Fogstar Lithium Batteries

[terry111]

I'm looking to change my leisure batteries to Lithium I've contacted a few installers and some seem to be recommending Fogstar batteries. These seem to be much less expensive than some others. Does anyone have experience of Fogstar? Why are they so much cheaper? Advice would be appreciated.

 

[Fisherman]

I'm looking to change my leisure batteries to Lithium I've contacted a few installers and some seem to be recommending Fogstar batteries. These seem to be much less expensive than some others. Does anyone have experience of Fogstar? Why are they so much cheaper? Advice would be appreciated.

I would look at these from Alpha batteries, lithium batteries have come down in price. And you get a further 7.5% discount from Alpha on here.

https://www.alpha-batteries.co.uk/xplorer-polarmax-100ah-low-temperature-lithium-battery-with-bluetooth/

 

[mark61]

I'm looking to change my leisure batteries to Lithium I've contacted a few installers and some seem to be recommending Fogstar batteries. These seem to be much less expensive than some others. Does anyone have experience of Fogstar? Why are they so much cheaper? Advice would be appreciated.

Bought and fitted last October, all good so far. Went mad and got another 300ah because I had spare space, not fitted yet though.
Few others I know got their Fogstar batteries similar time and nothing bad to report yet.

 

[Nabsim]

I see Eco Worthy are doing a 280Ah now for a tad under £600

 

[alwaysared]

Everyone seems to like them, if you get one use the link in this post to support the forum

Fogstar community support

I am pleased to announce that if anyone buys a battery from Fogstar using the link below, they will make a 10% affiliate payment to the forum. In these difficult financial times, I am looking for many ways to increase funding without changing our membership fees. The great thing about this...

wildcamping.co.uk

Regards,
Del

 

[merl]

I see Eco Worthy are doing a 280Ah now for a tad under £600

They certainly seem to be coming down in price for sure Neil, obviously blue tooth and heating bump up the price but if you're happy with a 'no name' no bells and whistles then it's possible to now get a100Ah for £200 ie just £2/Ah.
Just took a look at the Fogstar site and they do a 608Ah monster for £1250, that's £2.07 / Ah from a big name with Bluetooth and heating, amazing drop in price I'm guessing since you purchased your lifepo4's?

 

[Fisherman]

They certainly seem to be coming down in price for sure Neil, obviously blue tooth and heating bump up the price but if you're happy with a 'no name' no bells and whistles then it's possible to now get a100Ah for £200 ie just £2/Ah.
Just took a look at the Fogstar site and they do a 608Ah monster for £1250, that's £2.07 / Ah from a big name with Bluetooth and heating, amazing drop in price I'm guessing since you purchased your lifepo4's?

It really begs the question why are manufacturers still putting out six figure sum vans with lead batteries.
And if you chose lithium when ordering you get well and truly ripped off.
Rapido were charging £1260 extra for a 90AH lithium battery, and if you wanted a second one well add another £1350
And their vans come with lithium compatible mains and B2B chargers.
Hence why I bought two Polarmax Explorer 100AH batteries from Alpha batteries instead.

 

[1807truckman]

Our vans got a Fogstar 300Ah battery no problems with it at all.

 

[merl]

It really begs the question why are manufacturers still putting out six figure sum vans with lead batteries.
And if you chose lithium when ordering you get well and truly ripped off.
Rapido were charging £1260 extra for a 90AH lithium battery, and if you wanted a second one well add another £1350
And their vans come with lithium compatible mains and B2B chargers.
Hence why I bought two Polarmax Explorer 100AH batteries from Alpha batteries instead.

There's your answer Bill, they fit lead as standard so 'A' they can save a hundred quid of the manufacturing costs, and 'B' then they charge a small fortune for an upgrade to lithium. Extras/upgrades/spare parts is the cream on the top. You and I will simply swap the batteries out but there are many who dont have the knowledge and (probably) have too much money who just cough up. After all I'm sure they feel 2 90Ah lithium batteries costing two and a half grand probably gets them extra bragging rights

 

[SimonM]

My new Hymer came with a lithium fitted along with 2 x AGM and I think to have an extra lithium was about £2k for 150ah.

 

[hamsterberg27]

I've got a fogstar 460ah no problems at all
Also fitted b2b charger
And got it all from offgrid power solutions
They also do 10% discount through another well known forum

 

[rugbyken]

i fitted a fogstar 460A last september and there has been a learning curve we have been in portugal and spain for the last 9 weeks and for the first couple of weeks went mad kettle toaster air fryer microwave etc basically living like at home using power without thought, ive now learnt to use what comes in the fogstar app is so user friendly i can see state of charge/discharge at a glance, a good day here will give 2 kilowatts of solar and charge at 20amps plus so a gain of over 70 amps when using kettle all day & running fridge freezer for 8 hrs is my standard this is 9.45 mildly cloudy day just had shower boiled two kettles hair dryer & toaster used already recovering regrets ? only wish i’d bought it earlier but then again was £200 cheaper the other day and possibly could have gone with the professional one with the 300bms but not needed that yet !

 

[Nabsim]

They certainly seem to be coming down in price for sure Neil, obviously blue tooth and heating bump up the price but if you're happy with a 'no name' no bells and whistles then it's possible to now get a100Ah for £200 ie just £2/Ah.
Just took a look at the Fogstar site and they do a 608Ah monster for £1250, that's £2.07 / Ah from a big name with Bluetooth and heating, amazing drop in price I'm guessing since you purchased your lifepo4's?

Definitely cheaper than when I got mine but I didn't pay anywhere near what they should have been so still ok.

'no name' is a funny thing, I remember seeing Eco Worthy for sale a good while before I saw Fogstar lol. The Eco Worthy are basic battery though, no heaters and no bluetooth but that the same as I have been using for years now. Depends if you need the other bits or not and how tight your budget is. For most it could be a bit risky with no heaters maybe

 

[exwindsurfer]

Definitely cheaper than when I got mine but I didn't pay anywhere near what they should have been so still ok.

'no name' is a funny thing, I remember seeing Eco Worthy for sale a good while before I saw Fogstar lol. The Eco Worthy are basic battery though, no heaters and no bluetooth but that the same as I have been using for years now. Depends if you need the other bits or not and how tight your budget is. For most it could be a bit risky with no heaters maybe

I've had my Relion 5 years now Neil with no heater and not been a prob .

 

[Nabsim]

It really begs the question why are manufacturers still putting out six figure sum vans with lead batteries.
And if you chose lithium when ordering you get well and truly ripped off.
Rapido were charging £1260 extra for a 90AH lithium battery, and if you wanted a second one well add another £1350
And their vans come with lithium compatible mains and B2B chargers.
Hence why I bought two Polarmax Explorer 100AH batteries from Alpha batteries instead.

It will depend on which make they use though Bill. We are talking here about the cheaper end of the market, take a look at Mastervolt prices lol, even Relion are still expensive

 

[terry111]

Thanks for all of the replies. It seems there's no reason not to go with Fogstar so that's what I'll do.

 

[Fisherman]

Definitely cheaper than when I got mine but I didn't pay anywhere near what they should have been so still ok.

'no name' is a funny thing, I remember seeing Eco Worthy for sale a good while before I saw Fogstar lol. The Eco Worthy are basic battery though, no heaters and no bluetooth but that the same as I have been using for years now. Depends if you need the other bits or not and how tight your budget is. For most it could be a bit risky with no heaters maybe

I reckon I BMS is essential, victron controllers avoid charging below 5c, but this can be removed if you have heaters.

It will depend on which make they use though Bill. We are talking here about the cheaper end of the market, take a look at Mastervolt prices lol, even Relion are still expensive

I reckon Alpha batteries would not sell anything unless they reckoned they were up to the job. I bought two Xplorer polarmax 100ah batteries with Bluetooth, and heaters. They come with a ten year guarantee and you can now get them for £360 each after the 7.5% discount. Lithium batteries are a game changer, double usable capacity and half the weight, they should be standard by now. As for those who say they are more expensive, well a good lead battery may get you 300 recycles, my lithium should give 5000.

 

[alwaysared]

Definitely cheaper than when I got mine but I didn't pay anywhere near what they should have been so still ok.

'no name' is a funny thing, I remember seeing Eco Worthy for sale a good while before I saw Fogstar lol. The Eco Worthy are basic battery though, no heaters and no bluetooth but that the same as I have been using for years now. Depends if you need the other bits or not and how tight your budget is. For most it could be a bit risky with no heaters maybe

Yes they may well be cheaper but you've had the benefits of lithium earlier than if you'd waited for the prices to fall I bought my first two just nearly 5 years ago not long after we went full time and I have the Relion RB100 ones and Phil got me a good price from Alpha and even fitted them for me at the Moffat meet. I dont know if we'd have been able to what we do with lead acid and they would have almost certainly have had to be changed by now the way we hammer them . The one big advantage for me, and it's often overlooked is how much more quickly they charge. They'll just keep sucking up whatever amps you throw at them. I have a decent solar setup and I can't remember the last time we paid for EHU

Regards,
Del

 

[Nabsim]

I reckon I BMS is essential, victron controllers avoid charging below 5c, but this can be removed if you have heaters.

I reckon Alpha batteries would not sell anything unless they reckoned they were up to the job. I bought two Xplorer polarmax 100ah batteries with Bluetooth, and heaters. They come with a ten year guarantee and you can now get them for £360 each after the 7.5% discount. Lithium batteries are a game changer, double usable capacity and half the weight, they should be standard by now. As for those who say they are more expensive, well a good lead battery may get you 300 recycles, my lithium should give 5000.

Sorry we have crossed wires, I mean the cost a motorhome manufacturer/dealer charges the circa £1200 a battery. That would be very cheap if it was a Mastervolt, about right if it was a Relion, expensive for a lot of others

 

[Nabsim]

Yes they may well be cheaper but you've had the benefits of lithium earlier than if you'd waited for the prices to fall I bpught my first two just over 4 years ago not long after we went full time and I have the Relion RB100 ones and Phil got me a good price from Alpha and even fitted them for me at the Moffat meet. I dont know if we'd have been able to what we do with lead acid and they would have almost certainly have had to be changed by now the way we hammer them . The one big advantage for me, and it's often overlooked is how much more quickly they charge. They'll just keep sucking up whatever amps you throw at them. I have a decent solar setup and I can't remember the last time we paid for EHU

Regards,
Del

I would have liked the RB100's when I got mine but they were out of my pocket capability lol I aim all in pocket now though as I killed a brand new set of Bosch Powerframe in 12 months before I bought the first lifepo4. I only had to do a year for each battery to break even at that rate so well up now lol. I am in the same situation as you though with recharging, I keep thinking of getting more capacity going in but it doesn't balance out really. Its only the bad months I would benefit and for me its cheaper to use penny every few days. Saying that if prices drop on a 100a charger who knows...