Six pricey Battle Born lithium iron phosphate batteries were supposed to power Mark Guido’s fifth wheel trailer. Instead, they ended up on his truck tailgate, on their way to hazardous waste disposal. The surprise wasn’t just the failures. It was how the warranty process played out once four out of six batteries stopped performing.
I have to confess, I was especially interested in this video because these same Battle Born batteries’ failure and warranty issues have come up a number of times in my own small boondocking camping group in Quartzsite, too, with two fellow campers expressing the same frustration laid out in the video at the end of this post from Grand Adventure.
Unfortunately, their experiences with the company did not match the hype, and dealing with warranty issues proved even more problematic, just as in the video, where they cover the RV battery setup, the testing Battle Born required, the results, and why the defective batteries never went back under the 10-year warranty.
(Not to mention the recent dangerous issues with Battle Born…)
The 600Ah RV battery bank that started quitting early
Mark’s battery bank used six 100Ah Battle Born LiFePO4 batteries wired in parallel (600Ah total). He bought them across 2021 and 2022, paying about $800 each, roughly $4,800 total, because Battle Born had a premium reputation and a long warranty.
That setup made sense for boondocking. Compared to lead acid, LiFePO4 batteries can offer steady voltage, deeper usable capacity, and less hassle with maintenance. On paper, 600Ah should support long stays off-grid without babysitting the power system.
During the summer 2025 travel season, though, the bank started dying after less than 200Ah of use. That gap between expected capacity and real-world performance made the system hard to trust day to day.
Battle Born’s testing protocol, step by step
After returning to the states, Mark stayed on hookups for about 10 days, then called Battle Born. They gave him a test process to run on each battery, one at a time.
- Disconnect one battery from the bank and let it rest for about 30 minutes, then measure resting voltage with a multimeter.
- Apply a load using a small ceramic desk heater plugged into a 750W inverter, discharging the battery down to about 12.4V (when possible).
- Let it rest another 30 minutes, then recharge with a LiFePO4 charger delivering about 17.5A until it shuts off as full.
- Disconnect the charger, rest 30 minutes again, then measure the final resting voltage.
Test results: Only 2 of 6 batteries still worked
Here’s the outcome of the battery-by-battery testing.
| Battery | Resting voltage (start) | What happened under load | Status |
| 1 | 13.47V | Dropped and fluctuated at 8 to 9V | Failed |
| 2 | 13.47V | Recharged and rested at 14.2V | Good |
| 3 | 13.51V | Immediate low-voltage shutdown, jump start didn’t fix it | Failed |
| 4 | 0V | Wouldn’t wake up after jump-start attempts | Failed |
| 5 | 13.29V | Recharged and rested at 13.58V | Good |
| 6 | 14.01V | Dropped to 4 to 5V | Failed |
With two working batteries left, the earlier symptom made sense. A “600Ah” bank doesn’t act like 600Ah when most of it collapses under load.
A high resting voltage didn’t mean a battery could deliver power. Several looked fine until a load was applied.
The warranty numbers that changed the decision
After the testing, Battle Born approved a Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA). The return process still put real money at risk:
- $235 return shipping had to be paid up front, refunded only if Battle Born decided it was warranty covered
- A $300 labor fee could be charged if they decided it wasn’t covered
- A 3 to 4-week wait for the call
Mark compared that to buying replacements that could arrive in four days.
| Option | Out-of-pocket cost | Time to move forward |
| Battle Born RMA process | Up to $535 risk | 3 to 4 weeks |
| New LiFePO4 batteries (560Ah total) | $750 total | 4 days |
Battle Born’s terms are described here: Battle Born Batteries official site.
Terminal concerns, a hazmat run, and a new battery plan
Without opening the cases, he couldn’t confirm the cause, but his batteries showed discoloration of the bright red material around the positive terminals, which may suggest heat.
In the end, he gave away the two working Battle Born batteries. The four failed batteries went to hazardous waste disposal. In their place, he installed 560Ah of new LiFePO4 batteries with Bluetooth monitoring down to the cell level, listed in the video description as Eco-Worthy 280Ah LiFePO4 batteries. Assuming they perform well during time in Quartzsite, he plans to add another 280Ah before leaving in the spring.
Bottom line for RV owners watching battery warranties
A premium price only feels premium when the support matches it. For Mark, the failure rate and the warranty process didn’t square with what he expected after investing about $4,800. Readers with Battle Born batteries, or anyone shopping for LiFePO4, can treat this as a reminder to read the warranty process as closely as the specs.
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RVT1249
Will Prowse has done several videos on Battleborn batteries; none of which are favorable.
https://www.youtube.com/@WillProwse
He tears down and inspects several of them and, to my untrained eye, each looks like buyers were paying for “marketing” and not for build quality or component quality.
It’s sad because so many of the YouTubers touted the Battle Born batteries. I’m sure a lot of people bought them because the RVers on their favorite YouTube channel bought them. Then they turned out to be junk. Thankfully I could never afford them.
That’s how they got so popular, they were early to market and paid a lot of “influencers” to promote their batteries. That’s probably one of the reasons their batteries are so expensive. This should be a lesson to all of us that you can’t take the word of people who are paid promoters as gospel. While I’m sure that they all were honest in their praise of Battle Born batteries, they did little or no testing and relied on the reputation of the company. Now they’ve all gotten burned, just like the battery owners.
Battleborn, lots of hype. Paper warranty.
Terrible company.
I also had a recent lithium battery problem, but with a different brand & totally different experience. I have 2 Expion 360 large cube batteries (368AH ea). At 1 year, I sensed something was wrong with 1 of them, so I called Expion. After following their very simple, short test, they insisted I return both batteries at their expense. They tested & determined 1 of the batteries was defective & the other was within specs, but had slightly degraded in 1 year. They insisted on replacing both batteries & shipped them free. I installed them & they have worked perfectly for over 2 years now. They even followed up a month later to make sure everything was ok. A class act.
Nice to hear, Fred. Thank you for sharing. This is a night and day difference from the Battle Born warranty experiences my fellow campers had. Like in the video, it was simply not worthwhile for them.
Battleborn has always been all about marketing and hype. They are built in China just like all the other lithium batteries using the same kind of cells. The big difference is the label stuck to the box. Personally, I went with SOK batteries 3 years ago and have had no issues at all and they were less than half the price of the Battleborns. For some reason, some RV manufacturers still “feature” Battleborn batteries 🙂
Carl, while it’s true that virtually all of the LiFePO4 battery cells and most other components of batteries are made in China, Battleborn and several other companies engineer and assemble their batteries here in the US. Sadly, this episode reinforces the fact that you can’t assume better quality because something is built here.
SOK batteries are high-quality products, designed to be fully serviceable. I’ve never heard anything negative about them.
Another great company is SFK, who designs and builds their batteries in Baton Rouge, LA. They’re also fully serviceable and I’ve been very happy with the pair of their 300HP batteries that I installed a couple of years ago.
I don’t think the Lithium battery manufactures are telling us the truth. I have a problem with two Li Time 100 amp hr rv batteries installed in parallel that were not draining down evenly. Never noticed it in the year I owned until I put the camper away for the winter. Than I hooked a small DC Christmas tree and noticed they were not draining down evenly and quicker than I thought they would. Wasn’t enthused about Li Times response. Will try to correct in the spring. Batteries should be install and use with no issues with from installation to batteries end of life
I have had LiTime batteries for going on 3 years now and have had no issues. But I guess every company can potentially have problems. I am disaapointed they were not helpful to you, though.
Why would install battleborn AGAIN ? So many other less expensive alternatives now on the market
Less expensive AND high quality, like SOK and SFK that I linked above. That said, there are a lot of sketchy products on Amazon at really low prices. The “brands” come and go, sometimes in a matter of weeks. Avoid the bottom of the market, as when you have problems, you may have no one to turn to for help.
There is a YouTube video showing battle born issues. What is happening is the connections are not tightened down on either terminal. It is my understanding that loose connections cause heat buildup that leads to a fire.
All the lithium RV batteries I have seen for terminal torque specs and everyone needs to use them. I there are no torque specs, walk away!
It turns out that there are several other issues, including in their 270Ah batteries, which have no mechanical connection between the cells and the upper plate that serves as a bus bar. Unbelievable!
Seems Battle Born batteries have the Nevada Warranty: “Guaranteed not to rust, bust, turn to dust, shake, rattle, roll, or run up a hill backwards. But, when it breaks, you get to keep all the pieces.” (Got that from a buddy in the auto parts business who gave that warranty when he sold race car parts)
The old “guaranteed not to ripe, rattle or rundown until it leaves the front door!”
If RVTravel has negative comments about a product, it is the kiss of death to Battle Born products.
When I bought my 4 100amp batteries, I looked at Battleborn but ended up going with Renogy. In fact, I recently bought one for my trolling motor. While I have had zero issue with the batteries themselves, I have had some issues with their app, and after having them registered for 3-years, Renogy changed their online registration wiping out all the records. Rather than email people that they were doing this, I found out by registering my new trolling motor battery and seeing all my data had been erased.
This Battle Born debacle is a textbook case in how NOT to handle a serious defect in a product. Here are some lessons they should learn:
Failing to fix issues that were identified at least 7 years ago was a recipe for a future disaster. Blaming customers for poor installation just alienates ALL of your customers. Claiming that a glaring defect is actually a feature completely destroys your credibility. Charging customers with defective products for return shipping PLUS a hefty fee for examining their defective products proves that your warranty isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.
There’s a class-action lawsuit in the works that will likely spell the death of the company. Well deserved!
It appears that things have changed warranty-wise at Battleborn/Dragonfly Energy. I bought 2 BBs in Quartzite in 2020. I installed them on a 2006 Travel Supreme MH. They both failed in 2023 when their voltages dropped to single digits after any load. During that time, I was using a Magnum 2012 full sine wave inverter. At about the same time, the controller boards for our Dometic awning and Equalizer System hydraulic jacks also failed, both powered by the BBs. With the BBs still under warranty, BB shipped me a pallet with free return of the batteries. They quickly shipped me 2 new ones. I was so impressed with their customer service that I ordered 2 more BBs and their Victron inverter.
When the BBs failed, I placed a call to BB and they called me back the same day after their closing hours. What other company does that?I have since called them about various Victron products and always received great customer service. I sold the Travel Supreme in 2024 but since then the BBs are still going strong per the current owner. I don’t know if BB knows what’s wrong with so many of their expensive batteries. They need to get their house in order before it’s too late. Meanwhile, I’ve had no issues with their state-of-the-art Victron products, which they sell and support but don’t manufacture.
I have been flirting with the idea of swapping out 4 flooded for lithium. But I am curious as to why Mark or anyone with an RV would install 6!! I thought one positive aspect to Lithium was the elimination of weight and connections.
i understand one good lithium could replace my 4 flooded.
Plus they can withstand deep discharge without harm. Recharge quicker too.
Can someone explain why he would NEED 6?
Sorry but “one good lithium could replace my 4 flooded” unless you are no comparing apples to apples (amp hr). If your are replacing 4 100amp flooded, I would go with 4 100amp or 2 200 amp lithium. Personally, I would not go with a 400 amp lithium as I prefer the redundancy of having multiple batteries. If one fails for some reason, I can remove it and still be going strong!
Capacity testing annually, which I did for 7 years, using the BB recommended protocol, made it easy to detect trends and allowed for a replacement of 2 of my 3 100AH Battleborn batteries when they fell below 80 % capacity. UNDER Warranty and at no cost to me.
Who knows what conditions this individual and others put these poor batteries thru to have them fail? Will Prowse does short term tests and cute tear aparts to base his recommendations on when the only legitimate tests are long term under the typical conditions that RV energy systems are exposed.
If you have BB batteries that are exhibiting internal overheating on the positive terminal please file a safety complaint with the consumer products safety commission. This is the best way to get BB to fix the design issue causing the loose internal connection on the positive terminal. The overheating internal connection is a safety issue.