How many lithium batteries?

DanSees

I'm curious if it makes any difference if I were to replace my AGM battery in my 2021 Tab 320s BD with 2 Lithium batteries rated at 100-105 Ah's or 1 lithium battery rated at 206ah's. I am looking at a couple different brands. 1st is Lion Energy, Lion Safari 1300, Battleborn 100ah 12v, SOK 206ah 12v/ lifepo4 There is a price difference here, the SOK is not made in the USA & is several hundred dollars cheaper. All have similiar specs with the exception of the ah's. Any and all advise is welcomed, if you have a good reason for your sugestions, please explain. Thanks

klenger

There is no problem using two 100AH batteries vs one 206AH battery, but I would not mix and match different capacities.  I am very partial to BattleBorn 100AH batteries.  I bought 3 of them, about 1 year apart.  I never had any issues with the different ages.  I cannot comment on any brand other than BattleBorn as I've had no experience with them. One advantage of a single larger battery is fewer cables, which is a real benefit when working with large wire sizes.  

pthomas745

Lots of owners have the SOK's.  They get good reviews.  Will Prowse has had it on his recommended list for a couple of years now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU86EJXcTMM

Dutch061

4 x 100 Ah for me, I agree that Battleborn has a premium product and made in the USA.

Brad

dragonsdofly

@DanSees a vote here for Battleborns. While there are other known and probably very reliable batteries available, we have a bank of 6 (100 ah) of the Battleborns powering our Keystone Laredo travel trailer. System was installed January 15, 2021 and has operated flawlessly ever since. We full time and DEPEND on this system. At this shoulder season time, we are in Michigan, have discharged the battery bank to 32% after 5 days of heavy cloud cover and rain. We have never had to plug in to shore power in 21 months and hope not to before we leave our northern climes. It is important to us that we have reliable power to run the furnace as it gets chilly. Last winter we braved temps below freezing for 5 weeks straight and those batteries kept charging and discharging as needed without fuss or muss. Hands down our current adventures would not be possible without such trouble free operation. That's our actual usage and experience here. Not theory or extrapolation. We're doing it every day. -Denise

CharlieRN

Edit: added photo.

Lithium's life cycle cost and superior performance, tend to make it a better overall value proposition than lead-acid batteries.  I went with dual 100 aH LFP batteries rather than a single 200 aH because of the redundancy in the 2-battery setup. I chose Battleborn for several reasons: design, build quality and customer service. All three elements are superior to most of the other manufacturers and IMO, their better-designed BMS alone is worth paying a premium for. As far as cost, BB does occasionally have sales, so you can get their batteries at a substantial discount if you're both patient and perceptive.

Having said all of that, Will Prowse at DIY Solar, a reasonably trustworthy source, has good things to say about SOK and one or two others.

RFraer

Dutch061 said:

4 x 100 Ah for me, I agree that Battleborn has a premium product and made in the USA.

Brad

Dutch061, I might not be looking at the picture correctly but it looks like you may have run the +/- cables to the inverter and charger off the same battery. When I resurrected how to wire my system I read that this can cause charge balance issues and If the first battery depletes its BMS will turn the battery off and cut off the batteries down stream from it. 

Denny16

I think two 100 amp.hr. Lithium batteries in a TaB320 would meet most extended camping trips, and would be an equivalent to having 4 lithium batteries in a TaB400.  That said, we have been using a 200 amp.hr. AGM, for our off grid camping, and have not had any issues keeping it charged with 193-watt roof top solar panel setup.  

Cheers 

elbolillo

With our two BB Lithium batteries in our 2021 Tab320 we have more than enough battery capacity to last well over a week. Just added an inverter as well to run our espresso machine and starlink satellite to allow us to work off-grid. I would highly recommend two BB for a Tab 320 if you do a lot of off grid camping.

DanSees

Thanks everyone for replying. BB certianly has a lot of happy campers. I'm surprised no one has replied with Lion Energy. I was leaning towards LE, but now not sure. A little more research before I bite the bullet on this purchase. 
Another question, I have the stock 105 watt solar panel on the roof of the 320 Tab. I was hoping to stay with only this one, & maybe upgrade to a suitcase solar panel if needed in the future. I realize this will take longer to charge with 2 100ah batteries & I am going to upgrade the converter to a lithium converter. Do I need to do anything with the solar charger Victron MPPT 75-15? Or will it still work until I add more solar?
Thanks

Denny16

You only need to change the battery profile on the Victron App to lithium settings, and it will work fine.  When you add a portable solar panel, get one without a controller and add a second Victron 75/10 for a 100-watt panel or a 75/15 for a 200-watt setup.  Then you can network the two Victron controllers to work together to charge up your two 100-amp lithium batteries.
 Cheers 

VictoriaP

I think @Marceline has Lion Energy, and at least one other Tabber on here does as well. Haven’t heard of any complaints on it. Battleborn is pretty much the industry standard though. 

As far as SOK goes, the main concern I have are a few complaints I’ve seen on Will Prowse’s forum last year, from people who discovered the metal cases quickly rusted when used them outside of a weatherproofed compartment…and the 320’s tub is not weatherproof. SOK’s customer service basically said they needed to be used indoors or put into a battery box, and of course, they are not a standard size, so good luck finding a box. (Unlike Lion & Battleborn, which are sized to standard US battery group sizes.) SOK does have plastic cased marine batteries now which would work, but don’t offer them in the heated/bluetooth configuration. 

DanSees

Thank you Denny16 & VictoriaP. Thanks for confirming what I thought was possible & what I was thinking would be an issue with SOK. 

Marceline

@DanSees

I have an early 90aH LioN Energy Battery I installed in January 2020 and it’s worked great for me. 

Dutch061

@RFraer, my battery cables go to the original battery junction block, as do the rest of the cables. I have had zero issues, using up to 300 Ah of the available 400 Ah from my battery bank. That took 8 days with minimal sunshine to get that low, which was my goal. 

The only "modification" if you will, is the installation of the Progressive Dynamics converter under the bed. Otherwise, everything is wired exactly as NuCamp set it up and the Battleborn batteries are in parallel as per their recommendations.

Battleborn recommends additional equipment if you are going to charge above 4000 watts. Using 15 amps from the solar and 60 amps from the PD9160ALV, my maximum wattage is less than 1100 watts at 14.6 volts.

Here is the excerpt from their manual in regard to devices over 4000 watts.

Inverter/Chargers (and other devices having large input capacitance < 10 microF)

Special consideration must be made for connection to devices that have a large input capacitance,

because of the tendency of these devices to draw large current spikes upon initial connection to the

batteries. This includes inverter/chargers that are greater than 4000 Watts in size. This applies to 12V,

24V, and 48V inverter chargers. Battle Born Batteries requires a current surge limiter (CSL500) that is for

sale at Battle Born Batteries to be installed with each inverter/charger greater than 4000 Watts.

DO NOT CONNECT BATTERIES TO AN INVERTER/CHARGER THAT IS GREATER THAN 4000 WATTS IN

SIZE WITHOUT A CSL500 CURRENT SURGE LIMITER. FAILURE TO INCLUDE A CSL500 WILL DAMAGE THE

BMS AND PRESENT A POTENTIAL FIRE HAZARD.

Brad

Horigan

DanSees said:

Thank you Denny16 & VictoriaP. Thanks for confirming what I thought was possible & what I was thinking would be an issue with SOK. 

SOK makes a marine version with a sealed plastic case, for a dollar more.  I have this on my boat and will put one in our 400 when the AGMs wear out.

https://www.sokbattery.com/products/sok-12v-206ah-lifepo4-battery

DanSees

I purchased 2 of the Lion Energy 1300 100ah batteries & a converter charger that will charge the LiPo4 batteries to 100%. Waiting on shipping.