Dakota Lithium??

[ggray]

Anyone here using Dakota Lithium batteries?

Have they worked well?

I had not heard of them before, but I'll be needing new batteries soon so I'm reading up on Lithium.

[ixnax]

Originally Posted by ggray

Anyone here using Dakota Lithium batteries?

Have they worked well?

I had not heard of them before, but I'll be needing new batteries soon so I'm reading up on Lithium.

Got me. I have Mastervolt and all of the BMS gizmos etc. and it's awesome. But from what I read the cells inside are generic and the BMS systems aren't rocket science so, if I was replacing, I'd look hard at any other system that cost less.

[Wandering]

Originally Posted by ggray

Anyone here using Dakota Lithium batteries?



Have they worked well?



I had not heard of them before, but I'll be needing new batteries soon so I'm reading up on Lithium.

Will Prowse suggested they were nothing special, and why would you pay the extra price over cheaper batteries with the same features

[SV-Apres]

I believe Dakota Lithium was founded by Ryan Ellison from Ryan and Sophie Sailing (https://www.youtube.com/@RyanSophieSailing). They have some good info on their channel about their install and the product.

[CaptainRivet]

Originally Posted by SV-Apres

I believe Dakota Lithium was founded by Ryan Ellison from Ryan and Sophie Sailing (https://www.youtube.com/@RyanSophieSailing). They have some good info on their channel about their install and the product.

Correct.
And regarding will Prowse he is testing them for offgrid storage and not as house bank for boats.for him also LTO are not great but for a boat they are the ultimate safe battery perfect for use as hybrid starter and house banks.

Ryan clealy has a focus on boats. They have some good and special battery types like an hybrid and starter LI Battery too.
They really stand by there warranty which a lot do not. I would put them inline but as cheapest of the high class dropins like Victron, Mastervolt, Liontronics...

[Nicholson58]

We installed Blue Heron last year. Great service and help with programming changes of all old devices.

[SV_FlyingTigress]

I would not recommend them. Have about $12K in Dakota. Not a fan of their support. Ryan is totally non-responsive to my inquires .... multiple times. They are all front office but support is abysmal, so not worth the premium. As a Drop-in, the BMS doesn't communicate beyond the battery and makes it more difficult to orchestrate handling for BMS events at a system level. I would not buy them again. I do like the case size for the AH, but nah... hard pass if I were doing it again. General the batteries work fine. I like the Ryan/Sophie channel, batteries not so much.

[CaptainRivet]

Originally Posted by Stephen_MO

I would not recommend them. Have about $12K in Dakota. Not a fan of their support. Ryan is totally non-responsive to my inquires .... multiple times. They are all front office but support is abysmal. As a Drop-in, the BMS doesn't communicate beyond the battery and makes it more difficult to orchestrate handling for BMS events at a system level. I would not buy them again. I do like the case size for the AH.

Most drop ins BMS don't go.beyond batttery.
Jedi made a very good system install diagram how you run all around doesn’t matter of the battery.
I wouldn't get drop ins as their BMS is mostly low spec and ypu cannot access cells.
Most drop ins use:
Expensive ones like victron: Winston or Calb
Cheaper quality: grade a EVE
Cheap no name: EVE best grade B well matched, worst case just the crap noone wants with a 5$ BMS.

My advice DIY,
1) if don't wanna build box yourself there are plenty kits
out there.
2) top notch use winston cells, take the capacity you want and use the cell size accordingly and build a 1p 4S or 1p8S bank like 4x400AH or 700AH or 8x400AH.
3) high quality but budget use EVE 304AH cells from a well known supplier that offers matched cells the price about 180Euro per cell. Get as many as you need for your capacity
4) low budget: get grade B EVE to size that match upur capacity, right away plan in an active balancer to keep them in balance
5) coose a BMS to your liking:
budget i would choose electrodacus or müller jk BMS
Midclass: x2-BMS if you wanna keep lead or REC BMS
Top notch:TAO or Batrium, sure their are others

Another way: use jedi's reference diagramm with a BMV712 battery monitor:
Use cheap but good reviews like LI time drop ins in parallel. Well they have 100AH EVE cells in and a 10$ BMS but the refference install diagramm makes it save.

I prefer building bank myself so i know whats in. If uou have space i would use 304AH EVE cells as you get most capacity for your buck.
If you have a small boat or not much space i would use winston as hybrid bank starter+house and use all space i have. Put BMS at 3.0V LVC except of starter and you always have mire capacity left then with a seperate starter.
The LFP bank is so well monitored that you know every sec whats going on and a seperate starter is not needed anymore.

[SV_FlyingTigress]

Originally Posted by CaptainRivet

Most drop ins BMS don't go.beyond batttery

That is correct. It is a design consideration that I think is significant, combined with the price premium and support gaps.... I recommend a pass.

[CaptainRivet]

Originally Posted by Stephen_MO

I would not recommend them. Have about $12K in Dakota. Not a fan of their support. Ryan is totally non-responsive to my inquires .... multiple times. They are all front office but support is abysmal. As a Drop-in, the BMS doesn't communicate beyond the battery and makes it more difficult to orchestrate handling for BMS events at a system level. I would not buy them again. I do like the case size for the AH.

Most drop ins BMS don't go.beyond batttery.
Jedi made a very good system reference install diagram how you run all around doesn’t matter of the battery and its BMS
I wouldn't get drop ins as their BMS is mostly low spec and you cannot access cells.
Most drop ins use:
Expensive ones like victron: Winston or Calb
Cheaper quality: grade a EVE
Cheap no name: EVE best grade B well matched, worst case just the crap noone wants with a 5$ BMS.

My advice DIY,
1) if don't wanna build box yourself there are plenty kits
out there.
2) top notch use winston cells, take the capacity you want and use the cell size accordingly and build a 1p 4S or 1p8S bank like 4x400AH or 700AH or 8x400AH. Calbs are very good cells but i would always pay the little mark up for Winston instead.
3) high quality but budget use EVE 304AH cells from a well known supplier that offers matched cells the price about 180Euro per cell. Get as many as you need for your capacity. The 304AH cell have the much better terminals then the 280AH ones, always preffered. You also cannot strip them out anymore.
4) low budget: get grade B EVE,Lishen,Basen.... 272 or 280AH to size that match upur capacity, right away plan in an active balancer to keep them in balance
5) coose a BMS to your liking:
budget i would choose electrodacus or müller jk BMS
Midclass: x2-BMS if you wanna keep lead or REC BMS
Top notch:TAO or Batrium,
sure their are others but these are the ones you can find the most support in the community. Phil Tao is outstanding in support and his BMS was developped specifically for boats.

Another way: use jedi's reference diagramm with a BMV712 battery monitor:
Use cheap but good reviews like LI time drop ins in parallel. Well they have 100AH EVE cells in and a 10$ BMS but the refference install diagramm makes it save.

I prefer building bank myself so i know whats in. If you have space i would use 304AH EVE cells as you get most capacity for your buck.
If you have a small boat or not much space i would use winston as hybrid bank starter+house and use all space i have. Put BMS at 3.0V LVC except of engine starter and you always have more capacity left to start then with a seperate starter.
The LFP bank is so well monitored that you know every sec whats going on and a seperate starter is not needed anymore.

[CaptainRivet]

Originally Posted by Stephen_MO

That is correct. It is a design consideration that I think is significant, combined with the price premium and support gaps.... I recommend a pass.

Problem is in some countries like Australia its nearly impossible to get insurance with DIY batteries.
In this case i would use Jedi's refference diagram and LITime drop ins in the capacity you need.

[ggray]

Thanks to all of you!
I was already backing away from DL, so this reinforces my decision..

[donradcliffe]

I just bought a LiTime 100 ahr drop in when they were on sale. So far I am impressed. The HVC and LVC worked as advertised. I did a 19 hour load test and got 102 ahrs out of the battery. If I was in a colder region is would have sprung the extra money for lot temperature charging cutoff, but it never freezes here. The cost per useable ahr is less than AGM's, and the expected lifetime far exceeds them.

The battery is going in the Santa Cruz 27, where the only big load would be a trolling motor. If I was building a 400 amp hour bank I would put four o the 100 ahr dropin batteries in parallel because I could easily pull 400 amps out of the bank for microwaves, windlasses, and electric winches. Each BMS is rated at 100 amps continuous and 280 amps for up to 5 seconds.

[Letterkenny]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

I just bought a LiTime 100 ahr drop in when they were on sale. So far I am impressed. The HVC and LVC worked as advertised. I did a 19 hour load test and got 102 ahrs out of the battery. If I was in a colder region is would have sprung the extra money for lot temperature charging cutoff, but it never freezes here. The cost per useable ahr is less than AGM's, and the expected lifetime far exceeds them.

The battery is going in the Santa Cruz 27, where the only big load would be a trolling motor. If I was building a 400 amp hour bank I would put four o the 100 ahr dropin batteries in parallel because I could easily pull 400 amps out of the bank for microwaves, windlasses, and electric winches. Each BMS is rated at 100 amps continuous and 280 amps for up to 5 seconds.

I just bought 4 of the minis for like $900 in total for my planned install. Even if they aren’t the best, they are super cheap and provide some redundancy when using 4 of these versus a 400ah single one from them.

[CaptainRivet]

Originally Posted by Letterkenny

I just bought 4 of the minis for like $900 in total for my planned install. Even if they aren’t the best, they are super cheap and provide some redundancy when using 4 of these versus a 400ah single one from them.

Too many parallel LFP batteries are not always good. Thats again lead thinking...
Best would be get 2x200AH with the LI time, you still have the backup option but less imbalances as the 4 BMS influences and can fool each other. They have no leading master and slaves BMS, that you only get with valance batteries but they cost a liver...

With LFP (and drop ins in general) is best to have one battery with 4cells/12V or 8cells/24V. If not get their biggest capacity one and multiple of that so you get as less parallel as possible. They are much more reliable then LA. Thats the reason Winston offering 400, 700 and 1000AH cells...