Poor Experience w/ Renogy Seeking Advice on Alternatives

[SkiWill]

So I bought a 100 Ah LiFEPO4 battery from Renogy in June along with a 20 amp Renogy Rover MPPT charger and 100 W suitcase solar panel. I immediately used it for all for a week in mid July with my new teardrop trailer and everything worked reasonably well as it should. Then I came home, disconnected the loads from the battery which was at 90%+ state of charge and periodically checked it for a couple of weeks before my next trip. Right before my next trip it went from over 95% state of charge to completely dead as in ~9 volts on a multimeter without being connected to any load when I checked it a couple of days later.

Then I went through the manual. The Rover and solar would not charge and the Rover controller gave an error that the battery was not present even though everything was wired up. The battery would not connect to the app via bluetooth. I charged for over 24 hours with a 1 Amp trickle charger for lithium battery chemistries per the Renogy manual to try to bring the battery back and it came up to about 10.4 volts on the multimeter and still no bluetooth connection. Another 24 hours of charging and voltage plateaued at 10.4. Called tech support at Renogy and they told me to charge with a 10 amp charger and they would open me a case and email me more information and a case number. I never received an email or any follow up from Renogy. Incidentally, when I received the battery from Renogy for the first time after a significant shipping delay, it read 10.4 volts and still connected to bluetooth, but it would charge at that point in time.

So, I used a second 10 amp charger set for lithium batteries for another 24 hours and voltage never made it past 10.6 and still no bluetooth connection. Charged for another 12+ hours and still only 10.6 volts and the charger was kicking back and forth between charge and maintain, so I was thinking I had a dead cell and 3 of 4 were charged and 1 was dead. It would not generate any current or run even a single LED light at this point in time either. Nothing.

Tried charging with the solar and Rover MPPT controller again and the controller gave me the same error: no battery present. Called Renogy again and they said that the battery was failing and to send it back and they'd sent out a new one. I sent the battery back, and they had it for 6 days and no word from them. I called them again today and they said the battery tested fine, connected via bluetooth to the app and if I wanted it back I'd have to pay for shipping. Needless to say, I was rather unimpressed. They transferred my call and put me on hold and no one was available to take my payment, but promised to call me back today, which, of course, never happened.

Clearly their customer support and service gets a 0 out of 10, and for that reason alone, I'm moving on to a new vendor for my next project regardless of how this shakes out. So, community, not sponsored YouTubers, who out there makes good lithium batteries, chargers, and has customer service that actually follows through? I've heard good things about Victron but has anyone ever had an issue with them and needed support? If so, how was it? Any other battery manufacturers to consider? Thank you.

 

[jonyjoe101]

I would keep fighting it, no lifepo4 will remain at 10.6 volts while charging. Either the bms is bad or some cells inside the battery are weak. If the battery is overcharged or overdischarged the bms will activate and keep the battery from operating and will read a low voltage like your battery but won't let you charge or discharge. To get the BMS to let you regain control of the battery there are certain methods to get it to allow it, you followed the directions from renogy and it didnt work. There is no way that you could damage the battery from overcharging or overdischarging, the bms prevents you from damaging it. If you drop the battery maybe it could be damage that way. I suspect it has a bad cell.

From your description the battery was already defected from the factory, no new lifepo4 will read 10.4 volts new out of the box. I build my own lifepo4 batteries for the past 4 years, the lowest voltage you will see on a 4s lifepo4 is about 12.8 volts, thats on an extremely low battery almost 0 percent SOC, No bms will let the battery get down to 10.4 volts (2.6 per cell , the min for lifepo4 cells is 2.5 volts) . Even when I drain my battery to zero percent where the bms disconnects it still reads about 12 volts with no load. If they shipped the battery at 10.4 volts, they have no quality control, a new battery out the box should read 13.1 volts, even when I dont use my lifepo4 for 6 months, it will still read 13.1 volts. 13.1 volts is the healthy voltage for lifepo4.

The company is always going to say there is nothing wrong with the battery, they don't want to pay to ship it to you or replace the battery. Even if they shipped you the same battery it won't last long before it does it again, I have absolutely no confidence the same battery if they ship it to you will work longterm unless they replaced parts to fix it. If they ship it back to you and it reads 10.4 volts then you know it is self discharging which is a sign of a bad cell. All it takes is one bad cell (out of about 80 cells) to give you problems, and its costly for the company to fix it. They will just ship it back to you and hope you don't keep calling them.

If they refuse to give you a good battery go on amazon reviews and write a review on how they treated you, all the companies read those reviews, they sent you a defected battery and wont fix it.
Where ever you bought it go and complain, keep complaining until they replace it. Just me reading this post will prevent me and many other people from buying a renogy battery because they don't stand behind a 1000 dollar battery or whatever you payed for it, you payed top dollar for the guarantee that it was a quality battery. 3 months is unacceptable for a costly battery that is suppose to last 10 years.

I'm cheap and build my own 220ah lifepo4, I know it inside and out, if it breaks I can fix it, but being a cheap battery there is no guarantee it won't fail and if it does I'm on my own. Even using cheap parts, the battery is still going strong 4 years later.
I think battleborn is the cadillac of lifepo4, they are reliable and you rarely hear people have problems with them, but they have a premium price on them. But I would get renogy to honor there gurantee and fix their battery.

 

[SkiWill]

I would keep fighting it, no lifepo4 will remain at 10.6 volts while charging. Either the bms is bad or some cells inside the battery are weak.

From your description the battery was already defected from the factory, no new lifepo4 will read 10.4 volts new out of the box.

I spoke with my credit card company and they said that the fact that Renogy charged me for the battery on June 4 and didn't ship it until June 14 when I inquired with Renogy about why it hadn't been shipped was a red flag for them as well. They said they'd dispute the initial purchase since Renogy has the battery and is claiming the battery is good to go but wants money to ship it back despite the fact it is clearly not and wasn't from day one. Sadly, I'm not alone on the Google Reviews.

I should have known when it arrived with a voltage in the 10.6 range that it should have gone immediately back to Renogy. Given that for lithium battery chemistry 12 volts is essentially completely discharged and that lithium batteries maintain voltage so much better through depth of discharge than lead based batteries, you're right. The battery was bad out of the box.

I'll call Battle Born and have a chat with them. They may be worth the price premium not to have to deal with this. This experience has caused issues and complications and time sucks that I don't have the time to deal with trying to take a family on remote trips. According to Google Reviews, I'm far from the only one. I'm a contract engineer in the electric power industry (ironic huh?) and we're having major issues with disingenuous battery vendors.

 

[4000lbsOfGoat]

My Battle Born batteries have given me no trouble at all. I have a pair of heated 100Ah that I used for nearly a year of full-time living. I have never had an issue with them so I've had no need for support but they were excellent pre-purchase with helping me figure out my needs.

I also use a Victron 100|30 MPPT solar controller. I've had no trouble with it and I can't recall ever coming across anyone who did have trouble with Victron.

If you're also looking for a higher quality panel, have a look at Zamp. Just like Battle Born, they are more expensive but they are better quality and built in the US (Bend, Oregon).

Cheers.

 

[Mashurst]

I've had an SOK for about three months... 100Ah heated for about $600. The external build quality is top-notch and all metal. So far, it is a win in my book. Time will tell if it holds up.
I do charge it with a 20A Renogy DC to DC, and I have not had any problems with that in over a year of hard use in the sometimes dusty bed of the truck. I may go with something nicer if this charger ever craps out.

 

[SkiWill]

Just to follow up, got a Battle Born battery and Victron smart shunt and charge controller.

I tested the Battle Born with all of my chargers including the Renogy charge controller, and guess what? They all worked and the battery charged just fine. That didn't stop Renogy from telling me my battery was fine and sending me an invoice for sending it back though. I asked how a battery that couldn't be charged by three confirmed good chargers that was delivered dead and lasted a few days before failing completely was "good" but didn't get a response. I took the Battle Born for its first trip and it was great. Customer service was reasonable as well and the battery was delivered inspected and at the state of charge suggested in the manual for long term storage. Consider me impressed.

I was watching a random Youtube video of someone setting up a DC-DC charger and lithium batteries. Their comment was it was fine to buy the inline fuse from Renogy because it's cheap, but to only buy from Amazon because Renogy customer service is the worst and if you have a problem with any Renogy product you're completely screwed. So, word is getting out which is good, but I really just wish they would run a competent business and save everyone the headache. I guess misery loves company, because it's nice to know it's not just me.

 

[Nailhead]

Boy, I hope my 200W suitcase never gives me any problems. I don't like what I've learned here about Renogy customer service.

 

[SkiWill]

Boy, I hope my 200W suitcase never gives me any problems. I don't like what I've learned here about Renogy customer service.

I have a Renogy 100 W suitcase and it has not been a problem for me, but I have no confidence in any remedy from Renogy if it had been defective. Generally speaking, if you've got a panel and it's lasted for a year, then it is likely to age and eventually be at the end of usable life from wear and tear and not catastrophic failure assuming it's not damaged from an accident or something.

 

[Nailhead]

I have a Renogy 100 W suitcase and it has not been a problem for me, but I have no confidence in any remedy from Renogy if it had been defective. Generally speaking, if you've got a panel and it's lasted for a year, then it is likely to age and eventually be at the end of usable life from wear and tear and not catastrophic failure assuming it's not damaged from an accident or something.

All good so far, but I haven't used it much. ?

 

[pluton]

I bought a Renogy 100W suitcase (w/ the cheapo PWM charge controller) from Amazon because it was ≈$25 cheaper than from Renogy. But Amazon's easy returns turned out to be useful; I returned 2 and kept the 3rd one. When I finally took it on an actual camping trip (as opposed to testing it in the driveway at home) it worked great. It more than completely replaced the power consumed by the Engel MT45.

 

[DirtWhiskey]

One of the reasons I went with SOK. Got two of the 100ah self heated Bluetooth ones. Build quality is very nice. BTW the best resource for this info is DIY Solar Forum. Lots of tips on waking up Bluetooth BMSs. Turns out they have a much higher quiescent draw than non BT BMS. Looks like you got it solved by going with Battle born but FWIW, I've heard that the best method to wake up a dead BT BMS is by hooking it directly to a lead acid battery or an older dumb charger for a bit. Basically, when BMS protection kicks in, it will show zero volts on the terminals. Most smart chargers will sense zero volts and think something is wrong and terminate charging.