 A/H batteries from this company. I've had them only a couple of weeks, but so far they work really well as a replacement for the AGMs I had in my small home emergency backup. Thanks for the review and deep dive into the insides!! 👍
Clark and Emily, you both provide such great information to the Sailing community. The battery teardown is also good information. There are so many battery teardown videos on RU-vid already and I feel your time would be spent better on the things you both do already. By the way my Bank Manager is humming away and my batteries are happy and so am I.
I spent so so much time researching lithium batteries cost/value and ultimately took the chance on Redodo. Since that purchase back in January, these batteries are climbing in price. I respect your own hands-on research and am pleased that I went with them.
HI! How are you feeling with the redodo battery so far? There are many negative reviews of the cheap lifepo4s, I would also like to get one but I'm doubtful. Thank you!
The best I have found currently is a tossup between timeusb's 220ah and redodo 230ah (they are the same battery getting around 227ah of time) Both have serviceable steel casing that you can unscrew for under $600USD. Find a better deal, I dare you. Holy shit someone who understands power like I do!!! Finally! It's like people buy things and slap them together and don't think about any of it. They end up catching $250,000 RVs on fire and scratch their heads wondering what went wrong but in the next RV they make the same mistakes! Instant subscribe from me!
built my own battery 7 yrs ago using Calb LFP cells and No BMS - Top and Bottom balanced cells - cycled battery 70% daily living in RV - Victron solar charger - Battery mostly stayed in balance - 4 ish month intervals would top balance with a R/C charger - Zero problems
PS to my post below. Further to main Bank being AGM. I think it was the Bluetti Power Station that had the good info on charging level for their Lifepo4 Batteries, and I think I’ll be going with one of those with I think it is their 6 years Warranty as it will be rally handy backup with AC, DC, and USB power supply output, and there is a model with 3,000 watts AC Output, so for Charged up during the day, there an be nice stopgap power available during Night Watch for water heater, portable induction hob use, microwave, to reduce the drain from the Housebank with that keeping the Nav Lights, instruments, fans, refrigerator, freezer, and such going, and say with 1200 ah of AGM storage, it should easily keep within that 20% capacity limit to discharge of up to 240 ah of consumption from the House Bank before Recharging current goes back in ? Lead aksi ,oves going back to a state of charge of 100% asap. Which is where the high output engine alternator will fit in with two Duty Cycles per day for the inboard engine. It'll be interesting to se how the schedule works out, when put into practice anyway. Bob. 👍
That's a way to go. And I liked my bluetti. But with everything in one box one failure brings you down. Over the years I've grown to prefer separate components. But both approaches have merits.
Really good video Clark. I'm looking forward to the whole series, but since my batteries will be in an RV low temp protection is important. Hopefully some of the others will have low temp protection. Keep the good stuff coming.
Your videos are such a valuable wealth of knowledge, I appreciate the way you explain the theory and application on most systems you have covered. You make the DIY of what can seem to someone unfamiliar with these systems, like me, easily achievable! I look forward to your videos! Thank You!
I'm glad it wasn't terrible, I bought the 100amp version for my electric dinghy setup. Funny enough because of Peukert's Law, 4 of these batteries in series could potentially replace the 16 golfcart batteries I have running my electric sailboat. It might even be better, I'd just have to change my motor controller 🤔🤔🤔
Great Job with the review! The only thing I could think of would be to have some thermal imaging capability. You could look at the heat dissipation of the heat sinks on the BMS, and if there were any hot spots on the bus bars ( that may indicate a substandard solder / weld). Thanks!
Clark ... exccellent in depth look at the battery. Yes do more, dive deeper, we do care and value your take on choosing the power for our floating homes. Thanks!
Oh yeah I see what you mean that's one hot battery. I like the way she lays flat and shows off her power poles...oh my don't get me started... Whoooser..that one hot battery! 😅
Wow, excellent review!! I’ve been learning how to review power stations for my channel. You’re so knowledgeable, thank you for sharing your expertise! (I also love the leaderboard idea- I hate that I gave my first batteries such glowing reviews!)
im looking forward to seeing graphene batteries, they say they going to make them here in Australia, supposably graphene holds more power and charges faster.
Every new tech is better in the reports. Seldom do they make the impact that Lifepo4 did. I find for off-grid applications where weight is t critical LiFePO4 is quite useful. Lead is like a computer from the 90s. You always wanted just a bit more out of it. LiFePO4 feels like a computer from 2010. Perfectly capable of doing the job.
I've watch quite a lot of video to make up my mind about Lipo Batteries , but you've raise my understandind to a new level , and you really make it efficently and interresting , Thanks a bunch and keep up , i'll be back for sure.
Nice of you to say Stephan. Check out the leader board in the description for more reviews. Also we have a lot of other electrical videos. You might want to start here www.emilyandclarksadventure.com/bbms
You should also include AGM lead, according too everything you have said, I have also researched There is no replacement for lead it has properties that, lithium does not have, my deep cycle 8D and 4D have started my 28 hp M2003 Volvo, I also had too start it by manual crank once, Life savor with a Hurricane 20 hours away. Yes, purchased a dedicated starter battery as soon as I got back, but never had too use it after that. Funny how that works. I have a 8D 4D AGM’s and standard Start car battery, think it is a die hard, was thinking about replacing the 8D with lithium iron, figure the weight savings and power increase would let me run a new 3000 watt inverter. Have a 500 watt one now , but refitting and space is always a premium the wife Loves her hot showers I have both Electric AC or engine coolant water heater, works great, with the new Water Maker, still have not decided on that also, with our 110 gallons of fresh water would not have too fill both tanks, rather use them as ballast on different tacks pump 50 gallons to either side, make water at the destination on hook. Also less weight faster boat. She is already very fast as a Beneteau 350 89, points also very high, winged shoal keel cast iron. Always wanted too sail the Chesapeake and beyond with her. Went all the way too Bangor Maine with her. So doing the work in planning her refit, Love your series, Troubled about your cough, my wife has that since Covid, slow too get better. If you both are ever up in Long Island reach out. Greenport on the north fork is where StarLight is Where in Smithtown, center North Shore. Family goes back to 1631 here.
That process starts for us when a battery manufacturer contacts us with the offer of a review battery. For them it often starts from someone like you suggesting our channel to them. Balls in your court
Wow, that was a great video! Thank you for the teardown. Have you ever considered building a battery from scratch? From sourcing cells/BMSs to putting it all together?
Sure I've done that. We have a 50amphour battery I built in a pelican case we use a lot for portable needs. We also use it with an electric motor on Emily's boat. In the video when I talk about destroying cells. Well, that was the first attempt at that battery.
the batteries i make now for high end ebikes with dc currents of up to 850 amps continuous ,use 3m Novac dilectric fluid ,and immersion cooling,cells now never go higher than a few degrees under full load ,.and can charge the battery at 80 amps continuous,and have advantage of never being able to catch fire
A few items I've been adding to my list that you might want to include on your spreadsheet: Warranty Duration Minimum Cycles Maximum Continuous Charging Current Self-Heating Y/N Low Temp Shutoff Y/N Bluetooth While your casual style is obviously popular, a bit more of an organizational touch might help with review-type content. Just some graphics on what you'll be covering, tests, expected results, observed results, stuff like that. Keep it simple and minimal - the data is in the spreadsheet - just let us know what you'll be up to and what you found.
the best dischager and charger tester is the cycle analyst version 3 you connect 2 x 4-500 amp current shunts and 2 x 2400watt bar heaters ,or huge load dump resistors
Hey Clark, great to see you reviewing batteries. Would like to see you test the BMS thermal cut out sensors. Heat gun for high temp, and put the low temp sensor in ice water, and confirm the BMS FET's switch off. Would love to see a video of you doing manual balancing with your precision resistor. Thanks again!
I think the manual balance video would be important and I have a badly balanced battery here. I did the thermal test in an earlier review. The Elefast I think. If the unit has Bluetooth there is no sense testing that as I can see the temperature on the phone. And the units without Bluetooth tend to just have a high temp bimetallic switch. They tend to be reliable
Great review Clark and Emily, probably and active ballencer like a neeey might be the go, Andy from Offgrid garage has played around with them. Oh and that table😀
I can't believe that it took 24 hours for someone to notice that. You are the second guy You are so right. I was a fool I kicked myself all during editing. It's why we don't have gold wedding rings.
If you liked this you might like the others in the series(check the leaderboard in the description). Even if you aren't interested in buying the other offerings I hope that I added a bit of general battery knowledge to each.
Hi Clark, great video. I purchased ecoworthy 100 AH lifepo4 because of the size you mentioned. In group24 case instead of group 27 like all the others. So far has been good.
Sorry to much problem I for one will stick to my lead acid connect and you good to go no up and or down and up good luck have a fantastic day from South Africa
In your spreadsheet your cost value on the 100 ah was ok, yet it was cheaper per W/H...????? As far as thermal control, its much more likely to damage the battery cold wx charging than overtemp up North, Not DR...lol Keep up the good work!
Thanks , There is more to value than the ah rating. I didn't like the holes in the case. I'm reviewing a battery called FEENCE this week. If it stands up to claims it might be the very best. It has cold protection and is really cheap. Wait for that video before buying anything.
Really shouldn't have the current running through your voltage measurement leads but if you do it the same way with all the cells then you can see if theres a deviation between the cells. So in this case it works to make sure they are matched
Nice break down... multiple cheap batteries each with their own BMS seems like good/inexpensive solution. I would think the BMS should do some amount of passive cell balancing but only when you're getting one of the cells into the 'hockey stick' range. I agree it makes no sense to charge until the BMS cuts off but you may need to get into a higher voltage range to get balancing to kick in. I generally only charge to 80-90% but I do 'top off' from time to time to sync my SOC meter and get a bit of balancing done in the process.
im not a boat man but i use lifepro batterys for my solar home system its nice to see you do the tare down and run the test i also build battery pack with bms 12 up to 27 volt batterys i thank the lifepro with bms is theonly way to go save you lots money from replacements i have a lifepro battery i built that has 32 32650 battery per cell there is4 cells of 32 battery that run some of the appiance in my house thanks for your informatoin on the lifepro battery
Great video, thanks for this. I’ve been shopping to eventually replace my AGM, but I have a lead acid still in my little sailboat, only because the battery compartment is so tiny. I have to shop around, but I don’t know what to trust. I like Dakota Lithium, but they’re out of my budget…by a LOT. I need something suited to reality, but with decent enough quality to not damage my VHF or burn smaller gauge wires.
I think there are cheap Jem's out there. I'm looking for them. No battery out there is going to damage your vhf or in itself burn your wire. I suggest my master class playlist
9:32 I presume those terminal posts are well sealed. So could be the USB charge points, by sealing around the entry points' grommet. You would need to inspect.
Good review. I have Bluetooth connection with my Lithium BMS. I find it useful and informative. Maybe no cheap batteries have this; if they do you might want to include a look at it.
at the end the brand and model number of the cells matter the most. Then you have to find the spec sheet to get more about the whole cell at all and run charging and discharging cycles with a battery tester like zke tech. Then you might be able to say more, but I bet these are cheap spot market cells nicely rewrapped in blue foil, nothing else and of cause no brand like EVE. Therefore they are expensive and you can judge them only after 10 years of use and based on the capacty then, after maybe 3000 cycles or 1 per day.
It absolutely has balancing built into the BMS. 101 The BMS is shutting down due to the imbalance limits being so far out of specifications. This battery will continue to cell drift more wildly apart with shorter charge cycles and losses of 10-20% capacity. Put a neeey 5 amp active balancer on it and add an i/o switch. Top balance whenever the battery has been run without a full charge.
Yep. I updated the description saying it does have balance. The way I have been using it didn't let the balance function operate but it's slow anyway. I think the one you recommend is what I use in my battery builds. Hard to remember it's name I like it
To compare the cell i would put them in almost short circuit (very short time to see the max Amp they can deliver I would use a multimeter wich can record they should be all close to each other
Adding to what you said about cold protection.... having my only power source shut off because it is too cold.... not good. Some RV heaters and all diesel heaters (except stoves) require power. There are likely other things that require power that might be life saving (even a radio). So insulation and a small heater may pull some power from a battery but probably not much and if the battery is in daily use, it probably only needs the insulation to stay warm enough, so the heater wouldn't be doing anything most of the time even when the air is below freezing. I do wonder though, if the insulation could, in warmer climates cause over heating for heavy users. E-cars run cooling fluid through the battery compartment for example. I am thinking of some of these boats with a watermaker, washing machine and induction hobs. Ie people who expect a land based home on the water (and in aus also are required to seal their battery compartment). I personally think it's silly, but then where do you put all these things in a 30ft hull? (actually ours is 29) Even without all those things, our small "cottage on the waterfront" is technologically advanced compared to a land home of not very many years ago. Electric is the new nice but diesel, propane, butane, and other carbon fuels are better (smaller, cheaper, redundant, etc.) ,at the high load jobs they do. Until fabric solar panels that I can use for sails and still last years at a good price come out, there is a limit to what one can power from the Sun on a small boat. (even the big catamaran covered with solar panels has a hard time)
Yep Len. One thing. It's only charging below freezing that really harms li. You can discharge them. And if you had a BankManager controlled hybrid battery system you would always have the lead there.
Nice video, I've been wondering what's in the 200ah etc ones ! Though I did think they BMS would balance the cells automatically ? I've got a home made one utilising 18650 lithium ions (not phosphate) and the BMS looks after the balancing almost perfectly
Max charge voltage of Lithium Iron Phosphate is 4.20V so not dangerous at all to take them into the high region. You're just not getting any capacity past 3.60 vs the stress you're putting on the cells. Past 3.80 most people consider the stress put on the cells to be mildly hard in terms of degradation. I charged a 2.5Ah cell up 4.2V on accident once and the capacity I dishcarged from 4.2V to 3.6V.....was 28mAh. So thats why we don't care about using the top end.
I think you might have some confusion between li-ion and LiFePO4. LiFePO4 taken to that voltage will vent and fail very quickly. I accidently did that. Expensive
I did a video on how to balance a new battery that was out of balance in a existing bank. Took several weeks though. Internal balancing is very low current and very slow and typically only balances during charging.
They haven't offered one yet. I'll write them a note. If you, as an independent buyer, wrote them suggesting it might go further. We are emilyandclarksadventure@gmail.com
the bms balancer circuit on those batteries probably sucks. The way I would test a BMS for balancing is I would take the heatsink off and use a temp sensor gun over the balancing resistors on the pcb to see if they are activating. Good job getting in there and top balancing your cells.
With the BankManager charging it will never balance unless you manually force the voltage up. But if you stay out of the hockey stick it might never matter
@@Clarks-Adventure thats the thing, your pack was out of balance so I would assume even though you think your cells are out of the hockey stick area one or two cells are higher than the other cells, that is why cell balancing is great. Try testing a bluetooth capable lithium battery pack bms so then you can confirm your bank manager is not overcharging ANY of the cells as intended.
"I'm sexy & I know it" gif @ 7:15 would have been funny. Clarke reminds me of a young, more trusting/intelligent Rolf Harris (aussie). Have you had covid vaccine? It's going around Au again. Nice graph work @20:50 Em, be nice if my retirement shares looked like that
I've got 4 12 200ah in series 48v and they them in part of the house I don't heat so temperatures at times can't get down to -0° to -5 at times so I just cover the with at eclectic blanket 100 watts on high but have it set to level 4 so about 40 watts and that keeps them at +15° celsius, I've not gotten around to building an insulated box yet but I'm sure 10 watts would keep them warm.
Case standard case built for many different companies and perhaps different cell sizes, also foam Installation and help with shock if it should get dropped so that's good.
I understand the reasons for the over sized case but I really wish that foam wasn't there. I want to stuff one of these batteries in a Milwaukee packout and make my own battery powered generator but it's 1.5" too long. Great video.
I was hoping to use a battery with a 150a bms minimum. Might take it out of the case and spray foam it in place 😬 I will provide plenty of ventilation.
Two in parallel would give you 200a of supply current. Also I have a battery box coming with an inverter and charge controllers. Basically a power station that you supply the battery for. Less than $200usd
Hi all, I built my 4 batteries using 4, 280 Ah cells and a BMS from overkill solsr total cost was under $1000 for a 280 Ah battery. The BMS is a 120 amp max per batteri Bule tooth, with High and low temp cut-off with an automatic balance 400 miliamp so for $4000 I have 4- 280 amp hour bank and now with your Bank manager have added 280 Ah lead to protect my main engine alt. from smooking the diodes. I have a very expensive Balmar altinator with external regulator programable chcrge... I think that on this battery would get a fail because the BMS does not have high and low temp cutoff and no automatic balancer, not even a bule tooth connection. For me each battery cost over $600 for 200 Ah. I made my battery box to handle my 4 batteries. anyway BBMS seems to work as discribed.
Thanks John. Good to hear you are happy with the BankManager. I missed something in the video. This BMS has balancing but it's at a low current or I would have seen it. It doesn't kick in till the cells are at high voltage so the BankManager would block auto balancing. But this battery is too new to need to be balanced.
You should send them a note suggesting they contact me. I'll send them one myself. I like that the case can be opened easily but I don't like that it's metal. Though painted metal should last well enough as long as salt water is kept away from the batteries.
I have two Basen Green 460Ah batteries which are built in an 8D case and it would be interested to see you do a tear-down on it. 460Ah in an 8D makes for a lot more Ah / cubic-in than is the Redodo. They cost me $1003 which comes out to $2.18/Ah which is much less than the $3.25/Ah on the Redodo. I had $70 shipping, and it took a couple of months to get to the US from China. FYI, these batteries have the 200A JBD BMS with Bluetooth. This BMS has thermal protection that shuts off charging at whatever temperature you set it to in the APP. I set mine to shut off charging at 5ºC. The cells are listed at EVE 230Ah in a 2p4s format.
Seems like a good battery. I don't have the budget to actually buy batteries for these videos but if you have a contact there and they would like to be in a video I'd love to have a look. Our last battery review video got like 120k views. I really like getting everything under one good BMS and not doing a bunch of parallel external connections.
Interesting video. A curiosity question. You appear to be using a Klein CL220 meter during this video. You were measuring DC amperage with the clamp on feature. Didn't know that you could read DC amperage other than through a series connection.
Yes you can with this meter. It's in our Amazon store if you want to know the model number. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-W8VLETyguoE.html
Thank for the great video. It would be great to get the tolerances of the devices and instruments being used (i.e. 1% or 5% resistor tolerance, etc.) to better understand the level of error between each measurement.
Yes. But using the same resistor on each test kinda cancels out error. My fingers on the probe ends likely caused loads of error. As per the disclaimer on screen title
@@Clarks-Adventure Thanks for the reply. However, not necessarily as resistance will vary with temp of the element after each measure or/and ambient and length of average measurements. No worries not looking for additional details or methods taken. all acceptable I guess I getting lab environment nerdy. all good!
I think that topic has already been well covered by others. If I needed to replace ours I would but that's a big expensive project to do just for a video.
Well torn down. I do greatly wonder about cycle life and how as consumers we can ascertain this as truth? Cycle life/ cost per watt hour cycle rather than just cost per watt hour capacity. Compactness will help them sell more as well. Please make cells with no unnecessary spacers! Very much considering limiting my cells to 100amp hour to ovoid internal parallels.
I think internal parallels are fine. It's external parallels that get you in trouble. Keeping as much as possible under one BMS. As far as cycle life numbers. I think I just won't mention them for Chinese batteries. That's just the kind of untestable stat they lie about.
@@Clarks-Adventure Thanks for your opinion on parallels. Much of my decision to build my own and use my own bms or buy prepared cells. Likely have to assume the lower cycle numbers till time proves them.
Yes, I did photography in my younger years. I feel that since I opened this case in the heat of the day I trapped water inside. I kept kicking myself during editing. But I'm not opening it again.
@@Clarks-Adventure you need to get the moisture out to stop mold forming on the first element , but it’s the same for electronics , 4inch gel pack will absorb a lot of moisture and keep it dry enough to stop oxidation on the wires and solder joints
I believe it's common with all these Chinese batteries to have the BMS top balance cells (one at a time) when they hit some high cell voltage. I know you stated you didn't think that was the case here, and it may not be. However, I've also read these balancers use a really low current like 20mA so it's possible you wouldn't notice that. The idea (I think) is that they'd balance over many charges and keep things generally in charge. They should be balancing at something like C/50 IMO, but maybe I'm missing something important.
You are right. There is a balancer in the BMS. But the BankManager doesn't take the battery up where the voltages split. One could occasionally hold them at high voltage but once balanced they tend to stay that way.
Thanks for your reviews - I've learned a lot from them! I wound up going with the REDODO 410Ah batteries to replace my previous 6 x 6v golf cart house bank. I could only fit 2 batteries in the available space so that was my biggest bang for the buck! Curious if yu have any plans to review that version of the REDODO batteries - or have any other opinions about them?
As far as protecting the battery when it gets too cold, can't you just disconnect it from the charger over the winter? My understanding, with LiFePO batteries, is that the cold alone doesn't harm them, but charging when it is cold does. I ask this because I am up north where we pull our boats out for the winter.
