Battle Born Batteries used to be our go-to for Lithium power. But times change, and other brands have caught up in terms of features, quality, and price. As we are getting into our second van conversion, it’s time to re-evaluate our options to get the most out of our money. Below is a straightforward list of lithium-ion batteries we would personally get and recommend.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click a product link and buy anything from the merchant (Amazon, eBay, etc.) we will receive a commission fee. The price you pay remains the same, affiliate link or not.
No Name, Cheap Knockoff
Made-for-Amazon brand names that sound like they just picked random syllables out of a hat. This is a no-go zone as far as we’re concerned; we’re not rich enough to waste our money and gamble our safety on these products!
Budget
LiTime | Chins
These are quite popular due to the low price point. Take the claimed specifications with a grain of salt (capacity, cycles, etc). We would personally spend a bit more to jump to the mid range…
Mid-Low Range
Renogy | SOK
This is where we’d start if budget were a priority. Renogy has been around for a long time, SOK is getting more and more traction.
Mid-High Range
Epoch
Epoch Batteries have caught our attention with their high-quality, feature-packed builds. We currently consider Epoch the new Premium offer.
Battle Born / Will Prowse Saga
Last Update: 2026-06
Heads up if you’ve seen the Battle Born teardown drama floating around: here’s the short version. Back in December 2025, Will Prowse (the DIY solar YouTube guy) posted a bunch of videos cutting open Battle Born’s 100Ah batteries and flagging the positive terminal design—basically a bolt passing through a plastic layer that he figured could loosen up over time with vibration and heat cycles. The videos blew up in the van and off-grid world. Then in June 2026, Battle Born’s parent company (Dragonfly Energy) turned around and sued him for trade libel. Their side of it: they say he yanked out structural parts and tested batteries that were already damaged or pushed past spec, that he’d actually praised the same battery before, and that he pocketed over $200k in affiliate and ad money from them—right up until they cut his affiliate account in October 2025, about six weeks before that first critical video dropped. They also claim he pitched the videos as independent technical analysis while never mentioning that affiliation (and even denied it). Prowse pushes back on all of it. Battle Born says the terminal thing is working as intended and points to their third-party safety certs—the battery architecture is ETL-listed by Intertek to UL 2054 and IEC 62133 standards. Bottom line: the courts haven’t sorted it out yet, so we’d take both the teardowns and the company’s defense with a grain of salt for now.
| LiTime | Chins | Renogy | SOK | Epoch | Battle Born | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buy Link | Amazon | Amazon | Amazon | SOKBattery | EpochBatteries | Not recommended |
| Capacity | 460Ah | 320Ah | 300Ah | 280Ah | 460Ah | 270Ah |
| Voltage | 12.8V | 12.8V | 12.8V | 12.8V | 12.8V | 12.8V |
| Cycles | 4000 | 2000-5000 | 5000 | 8000 | 4000 | 3000-5000 |
| Self Heating | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Charge Current | ||||||
| Recommended | 92A (0.2C) | ? | 100A-150A (0.3C-0.5C) | 56A (0.2C) | 100A (0.22C) | 135A (0.5C) |
| Maximum | 200A | 120A (0.4C) | 230A (300A@10sec) | 135A (0.5C) | ||
| Discharge Current | ||||||
| Continuous | 250A | ? | 200A | 200A | 100A | 300A |
| Maximum | 390A (5sec) | 250A (7.5sec) | 300A (25°C) | 500A (30sec) | ||
| Temperature | ||||||
| Charge | 0-50°C | ?-50°C | -20-55°C | -15-45°C (4-113F) | -20-60°C | -24-57°C (25-135F) |
| Discharge | -20-60°C | ? | -20-60°C | -20-60°C (-4-140F) | -20-65°C | -20-57°C (-4-135F) |
| Size (inch) | ||||||
| Length | 20.47 | 20.47 | 15.12 | 13.07 | 20.9 | 22.8 |
| Width | 10.59 | 9.44 | 7.64 | 9.52 | 8.7 | 7.1 |
| Height | 8.66 | 8.58 | 9.96 | 9.84 | 12.1 | 13.1 |
| Weight | 87 lbs | 60 lbs | 55 lbs | 73 lbs | 88 lbs | 81 lbs |
| Warranty | 5 Years | ? | 5 Years | 7 Years | 11 Years | 10 Years |
| Documentation | ||||||
| Data Sheet | ||||||
| Manual | ||||||
| Price (total) | $1,169 | $549 | $999 | $999 | $1,799 | $2,299 |
| Price per 100Ah: | $228 | $172 | $333 | $356 | $478 | $851 |
*The recommendations above are from real-world experience, and we’re also big fans of Will Prowse teardowns!
You might be interested in …
Do you know what Will Prowse has documented about BB’s? (BB is suing him now.)
Am an Electrical Engineer who built a real kitplane.
I bought 12 BB’s (!) during the Scamdemic, believing that I was getting what I paid for. ($10,000+)
But after helping a buddy build his van with BB’s, and seeing numerous failures of his batteries after a two month road trip (3 out of 5 which, at the time, BB replaced under warranty), I started to worry.
As Will Prowse has shown, BB’s have a terrible design flaw. They use plastic between the terminals. Plastic softens and moves when hot. Which then makes the terminals lose torque and become hotter. (I had a small problem in my plane one day because a terminal on a circuit breaker loosened a bit.)
This is how my buddy’s batteries failed.
And even if the batteries never become hot, plastic creeps. Which means the terminals will eventually lose torque.
Since BB is not honoring its warranty anymore, I plan to cut mine open to replace the plastic spacers with metal, and change the aluminum bolts with aircraft steel bolts.
Might I politely suggest that you refrain from recommending BB’s at this time? Even if BB’s aren’t a safety hazard, they aren’t performing commensurate with their high price and high promises.
I’ve been following the story, yeah. I removed the links to buy BB and updated all pages related to batteries with the following:
“Battle Born / Will Prowse Saga
Last Update: 2026-06
Heads up if you’ve seen the Battle Born teardown drama floating around: here’s the short version. Back in December 2025, Will Prowse (the DIY solar YouTube guy) posted a bunch of videos cutting open Battle Born’s 100Ah batteries and flagging the positive terminal design—basically a bolt passing through a plastic layer that he figured could loosen up over time with vibration and heat cycles. The videos blew up in the van and off-grid world. Then in June 2026, Battle Born’s parent company (Dragonfly Energy) turned around and sued him for trade libel. Their side of it: they say he yanked out structural parts and tested batteries that were already damaged or pushed past spec, that he’d actually praised the same battery before, and that he pocketed over $200k in affiliate and ad money from them—right up until they cut his affiliate account in October 2025, about six weeks before that first critical video dropped. They also claim he pitched the videos as independent technical analysis while never mentioning that affiliation (and even denied it). Prowse pushes back on all of it. Battle Born says the terminal thing is working as intended and points to their third-party safety certs—the battery architecture is ETL-listed by Intertek to UL 2054 and IEC 62133 standards. Bottom line: the courts haven’t sorted it out yet, so we’d take both the teardowns and the company’s defense with a grain of salt for now.”
Thanks for your quick response and for taking positive action. I turn to FarOutRide for trusted information. So it was surprising to see BB’s recommended as “Excellent.” You’ve restored my trust.
I acknowledge that, during the Scamdemic, Will WAS tearing down BB’s and happily recommending them. Which is one reason why I spent so much money buying them. (Am kicking myself now for not buying SOK’s.) I dunno… he’s not an EE and he’s still young/inexperienced. So perhaps he didn’t think to look at how the connections were made. And, at the time, he didn’t have the test equipment that he has now. And like the long term effects of vaccines, there hadn’t been enough time to see a history/trend of failures.
I confess that, even tho I have a MSEE and even tho I know Ohm’s Law, I was surprised by how much heat the slightest resistance can generate at 80 Amps. (My buddy’s van powering a 12 V Dometic AC.) I fell for the marketing and presumed/trusted that BB’s great design was bullet proof and would survive such usage. (After all, rated for 100 A discharge.) I started rethinking that when I heard something rattle inside one of my buddy’s BB’s when I moved it. I imagined a jam nut had come off inside. An email from BB confirmed my suspicion.
I had bought my 12v BB’s in anticipation of building a camper van. Which hasn’t happened yet. So they’ve been doing light duty in the temperature controlled, vibration free environment of a house. (All Victron.) Even so, they’re not pulling full capacity anymore. I plan to cut them open soon.
I downloaded the electrical diagram, and followed the instructions, but the interactive parts don’t work for customization which was really what I was hoping to do. Please help!
I have battle born batteries. And they are great.
BUT
you should consider LITHIONICS they are more $$ but might have some advantages in monitoring and safety.
Have been running four 208ah SOK batteries (this model was before their 280ah model came out) in parallel (824ah of 12v total) for my personal full-time van life electrical system. They have been absolutely flawless!
As expected, good to hear!!
Thanks for the feedback 🙂
thank you for writing up the alternative choices. i appreciate you pricing things out but it’s tough when I see battleborn at the ultra high end price range for not an equivalent upgrade in features.
it would be helpful to note which batteries have a high or a low temperature cutoff. I don’t think below the mid-high range in your example have both high and low.
also Will Prowse on youtube has informative teardowns on these batteries which are useful for informing a decision. thanks for the write up as always!
I think your SOK links goes to a Chins product
Fixed! Thank you 🙂