Redodo Miniature Deep-Cycle Battery Can 4x Your Energy Provide

The oldsters at Redodo, a battery producer, lately reached out to us as a result of they wished us to check their 12V 100Ah Mini LiFePO4 battery. After testing it and seeing the place it could match, I’m not solely going to advocate it to readers seeking to substitute a lead-acid deep-cycle battery, but additionally to anyone who wants to avoid wasting area and weight for his or her 12-volt power storage wants.

The Drawback This Battery Solves

Like most automotive and RV lovers, I’ve been utilizing 12-volt batteries for a very long time. Should you’ve ever had a automotive’s battery exit, you most likely know the wrestle. Should you’re the “choose issues up and put them down” form of one that spends loads of time on the gymnasium (significantly in the event you’re a man), it won’t look like an enormous wrestle to raise a battery out of a automotive’s engine bay, however in the event you’re a not-so-muscular girl, it’s a harder job to get that factor out and take it into AutoBone (Good —Ed.) or Sam’s Membership to check and/or substitute it.

This subject is a fair larger trouble in the event you’re working with deep-cycle batteries, such as you’d use for a trolling motor or an RV. They’ve acquired extra storage and you may deplete them to decrease ranges, however they’re even larger and heavier. Even worse are issues like golf carts, telecom batteries, and different huge hunks of lead that show you how to get some juice.

Worse, lead-acid deep cycles usually solely final a number of years at greatest. In vehicles, non-deep cycle batteries are inclined to final 2–5 years (and typically much less time), whereas an RV battery would possibly must be changed yearly or two because of disuse between tenting journeys and holidays. Plus, all of those batteries must be maintained and saved in a ventilated area to keep away from hydrogen fuel explosions and acid getting all over the place if issues go terribly incorrect.

As EV and cleantech lovers ought to know by now, battery expertise has improved rather a lot in any grownup lifetime. Heck, even since 2000, the scale, weight, and value of power storage have all dropped drastically, whereas sturdiness and ease of upkeep are all up. On high of what we’ve seen in EVs for the final decade or so, barely much less dense however much more sturdy LiFePO4 batteries (aka “LFP”) are additionally now on the scene.

Most firms providing a substitute for a deep-cycle battery use the benefits of newer battery expertise to supply us with extra power storage and longer lifespans, and within the case of LiFePO batteries, higher security. However, till I acquired this overview unit in, I hadn’t seen a producer attempt to give us better flexibility and smaller battery sizes.

Specs & Options

You may discover full specs and options on Redodo’s web site, so I’ll simply focus on among the highlights of what you’ll get in your $349 (as of this writing) in the event you order one.

The most important factor is that this smaller battery from Redodo, which is somewhat smaller than a six pack of power drinks, offers you 100 amp-hours of storage (1.2 kWh). This is identical power storage {that a} typical lead-acid deep-cycle battery offers you, but it surely’s solely round half the scale of an RV battery. That is fairly spectacular, particularly for the worth.

The 12V 100Ah Mini LiFePO4 battery can be fairly gentle, has a foldable and detachable carrying strap/deal with, and has detachable posts. This makes not just for flexibility, however simple portability, and rather a lot much less wrestle for individuals who aren’t gymnasium rats.

The final huge factor is that it likes working with others. You may hook as much as 4 batteries in parallel and in collection, for a most of 48 volts and 400 amp-hours (@48 volts), or a 20 kWh battery system. Not all customers will need to do that, however the choice is there if you wish to construct one thing actually cool, both at residence or on the street.

My Testing

I don’t at the moment have an RV helpful to check the battery with, so I made a decision to place the battery to a fair harder take a look at: hooking it as much as an influence inverter and pulling as much as 1000 watts from it. I had no downside drawing almost the complete 1,000 watts to energy a window air conditioner with it. So, clearly, it really works properly and gained’t allow you to down with deep-cycle wants (which normally aren’t as robust).

As a result of some yard work, I wasn’t capable of get nice pictures, however I had no downside utilizing it with a 60-watt folding photo voltaic panel and Renogy cost controller. Simply make sure to get a cost controller that’s suitable with LiFePO batteries if you wish to cost one (or extra) with solar energy. The person guide has full particulars on what settings to make use of with a suitable cost controller.

Vital word! The perfect half: Redodo is providing a reduction to CleanTechnica readers while you use the code [CT4] for 4% OFF!

How It Can Double or Quadruple Your Power Storage

Having labored with deep-cycle batteries in RVs, what immediately got here to thoughts for me was simply how a lot power storage you could possibly get away with right here. Not solely is the unit half the scale of a typical deep-cycle, however you possibly can safely run it down low as a substitute of getting to maintain it above 50% such as you would with a lead-acid battery.

Which means that simply one among these batteries can provide you twice as a lot usable storage as a lead-acid deep-cycle battery, however you may have room for 2 of those for each regular deep-cycle, so you possibly can quadruple your storage in the identical area and with much less weight. Many RV home battery banks use two or three deep-cycle batteries, and this Redodo Mini battery can serve in that capability simply as properly. You may put as much as 4 of them in parallel to get a 400 amp-hour system at 12 volts, and if you need to use 24 or 48 volts, you possibly can go for much more storage in the event you’re good about battery placement.

The Guide Makes It Straightforward

Lastly, one of many issues that I appreciated most in regards to the 12V 100Ah Mini LiFePO4 battery is that it comes with first rate documentation. In contrast to what you would possibly get at an enormous field retail retailer, they don’t assume you’re a battery professional while you purchase one among these. The guide offers you the entire particulars on charging, discharging, connecting, and establishing a bigger battery system. They assume you don’t know a lot, so anyone can work with these (assuming you’re taking cheap precautions with electrical energy).

Even higher, the guide and fast begin information are available a water resistant zipper pouch so that you could hold the guide helpful after set up in an RV or different harsh atmosphere. So, they actually did suppose this product by way of, from begin to end. Don’t overlook: Redodo is providing a reduction to CleanTechnica readers while you use the code [CT4] for 4% OFF!

Photos courtesy Jennifer Sensiba / CleanTechnica.

This text is sponsored by Redodo. A 12V 100Ah Mini LiFePO4 battery was supplied to the writer freed from cost for the needs of this overview.

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