Hi all

So have been persuaded by good reason to upgrade to 48v system. 

Ideally I am looking for something that communicates with the inverter and is a reputable brand. I remember Hubble being quite talked about a year or two back. Their AM4 looks like a good option. 

Are there any other manufacturers or other brands worth looking at? 

Inverter choice will most likely be middle of the park Kodak, axpert or similar. 

Many thanks in advance 

Edited March 6, 20242 yr by sunset1

8 minutes ago, sunset1 said:

Hi all

So have been persuaded by good reason to upgrade to 48v system. 

Ideally I am looking for something that communicates with the inverter and is a reputable brand. I remember Hubble being quite talked about a year or two back. Their AM4 looks like a good option. 

Are there any other manufacturers or other brands worth looking at? 

Inverter choice will most likely be middle of the park Kodak, axpert or similar. 

Many thanks in advance 

I have had two brands of battery with the same inverter. The brand I currently have is Freedom Won, and I have only good things to say about that battery. It certainly laid to rest any ideas I had of batteries being batteries being batteries.

Before the FW the system was always a bit unreliable. The battery would shut down for no apparent reason, I got used to restarting the system in the mornings. And I thought that oh well, this is just how life is with solar - it's a bit flaky, all these different bits from different manufacturers don't work neatly together and you put up with the flakiness to get through load shedding.

Then the FW was installed and all that unreliability and unpredictability went away. 

Not the cheapest, but a good product. Locally made, so there is good support.

The SVolt 5kWh batteries are currently very good value for money.
@PsyCLown can probably give you his user experience for the time that he has had them.

https://electromannsa.co.za/shop-the-latest-affordable-gadgets-online/svolt-5-09kwh-48v-106ah-lithium-battery/

Edited March 6, 20242 yr by zsde

I would say go for the FW eTowers. 5kWh each, stackable and communicates with most inverters. I installed 2 back in 2020 and recently had a problem with a faulty cell on one of the batteries. I returned the battery to Herholdt's for RMA and they borrowed me an eTower while mine was in for repairs. That's service unspoken of these days. The eTowers currently sell for around R22k at Herholdt's..... Not sure what cells they use but they use a Pace BMS which is not the best out there but quite reliable. Good value for money IMO

 

What ever you decide, stay the F@@k away from cfe batteries

I bought a luxpower sna 5000 and 1 crap for ever battery. Battery did not even do one cycle and showed me the middle finger.

Returned to supplier and 3 months later eventually was told they are going to replace it. I gave them 2 options, my money back or a greenrich battery.

They opted for the latter.

I also contacted the importers and spoke to Owen for all of 3 minutes and half into that I could hear that he did not give a shit about coming to the party.

So much for the 10 year warranty.

Do not underestimate the importance of after sales support, I did get sorted, but 3 months waiting time = bullshit !!

I can recommend the Svolt batteries, I have 3 of them and they have been working well so far.

They also make use of the Pace BMS like the Freedom Won eTower, although Svolt make use of cells which they manufacture themselves - not sure which cells Freedom Won use in their eTowers. Freedom Won do seem to be of good quality but are not the cheapest, I recall the eTowers being their cheapest battery though.

I purchased my Svolt batteries from Snaga and would recommend the 51.2v (16 cell / 5.43kWh) batteries over the 48v (15 cell / 5.09kWh) batteries: https://www.snaga.co.za/product/svolt-51-2v-106ah-5-43kwh-lifepo4-battery-wall-mounted/

 

Another battery worth considering I feel is the BSL Batt, I saw a special on their pricing recently but I have yet to find a quality battery cheaper than Svolt.

 

I personally would not purchase a CFE, Nenergy, Hubble, Shoto, Pylontech or FiveStar battery. I have heard, but cannot confirm, that the Volta batteries still experience issues with charging after a couple of months even after the new firmware update - lots of people with Volta batteries so I guess we will hear in a few months time if the charging issue is still a real problem or not.

48 minutes ago, PsyCLown said:

I can recommend the Svolt batteries, I have 3 of them and they have been working well so far.

They also make use of the Pace BMS like the Freedom Won eTower, although Svolt make use of cells which they manufacture themselves - not sure which cells Freedom Won use in their eTowers. Freedom Won do seem to be of good quality but are not the cheapest, I recall the eTowers being their cheapest battery though.

I purchased my Svolt batteries from Snaga and would recommend the 51.2v (16 cell / 5.43kWh) batteries over the 48v (15 cell / 5.09kWh) batteries: https://www.snaga.co.za/product/svolt-51-2v-106ah-5-43kwh-lifepo4-battery-wall-mounted/

 

Another battery worth considering I feel is the BSL Batt, I saw a special on their pricing recently but I have yet to find a quality battery cheaper than Svolt.

 

I personally would not purchase a CFE, Nenergy, Hubble, Shoto, Pylontech or FiveStar battery. I have heard, but cannot confirm, that the Volta batteries still experience issues with charging after a couple of months even after the new firmware update - lots of people with Volta batteries so I guess we will hear in a few months time if the charging issue is still a real problem or not.

Thank you. I see they have a sale right now around 17k for the 16 cell. 

Bit of an ignorant question but why is the 16cell better than the 15? Would the higher voltage still. Work on a 48v inverter? 

16 minutes ago, sunset1 said:

Thank you. I see they have a sale right now around 17k for the 16 cell. 

Bit of an ignorant question but why is the 16cell better than the 15? Would the higher voltage still. Work on a 48v inverter? 

Yes, majority of 48v inverters will work fine with the 51.2v batteries.

 

Reason I would recommend the 16 cell batteries is because they are more common so finding another battery with 16 cells later on is more likely.

You can also add another 16 cell LiFePO4 battery in parallel if need be (maybe not with comms though).

 

There is also the slight increase in capacity, although this does not make much of a difference I feel but it does add up - especially with multiple batteries.

For example with my 3 batteries that is an additional 0.34kWh per battery and a total of 1.02kWh so it can help provide a little more usable capacity.