KiloVault Lithium Solar BatteryWrite a review

I had purchased the HLX 3600 to use in an unheated power shed (in Maine) to power some test equipment fully aware that they aren't supposed to be used in lower than freezing conditions. The good news is I was able to actually discharge them well below O degrees F but around January I realized they weren't charging. Oops - I knew better. So I changed out the HLXs for the cold-rated CHLXs and sure enough, they work like a charm. I didn't have any issues again with charging in sub-zero conditions. Oh and they work well in the summer too - even though the shed's not cooled at all either. ;)

In full disclosure, I'm the CEO of altE and bluShift Aerospace. We are using the HLXs and CHLX's to power our rocket engine test stand, powering everything from data collection equipment, heating systems for specialty gases, cameras, etc. at the test stand. My guess is that bluShift is one of the only rocket companies to use strictly solar power at its engine test site facilities for power.

With Alte's awesome support, we just finished installation of a 2KW system for a remote off grid cabin in New Hampshire's mountains. Everything is running great so far. Can't wait to see how the klv1800CHLX batteries work this winter.

I have 16 batteries. 8 are V2 and 8 V3. When I got the V3 they said mixing them should be fine. However now the website says I can’t do that because the BMS’s are incompatible and I have noticed a wide range of state of charge between them. The V2 will charge and discharge much faster. V2 can be at 50% SOC while the V3 can be at 80% SOC.

I was looking at getting the 48volt kilovault battery balancers, but I’m not sure if that will do any good if the BMS’s are compatible.

Any recommendations Alt-E?

I was not allowed to update my previous review until I created a new account.
AltE did replace the original battery with the defective BMS. The replacement battery, a 3600 HLX V3, is a big disappointment. It will discharge as advertised, however, it does not charge as advertised and causes significant issues. The updated BMS in this battery does not work anywhere near properly. The replacement battery experiences issues when the charge controller exceeds charging it above 55 amps. After 3 months of use and monitoring the battery with my own equipment during this time I am reasonably sure I have determined the defect with this battery. Incidentally I have produced over 200kWh in this time frame and the battery only registers 3 cycles???? My estimation is that should be around 35 cycles higher!!!

Since the above review is anonymous, we're uncertain of the details. However, we have worked with a customer who had a similar issue and, upon providing a screenshot of the Bluetooth app, demonstrated that the battery was being charged strongly at a voltage that exceeded "full" and beyond what is specified in the operations manual.

The KiloVault BMS is there to protect the batteries from being overcharged, overheated or run at very low temperatures. The KiloVault BMS is one of the most robust, in terms of current carrying abilities, of any batteries of the same class. The situation you described above is most likely due to the battery being full and it forcing the current down. There is a point where the BMS will completely shutdown the battery to protect itself if the charger continues to charge, ignoring the voltage levels.

As with any lithium battery it is vital that the user completely understand the voltage settings required to be programmed into the charge controller. If the controller used is unable to accept voltage setpoints that correlate to those described in the manual then another charge controller should be used that can. We recommend charge controllers from brands such as Schneider, Midnite, Morningstar, Outback and Victron.

Also, please note that it is still possible that a mis-programmed charge controller (allowed to charge at consistently at voltages that are too high) will shorten the battery cell's life and certainly void the warranty.

The cycle count parameter, visible with the Bluetooth app, may not correctly catch battery cycles that are not "deep". As such, if the user is regularly using the battery to say only 50% of capacity, like one would do with traditional lead acid batteries, then the programming of early V3's won't recognize that as a cycle. The cycle count isn't vital to the functioning of the battery but is of course very interesting to be aware of. A different algorithm is being used for newer HLX batteries that takes into account overall energy use for cycle count instead of SOC. Please note that the HLX warranty is no longer cycle count dependent.

Bought 2 new 12V HLX+ 300AH batteries. Within a month my inverter would randomly shut off like someone tripped a breaker. Batteries were charged fully and both match voltage and SOC. Changed out Inverter, cables, made sure settings were to spec. Told the batteries were not balanced. Bought a Kilovault battery balancer and still the same. Response from AltE "waiting on engineers to replicate issue". 100% its the BMS on one of the batteries. Spent $5k on batteries and other crap to have power shutoff every night due to a bad battery and wait for them to "replicate". Wish I went with another brand!