Still, it’s nice to see new options entering the market. The one issue with the Pylons is their limited ability to drop a lot of amps on the line when needed. One of these FreedomWon eTowers can pretty much suffice a 5kw inverter and you can just stack more as funds/needs allow.
Little bit off topic, but it seems like the FreedomWon Home Lite batteries have come down in price quite considerably?
I’m comparing X x (Pylontech UP5000 || eTower) vs Home Lite in various capacities and it’s looking quite good.
I remember them being very expensive, right?
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I’ve been doing some light reading, battery data sheets as one does.
As I see it, there is currently around a R10k difference between a 5 kWh eTower and Lite 5/4 also 5 kWh.
You guys say the eTower uses a different BMS, but apart from that if looking at the data they are almost identical, capacity, charge / discharge, expected life, warranty everything.
The skeptic in me is wondering if a different BMS is really the only difference if looking at the price or are there other differences as well?
Do you ultimately think the eTower is a inferior product to the Lite range or will they perform equally in the long term?
Would be nice to open one up and see if it has different cells inside.
If I recall it falls under the standard FreedomWon warranty, so it doesn’t seem like the company is worried about the quality.
I think the smaller Lite systems are heavily marked up by most retailers, whereas the bigger ones are discounted by FreedomWon themselves. Can’t be 100% sure though.
At the very least the eTowers look like they’re cheaper to manufacture as they’re based on standard case designs, whereas every Lite model requires a different case.
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The price difference between the BMS is significant. It is also possible that the etower batteries are entirely manufactured in China and imported as a unit.
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I have opened one up, and it has exactly the same cells inside as the other Freedom Won batteries.
Although, unlike the others, It is completely assembled in China.
I guess the big price difference is a combination of the cheaper BMS and Chinese manufacturing.
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I am not sure about the rest, but they definitely don’t offer the same warranty, the EOL capacity of the eTower is defined as 60% of the initial capacity whereas for the Lite range it as defined as 70% of the initial capacity.
Additionally, even what the BMS considers a cycle is not the same for the two batteries.
With the Lite Range a cycle is 100% SOC → 20% SOC, the eTower considers 100 → 30% SOC a cycle.
Both are advertised with 4000 cycle life, but not all cycles are created equally 
The final difference in the warranty between the two is perhaps the most critical, with the Lite Range the warranty document states that they will:
Freedom Won undertakes to service the battery to ensure that it thereafter
again meets this performance objective. This service may involve changing settings in the BMS profile and or
replacement of any number of cells.
I read that as they will do whatever it takes to get the battery pack back to a working enough condition to complete the cycle / warranty duration.
The eTower however has a addition to the warranty in the event that it is “uneconomical to repair”
Freedom Won undertakes to service the battery to ensure that it thereafter
again meets this performance objective. Freedom Won may however decide at its sole discretion to replace
the battery if a repair is considered by Freedom Won to be uneconomical. Should a replacement battery be
required, Freedom Won will cover a percentage of the cost of the replacement based on a fair use formula as
follows:
• Battery age 0 to 5 years – Freedom Won will cover the full cost of the battery replacement
• Battery age 5 to 6 years – Freedom Won will cover 50% of the cost of the battery replacement
• Battery age 6 to 7 years – Freedom Won will cover 40% of the cost of the battery replacement
• Battery age 7 to 8 years – Freedom Won will cover 30% of the cost of the battery replacement
• Battery age 8 to 9 years – Freedom Won will cover 20% of the cost of the battery replacement
• Battery age 9 to 10 years – Freedom Won will cover 10% of the cost of the battery replacement
I see that as a major disadvantage compared to the Lite Range where they have to fix the unit, and they can’t spring a “uneconomical to repair” line at you in year 8 and provide you with only 20% the battery replacement cost.
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The one crappy thing about these is that all the eTower BMS’s needs to be updated. And this needs to be done by a cable that’s pretty much impossible to find locally. I’m going to have to solder something up.
edit
The very early ones needed the firmware updated. The ones just a month later were all fine from the factory.
Speaking of eTower’s they now retailing for R30k a battery which has made them rather pricey compared to their competitors. FreedomWon have also said that they have plenty in stock, so I guess they not moving too fast because of the price.
BYD Flex LV looks like a great alternative. 10 Year warranty, edit (nearly) 1C, competitively priced at R25k.
210823 Battery-Box LV Flex V1.0 EN-61230abb162c0.pdf (156.9 KB)
That does look like a decent battery, but 70A is not quite 1C?
Oops, you are correct. But its a decent amount.
I don’t think you need to care about 1C so much. The warranty and allowed depth of discharge is in my opinion a better metric. 0.5C is plenty…
I do agree, but its a nice to have, especially if you only planning on getting one battery and you would like to turn on a kettle while load shedding.
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Just going by the most commonly used 0.5C battery (Pylontech), it has a 1C max discharge rate (as long as the temperature remains within limits), which should allow you to boil that kettle (typically takes 2-3 minutes to boil a kettle). But I don’t really disagree with you, 1C is a nice to have, and if you can have that without a significant reduction in warranty, cycle numbers and price, then definitely go for it.