American-Assembled – When Marketing Claims Don’t Match the Product
.The LiFePo4 battery industry has finally matured. Unfortunately, the marketing departments of some US based battery assembly companies matured into bold, bogus tall-tales, right along with it.
Today, far too many battery companies have discovered that selling batteries is no longer about engineering. It’s about storytelling. Terms like solid-state, marine-grade, ABYC compliant, 5,000 cycles, safest battery available, and American engineered get tossed around like confetti at a political rally.
The problem?
Marketing claims don’t charge/discharge batteries. Physics does & Physics has a funny way of exposing nonsense.
The “American Battery Manufacturer” Quality Illusion
One of the most common misconceptions in the marine lithium market is the idea that buying from an American battery brand means you’re buying an American battery. You are, and you’re not!
While Lithionics still builds one of the best made LFP batteries, even they got bitch-slapped/fined by the FTC for claiming “American made”. Great batteries but assembled with mostly Chinese components. Lithionics, unlike the rest, actually manufactures their own BMS’s in North America. Their construction & reliability is second to none but they are insanely expensive and today you can find run of the mill Chinese batteries with internal construction quality on par.
What are You Getting For Your Money?
You’re buying Chinese cells, assembled into a Chinese plastic box, with a Chinese BMS, Chinese wiring, Chinese hardware, and a sticker applied in the United States. I’m not bashing China here, they now OWN the battery market worldwide, including Lead Acid. Even Trojan Is now manufacturing some of their batteries in China. The Canadian manufacturer Rolls has their AGM’s made in China.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with sourcing cells from China. Everyone does because it’s currently the only option. I suspect India will come on-line before any LFP cells are made in the USA that wind up in drop-in batteries.
The problem begins when companies imply, they’re somehow fundamentally different from every other assembler while delivering the exact same imported components. The battery industry has become remarkably skilled at selling patriotism as a feature.
Unfortunately, patriotism doesn’t increase cycle-life, improve balancing current, reduce internal resistance. It also, as we now know, does not guarantee safety or quality. Scary stuff!
Battleborn
The Gold Standard of Bloviated Marketing
Battleborn deserves credit for helping introduce Drop-in LiFePO4 batteries to the North American RV and marine markets. It ends there. Being first & insanely expensive, doesn’t exempt any manufacturer from scrutiny.
Over the years, Battleborn has heavily promoted long service life, premium construction, superior reliability, and American assembly. Their parent company, Dragonfly Energy has repeatedly described Battle Born batteries as capable of 3,000 to 5,000 cycles under typical conditions, yet, cycle-life claims alone tell only part of the story. Ass we now know, there are plenty of Battleborn batteries out there less than 6-years old that can’t even deliver 80% of rated capacity.
A battery may technically survive thousands of cycles under laboratory conditions while performing very differently in a marine environment with alternators, solar, inverter loads, heat, vibration, and imperfect charging systems. Hell, I built my own personal battery in 2009, before Battleborn even existed. That battery still delivers 101% of rated capacity at 17.5 years old and over 3000 cycles!
Series operation of 12V batteries
For years Battleborn has been selling/condoning 12V batteries for series operation in 24V, 36V & 48V systems with zero mention of series balancers. For anyone that understands electrical engineering this is patently absurd, yet Battleborn not only promoted it, they boldly told everyone it was fine, its not!
Series batteries have no way to balance themselves like parallel wired batteries do. In order to do series installs with 12V batteries they really need an external series balancing system to maximize cycle life & system performance. Battleborn did not even begin offering Victron series balancers until around 2023 or so, but they were selling 12V batteries for series operation from late 2014..
Internal construction
For a marine application the internal construction is the most critical factor in how long your LFP battery survives.Vibration is very real on boats especially go-fast fishing boats. I prefer a solid alloy/metal grid structure to secure the cells, not foam, glue or expanding foam.
Their Story Was Enticing
In 2015 we were considering becoming a Battleborn dealer, their sales pitch seemed promising, yet something wasn’t adding up? When I finally got a look at the internal construction, I pumped the brakes. There was no way in hell I was putting our stamp of approval on that mess. After I spoke with them, in more detail, which they lacked, I bailed on the idea as I knew it was only a matter of time before their internal construction bit them in the ass. Honestly, I thought it would expose itself sooner than it did.
Battleborn design flaws did show up. Before the Sh!t hit the fan, I was sent a photo of a pair of off-grid, series wired 8D Battleborn’s that had melted down. These were stationary batteries not mobile so I assumed it was due to imbalanced series-wired batteries? The owner, then posted a video and lo and behold within 24 hours it was wiped off the internet? The word I heard was, “remove the video if you want your batteries covered under warranty” . Bad design hidden from view, problem solved? Not so fast, these issues began popping up more routinely until BB could no longer sweep it under the rug.
The 8D batts:
Little did I know, at the time, the cell to cell current path in these 8D’s relied on gravity! You read that right, gravity, not bolts!
Imagine if you connected your Inverter to your battery terminals by just laying the terminals on the studs? That’s essentially what BB does with their cell modules in these 8D batteries. This image shows the bottom four cells, four more sit on top. A first grader with an erector set could do better.
The Accordian Cell Module
The reason we chose not to become a BB dealer was because the cells relied on compression from the plastic battery case and a piece of foam for current flow. The cells are made by spot welding paper-thin nickel plated copper sheet to the positive & negative sides of the cells. Each 12.8V battery has four cell blocks. The cell blocks are only bolted together at the top. The bottom bout relies on a piece of foam and the battery case to ensure current flow.
How much compression do you suppose this battery case is creating?
The Problems don’t end with 8D’s, 50Ah, 75Ah & 100Ah batteries. Their “Game Changer batteries have issues too.
The Battleborn/Will Prowse Debacle
Will Prowse is a smart guy, he’s not an EE, but I can assure you he would have done fine in electrical engineering school. Will has over 1.1 million subscribers on YouTube and has single-handedly been responsible for upping the quality of all LFP batteries. Without Will, China would still be shipping unsafe garbage as they used to. He has cut open and exposed the dirty little secrets of LFP batts since approx 2015.
Typical Pre-Will Prowse Chinese Construction (Circa 2013)
Some cylindrical cells, a single channel BMS, some filament tape, drop it into a plastic box, ship to USA. Prior to Will, this was more the norm than the exception.
Forum Members Exposed Battleborn
Will also owns a large forum called DIY Solar Power. Forum members began reporting Battleborn issues with increasing regularity. Like Will does, he tore into it. What he discovered was horrifying!
Battleborn vs. Prowse: The Odd Case of Shooting the Messenger
For years Battleborn Batteries enjoyed a reputation as the premium American lithium battery. Their marketing suggested that while lesser companies were busy cutting corners in anonymous factories overseas, Battleborn was busy crafting battery perfection somewhere beneath a majestic bald eagle soaring over the Nevada desert. Then along came Will Prowse.
One problem problem with BB is they have a piece of plastic in the current path.
If you look closely you’ll see the thin copper sheet is only in direct contact with the copper busbar. Current then has to flow through the aluminum bolt to get to the external brass battery terminal. The problem is plastic is deformable and expands/contracts at different rates than aluminum, copper or brass. Eventually the terminal gets loose. The result is high-resistance. The high resistance snowballs and melts the plastic thus making the connection really heat up. It’s then game over for your $$$ battery.
After the lawsuit was filed Battleborn posted a white paper. They tried to claim the aluminum bolt was used as a “protection device.” Their reasoning was that if it ever ove-hheated an oxide layer would form on the aluminum bolt and stop current flow. It doesn’t.
I believe Battleborn used aluminum because stainless steel is a horrible conductor. Unfortunately, the current, in this poor-design, has to travel through that aluminum bolt to get to the external brass battery terminal. The plastic never should have been there in the first place. If they insisted on using plastic in the current path a copper bolt should have been used and the brass external terminal in direct contact with the copper collector sheet. The aluminum bolts are not even electrical grade aluminum. If they wanted to protect from terminal over heating a simple temp sensor could have been used to shut the battery down via the BMS as Epoch does in their batteries.
Making wild & absurd excuses, to justify a poor design, (oxide formation prevents current flow) is the epitome of grasping at straws. I don’t like to see people lose their jobs and if they do, it’s not Wills fault. It will be Battleborn managements fault for not doing the right thing and fixing the inherent design problems when they were discovered.
The Plastic Sandwich Mess
Will Prowse has a habit of doing something battery manufacturers really dislike: opening batteries and looking inside them. Apparently, this activity is now controversial? It shouldn’t be. No Li-Ion, drop-in battery manufacturer, should be permanently gluing batteries closed. Every drop-in battery sold should have a fully serviceable case with waterproof gasket. BMS’s can fail, Im dealing with one now where Daly updated the app and the BMS no longer works. Daly has been useless and of zero help, over 20 emails, so that batter will get a JK BMS and a new case because they glued it together. Batteries can also become over-discharged and you need access to the cells to wake up the battery etc. It’s rare to see cells fail but BMS’s for sure and a new BMS is an easy fix if you have a serviceable battery.
The Lawsuit
In 2026, Battle Born’s parent company, Dragonfly Energy, filed suit against Will Prowse, alleging that his testing methods and public statements were misleading and damaged the company’s reputation.
This raises an interesting question.
How exactly does one damage the reputation of a premium battery company? One theory is criticism. Another theory is shipping products that generate criticism.
The Problem With Oscilating-Tools
For years, LFP battery marketing followed a simple formula:
- Make impressive claims.
- Print impressive brochures.
- Hope nobody owns an oscilating-tool.
Unfortunately for manufacturers, the internet created people like Will Prowse. Prowse’s entire business model revolves around violating Rule #3. We the consumer & trade folks applaud him!
Will tears products apart, examines the engineering, performs destructive testing, and then broadcasts the results to millions of viewers who are increasingly skeptical of marketing departments. Battleborn just cemented this skepticism. This is deeply unfair to marketing departments, after all, they worked very hard on those brochures. (grin)
Premium Pricing, Economy-Class Surprises
One of the recurring criticisms raised by independent reviewers and customers involved construction quality, terminal issues, warranty complaints, and questions regarding manufacturing consistency.
Now, every manufacturer experiences failures. That’s normal. The interesting part is what happens next. A truly premium company typically responds with engineering explanations, corrective actions, and transparency. A less confident company responds with a press release, or lawyers, or both.
Meanwhile BB customers were left wondering why batteries carrying some of the highest price tags in the industry were appearing in tear-down videos for reasons other than engineering excellence. That’s not the sort of publicity money can buy, though legal fees can apparently rent something similar.
The American Manufacturing Halo
One of Battleborn’s greatest strengths has always been its American manufacturing message. Consumers were encouraged to believe that paying a substantial premium resulted in substantially superior construction. The difficulty is that amps are notoriously unpatriotic. Amps don’t care about branding, don’t care about slogans and they don’t care how many American flags appear in the advertising.
They care about terminations.
They care about electrical connections.
They care about thermal management.
They care about conductivity.
When those things aren’t right, the amps become remarkably effective whistleblowers.
The Streisand Battery
Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the lawsuit is its educational value. Before the lawsuit, many consumers had never heard any criticisms of Battleborn batteries. After the lawsuit, thousands of people immediately searched for the criticisms.The lawsuit only served to amplify Battleborns engineering issues.
This phenomenon has a technical name: The Streisand Effect.
It occurs when an organization attempts to suppress information and accidentally purchases a megaphone instead. The internet has observed this behavior many times before. It remains undefeated.
Altering Spec-Sheets Just Days Before Suing Will – Not a Good Look
The lawsuit may have generated even more attention because internet sleuths quickly noticed something awkward. According to archived versions of Battleborn’s BB1275 data-sheet, the battery had reportedly carried a published maximum charge current of 50 amps for years. Then, shortly before the lawsuit was filed, the published specification on the company’s website reportedly changed to 37.5 amps for the same battery model.
Pre-Lawsuit:
The change right before they sued Will.
Why does this matter?
Because, one of the allegations surrounding Prowse’s testing was that he charged the battery outside of its published specifications. Unfortunately for Battleborn, the internet has discovered the Wayback Machine. The Wayback Machine is a merciless little beast. If a battery reviewer conducts a test at 49 amps while the published specification says 50 amps, most engineers would call that “within spec”. If the specification later becomes 37.5 amps, the exact same test suddenly becomes “out of spec“.
That may be a perfectly legitimate engineering revision, manufacturers revise specifications all the time. However, when the revision appears immediately before litigation, people inevitably start asking questions, lots of questions. The sort of questions lawyers bill by the hour to avoid answering.
To be clear, the existence of different data-sheets does not prove wrong-doing, and no court has concluded that Battleborn altered specifications for any improper reason. The company may have had entirely legitimate reasons for revising the charge-current guidance, we don’t know. What we do know, is that Will tested the battery based on the spec-sheet he had. Still, from a public-relations perspective, the optics were roughly equivalent to changing the speed-limit sign after issuing you a speeding ticket.
Even people with no interest in lithium batteries can appreciate the comedy in that.
Lessons for Consumers
-The lesson here isn’t that Will Prowse is right.
-The lesson isn’t that Battleborn is wrong.
The courts will ultimately sort through those questions.
The real lesson is much simpler
-Never confuse price with quality.
-Never confuse marketing with engineering.
-Never assume that a premium sticker/price automatically means premium execution.
-Most importantly, never get angry at the guy holding the flashlight highlighting the issues.
If someone shines a light into a product and finds problems, the flashlight wasn’t the problem. The problem was whatever the flashlight revealed.
Engineers understand this, and it appears BB was light in engineers and heavy on marketing.
In my opinion Battleborn should have made design changes, called it V2 or whatever they chose and moved on. Suing Will Prowse, is the nail in the coffin for Battleborn. “Stupid is as stupid does.” All it did is draw attention to their engineering mistakes. I honestly don’t know how they survive this and compete with the top Chinese brands. They have lost their American assembled trust.
Solid State Marine
This is where things get even more entertaining. Lucky for us Clark, of Clark’s Adventures, had a customer buy one and send it to him for testing a few weeks ago. The results were scary! These cells can ignite from over-charging!
Solid State or Bogus Marketing?
The phrase solid-state battery has become the lithium industry’s equivalent of organic, all-natural, or farm-fresh. Everybody wants it on the label, very few people bother defining it. Some, like Solid State Marine, I believe, are intentionally misleading their customers. As of this writing you cannot find the words semi-solid state anywhere on their web site or in their literature. You also wont find the cell chemistry anywhere. For those of us that know Li-Ion, it is blatantly obvious it’s not LiFePo4. The owners are not dummies, one of them is a Harvard business school graduate. Why then, are they hiding the fact that these are not actually solid-state cells or being honest about the cell chemistry? It appears marketing is wagging its tail again.
Solid State Marine markets their batteries as “Solid-State Lithium” and advertises cycle life figures around 3,000 cycles while emphasizing the utmost in safety and advanced battery technology.
The problem is that many products being marketed as “solid-state” today are not what most engineers would consider true solid-state batteries. True solid-state cells are not yet commercially available. A true solid-state battery replaces the flammable liquid electrolyte with a solid electrolyte. That technology currently remains largely confined to research laboratories and perhaps some military applications. Solid-state is very hard to scale and very expensive to manufacture.
Most products, including SSM, currently marketed as “solid state” are actually a semi-solid, gel-enhanced electrolyte, or otherwise modified lithium-ion cells that still contain flammable components. Calling these batteries “solid-state” is like putting racing stripes on a minivan and calling it a Formula One race-car. Technically, both have wheels. The similarities end there.
Solid State Marine is NOT using extremely safe Semi-Solid LifePo4 cells, they are using semi-solid NMC cells that can catch fire, unlike LFP. These cells absolutely do not belong on a boat! All it would take is for an MPPT failure, connected to a high voltage series-wired solar array, to fry the BMS, and this does happen! Once the MPPT is gone the BMS is not designed to handle high voltages and bam, we now have an un-controllable fire on-board!
The Marketing
The Reality
The Charging Conundrum
Because these are NMC Cells they have a charge voltage of 4.2V per cell which for a 12V battery, makes a charge voltage of 16.8V! We don’t even have 12V chargers that can charge at 16.8V! As a work around, SSM tells you to use Victron chargers set for 16.5V. Let me be clear, NMC semi-solid batteries have no place being installed on boats regadless of charging voltage!
-Will your inverter work at 16.4V?
-How long will your 12V pumps last?
-How long will your 12V Espar or Webasto heater last?
-How long will your 12V refrigeration last?
-How long will your 12V windlass or thruster last?
The Cycle-Life Shell Game
One of the oldest tricks in battery marketing is selectively quoting cycle-life numbers. A manufacturer advertises:“3000 Cycles!”Sounds impressive. But where did that number come from?
Solid State Marine Specs = 30o0 cycles
The Actual Spec From The Cell Manufacturer = 1000 cycles
When Reading Cycle-Life Specs
-At what depth of discharge?
-What end-of-life capacity threshold?
-What C-rate test protocol?
-What temperature?
The answers are often buried somewhere between the fine print and the witness protection program. Cycle-life is not a universal number, it is best case. Boat owners should always seek the original cell manufacturer’s documentation rather than relying solely on battery-brand marketing literature.
Safety Claims Versus Chemistry
Not Prone to Fire?
Nothing raises my blood pressure faster than seeing batteries marketed as the “safest available” without discussing chemistry. Chemistry matters & we already know SSM has not been entire honest about many things.
They sell these as if they’re as safe as LiFePO4, They’re absolutely not!
Many of us in the industry have reached out to SSM only to be summarily ignored. Myself, Steve Mitchell and Ben Stein (Panbo) come to mind. Ben did just finally get an SSM test battery. I never even got an email response, nor did Steve.
Lucky for us Clark, of Clark’s Adventures, had a customer buy one and send it to him for testing a few weeks ago. The results were scary! These cells ignite from over-charging!
Clark has a great Youtube channel: Clark’s Adventures
SSM Cell Over-Charged
LiFePO4 has earned its marine reputation because it is inherently more thermally stable than NMC and NCA chemistries.
When abused, overcharged, punctured, or subjected to thermal runaway conditions, LiFePO4 behaves far more predictably.
Sure, NMC chemistry offers higher energy density. That’s why it’s commonly used in electric vehicles. It also contains significantly more stored energy in a smaller volume. Unfortunately, when things go wrong, they can go wrong with far more enthusiasm than happens with LFP.
For a boat owner sleeping a few feet away from the battery bank, chemistry selection matters far more than marketing terminology. A battery that can enter thermal runaway and sustain combustion, creating its own oxygen, presents a fundamentally different risk profile than a LiFePO4 battery. That’s not fear-mongering, it’s chemistry.
My Recommendation for SSM
Semi-Solid LiFePo4 cells now exist, in pouch format, and EV rated LFP cells now exist up to 5C ratings (CATL). I would advise SSM to ditch NCM until actual solid-state NCM cells exist that don’t burst into flames. I would also advise them to be honest. (grin)
Boats Are Not Electric Cars
Some in marine industry have an unfortunate tendency to copy whatever is popular in the EV market. This is often a mistake. Electric vehicles have sophisticated liquid cooled/heated thermal management systems, crash protection, monitoring systems, and extensive safety engineering.
Most boats have:
- A fiberglass box
- A battery compartment
- Wishful thinking
- A fire extinguisher nobody has inspected since the Obama administration
The requirements are different.
Marine batteries should prioritize safety, fault tolerance, serviceability, and predictable failure modes over flashy marketing claims. A few extra watt-hours per pound are meaningless if the battery’s failure mode involves flames.
Questions Every Buyer Should Ask
Before purchasing any Drop-In battery, ask:
- What exact cell chemistry is used?
- Who manufactures the cells?
- Can the company provide the original cell data sheet?
- What balancing current does the BMS provide?
- At what conditions was cycle life measured?
- Does the battery have independent third-party testing or UL1973?
- Is the battery actually ABYC compliant, or merely claims to be?
- What happens during an overcharge event from an MPPT failure & HV array?
- What happens when the BMS fails?
- Does the marketing language match the engineering documentation?
These answers are often revealing.
Final Thoughts
The LiFePo4 battery market is now full of excellent products. It’s also full of bloviated marketing. A battery should be judged by engineering, testing, chemistry, and transparency, not by patriotic branding, buzzwords, or miracle cycle-life claims.
-If a company claims “solid-state,” ask for the cell-chemistry and the cell manufacturers spec sheet.
-If they claim 3,000 cycles, ask for the testing data.
-If they claim ultimate safety, ask what happens during an overcharge event.
-Marketing departments hate those questions. Engineers love them.
If you’re putting a battery bank under your bunk, I’d suggest listening to the engineers. Be Safe!
PLEASE HELP!
This site is 100% reader supported. My wife is urging me to shut it down as it just keeps costing us money. My stroke-recovery, PT & OT is very costly & not covered by insurance as is authoring this site and keeping it secure.
Click BUY ME A COFFEE if you want to support this site.
Leave A Comment