Does anyone know about ARK Portable battery boxes and where to buy them

[Brett From Ark]

Hi to all following this forum thread

i have a question please and would love to get as much information as i can especially from the forum users located and living in the USA.

my question is listed below

what battery brands in the USA offer 12 volt LiFeP04 battery technology to the consumer ?.

in Australia i have had personal experience using the Fusion battery brand in 100 amp hour capacity a link is below for reference.

http://www.fusionagmbatteries.com.a...t/tabid/323/mode/details/pid/713/Default.aspx

The reason i ask this question is i am attempting to understand how many battery brands currently have this technology available in the USA and i would like to test a few out.

you are most welcome to post up links if that is the easy way to show me what you have found.

Thank you in advance for any information you can give to help me out.

Regards

Brett from Ark

 

[Brett From Ark]

Hi to all following this thread

PRODUCT UPDATE IMPORTANT INFORMATION

We have a confirmed release date window for the two new models being introduced, the release window date is from the 28/08/2015 to 04/09/2015, the reason for this broad window is the shipment could be delayed for various reason beyond our control.

as soon as i can i will post up some information that tells you the features of each model compared to the current model.

any questions please ask.

Regards

Brett from Ark

 

[Brett From Ark]

Hi to all that will read this thread

Ark will be introducing 2 new Ark Paks into the USA the model numbers will be AP730US and AP715US.

the products are expected to be available for sale approx last week of August 2015 or the 1st week of September 2015 from the Ark Portable power website.

i have attached a photo so you can see the difference between all the models.

if anyone has any questions please ask.



Regards

Brett from Ark

 

[mitcity22]

Please keep us updated on the release date. Will make my purchase as soon as possible. Any idea of what the prices will be? Looks like it will be the same size.

 

[Overland_Brandon]

Hi to all that will read this thread

Ark will be introducing 2 new Ark Paks into the USA the model numbers will be AP730US and AP715US.

the products are expected to be available for sale approx last week of August 2015 or the 1st week of September 2015 from the Ark Portable power website.

i have attached a photo so you can see the difference between all the models.

if anyone has any questions please ask.

View attachment 297273

Regards

Brett from Ark

Brett,

So far as I can tell, for those of us who:

1. Already have a battery
2. Own a ArkPak

There would be no significant advantage to upgrading.

Would you agree?

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Freebird]

Brett-
I just zoomed through the tread - looks like a great product. New to me.
I didn't spot a discussion about hooking a second (naked-matching) battery through the Anderson connectors (directly) for a long weekend. That would be starting the weekend with both batts fully charged and only tapping power out of the combination?
How about if a solar panel was helping to keep things "up" (both batts) if the solar panel had an internal controller.?
If 2 APs were purchased and ganged together (directly), would that confuse the computerized controllers in the other various functions? I'm thinking it would during charging and float, and would need to be only fed power simultaneously (not output ganged parallel) but how about comments on that usage.
The reason I am interested in the extra power is my electricity hungry CPAP (sleep breathing assist) machine that I use nightly, on top of the regular/normal off grid demands we all have.
Thanks for a response....

 

[surly]

....
The reason I am interested in the extra power is my electricity hungry CPAP (sleep breathing assist) machine that I use nightly, on top of the regular/normal off grid demands we all have.

I think running two batteries or two Arks would be overkill and you may be better off with one Ark and one folding 100w panel like the Renogy available on Amazon. This is what we run and its worked great so far. What current does your CPAP draw?

http://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Watts-...TF8&qid=1439594584&sr=8-6&keywords=renogy+100

 

[surly]

I only looked a bit but it appears the average draw is 1.5ah so with a 100ah battery you should be fine for a weekend without the solar and have enough juice for a fridge.
That said I am not an engineer so please don't go an suffocate without some additional research

The Arkpak has been great for us with a fridge, misc device recharging topping off with solar when available.

 

[Freebird]

Regarding my CPAP:
Well, I live in, and mostly travel/stay/sleep in dry country, so I have to have an air humidifier attachment on my CPAP. Thhe humidifier is an electrical resistance water heater for a distilled water reservoir that the moving air passes through.
The 120v to 12v converter on my machine is to 6.67 amps DC, so the draw likely is close to that.
Figure 6-7 hrs nightly for 4 or so nights, that adds up. Also, not all days are bright and sunny, even in dry country, so solar can be fickle.

 

[surly]

We are in the northwest so sun is fickle here too.

It would be interesting to see what the actual draw is in a good nights sleep. 7ah is a lot but I'm just learning about the world of 12 volt.

 

[Brett From Ark]

Brett,

So far as I can tell, for those of us who:

1. Already have a battery
2. Own a ArkPak

There would be no significant advantage to upgrading.

Would you agree?

Thanks for the feedback!

HI Overland_Brandon

great question to ask, in terms of technology the AP730 is more advanced then the AP620 you are able to see the nett watts going into the battery when charging and also see the nett watts being taken out of the battery when its on a discharge cycle the AP730 also has the added advantage of being able to accept LiFeP04 batteries, also the charging via AC home charge and DC car charge has increased. and the DC to DC car charger is not included in the purchase price.

if you have any more questions please ask.

Regards

Brett from Ark

 

[Brett From Ark]

Brett-
I just zoomed through the tread - looks like a great product. New to me.
I didn't spot a discussion about hooking a second (naked-matching) battery through the Anderson connectors (directly) for a long weekend. That would be starting the weekend with both batts fully charged and only tapping power out of the combination?
How about if a solar panel was helping to keep things "up" (both batts) if the solar panel had an internal controller.?
If 2 APs were purchased and ganged together (directly), would that confuse the computerized controllers in the other various functions? I'm thinking it would during charging and float, and would need to be only fed power simultaneously (not output ganged parallel) but how about comments on that usage.
The reason I am interested in the extra power is my electricity hungry CPAP (sleep breathing assist) machine that I use nightly, on top of the regular/normal off grid demands we all have.
Thanks for a response....

Hi Freebird

the Ark Pak is designed to house and charge 1 battery at a time and in theory yes you can join 2 units together but we do not recommend this, the reason is the software is designed to read/monitor and maintain 1 battery, by adding a 2nd battery this will cause confusion to the software and you are correct you get incorrect readings during a charge and discharge cycle.

my advice to your individual circumstances would be to take the 2 batteries with you if you feel you need that extra power you discharge one battery down to say 20% mark, then take it out and put it on a solar charge (make sure the solar panels have a charge controller or voltage regulator to protect the battery) then while the low battery is charging up via solar you use the 2nd battery to power the Ark Pak and by the time that battery is low the first battery would have been charge via your solar panels, this way you rotate the batteries and you would extend there shelf life as well as you are getting a full separate discharge cycle from each battery not a single discharge from the batteries combined.

also as a side note the solar panels i would suggest be 120 watts or more.

Regards

Brett from Ark

 

[Brett From Ark]

I think running two batteries or two Arks would be overkill and you may be better off with one Ark and one folding 100w panel like the Renogy available on Amazon. This is what we run and its worked great so far. What current does your CPAP draw?

http://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Watts-...TF8&qid=1439594584&sr=8-6&keywords=renogy+100

Hi Surly

you have made a great point for Freebird to consider thank you for your feedback and input to his question.

its really great to see other forum members helping out where they can thank you for this help and support

Regards

Brett from Ark

 

[Brett From Ark]

Regarding my CPAP:
Well, I live in, and mostly travel/stay/sleep in dry country, so I have to have an air humidifier attachment on my CPAP. Thhe humidifier is an electrical resistance water heater for a distilled water reservoir that the moving air passes through.
The 120v to 12v converter on my machine is to 6.67 amps DC, so the draw likely is close to that.
Figure 6-7 hrs nightly for 4 or so nights, that adds up. Also, not all days are bright and sunny, even in dry country, so solar can be fickle.

Hi Freebird it really is great that you are aware of your CPAPs power consumption below is a formula to help you work out how many nights your CPAP would work off a 120 amp hour AGM battery.

120 amps take away 20% for safety factor leaves 96 amp hours for you to use, lets say your item draws 7 amps per hour and lets say you use it for 7 hours per night 96amps + 7 = 13.7 days use.

the above is based on you using the Ark Pak for only the CPAP if you used the Ark Pak to power other items such as a Gopro, contour Camera, laptop, Ipad Ipod or any other items this estimated run time will be reduced.

The best way to get a good understanding of how long the Ark Pak will last is total up the power consumption your items will used then you have a rough approx idea of the power consumption per hour you drain from the Ark Pak.

if you have any more questions please ask.

Regards

Brett from Ark

 

[Brett From Ark]

IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT ARKPAKS- AP730 AND AP715

Hi to all following this thread

i just wanted to advise we have some important product information related to the 2 new models that are coming out soon

the release date window is approx 28/08/2015 to the 04/09/2015 and at this stage its looking more like the the 28/08/2015 it may even be earlier it all depends on how the shipment tracks and hoping there are no delays.

also we have confirmation on pricing of both models it is listed below

AP730US WILL BE AN MSRP OF $ 449.00 USD

AP715US WILL BE AN MSRP OF $ 329.00

if anyone has anymore questions please ask.

Regards

Brett from Ark