Battleborn Battery Safety Issue

[John Dorrer]

2 hours ago, Mike and Carol said:

It’s a good thing we have grandkids to help us through these technical challenges!!

👍

[Geronimo John]

Wow.  Going to reassess my BB's now.

GJ

 

Edited January 11 by Geronimo John

[Geronimo John]

Patriot/CRM: 

Thanks for posting Will's latest video.  Pretty much substantiates my claim of melting plastic as a source.  But it does not explain all the other issues he is pointing out.  

Sad and potentially dangeros situtation.

If you have BB's, it is a must see video.

GJ

Edited January 11 by Geronimo John

[Geronimo John]

On 12/18/2025 at 3:47 PM, Geronimo John said:

One of the very spot on early-on statements of this forum was from Patriot:

Their first written response as shreadded in the YouTube response was characterized as "Gaslighting".  I think that was a bit harsh.  But it did not go over as well as I am sure DF wished. They would have been better served by stating that they have been made aware of the issue, and will commit the resources to determine the root cause.  And then appropriate remediation as appropriate.  They lost ground that can not easily be made up.  But the PR damage is done, and it needs to be repaired.

Back in December Dragon Fly took a torpedo.  Sadly Dragon Fly did not appear to take any effection efforts to get  ahead of the situtation.  

Now it looks like Will sent them a full spread of them.  In light of zero response, their reputation is going down with the ship.....

[Mike and Carol]

2 hours ago, Geronimo John said:

Back in December Dragon Fly took a torpedo.  Sadly Dragon Fly did not appear to take any effection efforts to get  ahead of the situtation.  

Now it looks like Will sent them a full spread of them.  In light of zero response, their reputation is going down with the ship.....

I agree that their reputation has taken a significant hit.  Will has a huge number of followers.  The issues he found are shocking but why is it that I have the same battery (X3) that are 4 years old and have been through a bunch of discharge/recharge cycles and they appear to be in the same condition today that they did in January 2021?  Is Dragon Fly handling complaints quietly under their 10 year warranty or are there no real amount of battery failures out there?  Surely they have lawyers advising them.  If the design issue is as Will describes, why haven’t I received notification from DF that my batteries are prone to meltdown and/or burning up?  

As I mentioned before, I feel like there’s something here that seems a bit off.  I will continue to track this issue while cautiously using my Battle Born’s as I have since 2021. Mike

[John Dorrer]

Mike Sokol, the RV Electric Guru has prepare a lengthy list of questions to Dragonfly/ Battleborn, and to date he hasn't reported a response.

[rideandfly]

The following thread on Will Prowse's forum started last August, (mentioned on page 1 of this thread) is up to 62 pages so far, 

https://diysolarforum.com/threads/battle-born-battery-issue.110295/

I cannot embed the YouTube link, but "Will's Garage" (not Will Prowse) on YouTube has done a BB autopsy with discussion videos.

This video by "All About RV's" shows Will Prowse's video and expands on the subject:

 

Edited January 13 by rideandfly

[rich.dev]

So here’s yet another very disgruntled BB “ex” customer! I’ve followed Mark (GrandAdventure YouTube channel) for many years, and like Will Prowse I believe he’s also pretty fair on his content. 

 

[Mike and Carol]

1 hour ago, rich.dev said:

So here’s yet another very disgruntled BB “ex” customer! I’ve followed Mark (GrandAdventure YouTube channel) for many years, and like Will Prowse I believe he’s also pretty fair on his content. 

Bad news continues….

[mossemi]

I am going to go against the grain of this topic and ask 'who on this forum has experienced any problem with the Battle Born batteries'?

The only BB failure that I am aware of on this forum was 1 of 4 BB's Overland installed is his LE2.

I purchased 3 BB batteries in 2021, in part because of Will Prowse's review's and I have not experienced any problems as of today.

I did have a conversation with the BB company representatives at the 2026 RV Super Show in Tampa this month and my takeaways from that conversation were:

1- the so called defect is a designed failure point.

2- is Will Prowse a Electrical Engineer?

3- how many batteries has Will Prowse designed, built and manufactured?

4- this all came about after Will Prowse's monetary involvement with Battle Born ceased.

5- I think Will Prowse's job title is ‘influencer' and his influence was a major contributor to my decision to purchase and install 3 Battle Born batteries in our Oliver Travel Trailer.

Mossey

[rideandfly]

14 minutes ago, mossemi said:

I am going to go against the grain of this topic and ask 'who on this forum has experienced any problem with the Battle Born batteries'?

We have one BB 100AH 5 years old and two BB 100AH less than 1 year old, We have not experienced any issues with BB batteries so far. We recently installed two Epoch 105AH Smart batteries in Ollie and moved two newer BB batteries to a stationary non RV application.

[Mike and Carol]

56 minutes ago, mossemi said:

I am going to go against the grain of this topic and ask 'who on this forum has experienced any problem with the Battle Born batteries'?

My 3 Battle Born batteries were installed in December 2020.  No issues after lots of use.  I’m sticking with them while keeping an eye on any heat or discoloration issues.  Mike

[Patriot]

Will Prowse update.

 

 

[John Dorrer]

1 hour ago, Patriot said:

Will Prowse update.

 

 

Beat me to it. Unbeliveable

[CRM]

3 hours ago, Patriot said:

Will Prowse update.

 

You couldn't pay me enough to ever put these in my Ollie. 

[jd1923]

26 minutes ago, CRM said:

You couldn't pay me enough to ever put these in my Ollie. 

After seeing this, me too! Why are the leads bolted together? Why were they all loose? Can’t tell unless you invalidate warranty by sawing the case open! 

[CRM]

8 minutes ago, jd1923 said:

After seeing this, me too! Why are the leads bolted together? Why were they all loose? Can’t tell unless you invalidate warranty by sawing the case open! 

Putting plastic between the conductors does it for me. That's not a safety feature, it's a bad design. 

[Geronimo John]

The "Where do we go from here" statement is on point.   If Dragon Fly is not going to honor their warranty without fees, then the answer is:  Class Action.

I am starting to think that Dragonfly took the Ford approach to Phasers and not the Toyota approach to their EcoBoost head problem. 

GJ

 

Edited 12 hours ago by Geronimo John

[Wayfinder]

And yet more potential bad news for BB. They better get a handle on this or they may have some rough times ahead - true or not.

Will's latest YT video "Battleborn 270Ah Failure! Yikes!" has been up for 1 day and viewed more than 87,000 times. 🤦‍♂️

Looking from the outside in, it appears BB may indeed have an engineering issue on their hands. I think Will was a bit shocked at how the 270Ah was constructed. Not sure why BB chose to completely seal the batteries without screws.  Maybe to save money and/or safety.  Who knows.  This situation, if true, is cyclical - not the first time, and not the last time, as long as we roam the Earth we'll see this stuff.

Experience should have taught us that we seldom get a "good deal" for less money spent.  I think that's now a law, isn't it? If so, I can't stand that law.  🤣

The best thing to take away from all this social media is, at least, awareness.  As I recently discovered my girlfriends very dry lead acid battery about to explode from heat, this is a bit close to home for me. I nearly burned my hand on the battery plastic housing, it was that bad.  

It's always a good idea to carry a digital thermometer or even a thermal imager for your phone.  I was going to be adding a thermal imager to my gear soon, even before these vids started showing up.  I might drag my butt out to Texas for five weeks of RV tech training after retirement.  We'll see if I have the continued inspiration.

 

[Mike and Carol]

I watched Will’s latest video this morning.  The news keeps getting more disappointing.  I’m looking at replacements now, the BB’s have been fine so far but don’t want to wait for a failure before taking action.

[Galway Girl]

Hoping for the best for all BB owners. 

Edited Sunday at 10:33 PM by Galway Girl
Comment

[rich.dev]

I don’t have a brick in this wall and I’m glad I don’t! But from what I’ve seen BB’s lame response to the issues many owners have been reporting, and not owning up to the fact their batteries have an issue has been so atrocious that nobody should ever buy their product. If I had a solar business and had customers demanding BB batteries I would politely ask them to go elsewhere to have that done..just my opinion! 

Edited Sunday at 11:38 PM by rich.dev

[Patriot]

Another Will Prowse update, as the saga continues. This time on a BB 270 Ah battery. Suffice to say, Battleborn has really big problems that are not going away.

 

Edited yesterday at 02:24 AM by Patriot

[Patriot]

3 hours ago, rich.dev said:

I don’t have a brick in this wall and I’m glad I don’t! But from what I’ve seen BB’s lame response to the issues many owners have been reporting, and not owning up to the fact their batteries have an issue has been so atrocious that nobody should ever buy their product. If I had a solar business and had customers demanding BB batteries I would politely ask them to go elsewhere to have that done..just my opinion! 

It appears BB with their lame responses have taken gaslighting to a whole new level.
Now there is a class action law suit. I don’t see how they will ever recover.

Edited yesterday at 02:46 AM by Patriot

[jd1923]

6 hours ago, Mike and Carol said:

I’m looking at replacements now, the BB’s have been fine so far but don’t want to wait for a failure before taking action.

I was talking with an Oliver friend of ours at Quartzsite (he may chime in).

He wanted to upgrade to LiFePO4 batteries but wasn't interested in much more Ah capacity. There was an Epoch booth at Q that we visited. The answer was to go with the Epoch Essentials 105 Ah battery at $499 ($424 at 15% off). IMO, you really want the self-heating and Bluetooth features of the Essentials Series. Up to 4 of these will fit in the Oliver battery tray (21x14"), with a 10.25 x 6.75" footprint 9" tall. Just a thought for Oliver owners replacing three 100 Ah Battleborn batteries.

The next step up is 2x 300 Ah Essentials. Call me crazy, but we're lovin' our 900 Ah with these great features. 😎

https://www.epochbatteries.com/products/12v-105ah-heated-bluetooth-lifepo4-battery-epoch-essentials