[RE-wrenches] Deka Duration batteries

[William Miller]

Indeed, the lack of wiring infrastructure is troubling. Attached is my
first run at it. I am not satisfied.

I bought some 6x6 gutter stock today. I will chop it into ~12” sections to
set on top of each battery with an opening to the connections. I will post
a photo afterwards.

I am supposed to host a tour next week with some Deka staff. I will ask
about the questions posed. I hope there is no hidden problems that make
these batteries unsuitable. They seem solid



Ps:  the photo cuts off the inverter but it is just out of frame at top.

PPS:  I’m trying to not be amused at the Italian stereotype. We have an
Italian surrogate son that is in the commercial solar industry in Italy. I
will ask him about the cultural nuances.


William Miller
Miller Solar.com
805-438-5600
www.millersolar.com


On Tue, Jun 10, 2025 at 8:18 PM Bradley Bassett via RE-wrenches <
re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:

> I've just heard that WM is using the Deka Duration batteries. At AEE we
> had a very good relationship with MK Battery and I brought in the Deka
> Duration to sell without really looking at all the potential issues first.
> However, I did become aware of them after looking at how to install them in
> detail. I'm curious how anyone does this with multiple batteries. I came up
> with lots of configurations trying to get around the extreme lack of wiring
> room in stacked batteries. I ended up doing drawings showing them stacked
> on their rear end on the floor 3 deep from the wall with a battery combiner
> on top of each 3 stack. Contact with tech support was always referred to
> the Italian company and every time I received a very condescending and
> arrogant response. Then I finally read the warranty in detail,
> unfortunately after selling some, and having to buy them back. Turns out
> that at that time (still?) the warranty excluded in entirety any system
> installed with an inverter that did not have closed loop comms with the
> battery. Also the temperature range to stay under warranty was basically
> room temperature only. After discovering all of these issues I decided that
> we would no longer carry them. I will say that I had no problem getting one
> to communicate with my XW+ inverter through the gateway CAN bus. The one
> that I ended up with has certainly worked fine, but of course is not under
> any warranty, and never has been since put into operation with an open
> communication inverter in a utility shed that gets down to 40°F.
>
> Brad Bassett
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