Renogy Pro Smart LiFePO4 - Best Battery For an RV

[@tfeltmat2903]

Great to know the competition between manufacturers is heating up and we, the consumer, are the winners!

[@DIYOutdoorLife]

I love this comment. Spot on, when they compete, we are the winners!

[@ab_ab_c]

@@DIYOutdoorLife When they start selling that battery for 100 to 150 $, then it will be worth it, imo.

[@MK-cw4gw]

Another great video brother!! The new trailer looks great and it's great to see you getting some subscriber love! Keep up the great work! Mike - Watertown NY

[@DIYOutdoorLife]

Hey neighbor, Watertowns just a hop skip, and a jump away! Thank you for watching the channel!

[@brianbahner3300]

You are making great content. I followed your guide to install my battery cutoff. Keep doing what you do!

[@DIYOutdoorLife]

Thank you, I really appreciate that you're watching the channel and that its helping out!

[@jtoepke9763]

Thanks Brian for great information presented so I can understand it.

[@DIYOutdoorLife]

Thank you for watching, I really appreciate you tuning into the channel!

[@gregspeakman9337]

Great vid. Good info to keep in my back pocket when my current LifePo4 needs replacing.

[@DIYOutdoorLife]

Thank you for watching! It was great to see this come out right when I was looking for a battery for the new camper.

[@debraadrian7803]

Great video and I love the new camper

[@DIYOutdoorLife]

Thank you! The new campers been a lot of fun!

[@daveinohio9383]

Couldn't tell who was having more fun in the water, you or the puppy....thanks for the vid, always great stuff !

[@DIYOutdoorLife]

Haha... I may or may not have gotten in trouble by dropping batteries on the water next to the dog... 😂

[@adventuresofthememorymakers]

Very neat battery. You know there are us out there that are curious if we can shoot it like a CIGS panel and it will still work? Curious people want to know!

[@DIYOutdoorLife]

Hahaha.... if you pay for the recycling and hazardous material mediation, we can do it!

[@FieldWorxoverlandadventures]

I wish I had your intelligence with electricity, I don’t know why I just don’t understand it and I don’t fit in in modern society with all this new high tech stuff, I am extremely mechanical but I wish I could understand how to figure all this out, I really like your new camper super nice, unfortunately at the moment I’m stuck with my Bushwacker HD 10 which is highly modified and very capable for a rough off-road but maybe in a couple years I can upgrade to something like yours it’s awesome!!! thanks for another great video I’ll try to watch it at least 20 times maybe then I’ll understand ha ha👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@TiBiAstro]

get yourself used electric (battery powered) mower from the classifieds, and a voltmeter, doesn't matter if the mower works or not, tear it apart and mess with it, try to put it back together and make it work. if you're my mechanically inclined, that can be a really good starting point to get into induction and modern battery tech.

[@DIYOutdoorLife]

You'll get it in no time, it comes with practice! Once it clicks, the rest becomes second nature. I still love my Bushwhacker, I'm sure you're gonna have a lot of opportunities for some fun with that !

[@priscillaobriant9720]

I am completely with you! But at least this channel has given me a few moments of understanding!

[@thomasott9488]

I love your content brother, you are so helpful to the community, thankyou for all you do .. I use a Cpap , would use a fridge , TV, AC , heat and lights .. would 2 of these batteries be sufficient enough for all I would use , and please, what other equipment would u need to use the best and all abilities of this set up.. I see you use the light blue utilities to get best results.. sorry for my ignorance of the names or descriptions, I am new at this .. also , are you still very happy with your rig ? I am very interested in buying a similar one.. thanks bro

[@DIYOutdoorLife]

Thank you for watching, I absolutely love the new rig! You have some great questions here, but they're pretty difficult to answer over text. Two of these would be sufficient, but there's a lot that goes into it. Make sure you get a D.C. plug for your CPAP, fridge, and any other appliances you want to run. Running on DC will be far more efficient than 110vac Your heat, if you get a set up like mine, will run on propane and use the battery for the fans and igniter. This will be no problem with these batteries as well! The air conditioner is it own issue, and far too complicated to give you a good answer. I use the EcoFlow wave 2 that runs on battery and works great. How do you set it up makes a big difference. If you're using a rooftop air conditioner, or another large AC that runs on 110 V, it can get very complicated. The blue utilities that you're seeing a victron Charging components, they are the best of the best . I will link the wall charger and solar charger. What size solar charger, or how many you need (I have two) will depend on how much solar using. I will help you out the best I can, but we might want to go one step at a time . amzn.to/3yRNlK6 amzn.to/4e1HP6B

[@RM0818]

Oooh that's a nice battery right there

[@DIYOutdoorLife]

Yeah, it's a winner. if this was around a few years ago, it could've saved me a lot of headache.

[@robertl9065]

I run my RVs AC off 2 of those batteries with a Renogy 3000W inverter. For hours. Have 400W solar. Have had them for a while bc with no issues. I’ve run 3 CPAPs at night for days without using the generator. I think within 5-10 years every Rv will come with Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries.

[@DIYOutdoorLife]

That’s awesome to hear, thank you for sharing that with your comment. I agree with you, a properly designed lifepo4 system is gonna be the norm.

[@jeffmatthews3798]

Content producers get free stuff. Part of the marketing influence, it’s free advertising. I think the review is appropriate. If the product turns out to be substandard it hurts the channel. Good review.

[@DIYOutdoorLife]

I agree, but often times it comes with a sizable check. I'm still up in the air about accepting money for reviews. I guess it would be OK if you can say whatever you want.

[@davidelliott400]

Great video. I've been curious about this battery since it first came out. Isn't the BMS replaceable too? I can appreciate the Bluetooth part. It's hit or miss with my SOK battery initially. I can greatly appreciate the added capacity going from a 200 AH AGM to a 200 AH Lithium.

[@DIYOutdoorLife]

I have not been able to verify replacements from an SKU on their website- but I've had it open and you can definitely swap the BMS. SOK does that as well, I definitely like a serviceable battery, even if I don't use it

[@globedriver47]

The problem with RENOGY products is the lack of support worldwide, a faulty dc-home app and many devices that are designed incorrectly. The best example is the faulty 12V 100Ah bt batteries (faulty BMS), for which there is still no recall campaign, although the problem has been known for 3 years.🤔

[@DIYOutdoorLife]

Although my experience doesnt seem as rough as yours, I have never been a huge fan. I always crack up when someone says, "friends don't let friends buy Renogy". It's all mostly white label, so it's not like there's a renogy factory making these. As I said in the video a few weeks back on the 220w... all of a sudden Renogy is making really good stuff! Thanks for watching and commenting!

[@hjackson7563]

Do you have videos to calculate what you need if you have 2 freezer type fridges, an induction 2 burner cooktop, tankless water heater,a 1200 w microwave, an air fryer and heater/AC unit and electric kettle, mixer, lighting, 2 phones ans 2 computers? Several can be functioning at the same time too. I can't figure out how to work from the applianes level up to the system level.

[@DIYOutdoorLife]

Working from the loads, by tallying appliances and their duration is the proper way to do it. It’s how we determine the size of our battery bank, chargers and inverters. In your situation, you’ve basically listed every single device that we tell people to avoid off grid. Because batteries are so expensive, along with the gear to allow you to run some of the listed devices, we typically get as much on gas as possible. Although I have built several systems that run the appliances you mentioned, you’re looking at > $25,000 as a starting point. For folks moving into their camper, it can be a worthwhile investment. Going with a gas powered generator he’s going to be the easier and far cheaper option for others. Hope this helps, I’m happy to continue the conversation if you have more questions

[@twloughlin]

Where's the Like button?? I love this battery, but right now I need to do more camping to justify the cost. I can do fine with what I currently have.

[@DIYOutdoorLife]

That's the key! All of this should be tools that encourage us to get outdoors more, not just blowing our hard earned money.

[@carloswgrcg]

Well i divided 2,560/250 W = 10.24 hours not days, i have a 200AH lithium battery in parallel and the 250 Days it is impossible that is that is not in use for 10 days.

[@DIYOutdoorLife]

@@carloswgrcg 250 watt hours (not watts) per day is 10 days run time. With basic DC appliances, even with my fridge, 250 watt hours per day is my average consumption and a common number for folks that boondock with the basics.

[@lawdog516]

Hi Brian, I’m a newbie when it comes to this subject but I do have probably a stupid question. Why would you go this route instead of a totally self contained unit like a Bluetti (AC200) with the same battery capacity and watts?? Thanks Brother I love your videos

[@DIYOutdoorLife]

That's a great question, but in this case, the answer is easy- this battery has considerably more runtime and is half the price. It also has the internal heater which will out perform the bluetti in low temps. Using a power station to run the camper is a great idea, you'll see in future videos that I'm actually doing that in addition to this battery.

[@J4Julz]

Omg, rabbit hole, the possibilities are endless, and not just for camping! Oh and look! You can actually read the BT app display 😂

[@DIYOutdoorLife]

Hahaha... it is a rabbit hole indeed!

[@daniellopezd]

I still need to change the charge controller right? do you have any videos on how to convert to lithium for dummies?

[@DIYOutdoorLife]

I should make another video, I cover in this though Best Battery System for an RV - LiFePO4 vs Lead Acid kzbin.info/www/bejne/l6u5aap4jsR2l68

[@daniellopezd]

@@DIYOutdoorLife Im sorry, I meant the battery charger in my stock RV. I don't have a charge controller since I don't have solar yet. Looking to upgrade my interstate batteries that struggle with minimal usage during 2 nights of boondocking. I watched the video you linked but maybe I missed the part where you go over converting the battery charger to a Lithium compatible one.

[@DIYOutdoorLife]

@@daniellopezdI explain that you don’t have to. Just use what you have and supplement with the victron I show.

[@DIYOutdoorLife]

It’s easier and cheaper that way, works great

[@jeffroberts857]

Hi Brian this may be a dumb question but I think I saw elsewhere that solar panels could only be connected to this battery in parallel is that correct???? Is there an advantage or a drawback to that??? As opposed to in series. Or am I mistaken???

[@DIYOutdoorLife]

That’s not the case, there must’ve been some confusion. Your solar panels go to a charge controller that converts the voltage before sending to the battery. Same with this battery as any other. Although there’s some limitations on cheap charge controllers, there is no battery that has any restrictions on whether you use your solar in series or parallel. Hope this helps, thanks for the question!

[@jeffroberts857]

Hi again Brian not sure where else to ask this question of you. But have you seen the Epoch 460ah battery??? It looks insanely well made for the price. My question is do you think it would be way overkill on a Hiker 5x10 xl camper??? It’s not much bigger than the Renogy in size but a few more pounds (97lbs). What are your thoughts???

[@DIYOutdoorLife]

That’s a great battery! I have had my hands on epoch batteries before, just haven’t featured on the channel. I really think they are top-notch! Double check the specs, though, because 12v at 460 amp hours is considerably bigger than this battery.. like twice the size. Make sure you’re not not looking at a 48 or 24v battery.

[@jeffroberts857]

@@DIYOutdoorLife it’s a 12v I was thinking go with the biggest battery I could afford and see if the Hiker could handle it.

[@DIYOutdoorLife]

@@jeffroberts857 it’ll handle it, that’s a lot of runtime!

[@touringandtrails]

Nice torture test!

[@DIYOutdoorLife]

Thank you, pretty tough battery!

[@GarryStenner-wv3te]

I having trouble with mine

[@DIYOutdoorLife]

Be more specific, what’s going on?

[@TheCodgernaut]

I just looked up the specs, this battery will start heating with just 6A of external input which is way lower than the 15A my popular brand battery requires. I made a mistake with the purchase because my squaredrop is never gonna see that many amps of input from solar. I ended up buying a 20A AC charger to use with a generator if I get caught in the cold and need to wake the heaters...

[@DIYOutdoorLife]

I wish I spent more time talking about that, I had actually filmed it and edited it out. I thought it was gonna end up confusing a lot of people. you’re absolutely right, being able to activate the heater with less than 200 W of solar is a big deal, some of the batteries out there require a ton. Good idea with yours, it doesn’t take that long to warm it up, you could probably even power at a small power station to activate the heat while boondocking.

[@TheCodgernaut]

@@DIYOutdoorLife You should do a vid talking about self-heating batteries, I think the term is unintentionally misleading, many people including myself assuming the battery is drawing power from itself for the heaters. You are spot-on about using a power station to run the charger, any mid level unit would be able to handle a 20A charger easily. I have a Bluetti EB3A that I bought before I got the camper that unfortunately will not power the charger.

[@rvnut1133]

You said that you don’t get paid to promote products but they sent you the battery and you are offering a promo code from them. All for free?!

[@DIYOutdoorLife]

Yeah, I'm not very good at this I guess... lol Should I ask them for some money?

[@rvnut1133]

You should.

[@claycassin8437]

At this point, I will wait for the far lighter solid state batteries. It is only months away(one brand is already on the market). It will be worth the short wait for other manufacturers to jump in. LiFePO4 is now obsolete, as is Lithium Ion. Not a good time to invest.

[@DIYOutdoorLife]

this is an excellent point, I'm really glad you commented this. I'm with you on your sentiment, but I disagree with the arguments premise. What do you anticipate the true cost of ownership to be? How many years until the price settles? Do you think that you're gonna get 200 amp hours for $820 w heating and BT? Right now, the only advantage is weight, and this only weighs 50lbs. Price is going to matter. I'm very excited about solid state, but if you think lifepo will be obsolete for many years, youll be disappointed.

[@claycassin8437]

@@DIYOutdoorLife I just deleted my post defending my logic(and the price). You are pushing a product, and I am impeding. Sorry. Carry on.

[@CC_Marauder]

He's not pushing anything. He's simply providing his community with his opinion on an option ALL OF US RV'ers need to address at some point. #PersonalResponsibility

[@CC_Marauder]

#159👍🏻

[@DIYOutdoorLife]

🙏🏻 🙇‍♂️

[@neverwin2518]

10 days without having to plug in/solar seems like a LOT

[@DIYOutdoorLife]

Obviously it matters how much power you use, but it's impressive to get 10 days for this weight, size and price.. I couldn't be any happier