Fogstar drift batteries

Mobilvetta

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I'm toying with the idea of putting a lithium battery into the motorhome, I have definitely have room for the 300 amp Fogstar drift, but the 460 amp looks better value for money per amp, but it would be a very tight squeeze and on on the specs it's say this
  • Nominal Capacity 460Ah
  • Nominal Voltage 12V
  • Recommended Charge Voltage 14.4V
  • Max Cont. Discharge 200A.

  • Yet on the 300 amp battery in the specs it states that the max Cont discharge is 250 amp which is higher than the 460amp one, could someone please explain what this means please.
  • I hoping to run my Renolgy 2000watt Inverter for charging our electric bikes, wife's hairdryer and a 900 watt microwave and a 900 watt air fryer, obviously not all at the same time. Would the 300 amp Fogstar drift and current inverter be sufficient .

  • I currently have 260 watt of solar going through a Victron MPPT. I'm also looking at the Victron Orion XS 50 amp DC to DC charger and the 30 amp Victron IP22 mains charger. I currently have two AGM 110amp batteries which I bought last year, which I would be swapping out for lithium. Thank you
 
Mobilvetta said:
It must have been a misprint that I came across, do you know though what it actually refers to for a tech numpty like me.
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They recently changed from 200 to a 250A BMS and I think some info is still quoting the old number.

It is the maximum discharge possible. For your setup and size of Inverter, 250A is fine.
 
May be a BMS upgrade so look a year as both will be new !

Overstaded or under performing ?
My 12v 30amp victron b2b never stayed above 25amps normally 22amps at smart shunt.
The victron stuff as changing is to low as i look at them. Evan £300 for inproved b2b 50amps is to low, as my multi charges upto 120 amp from 240v best about 90 amps
so i went solar to charge lipo as victron mppt 50/100 is now £150 with bluetooth or £100 without with discount codes so got both. running 520w summer. 780w over 3 tilting panels.. winter
My air fryer is 2000w but cuts in and out but still pulling 120amps.

The e co flow charger is 80amps from 12v
 
wildebus said:
You would. This is why until recently, it was often better to fit multiple smaller batteries rather than one large one. The manufacturers have now realised they need to have more capable BMS modules ...
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So that means my three Relion RB100 batteries with a 100amp draw each is 300amp draw in total (y)

So would two 230ah be better?

I see they have introduced an Eco Drift series, seems to have no heat pads, which I haven't got now or bluetooth which if you already have the Victron set up is no real hardship. Downside is the 6 year warranty instead of their normal 10 years. They will be available in August, 306ah for £499.00.

www.fogstar-drift.co.uk

Drift ECO 305Ah 12V Leisure Battery

The Fogstar Drift ECO is your gateway to reliable, budget-friendly off-grid power. With a superb 305Ah capacity and 3904Wh of usable energy, the Drift ECO is perfect for powering everything from leisure applications like camping and caravanning to professional use cases like solar energy storage.
www.fogstar-drift.co.uk www.fogstar-drift.co.uk

Regards,
Del
 
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alwaysared said:
So that means my three Relion RB100 batteries with a 100amp draw each is 300amp draw in total (y)

So would two 230ah be better?

I see they have introduced an Eco Drift series, seems to have no heat pads, which I haven't got now or bluetooth which if you already have the Victron set up is no real hardship. Downside is the 6 year warranty instead of their normal 10 years. They will be available in August, 306ah for £499.00.

www.fogstar-drift.co.uk

Drift ECO 305Ah 12V Leisure Battery

The Fogstar Drift ECO is your gateway to reliable, budget-friendly off-grid power. With a superb 305Ah capacity and 3904Wh of usable energy, the Drift ECO is perfect for powering everything from leisure applications like camping and caravanning to professional use cases like solar energy storage.
www.fogstar-drift.co.uk www.fogstar-drift.co.uk

Regards,
Del
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As long as the BMS can supply your maximum load (ideally with a bit of overhead) that is what matters.
Say someone has a 2500W inverter. That could be a load of upto 200A easily. Plus a bit extra of the overhead (the 3000W is the output). So maybe 220A is possible.
You than have your regular 12V habitation loads - lights, TV, etc, fan on heater, etc. say 10A?
You are upto 230Amps now. Close to the 250A BMS limit but not past it so fine.

If you have a compressor fridge, that draws around 5A when running - so still within the limit. However, when it starts, it could draw 10x that 5A easily.
230A + 50A for the fridge for a few seconds .. exceeding the 250A maximum and the battery cuts power to protect itself and all the lights go out!

So it IS important to consider the BMS max Amperage rating if you are a user of an inverter. If no inverter it is very unlikely you would ever exceed the limit.
Separate batteries allow better potential positioning of batteries depending on space layout.

As a slight aside, I was speaking to a battery supplier about lower cost Lithiums and there is a trend to introduce ones with a shorter warranty (such as that Eco drift) and the reason is usually serviceability. The most likely failure of a lithium battery is the BMS - especially with the cheap batteries. With the best new batteries, they can be easily replaced, but the cheaper ones tend to be in sealed cases where you end up having to destroy the case to access inside, so not cost effective to repair. The core cells are no different though.
 
I’ve just had the Fogstar Drift 460Ah for one week and it is working well, it’s in parallel with two old 95Ah Lead acid batteries (I did have 3 but took one out of the under seat space for the 460Ah)
One thing to note is that on the Fogstar FAQ page it says if you want another of their batteries it should be same size in parallel, unfortunately my battery box isn’t big enough for another 460Ah but hopefully I won’t need it !
 
Worth noting that the standard drift 230, 280 and 300 ah batteries are all the same size and only 1kg in weight between the 230 (25kg)and the 280/300 (both 26kg), so if cost isn't an issue you might as well go for the 300ah if the 230ah fits, that's what I did and now got loadsa power (y):D

Pete
 
Mobilvetta said:
I'm toying with the idea of putting a lithium battery into the motorhome, I have definitely have room for the 300 amp Fogstar drift, but the 460 amp looks better value for money per amp, but it would be a very tight squeeze and on on the specs it's say this
  • Nominal Capacity 460Ah
  • Nominal Voltage 12V
  • Recommended Charge Voltage 14.4V
  • Max Cont. Discharge 200A.

  • Yet on the 300 amp battery in the specs it states that the max Cont discharge is 250 amp which is higher than the 460amp one, could someone please explain what this means please.
  • I hoping to run my Renolgy 2000watt Inverter for charging our electric bikes, wife's hairdryer and a 900 watt microwave and a 900 watt air fryer, obviously not all at the same time. Would the 300 amp Fogstar drift and current inverter be sufficient .

  • I currently have 260 watt of solar going through a Victron MPPT. I'm also looking at the Victron Orion XS 50 amp DC to DC charger and the 30 amp Victron IP22 mains charger. I currently have two AGM 110amp batteries which I bought last year, which I would be swapping out for lithium. Thank you
Click to expand...
I've recently fitted a Fogstar drift 300ah after upgrading the charging system with the smart Victron solar controller, Orion 30A B2B charger and IP22 30A battery charger. I have 255w solar and a 1500w pure sine inverter which I might upgrade to a 2000w model. I'm very happy with the setup (though I would have chosen the 50A B2B charger had I read the reviews about the heat and amp throttling issues with the Orion). The inverter charges the 2 x 400w electric bike batteries at the same time without a problem, the missus uses a 1200w hairdryer and is happy at the expenditure for the whole system so she can carry out such an important task when not on ehu 😁. We use a 400w Remoska for cooking and have ordered a 850w raclette to try for grilling meat etc. Overall I'm very satisfied with the system and it's performed great in the UK
 
smb said:
I've recently fitted a Fogstar drift 300ah after upgrading the charging system with the smart Victron solar controller, Orion 30A B2B charger and IP22 30A battery charger. I have 255w solar and a 1500w pure sine inverter which I might upgrade to a 2000w model. I'm very happy with the setup (though I would have chosen the 50A B2B charger had I read the reviews about the heat and amp throttling issues with the Orion).
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If it is a new Orion-Tr Smart, then it should not have the het issues that the original Orion-Tr Smart did.
The Orion-XS (note: BOTH chargers are called "Orion") is certainly a better charger but of course it is also more expensive.

smb said:
The inverter charges the 2 x 400w electric bike batteries at the same time without a problem, the missus uses a 1200w hairdryer and is happy at the expenditure for the whole system so she can carry out such an important task when not on ehu 😁. We use a 400w Remoska for cooking and have ordered a 850w raclette to try for grilling meat etc. Overall I'm very satisfied with the system and it's performed great in the UK
Click to expand...
 
Theory :To calculate the amps being drawn divide a device's watts by the voltage.

Practice: To make things easy and to build in a margin for inverter use, when running from a battery divide a device's watts by 10.
Or to put it another way the max device a battery can power is the max amps it can provide multiplied by 10.
So if the battery can continually supply 200a it can run devices up to 200 x 10 watt = 2,000w = 2kw.
The size of the inverter is irrelevant (provided it is large enough), running a air fryer using a 2000w inverter draws the same current as using a 5000w inverter

Caution: Make sure the wiring between the battery and the inverter is sufficient for 200a
 
wildebus said:
If it is a new Orion-Tr Smart, then it should not have the het issues that the original Orion-Tr Smart did.
The Orion-XS (note: BOTH chargers are called "Orion") is certainly a better charger but of course it is also more expensive.
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How do you tell the difference between old and new ? I will be buying one soon.
 
Bouydog said:
How do you tell the difference between old and new ? I will be buying one soon.
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For the Orion-Tr Smart? If you are buying brand new, then it will 99.9% new stock as these are fast movers.

If you want to make 100% sure, have a look at this thread on a Victron site and specifically the "accepted post" - https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/46901/orion-dc-dc-overheating.html - which will give serial number info. The later chargers certainly do still pretty hot but perform to spec.
 
Yes it will be brand new, I have read that thread on the victron site and had I not known that many people have fitted and used these with no major problems it would have probably put me off.
Mine will be fitted in the external steel vented battery locker should help with cooling.
 
Bouydog said:
Yes it will be brand new, I have read that thread on the victron site and had I not known that many people have fitted and used these with no major problems it would have probably put me off.
Mine will be fitted in the external steel vented battery locker should help with cooling.
Click to expand...
It wouldn't hurt to have some forced cooling onto it. I run an Ablemail 60A B2B and that can get quite warm and throttle back as where I have fitted it has no airflow (so my bad!). I fitted a 12V fan on a couple of L Brackets that point at it to help get some forced air onto it.

FWIW, in my electrics locker I fitted this fan kit - https://amzn.to/3Ad4ONv - into the door. This makes a big difference to the locker temp I've found.
51m9v0wqgzL._AC_SL1000_.jpg
 
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