BougeRV Lithium Battery Review - Self-Heating 100Ah LiFEPO4

[@LoveYourRV]

*Related Links* Other LYRV BougeRV Product Reviews - www.loveyourrv.com/?s=bougeRV LYRV LIthium Battery Review Videos - www.loveyourrv.com/tag/lithium/ BougeRV Website - shrsl.com/3xpix LYRV Boondocking Videos - www.loveyourrv.com/boondocking-related-post-archive/ Limited Time Amazon Special: 16% OFF on BougeRV LiFePO4 Battery Code: LoveyouRV16 link: amzn.to/3lKHyPw Start Date: 02/17/2023 7:00 AM PST End Date: 02/28/2023 11:59 PM PST

[@billdennis2993]

Thx Ray for informative video look forward to your long term testing.

[@KU9L]

I have a LIFEPO4 Lithium battery coming for our 48 L fridge/freezer that has been on backorder since December. I did not know there was a battery compartment until one day I discovered the battery door that is somewhat similar to the battery door on our Champion dual fuel generator. I am looking forward to the lithium battery so we do not have to pull the rolling fridge out of the truck every night when we stop for the night, it can run on the battery at night and recharge during the day when we are traveling. We do not have access to our kitchen without opening a slide so it is very nice to have the fridge/freezer with us for accessing when we have fuel stops, etc. Thanks Ray, Davey & Sheila Knapp

[@LoveYourRV]

Yes, the onboard battery is a nice feature. When I go get groceries and its a long drive I plug in the fridge/freezer to the truck 12V outlet but when stopped while shopping or running errands and the truck is off the on board lithium battery takes over and keeps cooling going. Nice to arrive back at the camper with cold food. Even helps the camper fridge because the food going in is nicely chilled. Cheers, Ray

[@KU9L]

@@LoveYourRV Ray, Even our 12-volt Furrion fridge in the RV appreciates that cold food, they use such a low power DC compressor that the ability to ramp downward is not much faster in the grand scheme of things. Sometimes it is worth turning the temp to max cooling as the manual says so it gets serious about cooling, but the colder the food the better the result, so my BougeRV is appreciated. Their support has been great, they sent a new handle when I broke the front springs & pins, plus they sent a video on the exact way to swap it out. Cheers, Davey

[@alphabetsoup7918]

Ray, nice video (as always) lots of information. An off topic question for you, Valtera black tank flexible flush wand you reviewed years back, does it work and do you still use it? Cheers.

[@LoveYourRV]

Yes, works pretty well. I use it a few times a year down the toilet to give the tank a deep clean out. The trailer has an OEM built-in tank flusher, but find the wand hits different areas of the black tank that the built-in misses. So together they do a good job. Also, cleans the toilet down pipe.

[@alphabetsoup7918]

@@LoveYourRV Thanks for such a quick response, I'll order now.

[@lawrencedavidson6195]

Nice battery with good features like the self heating. However i live in Jamaica so i don't need low temp. cutoff nor the self heating so when i upgrade to LiFePO4 it will be for cheaper batteries. Thanks for the video and greetings from Jamaica.

[@herb7877]

Very good review & a good choice for some batteries. I am amazed at all the competition on LiFePO4 batteries. 6-7 years ago Battle Born's were running $1500. I was running 2-6v gold cart batteries from Costco at $89 ea. I couldn't justify the cost difference regardless of the VooDoo math some were purposing. I felt like all new tek they would drop. Glad I did as I paid ~$400ea for some nice Chins with bluetooth but no heating element.

[@MattLesak]

Thanks Ray!

[@G_RAThbun]

Looks like a great battery

[@aguyandhiscomputer]

13:08 Sad they used a Philips screw head instead of a hex bolt head or whatever you'd call it.

[@WayneTheSeine]

Refurb makes sense given the pretty much standard is 10 years. Looks pretty nice though. I have been wanting some Battle Borns for my boat and RV but the price is so high. Maybe this would be an option for the boat, seeing I need to in series for 24V.

[@desertdog2282]

Reminds me of Dewalt color wise.

[@dirtroadsailing6418]

It looks like a really nice battery, but after watching you tear it down, I wonder if they sent one that has used cells in it? Also, how can you have a 4000 charge/discharge warranty in only 5 years, that seems improbable.

[@LoveYourRV]

More likely they would put in better cells for the reviewer battery rather than used. That may be what happened, swapped in some better cells, or was a refurb, who knows. Recreational users won't get anywhere close to 4000. But if still have good capacity at 5 year mark probably have some good cells that will keep going a long while. Lion Energy batteries have a limited lifetime warranty 3500 cycles based on 10 years if I remember right but cost an extra 200 bucks on average.

[@lennylivinglife9596]

Just like a car might have 100K mileage warranty but still last long beyond that.

[@JamesBrown-ux9ds]

'Don't like screws @13:11ff' - how about using lets say about 80A current out of this battery and shoot the temps of the screws after some minutes with my infrared remote thermometer? If the quality of the connections would be different, or one not too good at all, one would likely sense this that way?

[@LoveYourRV]

What I don't like is that the connection appeared to be changed since the original build and a couple screws had stripped heads. The original bus bars look like they were laser welded. Leads me to believe the cells have been swapped out by drilling out the laser welds and adding screws to reattach. Maybe a refurb of previous failed cells or better ones were installed for a review sample. Just guessing. Screws may work just fine but wanted to point that out. Cheers, Ray

[@JamesBrown-ux9ds]

@@LoveYourRV - well done 👍✨

[@stuartstuart866]

There are so many lithium battery choices these days. Looks like our state (Nevada) has lots of lithium mining possibilities, so hopefully prices will get even lower.

[@LoveYourRV]

So has California down at the Salton Sea, lots of lithium. :)

[@aguyandhiscomputer]

Sucks how a battery monitor won't see the power usage of the heating feature.

[@LoveYourRV]

Would be nice if the battery had an internal Bluetooth app like some other brands do that would be able to track individual cell voltages and come up with a capacity remaining estimate. I'm currently testing out 4 Lion Energy batteries, not on the market yet, that have Bluetooth and I can see each of their state of charge percentages.

[@aguyandhiscomputer]

@@LoveYourRV True. I know people like Renogy and others for the Bluetooth feature. Looking forward to when the $300 tier batteries have it.

[@campervanmark3410]

You get a F

[@aguyandhiscomputer]

You get a F

[@ideaguy4195]

No 100 amp hr lithium for 200 which is what I Can afford

[@LoveYourRV]

$200 barely gets a decent lead acid battery setup with the same amp hours. Remember you'll need about twice the amp hour rating in a lead acid battery as its not recommended to run a lead acid battery lower than about 50% charge. So you need to buy 2 deep cycle lead acid batteries to get similar capacity as the 100Ah lithium provides. A lithium should also last about 4 times longer. So in the long run a lithium would prove cheaper but upfront cost is higher.