Battery Comparison Question

[DuckTheBus]

Hi everyone, we are looking at different battery options and were originally going with 4 100ah battle born batteries ($874 per). After more research, I found a brand called Redodo that sells (what looks like) the EXACT same battery for half the price! ($399). Why is there such a huge price difference? Am I missing something? If anyone has experience with these, I'd love to hear about functionality / longevity.

Thank you!

[Tejon7]

Battle Born prices haven't come down in years, while offshore competitors just keep getting cheaper. The cells are all made in Asia, even though Battle Born tries to convince you that the're an all American company. With BB, you're probably getting better quality control, but most of your money is paying for all the free batteries that they give away to influencers. Good for you for looking for alternatives.

IIRC, Will Prowse opened up one of those batteries on his Youtube channel. I think Redodo is the same as "Zoom" or something like that. His channel has a lot of battery comparisons and tear downs. Worth a look if you haven't seen it already.

[DuckTheBus]

Thank you for the feedback! I posted in another forum and they suggested watching Will Prowse as well so I'll definitely do that. From my research, the only draw back is that BB has a cold temp shut off and Redodo doesn't but (hopefully) our bus is never below freezing inside lol.

[Tejon7]

No cold temp shutoff could be pretty catastrophic in the right (wrong?) circumstances. There are other budget batteries out there that have low temp shutoff and are still much more affordable than Battle Born. I have SOK, which got great reviews a few years ago, but they're probably not king of the cheapos anymore.

Yeah, check out Will Prowse's videos. He tears down and compares a lot of these batteries.

[Tejon7]

Make sure you look into server rack batteries, too. I have no experience here, but I've heard good things about Signature Solar. They have a ~5 kWh version in either 12v, 24v, or 48v for $1500. That's the same amount of juice as the 4 BB's you were initially looking at, but only slightly more expensive than using the Redodo and comes with US-based support and a decent warrantee.

[Clouse House]

If you're looking for 48V then "Trophy Battery" is another option. They have 48V server rack batteries between 100Ah and 220Ah. Priced the same or below the EG4 batteries. Comes with battery warmers inside the case that turn on if the BMS detects a charge current while the temp sensors indicate below freezing. It will block the charge current to power the heaters until a safe temperature is reached then turn off the heaters and allow for charging. Also reviewed by Will Prowse, with a favorable review.

I have not made my purchase yet as I am still far from that stage in my build, but I plan on purchasing the 48V 220Ah battery. At a hefty 226lbs I feel like the 11,264Wh will be enough for my build and then some.

[Nick5272]

https://www.mobile-solarpower.com/li...batteries.html

I arrived at these through Will Prowse. I scoured threads on and off this site and can’t find any mention of people using them for their bus. What are y’all’s thoughts on them or have you ever used them?