Mixing lithium battery brands

[bhidalgo]

Would anyone know if you can mix battery brands for lithium batteries? I have two Renogy 100AH batteries and ordered another two a few weeks back. A week after they were due to be delivered I called Renogy this morning and they gave me some BULL about UPS shipping issues so I requested a refund. Now I have two lithium batteries that I want to add to but I don’t want to use Renogy again. Does anybody know if you can mix different lithium battery brands or do you have to stay with the same brand? Regardless of the brand I’m going to stay with 100 amp hour batteries. Thanks.

 

[starrfish]

I know I am having issues getting a delivery from etrailer. They have been pushing delivery back daily for 2 weeks now. They say the product is in stock.

 

[bhidalgo]

UPDATE:
Ordered an Enduro 200Ah battery and a Victron battery monitor/shunt via Amazon Prime Days this past week. I spoke to Enduro's tech support as well and it's night and day between them and Renogy. Just saying. I ordered the battery on Wednesday and received it via FedEx yesterday, 07/15. That sucker is big! Now, I'm in a holding pattern until my two new solar panels, cabling, and mounting hardware arrive. Also, have 4 new battery cables on order (which are in transit) and I have to go to Home Depot and buy two bus bars so I can hook all 3 batteries up. I hope to God all this stuff resolves the battery issues we have been having. All in all, have spent just north of $2K on this battery upgrade process...so far. Thanks to Alliance tech support for their advice on all this as well.

Also, Renogy is Alliance's go-to vendor for solar - at least on our rig. But they are hard to deal with (personal experiences on our part). They had been sitting on my refund for over 2 weeks for the two 100 Ah Li's I canceled with them. Called them Thursday morning, and after going round and round with them with more BS they relented and I received my refund Thursday afternoon. I don't particularly like trashing companies but Renogy's Customer Service is questionable from my experiences with them.

Anyhow, looking forward to putting the puzzle together next weekend and upping our battery game - if the weather will cooperate here in FL.

 

[Gord&Cindy]

I'm interested in your experience with mixing battery brands. We have a Go Power GP-LiFePO4-100 and when I made some inquiries I was told I would have to stick with this brand if I wanted to add another battery. I'm not sure what the issue is, I was going to add the new battery in parallel not series so I had the idea the brand wouldn't matter, not that I'm any kind of battery expert!
Anyway, let us know how it goes.

 

[Gord&Cindy]

How did it go with your new batteries?
I'm still interested in mixing battery brands and would really like to know if it worked for you.

Cheers

 

[Bozo]

I know I am having issues getting a delivery from etrailer. They have been pushing delivery back daily for 2 weeks now. They say the product is in stock.

E trailer is mediocre, at best. I quit using them because of their shipping. I kept getting damaged/defective items after prolonged wait times. I’m done with them. Other rv specific sites are better.

 

[Mazboy]

I'd connect with a couple of battery companies and ask them the question. here you are just getting someone's opinion on the issue.

 

[Oregon_Camper]

It isn't like buying gas as Chevron one day and Shell the next. Each mfg uses different BMS and cells in their battery. I would not mix them in my RV.

 

[bhidalgo]

I never mixed the two Renogy batteries with the Enduro. Although I am contemplating buying another Victron charge controller and hooking them up to that one separately, then hook the Victrons up in Parallel. Too many settings issues to content with to try and hook all the batteries up to a single charge controller. Besides, the Renogy batteries are 2 years older than the Enduro and likely would not do much good for me if the batteries were mixed. If that doesn't work I'll just use them at our property in TN for our RV site. Thanks for asking.

 

[Gord&Cindy]

OK, thanks for the info.
I have asked a couple of companies about mixing their batteries with other brands (in parallel) and have received the 'No way, don't do it buy all ours' reply. I've also heard of people doing it and it works, so I'm still a bit confused. The companies say that the BMSs are different in different batteries and therefore would not be compatible. The people who have made it work say if you match the amp hour and full charge voltage it will work. The worst thing that could happen, they say, is that one battery will not be fully charged.

I'm still searching for someone who has a good understanding of the BMS (or the differences between BMS) and can give a clear reason why the batteries should not be mixed.
Thanks again.