Long story short, he'd had one cell die of sudden short every year for 3 years, and was so pissed at the unreliability of his very expensive premium matched cells that he was considering changing his power system to locally available 48V fork lift batteries.
I believe I know the gentleman you speak of. I talk with him regularly. IMHO the man is an electronics genius and by nature a very through, rational, well educated and experienced in a wide range of industries and intelligent person as well as very helpful to others. Far as I'm concerned, if he can't make these things work then they are garbage and unfit for purpose. There is no way that he did anything but nurse the things with kid gloves and I know he was very disappointed with them. He is going to LA fork batteries and I doubt unless given to him he'd every consider Lithium anything again.
Did he maybe just have bad luck? Maybe but aside from all the other failures people have had, he's had a failed system and been left very out of pocket through no fault of his own. Why would a sensible person do the same thing again and expect a different outcome?
Too big a risk for me because I know I'm never lucky.
already some folks are very pleased with the reliability and lifespan of the very, very expensive BattleBorn 12V LFP batteries in marine applications (where size is a concern and cost is not so important.)
I have also read glowing reports of the battlebornes and some not so good ones. I think your statement of Cost not so Important is key here. The things are worth their weight in gold, or at least silver. As you say, in marine applications, justifiable perhaps but for stationary storage, I do not see the point. The cost of even 10 KWh of these things would probably by 30 or 50Kwh of LA.
I'm not even sure of the Benefits of Lipo in boats? Weight and size generally isn't an issue In larger craft over 30 Ft and smaller don't carry many batteries anyway. Generally LA batteries are changed out annually because of the vibration boats experience. I really can't see the Lipos being more reliable and generally larger craft have House and starting batteries that can be all paralleled for starting and have reserve on the start batteries anyway.
Even if they took the replacement out to 2 or 3 years, I can't see the Lithiums being cheaper nor work out what the advantage is.
When these vessels carry couple of ton of Fuel, another ton or more of water and weigh 16T plus all up, can't even see what saving 2-300Kg of batteries is going to achieve. If they only have 1-2 Batteries, again, the weight saving would be lucky to be a 1% weight saving over all.
I know Lithiums are all the rage in the Caravanning/ RV game but weight savings there make sense.
Lastly, I'll add that 3 or 5 W, 3.2V zeners do not provide a useful non-manual balancing system- for many reasons, such as connecting and disconnecting them manually is a farce,
Sounded like it to me as well simply because of the ability to forget the things while doing the balance and cook them this way. The rest sounded Hokum as well but I'm no electronics expert although it sounded suspect to me so I avoided going down that rabbit hole given the rest of the claims made I knew were complete and utter rubbish.
Likewise the absurd notion that only US made submarine lead acid batteries are good when I'm surrounded by off grid homes all reliably and affordably run on a variety of LA batteries.
I have no idea what a submarine battery is? I suspect it's nothing but a traction battery of a certain specification/ capacity. I would bet they are used in other applications like telecoms backup etc rather than being made exclusively for subs. In any case, no matter how good they are, where do I and Joe public get them? Not a lot of Submarine Supply stores round me as I think My Country only has half a dozen anyway so not going to be able to Nip down to " Sub supplies are Us" to grab a few.
That is a well acknowledged fact, and it's why cell voltage monitoring is built into LFP packs; typically charging is disconnected when any cell goes to max voltage, and discharging is disconnected when any cell goes low. This to required save the cell(s) from destruction.
No smart or Conscientious DIY pack builder I have read of does without a BMS. Pretty much like running an alternator in your car without a voltage regulator somewhere in the system.
Contrary to the claims made, lithiums are a LOT more sensitive to voltage and charging than LA and to run a Lipo pack without a BMS is merely a ticking time Bomb.
The LFP prismatic cells were then destroyed by excessive voltage. The cell balancing hardware was also destroyed by too high voltage. So a complete and total loss of well over $10K worth of new LFP batteries, all a cascade of destruction from a MPPT failure.
I have read of similar occurrences. poor quality BMS that crap out in short order and take everything else with it. Even the preferred brands are not fool proof. Another common one is not having the setting incorrect for the particular Chemistry. Some DO LA, lipo, Lif4 etc and all have different parameters. Incorrect setting May not kill them straight away but 6 Months can be enough to render valuable packs useless.
I'm hoping that the quality demands of automotive manufacturers will force rapid improvement in LFP quality and reliability, and the price of bargain B grade cells today will purchase reliable cells in the future.
This will happen eventually but I can't see it for a long time. The relevant thing for me is your next comment.....
I accept that I may still live out my life on lead acid batteries, and at what is now $17/month battery bank replacement cost, I won't lose sleep over that. I won't switch until it becomes clear that it's cheaper for me to do so.
I -MIGHT- have 20 years left in me. I'd like to think so but I also think I'm kidding myself a bit. That means that an LA pack is well within capability of seeing me out.... if they don't come round trying to drag me out my house against my will to administer " Medications" to save my life before hand. I don't see my electrical needs being much different in time to come and with days of reserve capacity anyhow and a well oversized solar system as well as WVO fuelled generators, what works for me now is still going to be workable in 10 to 20 (Ha!) years.
The only real requirement to me for longevity is Return on investment. As long as I get a decen't run out of something so it's amortised cost is reasonable, then what is the problem? You mentioned $17 month for your batteries. 50 Cents a day is cheap power in anyone's language. I have friends in the country that pay $1.56 SUPPLY charge then they pay for the power they use on top of that.
I don't need something to last 20 years or even 10. As long as the cost per day/ month works out as being reasonable, I'm not concerned if I have to spend a day every 3 years replacing something and getting new.
If one looks at something like those Tesla power walls, I have never seen a scenario in any country where the cost price can be recoupled in 10 years. See a lot of convoluted slight of hand accounting to say they can which is largely BS. The maths is real Simple.
They hold 13 KWH of energy useable. Multiply 13 by the cost of power per KWH in your area. Work out the value of that power over 10 years. This will assume you use that full 13 Kwh every day which will never happen but for arguments sake... Does the value of the power saved outweigh the cost of the battery? NO! Not even close. Won't work out over 15 years and then you have lost about 20% I think it is in battery degradation according to official ( and VERY optimistic IMO) figures which blows the ROI out further.
Compare that with an LA pack one may well get their ROI in 4 years and the numbers are very different and even if the things lasted 5 Years you are still ahead over lipo.
For me, the cost of the power I use from the grid would be almost $5K year. 2 years and I have my entire LA system paid off.
To me, THAT is a return on investment.
Anything that take 10+ years is a Justification for a toy or a hobby, not a financially sound or worthwhile decision.
LA is a financially sound decision for storage. Lithium is merely grandstanding or trying to show off at this point in time.