Battleborn Battery Safety Issue

[jd1923]

3 hours ago, Galway Girl said:

those with the Xantrex Freedom XC2000 inverter…

Great post, Craig!

[Mike and Carol]

Battle Borns gone.  Epoch’s installed.  Hold down straps aren’t on yet.

[jd1923]

46 minutes ago, Mike and Carol said:

Epoch’s installed.

Mike, very happy for you, on your 600 Ah upgrade!

It looks like you used the bolts that came with the Epochs on all 4 posts. I found when the 4/0 lugs were doubled up that the OEM bolts only had a few threads to hold on. Yours might be fine, depends on the thickness of the lugs, but on two I used M8 bolts 5mm longer (see pic).

[Mike and Carol]

56 minutes ago, jd1923 said:

Mike, very happy for you, on your 600 Ah upgrade!

It looks like you used the bolts that came with the Epochs on all 4 posts. I found when the 4/0 lugs were doubled up that the OEM bolts only had a few threads to hold on. Yours might be fine, depends on the thickness of the lugs, but on two I used M8 bolts 5mm longer (see pic).

John, thanks.  I’m using 2/0 cables.  I asked the Epoch guy and he said 2/0 or bigger.  I also have some longer M8 bolts that I ordered just in case.  The bolts that came with the batteries work fine.  I’m happy with the upgrade!

[jd1923]

13 hours ago, Mike and Carol said:

John, thanks.  I’m using 2/0 cables.  I asked the Epoch guy and he said 2/0 or bigger.  I also have some longer M8 bolts that I ordered just in case.  The bolts that came with the batteries work fine.  I’m happy with the upgrade!

Excellent Mike! hard to determine cable size in a picture.

It’s more the load to spec wire gauge and fuse amperage vs. battery type or Ah. If you have a 2KW inverter, 2/0 wire and 250A fuse are fine. 4/0 wire and higher fuse amperage are required to run a 3KW inverter at full capacity. 😎

Edited March 1 by jd1923

[rich.dev]

Ouch for BB…yet another video from Will Prowse, he’s not holding back in this one! 😀

 

[John Dorrer]

17 minutes ago, rich.dev said:

Ouch for BB…yet another video from Will Prowse, he’s not holding back in this one! 😀

 

You beat me to it. Unbelievable.

[Wayfinder]

If it's as bad as it appears, I hope they (BB) don't wait for someone to get hurt or worse, die, from a battery fire.  

What a shame.

[Geronimo John]

On 3/16/2026 at 2:22 PM, Wayfinder said:

If it's as bad as it appears, I hope they (BB) don't wait for someone to get hurt or worse, die, from a battery fire.  

What a shame.

The average vintage of RV owner's is such that Dragon Fly should be worried about just such a tragedy.  

[Wayfinder]

Here are recommended products by Will. He loves EPOCH and Victron. 
 

 

[rideandfly]

We had two newer BB 100AH batteries in Ollie, but recently installed two 105 AH Epoch batteries in parallel. I like the physically smaller/lighter Epoch batteries for our application compared to BB along with Epoch's customer support and Epoch's app to monitor Epoch Bluetooth Smart battery condition. 

Really like the built in Epoch carry handles on the 105AH batteries making it easy to install & remove these 22lb batteries.

We don't have factory solar or an inverter like many folks here. We have a Progressive Dynamics 45 amp charger and also charge with up to two Renogy 100W Portable Suitcase Solar Panels and Renogy Solar controller when away from shore power.

Looking forward to seeing how fast the Epoch batteries will charge with 100W Portable Suitcase Solar Panels during the 2026 camping season.

[mountainoliver]

5 hours ago, Wayfinder said:

 

Here are recommended products by Will. He loves EPOCH and Victron. 

 

Not at all getting on your case because part of my lithium battery research 6 years ago was Will’s channel and still is part of my solar/battery research. I purchased three BB batteries then along with several Oliver friends. Back then BB batteries were the gold standard. Back then Will did all sorts of testing, he went to the BB “factory”, and interviewed the owner. He was as excited about BB batteries as a little kid at Christmas. They could do no wrong back then. Fast forward to today, something changed. Anyway we do the best we can with our research and still…..🤞🤪

[rich.dev]

6 minutes ago, mountainoliver said:

Fast forward to today, something changed. Anyway we do the best we can with our research and still…..🤞🤪

Will obviously now has more and better equipment than he did a few years back, and what really changed is that he discovered some significant problems with BB batteries.  

[mountainoliver]

15 minutes ago, rich.dev said:

Will obviously now has more and better equipment than he did a few years back, and what really changed is that he discovered some significant problems with BB batteries. 

Yeah, my previous post was really meant to be tongue in cheek. I guess you can’t 100% substitute actual long term day in day out use with fake accelerated simulated use testing.

[John Dorrer]

Mike Sokol's Newsletter will be sharing his interview with Battleborn

 

[rideandfly]

3 hours ago, John Dorrer said:

Mike Sokol's Newsletter will be sharing his interview with Battleborn

 

Looking forward to reading this interview. Thanks!

[topgun2]

I find it VERY interesting that recently there are more ads for Battle Born on my MSN page.

Anyone else seeing this increase in advertising?

Bill

[jd1923]

6 hours ago, topgun2 said:

I find it VERY interesting that recently there are more ads for Battle Born on my MSN page.

Anyone else seeing this increase in advertising?

Bill

Oh yeah, all your search history is being traced! It knows what you searched for and is feeding you what you like!

I stopped using Google years ago, use MS Edge only if a website error occurs with my browser of choice. We use DuckDuckGo which removes many tracers.

They’re not that smart yet, but of course getting smarter. I used to always get tire ads for a couple months AFTER I made my tire purchase!

[Mike and Carol]

1 hour ago, jd1923 said:

I stopped using Google years ago, use MS Edge only if a website error occurs with my browser of choice. We use DuckDuckGo which removes many tracers.

We use Brave for our browser and DuckDuckGo for our search engine. 

[Wayfinder]

I asked my Uncle AI (Claude) about methods and solutions.  So I do not bore you, here's the final paragraph from Claude.ai.

 

The biggest bang-for-buck combo is Brave + uBlock Origin + DuckDuckGo — takes about 10 minutes to set up and eliminates the vast majority of tracking and ads most people encounter.

[Mike and Carol]

2 hours ago, Wayfinder said:

The biggest bang-for-buck combo is Brave + uBlock Origin + DuckDuckGo — takes about 10 minutes to set up and eliminates the vast majority of tracking and ads most people encounter.

Works well for us!

[John Dorrer]

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1ABG97SjiK/https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1ABG97SjiK/

 

[John Dorrer]

Here is the Mike Sokol Battleborn interview with Battleborn. I can't figure out how to make this viewable to everyone. For Facebook members, you can open the post before this one.

 

Mike Sokol interviews Denis Phares from Battle Born Batteries on lithium battery
terminal overheating!
“I reached out to Dragonfly Energy (Maker of Battle Born Batteries) a few months ago after a number of my
readers at RVelectricity.SubStack.com asked me to investigate if there was a design flaw with Battle Born
Batteries that could cause them to overheat in their RVs. After a few in-depth conversations with Dragonfly
Energy’s Founder and CEO, Dr. Denis Phares, I asked for a written interview. Following are my unedited
questions and Battle Born’s answers.” - Mike Sokol
Mike Sokol: Exactly who is Dragonfly Energy and when did they start building Battle Born batteries?
Denis Phares: Dragonfly Energy is a U.S.-based energy storage technology company headquartered in
Reno, Nevada. We design and manufacture lithium iron phosphate battery systems for applications including
RV, marine, off-grid, and commercial use.
Battle Born Batteries is our flagship brand, focused on deep-cycle lithium batteries and complete power
systems for real-world applications. We brought our first deep-cycle LiFePO4 battery products to market in
2014.
Mike: How long has this core battery architecture been in use, and what does its track record look like across
real-world deployments?
Denis: The core battery architecture for the 100Ah models was developed and validated between 2014 and
2017, with the product first reaching market in 2016.
Since then, it’s been deployed at large scale across RV, marine, off-grid systems and in commercial
applications. That long-term field use, combined with consistently low warranty rates, gives us a clear, data-
backed understanding of how the design performs across a wide range of real-world conditions, environments,
and installation types. At this point, the performance isn’t theoretical, it’s based on years of observed behavior
in the field.
The design has also been repeatedly validated through third-party certification testing. This includes achieving
the ETL mark by Intertek, where the batteries were tested to UL 2054 standards, among others. The most
stringent electrical test requires the battery to survive a short circuit where the primary protection mechanism is
faulted. In our case, this amounted to completely bypassing the Battery Management System (BMS). Our 12V
100Ah (BB10012) model in particular is among the most extensively tested and certified deep-cycle LiFePO4
batteries in its class.
Taken together, that combination of certification testing and long-term field data provides a consistent and well-
understood picture of how the products perform. They perform safely and as designed.
Mike: How many Battle Born batteries with this design architecture are currently in the field?
Denis: Based on our sales information, there are over 400,000 Battle Born Batteries in the field today across
a wide range of models and applications.
A significant portion of that installed base is our 12V 100Ah batteries, which are the most widely deployed
configuration. That scale spans everything from RV and marine systems to full-time off-grid and commercial
use.
Mike: Since there’s approximately 400,000 Battle Born batteries in use, have there been any large design
changes based on user feedback or returns?
Denis: There have been no fundamental changes to the core battery architecture.
That consistency is intentional. The design was validated through extensive internal testing and third-party
certification, and the long-term field data has remained consistent with those results. Maintaining these
certifications requires that any component changes be relisted and revalidated through third-party testing,
ensuring continued compliance with the same safety standards.
Mike: At a high level, what layers of protection are built into Battle Born lithium batteries, and how do they
work together to assure maximum safety?
Denis: Battle Born Batteries are designed with multiple layers of protection that work together as a system.
At the chemistry level, we use lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4), which is inherently more stable and resistant
to thermal runaway than other lithium chemistries.
At the electrical level, the battery management system actively protects against overcharge, over-discharge,
overcurrent, short circuit, and temperature extremes.
At the mechanical level, the batteries use a flame-retardant enclosure and cylindrical cells, a format known for
mechanical durability, efficient heat dissipation, and integrated pressure relief features, along with physical
spacing that enables passive thermal management.
Each of these layers is independently effective, and together they provide a system designed to prevent
conditions from escalating.
Mike: Why does that internal fail-safe system exist in your batteries in the first place?
Denis: The internal fail-safe exists because of how these batteries are evaluated and used in real-world RV
OEM applications.
To be used in RV OEM installations, batteries must meet safety expectations aligned with RVIA standards,
which rely on certifications like UL 2054. That standard includes the single-fault short-circuit test, where the
battery is subjected to a direct short with no electronic protection active and must not produce fire. This testing
is repeated across multiple units to ensure consistent results.
The battery architecture was designed with that requirement in mind. In addition to the battery management
system, the design includes a passive, built-in fail-safe within the positive terminal inside the battery pack.
Under normal operation, it conducts power with very low resistance. Under sustained fault conditions, it
transitions to a high-resistance state and stops current flow.
In practical terms, this creates a defined point where current can be interrupted if conditions become unsafe.
That behavior has been validated through both certification testing and long-term field data, where the outcome
is consistent: the battery stops delivering power rather than allowing the condition to escalate.
Mike: When people notice heat at or near the battery terminals, what’s usually going on electrically—and how
is that different from an internal failure in a battery causing the problem itself?
Denis: In high-current DC systems like RV and off-grid applications, heat at or near battery terminals is
almost always related to resistance in the external electrical system, not an internal battery issue.
Common causes include loose connections, improper torque, undersized wiring, or resistance elsewhere in the
system such as bus bars, disconnects, or inverter connections. When current flows through a high-resistance
point, it generates heat.
Heat can also travel along conductors, so it may appear to originate at the battery even when the source is
elsewhere in the system.
The battery is designed to operate normally under proper installation conditions. If a sustained fault develops,
such as prolonged heat at a connection point, the internal fail-safe at the positive terminal responds by
increasing resistance and interrupting current.
So, in most cases, what people are seeing is not originating within the battery itself, but the battery responding
to conditions elsewhere in the system in a controlled way, as designed.
Mike: There’s been a number of YouTube videos showing overheating of Battle Born batteries. Is that a
normal occurrence with an intact battery, or has disassembling the battery for demonstration videos actually
created the overheating condition?
Denis: The videos questioning the positive terminal design in our 100Ah battery are technically invalid, and
here's exactly why.
The positive terminal in a Battle Born 100Ah battery is a sealed, structurally constrained assembly. The brass
terminal is epoxy-bonded to the lid, which holds the internal components under fixed compression. That's not
incidental to the design, it's central to it. Under a sustained thermal fault condition, the polymer layer softens,
reducing contact pressure at the metal interfaces. As that pressure collapses, current concentrates at
microscopic contact points, causing rapid localized heating. This accelerates the formation of an insulating
aluminum oxide layer, which quickly drives the terminal into a high-resistance state and stops current flow. The
battery shuts down. No fire, no escalation.
When you remove the lid to film what's happening, you've eliminated the structural constraint the mechanism
depends on. The terminal is now free to move. Cable torque drives continuous motion between the contacts,
which keeps exposing fresh metal surface at the contacts, preventing the protective oxide from ever
completing. The result is sustained arcing that looks alarming on video, but is entirely a product of the
disassembly, not how the intact battery behaves.
In other words, opening the battery to observe the safety mechanism creates a measurement artifact. An intact
battery in the same fault condition shuts down effectively. The data, science, and more than a decade of field
use consistently support that.
Mike: How many battery terminal overheating complaints have you had at your help desk, and what
percentage of your help desk calls are from terminal overheating?
Denis: Relying on data from 100Ah batteries evaluated through our warranty process since early 2022,
approximately 0.2% of units across the installed base have exhibited elevated resistance at the positive
terminal.
These cases do not appear to be the result of an internal battery failure. Based on our examination of the
returned batteries, they are overwhelmingly associated with external factors such as improper installation, poor
connections, or system conditions that create resistance and heat at the connection point.
Importantly, these events have not resulted in any outcomes that would indicate a battery safety issue and are
typically resolved through straightforward troubleshooting or warranty support.
We have also closely monitored support activity following the recent videos. While they prompted increased
customer inquiries and inspections, we did not observe any increase in or change in type of warranty claims.
Terminal-related inquiries represent a small portion of overall support volume. The majority of help desk
interactions are related to system setup, charging, or integration, not battery safety concerns.
Mike: Have you separated out any battery terminal overheating failures into DIY and Dealer installations? If
so, what are the numbers and percentages?
Denis: We do not categorize every case with a formal DIY versus dealer label, but we do analyze warranty
data across OEM and non-OEM installations, and the pattern is consistent.
In OEM installations, where torque specifications and conductor sizing are standardized, cutoff events are
extremely rare. The cases we do observe are overwhelmingly concentrated in non-OEM installations, where
factors such as connection quality, loose terminations, undersized cables, or improper torque can introduce
resistance at the terminal interface.
This is not a generalization about DIY installations. Many are done very well. The consistent observation is that
installation quality and system conditions are the primary drivers of these events, rather than an issue within
the battery itself.
Mike: From an installation perspective, how important are best wiring practices, proper torque of
terminations, and correct conductor size compared to internal construction the battery itself?
Denis: They are critical.
In high-current DC systems, connection quality, proper torque, and correct conductor sizing are just as
important as the battery itself. Even a small amount of resistance at a connection point can generate significant
heat under load. If connections are loose, undersized, or improperly installed, heat will develop regardless of
the battery being used.
Mike: Do you train your dealers on best practices for Battle Born battery installations?
Denis: Yes. Education has been a core part of our approach from early on, and we provide ongoing training
and support to dealers and installers on best practices for system design and battery installation, including
wiring, connection methods, and overall system integration.
This includes technical documentation, direct support from our U.S.-based team, and formal training programs,
including RVTIA Level certification courses.
The goal is to provide the support to help ensure installations are done correctly and consistently.
Mike: How does Battle Born’s Nevada-based technical support team handle questions about battery design
and safety, especially when the issue may involve the broader electrical system?
Denis: Our Nevada-based technical support team takes a system-level approach.
When customers reach out with questions, we don’t just look at the battery in isolation. We work through the full
electrical system, including wiring, connections, charging sources, and loads, to identify where issues may be
coming from.
That often means helping customers troubleshoot installation-related factors such as connection quality,
conductor sizing, or integration with other components in the system.
The goal is to provide clear, practical guidance to help ensure the entire system is operating safely and as
intended.
Mike: How does Battle Born’s technical support team adapt as new questions or concerns trend within the
RV and off-grid community over time?
Denis: Our technical support team has been doing this for a long time, and they’re not just repeating
information. They’re actively problem-solving.
We’ve been supporting lithium battery systems in these applications for over a decade, so the team has
extensive experience working through a wide range of system behaviors, including more complex or less
common configurations.
As new questions or trends emerge, the team works directly with customers to identify root causes and
practical solutions.
Mike: For customers worried about internal battery issues, what can they realistically observe, and what
should prompt them to reach out for Battle Born support instead of guessing or watching a YouTube video?
Denis: In most cases, customers are not going to observe an internal battery issue directly. What they’re
seeing are system-level symptoms.
Things like heat at a connection point, intermittent performance, or unexpected behavior are typically related to
the broader electrical system, not the battery itself, and are not unique to any one brand but common
considerations in any battery-based system.
If anything seems abnormal or persistent, such as excessive heat or loss of performance, the best next step is
to reach out to our technical support team rather than trying to diagnose it based on assumptions or online
videos.
Mike: If a customer notices overheating at battery terminals or wiring, intermittent performance such as loss
of capacity, or anything that doesn’t seem right in their electrical system, what’s the safest next step and who
should they contact?”
Denis: If something doesn’t seem right, the safest first step is to stop using the system and disconnect power
if it can be done safely.
From there, they should contact our technical support team so we can help diagnose the issue and guide next
steps.
END
Mike Sokol from RVelectricity.com and the NoShockZone is an independent electrical safety instructor and
consultant working out of his FunkWorks Lab in Funkstown, Maryland where he tests a variety of electrical
products and systems for the RV industry. As many of you know, Mike’s been producing electrical safety and
use articles for RV consumers and technicians over the last 16 years.

Sokol_Bb_Interview_Substack.pdf

Edited Friday at 02:04 PM by John Dorrer
Updated Comment

[CRM]

I wish he was testing several off the shelf batteries and not just the one provided by Battleborn themselves. 

There are also more issues in question than just the terminal overheating problem and I hope he addresses each one of those too. 

[rideandfly]

3 hours ago, John Dorrer said:

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1ABG97SjiK/https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1ABG97SjiK/

 

I subscribed to Mike Sokol's report/newsletter after you mentioned him. Looking forward to seeing Mike's results after his experiments with a BB battery.