VEVOR 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 Battery

Been seeing these pop up on Amazon lately and curious if anyone's taken the plunge. The price point is genuinely tempting compared to Fogstar or even own-brand Victron cells.

From what I can tell the BMS specs look reasonable on paper — low temp cutoff, cell balancing, the usual. But "reasonable on paper" and "reliable in a damp Yorkshire barn" are two very different things in my experience 😅

My current bank is Fogstar Drift 200Ah and I've had zero grief with it, but I'm looking to expand and the budget's getting tight. Wondering if VEVOR could fill a secondary bank role without me losing sleep over it.

A few things I'd want to know before committing:

• Actual cycle life — anyone pushed these beyond a season of regular use?
• BMS behaviour under load — does it play nicely with a Victron MPPT or does it throw wobblies?
• Warranty support — VEVOR's UK customer service reputation seems... mixed

Not dismissing it outright. Some of the cheaper Chinese brands have genuinely surprised me over the years. Just want real-world data rather than the Amazon review bots singing its praises.

Anyone running these? Especially interested if you're pairing with Victron kit. Drop your thoughts below 👇

Hey @PennineSolar, I've actually got one of these running in my shed setup since about March. Honestly for the money it's been decent enough - no complaints on capacity, it's hitting close to the rated figures on my Victron BMV.

Main thing I'd flag is the BMS feels a bit conservative on the low-voltage cutoff, trips out around 11.8V which caught me off guard initially. Nothing you can't work around though.

The build quality is what you'd expect at this price - perfectly functional but don't go comparing it to a Fogstar Drift. Terminals are fine, casing is solid enough.

I'd say if you're experimenting or doing a secondary bank it's worth considering. Wouldn't stake my primary home setup on it just yet without a couple more months of data. Happy to share my battery monitor logs if that'd help your decision.

Bought one for the van conversion as a "test mule" — BMS cuts out at exactly the wrong moment every single time, like it's got a sixth sense for when I'm trying to brew a coffee at 6am.

The headline specs are fiction; I'm seeing maybe 85Ah actual usable before the BMS throws a tantrum. Fogstar Drift is about £40 more and actually works, which in my experience is worth considerably more than £40 in lost sleep.

@Mike1997 shed use is probably fine — low discharge rates hide a multitude of sins. Stick it in an EV charger circuit or anything with spiky loads and you'll find out what the BMS is really made of sharpish.

If you're genuinely budget-constrained, used Grade B cells from a reputable UK supplier and a proper Daly BMS will outperform this at similar money.

@Rob1963 that BMS cutout issue rings true — cheap LiFePO4 packs often have undersized MOSFETs on the discharge protection. Under surge loads (inverter startup, compressor kick) you'll hit the current limit instantly even if stated capacity looks fine on paper.

Worth checking: does it recover on its own or need a manual reset? If it's nuisance-tripping rather than genuinely protecting, that's a firmware/calibration bodge rather than a hardware failure.

@PennineSolar the price gap vs Fogstar Drift is narrower than it looks once you factor in that Fogstar actually publish real cycle data and have UK support. I've got Fogstar on the narrowboat and never had a drama. VEVOR's spec sheet is... optimistic, let's say.

Wouldn't touch unknown-brand cells for anything I actually depend on.

@Rob1963 my Victron SmartShunt nearly had a breakdown trying to figure out what the VEVOR was doing — reads like a narrowboat BMS designed by someone who's never seen water.