Renogy Lithium Battery Died
In April 2022 I replaced 4-AGM OEM batteries on my 2017 Adventurer 37F with 2-200ah Renogy Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) batteries.
They both worked really well, and even though I don't dry camp all that often there were plenty of times we stopped for lunch and could microwave food without starting the generator. Before the LFP batteries we would always need to start the gen. Even with 400ah of AGMs you couldn't run the microwave on battery power.
Due to family health issues we've done very few RV trips since Jan 2022. So, most of the time the RV's been in storage. Beginning in June this year we could start making trips again so we went to a nearby favorite State Park for 4-days. I noticed that the two batteries seemed out of balance. They were wired in parallel, of course, and they should charge and discharge fairly equally.
In July I disconnected the batteries, because it was super difficult if not impossible to diagnose the issue with them combined. I quickly learned that one of the two was operating normally and the other was acting very oddly.
I posted on the Renogy Tech Support forum and they quickly opened a Support Ticket. But then everything seemed to stall out at that point. After a number of attempts to get a response from Renogy I filed a negative review at the BBB. Within a week I started getting support from Renogy. They had me test a few things and send them photos of the results. Finally, they sent me a pickup label from FedEx.
After 10-days or so they confirmed the battery was dead and said they'd refund my purchase since they no longer sold that exact model of LFP battery. Today, I received payment via PayPal for a full-refund.
It occurred to me that we seem to fixate on the cost of LFP batteries and pay little attention to the company selling them. Renogy seems to have a decent reputation, but during my 45-day Support process I encountered hundreds of other customers with problems but getting little support.
I still have the other Renogy 200ah battery and it's still working but I am removing it and buying a new LFP battery from a different company. Battery prices have fallen enough that my refund for one battery will just about pay for 400ah of LFP from a number of other suppliers.
I just thought I'd relate my experience here so others can benefit from my experience.
__________________
2017 Winnebago Adventurer 37F
2016 Lincoln MKX Toad
|