Potential Battle Born Battery Issue

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• AnOldUR Member Posts: 1,645

  December 10 edited December 10

  Just reposted to the nuCamp FB group. Hope I don't get booted. 
  
  edit:
  Funny! I noticed that the post was "pending", so I sent a none Battle Born topic to the group and it was added without issue.
  
  another edit:
  The post was eventually approved and added to the Facebook nuCamp group.

  Stockton, New Jersey
  2020 nuCamp T@B 320S * Jeep Wrangler
  (47,171 towing miles through the end of 2024)

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• fwunder Member Posts: 67

  December 10

  Me thinks they are sensitive to the issue. Not good.

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• ckjs Member Posts: 119

  December 10

  The vid: Will Prowse opens the BB case to find an assembly process failure: the nuts attaching the positive "stud" were not tightened correctly. Instead of a nice low-resistance path for charging the battery, it has a loose connection turning it into a heater. If it is, e.g., ¼ ohm, when charging at 10 amps, that would be 25 watts heating up a small piece of metal.  That could get pretty hot over sustained use.
  It looks like the particular battery that he opened up was misassembled, as well as a few other reported failures.
  
  I wish Will had included a manufacturing date code of some kind, to see whether there was a bad batch with wobbly terminals. If any of you have terminals which are loose, please reach out to BattleBorn for a response. 

  Charles & Judy, Santa Cruz, CA
  2018 T@B 320 CS-S; Alde 3020; 4 cyl 2020 Subaru Outback Onyx XT

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• fwunder Member Posts: 67

  December 10

  Yes, I agree there should be a followup to Will's video and official comment from BB. For those interested there is a lengthy ongoing discussion @   https://diysolarforum.com/threads/battle-born-battery-issue.110295/

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• Bayliss Member Posts: 1,491

  12:18AM

  Interesting video.  Thanks for sharing.  Regarding @ckjs's point, the handwritten date on the interior of the battery is "2/2/18", so that provides some helpful info (older battery).  I do not know what the "A079" refers to, but it may be the installer/inspector's I.D., or a batch number.  I zoomed in on the printed label, which includes the battery "Supplier Model" number and serial number (which ends in "18", possibly representing 2018), so that would be very helpful in tracking down the associated batch of batteries.
  
  
  

  2019 T@B 320 S Boondock Lite; 2025 Toyota Tundra CrewMax 4x4
  (Alde: 3020; Refrig: Isotherm Cruise 65 Eleg; Battery: BB 100Ah LiFePO4; Solar: Renogy 220W Portable Suitcase w/ Victron SmartSolar MPPT 75/15 Controller; Victron BMV-712 Battery Monitor w/ Shunt; Pwr Cntr: PD-4135KW2B; EMS: PI-HW30C)
  Greg & Marlene (Tucson, AZ)
  
  
  

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• AnOldUR Member Posts: 1,645

  12:31AM edited 12:31AM

  @Bayliss
  There's a new reply from Battle Born on Facebook where they claim it's an intentional safety feature. If that's the case there would be no reason to make a change in newer batteries.
  
  "To address questions that have recently surfaced about terminal heating and fastener design, it is important to highlight that what some observers view as a failure is a safety device working exactly as intended. The aluminum nut used in our 100Ah packs’ positive terminal is a purpose-built thermal failsafe. It is engineered so that the plastic deforms and disconnects when excess heat is present at the terminal."
  
  Sounds a little suspect to me, but I'm no expert.

  Stockton, New Jersey
  2020 nuCamp T@B 320S * Jeep Wrangler
  (47,171 towing miles through the end of 2024)

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• fwunder Member Posts: 67

  12:41AM

  Yeah, the word for word from Dragonfly that is circulating states, "...The batteries we sell and support today use the same trusted and validated design that has been in successful field service for many years." This indicates the design has not changed and is either flawed or acceptable and safe. I think that is yet to be determined although the current evidence leans towards flawed and dangerous.
  

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• pthomas745 Administrator, Moderator Posts: 4,385

  3:23AM

  I went through the Will Prowse DIY Solar Forum thread about this today, and there seems to be more about this than meets the eye.  Owners are showing videos of being able to completely shut off the battery by slightly moving the positive battery terminal.  If there is a "heating and cooling" situation happening, would that process begin to loosen the terminal?  

  In the situations where owners discover the trailer power completely shut down, with no other issues with circuit breakers, fuses, and no communication from the battery, have those issues been caused by this problem?  In some cases, the battery simply "comes back to life" with no real reason for the cause of the loss of power.

  
  

  Other owners are saying they noted this issue on batteries from several different years, with the batteries of several different years back to back to 2018.  (This has been hard to get a good handle on today).  

  
  

  And: the users in that group are not particularly impressed with Battleborn in general.....

  2017 Outback

  Towed by 2014 Touareg TDi
  

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• fwunder Member Posts: 67

  7:36PM

  A followup from Will Prowse. Ouch.  https://youtu.be/7fD3yaRvp3o?si=aVXGgAhCV5pXmEe4

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