Following Will Prowes, I was able to put solar in my 40' 5th wheel and everything works...my plug in's, my full size house fridge freezer, my Wynter freezer, abd my smaller appliances and all at once...I am a retired female living alone....in Colorado.. Thank u SOOO much Will...u r my hero, I have 265 in solar and 4 agm batteries...going lithium in 2023...😁😁😁

You can also get a solar charge controller that has low temperature disconnect and use that with lithium batteries that don't have a BMS with low-temperature disconnect

You probably hear this all the time, but you really are a great guy Bob. You have helped so many people who you will probably never meet, and I am one of them. Lived in my truck and teardrop for many years and used to watch your videos a lot, made me feel like I wasn't so alone. Anyhow, I've had housing for a while now, but may be losing it soon. But at least now, I know that I can do it and will not be crippled with fear by the thought of doing it once again. Just wanted to thank you from the bottom of my Heart for being the genuine man that you are.

Thank you, Bob Wells, always leading the way to bring RVers the latest and best information and equipment reviews. Will Prowse is absolutely amazing to watch and he demonstrates and explains all things electrical, so well. The two of you make a great support team.

I follow Will, too. I recently purchased my first LiFePo4 battery in components an d assembled it myself. 280 amp hours for $750. I learned a lot by doing it this way.

Hello Bob, I've lived off road over 20 years. And watching your videos as enlightened my life. Finding better ways to chill my food power my home. I never been able to afford the higher price batteries on my budget. But I see there are better batteries now. Thanks so much

Building out a van next month and this is exactly the info I need! Thanks for everything Bob!

Just a friendly reminder: Take off all jewelry before working with batteries. If you have a metal ring, and it manages to short out the battery, your finger will be amputated. If you have a watch with a metal band and bezel, the bezel will be welded in place. Even an ordinary lead battery can do this!

I have the SOK 206 amp hour battery and it was the best $1029 I ever spent. I run ICECO 65, lights, TV, DVD player, computer and it never drops below 90% with one 175 watt solar even on rainy days

We put solar on our house but SCE suddenly began messing with us and has turned off power to our end of the street 4x this year. So we are looking at batteries & this is really helpful info. Thank you Bob!

Good video. I have had my SOKs for 2 yrs. Love them. I can go 4 days without having to skimp on my usage with my two 100AH SOKs. One thing you may want to mention, if the viewer is currently running lead acid, they will also need to upgrade their battery charger/converter or at least change the settings.

Will Prowse is a great recommendation. He is one of the most knowledgeable KZfaqrs when it comes to Solar, Batteries, Power Stations and more. Everytime I watch one of your videos I understand why I trust you because of the people you associate with. Thank You for all you do.

Love watching you Bob, you are a wealth of knowledge.Very helpful x

Thank you, Bob. Huge gratitude for this marvelous, game changing, life changing good news. So well presented, easy to understand. Love that Will Prowse fella, you introduced. Wishing you, team and all, happy trails. 🙏🏼🐾🎶

I always go with your recommendations. I went with a Bluetti AC200P and I love it. One of the reasons I went with it was because I wanted a product that would last a long time. A solar generator worked best for me because of my situation. I appreciate you and the information you share.

LOL!! 9:52 A miniature person inside! 😀😃🤣🤣😁😄

It always is a pleasure to see you describing the everyday items you choose and use. Thanks

Bob you bring the best product reviews and recommendations on KZfaq. Thank you.

Just remember that if you have a motorhome or campervan, etc. - any vehicle which charges the "house batteries" along with the chassis battery (most do) that there MAY BE additional up-front expenses and changes you need to make. It's not as simple as plopping the new lithium batteries in and expecting them to work perfectly. Lithium batteries have a much different "charging profile" than your old lead acid batteries. If you simply swap out your lead acid for lithium without any other changes, your new lithium batteries will never fully charge - due to the different charging profile. You will need a "battery isolation manager" - a small $175 device (usually mounted in your engine bay) which keeps your chassis battery AND your house batteries charged using the proper current. Of course if your house batteries are completely isolated, and you never charge your house batteries off the engine alternator, a battery isolation manager isn't necessary. BUT... having that additional charging option it is a HUGE convenience. In addition, you will need a solar charge controller which is "lithium compatible", which simply means a selectable charge profile optimum for lithium batteries. So... when tallying up your total "lithium conversion" cost, remember to consider these "gotchas". It's often possible to have an additional $300 over and above the cost of the batteries alone.

Glad to see you finally went to Lithium’s. I’ve been on them since Jan 2019 and love them! Well worth the money.

Great job Bob! Thanks for all you do. I follow Will Prowes and he is the gurus when it comes to solar.

Was just out camping and my 6 year old lead acid battery on my trailer was struggling. I am going to go with an SOK. I watch Will Prowse's channel. Will take his recommendation and buy used panels for the solar. My current solar setup is not permanent. Afraid the portable panel may walk away some day.

I tried to watch Will but he is so technical for a person like me, I just didn’t get what he was saying....but that’s just me.... I think he’s a great teacher for someone with previous knowledge on electrical stuff

Excellent advice. I am in my prebuild/planning phase and this video taught me some very good things.

I hit that 👍 Bob! It was awesome to meet you at the RTR! Thank you for another great informative video!!! 👍

Thanks Bob. Hello from Australia. I am learning very slowly about solar so I appreciate your insight.

You have such a gift for explaining things, nice job..

We read Will’s book on building a solar system. Easy to follow and we now have three Battleborns in our rig. Awesome because I never worry about running out of power. The only time they do not charge is in thick smoke.

Great advice and Will is the man when it comes to solar systems and Lipo batteries!

I got the Ampere Time 200ah-Plus that allows for a full 200 amp discharge if it needs it. It was around $950 at the time last year. I spoke with the manufacturer in China about my method to heat it if it needs it. I told them that somebody makes a 12v heating blanket for RV water tanks. That's good enough. I ventilate the mechanical room where the batteries go. A small 12v computer fan pulls living space air out through the mechanical room where that warmer air can keep the plumbing and the batteries warm enough to charge. If I get cold I can turn on the heat blanket for the Lifepo4 battery. In summer, three more ducted computer fans can be turned on independently to move hot air out of the van, including the mechanical room. Batteries can get too hot to charge also. My Charge controller has a temperature sensor that watches out for too much heat and shuts things off if it gets too hot. The Ampere Time has a protection circuit built in for too hot also. Great stuff Bob.

Love your videos Bob... Been watching Will Prowse for years, very smart.

Four months too late for us, but great advice and video! I had 2 top end AGMs installed in January rather than Battle Born. It’s all a learning process and your videos are so helpful! Making many notes preparing for our next rig. Thank you Bob.

Bob, the indepeth information you share is invaluable. Thank you Dear Sir.

Good point about premium acid battery being the same as the low-end lithium battery; so the Lifepro ($389.00-...10/17/-22) is the best for my situation. Your channel is the best as you cover many possibilities of RV traveling/living. Thank you 🙏

Bought the SOK 206 ah when it first came out. Put it in a small plastic cooler with a $15 reptile aquarium pad heater and paired it up with the Renogy DCC50S MPPT charge controller which charges from solar or alternator or both at the same time. Got 2x 200watt solar panels and run everything through a 3000-watt inverter. Keep in mind the max continuous amp discharge of your battery (100 amps=1200 watts w/this model) I always double up on my needed inverter's spec'd wattage output to prolong its lifetime. I'm a happy camper! Great battery and the company stand behind their products.

Thank you for this. Danny had me looking at the links tonight. Have a great rest of the week.

Thanks for the review Bob, always good information.

Great info. Definitely watch Will for some great knowledge about solar and battery systems

Great information... Thank you Bob! 👍😁 I definitely want to look into both of these.

Great Video Bob!!..Very well explained and since I'm now just getting into solar on my Class C, I find all, and I mean all, of your videos and opinions greatly appreciated and very helpful. Will probably go with the less expensive battery for my application, but the superior battery choice would be well worth the investment. Keep up the great work my friend..we all appreciate you very much! Stay safe and enjoy your living! Hope to meet you someday..Bill in Las Vegas..

LOVE this video. Helps a lot, Bob.

Hi Bob. Most just say “Lithium battery” but it’s actually a Lithium Iron Phosphate battery. The scientific symbols for those three elements are Li (Lithium), Fe (Iron), and P04 (Phosphate). This is where “LiFeP04” comes from.

Good you mentioned the cold climate issues with lithium batteries in general, if in a camper take them out in cold weather especially for charging. A great product with limitations.

Thinking about buying SOK LifePO4. Thanks for sharing your info.

Thank you, Bob. Appreciate the information!

Thank You Bob I will need to upgrade my Batteries in about a year. I believe. Using First Interstate deep cell and they are AGM however haven’t missed a lick.

Since I live on battery power, I'm so glad I came across this video.

Thanks, Bob, great info!

Haha buddy I'm an Alaskan bush rat born in Kodiak and from the Mentasta area South West of Tok and every Die Hard battery I ever had did just that!! Froze n busted wide open. ( But not the gel cells under the cowlings of my Super Cub) or under my bed in my current cabin in the NE mountains of Washington State. I have 14 Long duration 100 amp gel cells under my bunk. Perfect match foot print. At $550 each then warranted for 5 years. They are currently 18 years old and still charging and doing their job. But like me they're old and tired. Still doing the job. I'm knocking on 80 and still doing the job --- but tired. Haha Best $7,000+ I ever spent. Thinking bout these new style batteries?? But --- if it ain't broke don't fix it.?? Maybe not . Dandahermit

I'm just amazed at how little wind noise your mic picked up with all that bluster. Whichever setup you're using, it's doing GREAT!

I have two 200 amp hour Ampere time batteries in my Toyota Dolphin which work with my 1040 watts of solar to help power a small air conditioner and my fridge etc. bc of the worry of cold (I am in Florida currently and there were a few days earlier this year it did get cold) so my friend who set up my system had me get a heating pad and we plugged the Rv in those few nights. I had to go out every few hrs to restart the heating pad (for safety reasons it shuts off on a timer) but he helped save my batteries. I don’t want to stay in cold places anyway but having those heating pads definitely came in handy. I like the idea of the temp gauge. Will ask my friend abt that as well. Thank u for this video!

Thanks for the info. When I buy battery's it will be the SOK. In the 1980s I installed large home solar systems and the major flaw they all had was the lead acid battery's, they were expensive required routine Maintenace very heavy and potentially explosive. They would last about 5-6 years and replacing them cost as much as half of the electricity the system made. The systems only made sense when commercial electricity was not available.

Thank you so much for doing these videos. They've helped us a lot in deciding what to get. I did buy two 100 amp hour lithium batteries for $365 a piece. So far they work great. I'm betting that by the time these batteries die that I'll be able to replace them for half of what these original batteries cost so I really didn't want to spend five or $600 per battery at this time.

I am not hesitatingly saying 'This was awesome!' thanks for all the info Bob, I lear something every time! O

Another option to keep your lithium batteries from freezing. Just add a solar hot water system to warm tanks of antifreeze in the same room as the batteries! Need circulation for a hotwater panel use an older photo voltaic panel to run a pump when the panel reaches X tempature all running on older PB or LI batteries

I love you, man..You are an inspiration.

I flipped over to Amazon and noticed a 300AH that is same size as the original RV coach battery. Would love a review. Although expensive it is less expensive than buying 3 100AH batteries

Great video... much needed information 😊

Thank you. I appreciate the lecture .

wow, haven't watched Bob in many years. What a difference! Plus over 600k subs.

At first I thought "Who IS this guy?!" INSTANTLY liked your content. Thanks!!!

Thanks for the information!

It's always nice when they make it easier to take the top off 😆

Love your presentation 👍

Very good info! Thanks!

Will is definitely the go-to guy for anything related to solar. You can also buy beehive heaters and take them to your batteries to keep them warm. To have them come on automatically you would have to connect them to an electronic thermostat or a switch if you know the temperatures going to fall down below or close to freezing I wouldn't go past 40° personally

loved your videos. thank you, buddy.

Awesome thanks for the info w/o hype. We go RVing a lot & are contemplating solar.

Nice review. I use Dakota Lithium for my HAM Radio equipment for off grid with solar panels to charge them.

being on a very fixed income and building my solar system piece- meal I went with the 12V-100AH AGM as it was just under $200.00. A Life-po 4 at 390.00 is just out of reach. I still need to buy one more 100 watt panel, to efficiently charge the battery for the 1500 watt inverter. And this is all in the hopes that sometime this summer we will buy a new to us travel trailer. So that additional hundred bucks is alot. Love your videos thanks for keeping us all well informed and entertained.

Hi Bob Been watching you for years. Retired brought a campervan years ago because of you and your channel. Then had health problems. Finally about to take a trip out west to Ca. Hope to meet you at the BYOV Just traveling through. Skennedy.. Don't mind helping out.

Lithium has really changed being able to live comfortably in the boonies without those awful generators in the last couple of years:) Yes, Will Prowse is the man for solar and lithium technology. Good point about not having use of the battery and damage if it freezes and then try to charge! Freezing is ok, but trying to charge while frozen is terrible. Yeah SOK to protect the cold battery. It has a low temp guage and will cut off if too cold. . SOK has a bluetooth with heater to charge. 630. Love the smaller size too.

Great info. Thank you.

Thank you Bob ,I need all this info

Thank you for your videos!!!

We just bought 3 206amp hour SOK batteries. We also went off Will Prowse's recommendations. We have 9 100 watt HQST's and put them in an array and have installed them on the top using our ladder racks. We are only at the beginning stages of our build. We have a 2011 E-250. Hopefully we will have nothing but the best of luck with these.

Very informative ! Thanks

Hi BOB, You know I forgot how good your video's are.. I have about 11 Mobility Scooters and half the units had the batteres go bad because I didn't charge correctly.. YOU are my reference for the LifeOo4 batteries.. I'll start out with 2 bats for my tiny Go Go Ultra 3 Whl scooter. . My big ones are EW-1000 4 whlrs.. 17 mph (5 batteries). I'll wait 'till this coming winters over with before buying more batteries.. Moving from GavinNewsomeHell to Tennessee about Dec.. God Bless ya Bob, stay frosty :)

Great information

Suggestion if you going to buy one of these 100 amp hour batteries, you might want to buy 2. Helps with larger loads,charge at high rate.I have chins (same maker as ampere time)300amp hour battery works pretty well for my needs. Runs 2 12volt frigs, 700 watt instapot, computer. Struggles with 900watt coffee maker.

Some have suggested that one get an extra tank heater pad for the batteries & add it to your tank heater's circuit so that keeping your tanks from freezing also keeps your batteries from freezing as well.

I went with HQST Solar 100ah lifepo4, $378. What makes it superior to the other budget lifepo4 batteries? Functional cold temperature cut-off protection. Ampere Time doesn't have cold temperature cut-off protection. I have only been using them for a few months, but I am highly impressed. Currently running 300ah of bank connected to 480w of solar suitcase panels, through a 40a MPPT controller.

Your videos are great 👍 I have 2 SOK battery's in my minivan for boondocking and I am very happy with them One 100ah was used for 2 cpaps and a fan all night and still enough juice to power a fan all day. If you can afford the SOK battery, do yourself a favor and buy these.

Selco thermal switch

I would get 2 apere time batteries and 2 heat covers for them. Thank you for your advice you are great.

I'M STICKING WITH WALMART'S BEST LEAD ACID BATTERIES BECAUSE THEY WILL REPLACE THEM AT THE DROP OF A HAT AND I KNOW THAT CUZ I'VE HAD TO DO THAT SEVERAL TIMES AND EVERY TIME THEY WERE REPLACED THE WARRANTY STARTED OVER

Just what I needed all the info I needed. Was worried I would get the wrong one or get ripped of thanks.

Like you, Bob , I have two Battle Born batteries. They are great! When the SOK came out, I wanted to add them to the BB. DON’T DO IT. The battery management systems will not work together. Great video👍👍

I've not decided what I'm going to do regarding solar, other than keep my AGM battery as long as possible.

Thanks so helpful!!

I scored 8 100a SOK's for my solar setup, lots to learn in this game

Thanks for posting 📫.

A/c is a must in hot weather

Good to know, Bob!!!

Will prowess is amazing like you Bob.

I use a stack of Lead Acid batteries I got from wrecking yards. They can be wired together to produce your preferred voltage and many amps.

Thanks for the review and info about the SOK - I too watch Will Prowse and have for eons. I've watched you many years ago when I thought I was going to sell my condo and go full time RVing but that never happened. I still love watching you though. You have a very interesting KZfaq channel and I still love it. Keep up the good work.

I have had my two SOK 12v 206ah batteries with Bluetooth since January 2023. This battery charges faster than my lead acid batteries, more capacity and are lighter. This was the best battery upgrade and well worth the $1k/battery. I call them my Super OK batteries.

I will be ordering 2ea. SOK batteries with heaters to install in our Full time travel trailer. Because of my health condition and needing AC during the heat of the day we will be charging via generator and not always solar but lithium is still the way to go. It appears I can charge the batteries by generator in 3 hours daily which in turn will give us 21 hours of quiet, clean power daily. Differently a win win situation for our Nomad life!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on these. I was saving up for a battle born but I'm seriously considering going with the SOK so I can afford to make the switch to lithium.