[RE-wrenches] Concorde Lifeline Batteries

[Sindelar Solar]

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*
allan at sindelarsolar.com <mailto:allan at sindelarsolar.com>
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, larry at starlightsolar.com 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, drake.chamberlin at redwoodalliance.org 
> <mailto:drake.chamberlin at redwoodalliance.org> 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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