offshore Nife batteries? good or junk?

new2PV

Anyone have any opinions of this battery company, looks like its batteries are china, anyone ever use them?
http://www.beutilityfree.com/index.php/products/nickel-iron-batteries/ordering-information

inetdog

new2PV wrote: »

Anyone have any opinions of this battery company, looks like its batteries are china, anyone ever use them?
http://www.beutilityfree.com/index.php/products/nickel-iron-batteries/ordering-information

Search existing threads for lots and lots of information on Chinese made NiFe batteries, and comparisons to the original US made Edison batteries. Among other things.
Starting the discussion from scratch at this point seems to be a waste of time.

Member mike95490 in particular has several years of off grid experience with modern Chinese-made NiFe batteries and is approaching his self-set deadline to report on his overall experience.
A very brief summary of what I recall as some of the salient points:
You need to design to work with the wide voltage range of NiFe chemistry.
You need to add a lot of distilled water frequently.
Changing electrolyte because of carbonate poisoning can be a major undertaking for cells without drains.
They seem to be very resistant to load/charging abuse.
Their coulombetric efficiency is pretty poor, but if you have plenty of panel power available that is not necessarily a deal killer.

new2PV

Ok , thanks I will do more research.

BB.

Here is a very easy Google search:

site:forum.solar-electric.com Nife batteries

The "site:" tag limits the searches to the website you specify.

-Bill

mike95490

Member mike95490 in particular has several years of off grid experience with modern Chinese-made NiFe batteries and is approaching his self-set deadline to report on his overall experience.
A very brief summary of what I recall as some of the salient points:
You need to design to work with the wide voltage range of NiFe chemistry.
You need to add a lot of distilled water frequently.
Changing electrolyte because of carbonate poisoning can be a major undertaking for cells without drains.
They seem to be very resistant to load/charging abuse.
Their coulombetric efficiency is pretty poor, but if you have plenty of panel power available that is not necessarily a deal killer.

What he said.
I can't speak for the materials quality / durability, other than after 4 or 5 years, the pieces are still there and working. Will they go for 50 years ?
They are thirsty, poor charge efficiency. hard to damage from over or under charging. And in Nov, Dec, Jan, cloudy weather really had my panels socked in, and if I had FLA batteries, would have burned more fuel running the genset to get to absorb 1x a week.

inetdog

Also, FWIW, they have been selling large quantities of their batteries for use inside China for many years. The Chinese users can read the original manuals for care information, but the equivalent information is not necessarily passed along by US distributors.

new2PV

Sounds like a headache...I think I will pass.

inetdog

new2PV wrote: »

Sounds like a headache...I think I will pass.

One thing that is definitely required of NiFe users at this point is independent thinking, McGyver skills and the dedication to watch their batteries carefully.
Not the best choice for a newbie regardless of what the seller tells you.

mike95490

new2PV wrote: »

Sounds like a headache...I think I will pass.

Not as bad as a 6 month old, sulfated LA bank because it was cloudy and the inverter kept running.