I had a similar experience, although I only installed Concorde
SunXtenders, never using the Lifeline equivalents. After a few early
experiences with SunXtenders lasting more than ten years in off grid use
(usually the 12V 8Ds, in both series and parallel configurations), I
sold and recommended them. Indeed, it was these early experiences that
led me to promote AGM batteries in my 2010 Home Power off-grid batteries
article. Since then, I had leakage issues with several sets of their
2-volt 900 and 1200 AH batteries - this is going back 7-9 years. In that
same time period we were seeing premature loss of capacity in their
6-volt batteries, primarily the 400AH L16s and 300AH GC2Talls. I stopped
recommending them and switched to Fullrivers (and more recently some
equivalent Centennials, the house brand of battery distributor Battery
Systems) and have had no failures of any sort yet - time will tell.
Allan
--
*Allan Sindelar*
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
NABCEP Certified PV Installation Professional
New Mexico EE98J Journeyman Electrician
Founder (Retired), Positive Energy, Inc.
*505 780-2738 cell*
On 3/18/2021 10:39 AM, [email protected] wrote:
FWIW, after selling Lifeline for about 13 years, we discontinued sales
due to early battery failures. The capacity loss of a single battery
in a series bank became very high to where some battery banks needed
replacing in 1-3 years. Earlier batteries (from about 2001) were
lasting 6 to 10 years. We had one customer that followed our
recommendation to use high voltage and equalize regularly that had the
batteries for 13 years before changing to Li-ion. That battery bank
(12kWh, average discharge about 20% DoD) was sold to someone who is
still using it.
The early batteries were great and had our highest recommendation. We
changed to installing Fullriver instead which has been as good as the
early Lifeline batteries.
I spoke with Lifeline about the early failures and their conclusion
was that we or our customers were doing something wrong. We have
probably installed over 600 Lifeline battery systems (2S2P and larger)
over the years using practically identical power systems. I’m sure we
did not decrease the care of our installations or customer education
on proper use. I would like to know if anyone else experienced
premature Lifeline failures, especially if it is recent.
Larry Crutcher
Starlight Solar Power Systems
On Mar 17, 2021, at 3:35 PM, [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]> wrote:
Hello Wrenches,
Is there any reason to use Concorde Sun Xtender batteries instead of
Concorde Lifeline batteries with PV systems?
The Lifeline is what is available from my supplier at this time?
Thanks,
Drake
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