The final battery test report is out and makes for interesting reading
Quite happy I went with the Pylontechs.
"Pylontech US2000B
Based on the linear regression between estimated SOH and cycles completed (Figure 18), the Pylontech US2000B is on track for 60% SOH at ~4,995 cycles."
And the BYD HVM will have 125% SOH at 5000 cycles 
I always wondered if there are so many brands out there, which is best?
How do installers decide which one and on what basis?
Some say Pylontech is crap, FreedomWon is the best and lately Solar MD. And where does Blue Nova and Hubble fit in?
Of those brands you mention the only ones with independent test results (via this test report) is pylontech, the rest you have nothing to go on but promises from the manufacturers and local anecdotes etc. but absolutely no testing they can point at to back it up.
Pylontech is also one of the top performers in this report, and just a bit of reading will show you how “just working” is by no means guaranteed even on the more expensive batteries.
To me that is majorly important.
That, the longevity of pylontech in the market and how widespread they are makes (to me) pylontech the obvious choice for its price bracket, unless another brand is going to be massively cheaper I can’t see why it would be worth taking the risk. (This is of course just my personal opinion)
Theres a fair bit of FUD floating around in the local market (much of it emanating from a certain place) about pylontech however I would say that in most cases this is down to the people calling it crap having some self interest in selling other brands and not based on any actual facts. (e.g. they make more commission on sales or similar)
FreedomWon uses good quality cells and an OrionBms on their high end batteries. They have been in the country a long time and their support is excellent. You cannot go wrong on the quality. I don’t know that I feel the same way about the eTower. It’s not a bad battery but it’s not on the same level as their other batteries.
BlueNova is probably the first battery maker in South Africa. Their first batteries had some issues. With the latest ones, you cannot go wrong.
The same with SolarMD. In the beginning they targetted the Voltronic inverters, and even made their own combined setup with batteries and those 5kW units. They have since branched out and implemented support for Victron inverters in record time. Two of the largest off-grid builds in Southern Africa is in the Northern cape, running off two container-sized SolarMD batteries.
I’ve met the guys from all three the South African manufacturers. They are very clued up people.
Pylontech, as others have said, is top-notch too. Independent tests show it. Installers buy them in the thousands.
Hubble… I do not know. I don’t think it is a bad battery. It could be on par even, at least on a hardware level. The integration is simply not as good. The one thing they do, something many Chinese makers do which really irks me, is they copy the “pylontech protocol” down to the identifying marks in some of the frames. That makes the battery work… but it also causes it to be misidentified. It is not officially recognised as a supported battery in a Victron system, even if you can make them work.
I agree with @mjmacleod here. We are aware that some installers, often affiliated with a certain forum-tied shop, will dis Pylon because they want to sell you a hubble. It doesn’t really mean the Hubble is bad… but it does make you a little wary of people’s intentions.
Edit October 2022: Hubble has come a long way. They work well in Victron systems now and made some changes to their protocol. I found the local support guy to be very helpful. If you are reading this in the future… things have changed.
It’s a white label NMC battery with bad firmware. I feel sorry for folks that have been duped into Hubble.
I got banned on the “other” forum for pointing out that the Pylon warranty wording is far more robust than Hubble. They’re sensitive over on that side of the island.
Yeah, all my posts are permanently moderated and some were deleted when I mentioned that people who were having issues with the products they sell had their posts suppressed and removed.
They also refuse to delete my account and remove my remaining content.
I’ve seen whole threads just disappear there.
The shills there are so obvious it’s like they not even trying.
You should have know better than to start that topic there. 
Many of us here have had that same fate for the same reasons, but trust me, it’s a blessing in disguise. Now you can also occasionally visit for entertainment purposes.
After the recent warranty/ SOC/ SOH issues with the white labelled NMC brand, I’m really glad I haven’t recommended them to anyone I know. They are really good at marketing but that’s where it ends, in my opinion.
I will stick to recommending pylontech, bsl and freedom won for backup solutions.
Hubble = Axpert of batteries
What’s the consensus on BSL Batt 200A Powerwall?