This retails at $1199. Most stores have dropped it to $999 at the moment. Except for Snowys who are advertising this for $899. Cheapest I have ever seen it.
So here’s the deal, go to Anaconda (who as of today have a 20% off sale and are selling for $929) and request a price beat and they will sell it to you for $809. Absolute steal.
LiFePO4 is better. If you're going camping, you want operational stability.
40AH is decent. It will power camp lights and charge a laptop for a few days.
The PLB40 was designed specifically to power camp fridges. People are happy to pay thousands for a duel battery setup but ignore new technology that does the same job for better value.
I guarantee a dual battery setup costs less than this does & will provide around 120AH..
@Bunsen: Not really. I just did one. $899 barely covers the cost of wiring and a battery charger. Won't cover the cost of the battery for sure.
Different set up entirely. You can use this without making any modifications to your vehicle. Plug and play.
That's where I'll disagree with their use case (personal opinion).
If I'm carrying a camp fridge, I'll be close to my 4x4. My 4x4 has a bigger battery.
If I'm going to be far from my vehicle, I won't want to carry my fridge.
@[Deactivated]: I found that a 130Ah battery box with a CTEK DC-DC charger mounted to the box to be the best compromise. The battery box is mounted to a battery tray in my tub. You can easily remove it and leave it at camp.
If I'm going to 4WD during the day, and the family want to stay in camp I can leave the fridge at camp - powered by the battery box, and charged by the solar panels.
@doze: Now you're talking.. Any sensible camper would utilise Solar energy…
Most 4WD'ers should be capable of a little DIY…
@doze: Same setup as mine. I can switch the battery between vehicles - works a treat and whole setup including 130ah agm battery and the wiring of both cars cost less than asking price of this.
@doze: I hope your 130ah battery isn't AGM. I would hate to lug that 40ish kg battery on and off my vehicle let alone walk it to camp.
I haven't had a need for an off vehicle battery but if I do, I think I'll do a 25AH LiFePO4 to solar. I could tuck that set up into a Woolies bag.
If U go camping by yourself, sure.. With a family, I very much doubt it will hold up for long, won't run a fridge or anything of the sort that uses a fair amount of current.. Also remember, the rated capacity is 40amps, so really only around 30amps usable..
Traditional lead acid deep cycles only like being discharged to around 50% and even that's lowering their expected lifetime. 70% is your normal depth of discharge to get a decent life out of a deep cycle.
LIfePo4 is able to be discharged 100% without any negative effects. This 40Ah would be the equivalent of a 100Ah lead acid deep cycle that's in traditional dual battery setups.
You'll power a 60l (average size portable fridge for a family) for about three days if used wisely… Ie. Minimal opening and closing, pre cooled contents and pre cooled fridge.
LiFePo4 is a lithium battery. There are many different lithium technologies.
But yes, I do agree that it's pretty pricey for a battery with what's likely just a buck converter.
Also interesting that it doesn't have a 12V Anderson output plug. Probably because it only supplies quite a low current. I would have thought that you could draw maybe four times as much current. Maybe because there's no cooling.
Not sure why you would want an Anderson plug for a portable battery. Not much camping equipment would warrant Anderson input. Really all you need power for is a fridge and some lights.
Because Andersen plugs are far more robust and don't come apart easily.
@Gusper: Most fridges 12v input cable are cigarette socket style. Or two pin. Not many would be able to be plugged into an Anderson.
@Ydaddyk: Anderson is the gold standard for 4WD electrical connections. Ciga connections only exist because they're cheap and pretty much used to be the only power outlets in vehicles. Hence they became a quasi, if poor, standard. If you look at many modern lithium setups you'll find that Anderson is a standard offering, which is a good thing.
@[Deactivated]: Not doubting that, just saying fridges don’t come with an Anderson cable. Dometic have a two pin connector that goes straight into this battery. It ain’t coming out easily.
The product page appears to show an Anderson socket - it mentions for charging, but surely that could also be used for output?
https://www.dometic.com/en-us/us/products/power-and-control/…
Not true. I ran a fridge, 3 phones, LED lighting and speaker setup for 2.5 days and still had 30% power left…
Yeh look into it. Lithium Ion Phosphate is what you want. Will maintain 12v all the down to 0 percent. So it’s basically equivalent to an 80 amp hour agm battery. And it will cycle about 5 times as much. Long story short, this is much better value then your traditional setup.
It still is priced about the same as 5 decent 80Ah AGM batteries. Comes down to whether you care about the weight and how often you use it. If you basically live on the road it will pay for itself. If you go camping only 4 weeks a year, you won't make back the price difference.
Not sure you’ll get a very good 80ah agm for $160. Anyway don’t forget to take into account that this has an inbuilt dc-dc charger. They are around $300 alone. Let alone the wiring and setup fees for a duel battery setup. Then look at the fact that the PLB40 has a life cycle of 5 times an agm. You are winning no matter what.
And if you only go camping 4 times a year - then I suggest buying an icebox and using ice…. Much, much cheaper and just as effective.
4 weeks a year. In one go. Quite often with more than a week between stops in places that sell ice. Plus, no way to keep ice cream in an esky with ice ;-)
Makes sense for me to have a dual battery setup, but I'd expect my AGM deep cycle battery will last somewhere between 5 and 10 years.
I went for 120Ah, got it for $225 off eBay in 2018. Actually paid a lot less after 15% sitewide and with discounted gift cards. And yes, I weeded out the frauds it's a real 120Ah.
@team teri: $225 is just for the battery. Do you mind sharing the cost of the entire dual battery setup so we can compare?
Eg: Wiring, installation costs, battery box (or battery run install in engine bay), charger, battery monitor and 3 stage protection.
How much are you out of pocket ?
@Ydaddyk: Less than $400 all up, installed it myself.
Looking at the Dometic: you'd still need pretty much the same installation if you want it hard-wired to your alternator instead of plugging it into the lighter socket.
Also just checked, they state: up to 2000 cycles @80% discharge. So instead of 40Ah you're actually only looking at a usable 32Ah capacity. I wouldn't be able to run my fridge/freezer in freezer mode from that.
My 120Ah battery is rated at 700 cycles to 50% discharge. Means I can use 60Ah, enough for running a freezer. Even if I use it 2 months in a row each year that would be enough to see me through 10 years. Quite likely the battery will fail before that due to old age - as will the Dometic. I'm surprised by their minuscule 1 year warranty, my AGM has 2 years…
Different horses for different courses. If 32Ah is all you need and you value convenience and light weight, sure go for it. Just not as a bargain solution.
@team teri: To be fair you can discharge it to zero percent and take advantage of the full 40 amp hours. It may reduce the life cycle to around 1600 but it’s over 3 times your agm and many more multiples if you tried to discharge your agm to zero percent.
40 amp hours will run a freezer for over 24 hours. I’m not sure why you think that an amp hour from this battery is any different to the amp hour from yours?
And you wouldn’t hard wire this. That’s the whole point of it!
As for the warranty, you are completely wrong. It’s a 2 year warranty. Plus consumer protection covers much more than that. Plus if you buy on a credit card you get an extra year extended warranty. Not an issue at all.
@Ydaddyk: Snowy's website says 1 year. But I take your word for it that it's 2.
Still, how often do you use it? How many years would that cycle life convert to for you? Do you really believe it won't develop another fault before then?
The point I'm trying to make: with non-retiree use (i.e. around 2 months a year, not 365 days a year) we won't notice much difference in how often we need to replace batteries.
@team teri: Very true it is unlikely to need to be replaced for quite a long time. Dometic definitely offer two years warranty on this. Not sure why snowys are saying 1. But we have consumer protection rights which would cover this product for more than 2 years. Maybe not the battery itself, but the the inbuilt components and casing would be covered. I have been looking at 100ah agm with a battery box and ctek charger as people have been saying that’s their cheaper setup. I can’t see how they are getting all this under $800. Also just on the radio here there was an advertisement for a duel battery setup installed for $1300.
I just think there may be some dishonesty where people are suggesting this is an expensive way to power your fridge. It is theoretically cheaper.
@Ydaddyk: By the way all my opinions in this thread are based on the fact this you can get this for 33% off right now. It is probably not financially wise at $1199 RRP but I have posted it here because $809 is a comparative bargain and falls within my range of being financially better than stuffing around with a duel battery setup.
Nope, can't keep things at negative 10 without dry I've which is a pain to get hold of.
It will also go through more discharge cycles than 5x AGM batteries… Assuming all other components survive which I have my reservations about.
Might want to re check your maths there.
An 80amp hour agm can only discharge to 50%. So an agm will have the same amount of cycles as the PLB40. Yet the PLB40 will cycle 5 times as much. You will burn through your 5 agm batteries at the same time someone would burn though this.
You'll find most reputable LiPo4 suppliers will advise not to take the battery below about 18%, so not actually the equivalent of an AGM rated at double the Ah.
You will find most reputable companies over engineer the BMS to allow you to discharge to 0% without effecting life cycle. (Essentially leaving around 20% in unavailable storage).
Long story short, you buy a 40ah battery you can use 40ah.
You can, but I haven't come across any life cycle specs which don't show a significant reduction in expected battery life as DoD increases.
eg
Victron 12,8 & 25,6 Volt Lithium-Iron-Phosphate Batteries
CYCLE LIFE (capacity ≥ 80% of nominal)
80% DoD 2500 cycles
70% DoD 3000 cycles
50% DoD 5000 cycles
@[Deactivated]: Still well outperforms an AGM by four times at 80%. So let’s say you only use 32 amp hours of the PLB40 so that you can keep a life cycle of 2000. That would be like using a 60 amp hour agm that you shouldn’t drop below 50%. A cheap 60 ah agm battery costs $120 which will be lucky to have 500 life cycles. Times that by four and you need to spend $480 to get the same 2000 life cycles of the PLB40. Plus you need to spend $300 on a dc-dc charger and potentially a couple of hundred more on a battery box. Let alone the weight and wiring issues. PLB40 pays for itself (at this discounted $800 price) and is much more compact and portable. People just don’t want to pay the initial high price but don’t realise they spend more money on their dual battery setup over time.
@Ydaddyk: Yes but when a deep cycle is done you replace the battery, you don't throw away the whole setup. That's expensive and wasteful.
@[Deactivated]: Not suggesting you do, but take the setup cost with 4 agm batteries and you have likely spent more money and taken up a lot more space and weight
@Ydaddyk: There's a place for many different systems and no doubt lithium is at the top of the tree, esp for portables.
Enerdrive (one of the best in the business) advise no lower than 18%, so probably depends on the manufacturer.
@RangaWal: Enerdrive use lithium ion. The PLB40 is the first to move to lithium ion phosphate. It is more stable and will maintain 12v all the way to 0 percent.
@RangaWal: It weights 12kg, costs $1500 and is just a battery with a BMS. No inbuilt charger and no additional output besides the same positive and negative terminals you find on a car battery. I’m sure these are great for installing in your boat but we are talking about a completely different type of product here. The PLB40 is a compact, lightweight, portable, fully integrated system designed for running your car fridge and other camping gear.
Plug and play with nothing else to think about.
Enerdrive are marketing a different audience.
@Ydaddyk: Agreed, link was just to show that they're LiFEPo4. IMHO, unless space and weight are a concern, an AGM can still be a economically viable alternative.
@RangaWal: Perhaps. Although when I was looking into a traditional duel battery setup with the second battery in the engine bay and an Anderson plug in the boot, the auto electrician quoted $700 just for that. This is without buying the battery itself or the charger and any other monitoring system you wanted. I found the traditional system way more cost prohibitive. Maybe if you put an agm battery in the boot inside a battery box and connected your dc -dc charger to the 12v outlet you may save a small amount but it won’t be much at all.
One of the most popular agm battery boxes is Thumper. Their standard 60AH system has an RRP of $729. That’s a lot for essentially 30AH at 19kg with a <500 cycle life.
And this is the discontinued model. The new ones are much more.
I honestly can’t see how people have convinced themselves that an agm setup is cheaper in the long run.
@RangaWal: It doesn’t hurt the battery but you may have to think about life cycles. Same as your phone, which a lot of people discharge to 0%.
@Ydaddyk: Discharging any battery to empty or near empty affects the chemistry, and therefore the battery life. LiFePO4 significantly less than others. The extent of that "hurt" is what DoD cycle estimates are about.
@[Deactivated]: That’s what I said? It will just affect life life cycles. But you can maintain 12v output all the way to zero percent. Do this once on an agm battery and it’s game over.
Smaller and lighter too.
good to put in the back of an suv to run the parking mode dash cam for days to catch whoever wants to steal this very expensive battery.
Picked up this 44AH AGM a few years back, $299 ATM. Easily powers my fridge / Lights / Tablet over a long weekend. Has passthrough charging from the car's power socket, so basically portable dual battery system. Only problem is, it needs trickle charging at home, still I'm sure it hasn't used $600 in power yet…
Not bad. Only issue is that you can only discharge it to 50% if you value its life. So it is similar to a 22amp hour lithium.
I have run it down many times, mind you the fridge has a cut off (10.8V from memory). It's still going fine; discussing with the Mrs now, we think it's 5 years old. Hasn't been used this year sadly :( It worked fine last October on a Melbourne to Noosa road trip. There weren't too many 22amp hour lithiums around when I bought it…
Personally I'd rather go one of these (although maybe in a higher capacity) https://outbax.com.au/hyundai-300w-power-station-ac-dc-batte…
Yes it's a bit bigger, but you've got a lot more functionality including 240V output and lots more options for charging it up and keeping it charged (plug into mains at home or at a caravan park, then keep it hooked up to a portable solar panel setup while camping).
But it’s basically the same price but only 25ah? The PLB40 can also be charged by mains, 12v outlet and solar input. It is also capable of AC output via an inverter.
More importantly, considering they are the same price, the Hyundai uses Lithium Ion where as the PLB40 is using Lithium Ion Phosphate. (LiFePO4)
You will typically see two types of batteries on the market when shopping for lithium. … LiFePO4 Pros VS Lithium Ion: LiFePO4 offer 4-5x the number of charge cycles than Lithium Ion, wider operating temperatures range, safer, 12.8 actual voltage vs 11.1 and constant voltage during discharge cycle.
If 25 AH is all you're looking for and are interested in 240v power, I'd have a look at
https://itechworld.com.au/collections/lithium-batteries/prod…
They are actually doing a 10% off sale right now: XMAS20
Keep in mind that is lithium ion. It can be unstable if not treated correctly. Also will only have 500 life cycles.
I'm the proud owner of one of these - coincidentally I bought it the last time snowys were selling it for $899, and got Anoconda to price beat so got the same price.
I've done a lot of testing and studying of the unit.
I did a test under controlled, best case, air conditioned conditions, with the esky full of beer, inside, not being opened too much, and about 15 degrees ambient temperature. This thing powered my 2020 Engel 45MT for 80 hours. Test results here - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vTZzUR7W3uvz…
For camping in winter (0-10 degrees ambient) i reckon it will last closer to 100 hours.
These are an excellent alternative to a dual battery system in a car, and are much more portable. We put the Engel in our forester, put the battery on the floor in front of the rear baby seat passenger, and power/charge it over 12V. Much like a dual battery system, the fridge stays in the car boot when we are camping and we dont have to lug it out. For shorter trips, even to powered sites, we still run the fridge of battery due to convenience of not having to move it.
Here is the key point. It is a 40aH battery, and it charges in your car at 8aH. By definition, for every hour of driving that you do, you will top it up 20%. If it's fully charged when you arrive at your site, and you do even a little bit of driving and sightseeing, you keep topping it up. Due to the typical driving/sightseeing that we do when camping, on a typical weekend away in winter/spring/autumn, this thing is usually still on more than 80% battery when we pack up and go home. I expect this to be lower in the Summer but I think for a typical weekend with a little bit of driving it is going to be oodles of power to keep the fridge going. If you don't do any driving at all, it will still be enough for a 3 day weekend.
The forester isn't huge either so every litre of storage space matters when we are packing. Lithium batteries such as this one are something like half the size and weight of your typical "thumper" box, which is also a huge advantage.
It has 2x 2A USB2 ports, 1x12V "cigarette lighter socket" output, and also 1x12V "Engel" socket. We use the "Engel" socket to power the Engel, and we plug a USB-C PD car charger into the "cigarette lighter socket" for fast charging of phones and laptops over USB-C.
Awesome review. Unfortunately the masses are yet to appreciate this new technology and prefer to stick to decades old technology to save the initial outlay cost. Yet in the end they pay much more (in cost and space).
Glad you got this at $809. It’s definitely a bargain at 33% off rrp.
Bloody expensive glorified battery.
Btw it's not Lithium it's a LiFePo4.. (Lithium Iron Phosphate).
40 Amps won't last long unless U only use it for charging phones etc..