Anyone else noticed Fogstar prices creeping up lately?

Picked up a couple of Fogstar Drift 100Ah LiFePO4 cells back in spring for my tiny house build — paid about £89 each if I recall right. Went back last week to grab two more to expand the bank and they're sitting at £109 now. Not catastrophic, but that's a noticeable jump in a few months.

Running them alongside a Victron SmartShunt and a Renogy 40A DC-DC charger, and honestly the performance has been solid — no complaints there. Just stings a bit when you've mentally budgeted around a price that's no longer there.

Wondering if this is just Fogstar adjusting margins or whether the whole LiFePO4 cell market is shifting again. Remember the wild price drops we had through 2022-2023 — felt like cells were getting cheaper every month. Has that trend reversed for good now, or is this a temporary blip? Anyone sourcing decent cells elsewhere at better prices?

Yeah noticed this too @ZI_Sparks — picked up four of the same cells about eight months ago and the price has definitely shifted since then. Frustrating when you're trying to match an existing bank and the budget's suddenly different to what you planned.

Worth checking whether the spec has changed at all between batches mind you — sometimes a price bump reflects a component revision rather than just inflation. Fogstar have been fairly transparent in the past when that's happened.

If the difference is significant it might be worth dropping them a direct message asking if there's any loyalty discount or bulk pricing available. A few members here have had luck with that approach. Otherwise keep an eye on their site around Black Friday — they did decent deals last year from what I remember seeing mentioned on here.

Yeah it's frustrating isn't it. From what I've seen the LiFePO4 market in general has had a bit of a rough ride lately — lithium carbonate spot prices have been all over the place which inevitably filters through to the end consumer eventually. Fogstar are still probably one of the better value options for quality cells in the UK though, so I'd be reluctant to jump ship entirely just because of a modest price rise.

Worth keeping an eye on their sale events @ZI_Sparks — they do occasional clearance deals that can bring things back closer to where you'd expect. Also worth checking if the Drift spec has changed at all, sometimes a price bump comes with a revised cell chemistry or capacity tolerance improvement. Has anyone compared the newer batch specs against the older ones?

Same thing happened to me when I was finishing off my narrowboat bank earlier this year — went back for two more cells to match what I'd already got and did a double-take at the checkout 😅

Worth keeping an eye on Fogstar's outlet section though, they sometimes have graded cells at a discount. Got a couple of B-grade Drifts that way and honestly couldn't tell the difference in use.

Also been watching Fogstar Fusion ready-made batteries as an alternative — sometimes the price per kWh works out surprisingly close once you factor in BMS costs anyway.

@HamishTaylor87 yeah the raw cell market has been a bit all over the place, definitely feels like those rock-bottom 2022-ish prices aren't coming back anytime soon unfortunately.