Kepworth Lithium Battery Review (LiFePO4)

Kepworth Lithium Battery Full Review

Let’s take an in-depth look at the Kepworth Lithium 12V battery.

We’ll review the 100Ah and 200Ah models together. They’re both made with the exact same materials, internal components and with the same manufacturing process. The only difference is that the 200Ah model has more cells inside.

We’ll also help you decide if you need the 100Ah or 200Ah model (hint: it depends on your specific power usage needs).

What We Liked

Here are the most significant plus points from our testing.

Maintains a high voltage

What do we mean by this?

Basically that the power output produced by the Kepworth LiFePO4 battery stays really high even up to a very high level of discharge.

With most leisure batteries, particularly lead-acid batteries, you’ll see power fall off a cliff at times when the battery’s charge gets lower.

With the Kepworth battery, the battery voltage decline is really steady and smooth – that means the devices you’re powering won’t experience steep losses of power.

It’s super safe

LiFePO4 batteries are a million miles from earlier incarnations of Lithium batteries, which had safety issues.

So much so that a high quality LiFePO4 batteries are actually safer than lead-acid batteries.

The reasons for such a significant change in safety of this battery type are:

• LiFePO4 is Lithium Iron Phosphate. It doesn’t have any heavy metals that are harmful to the human body. The addition of Iron (Fe) ions reduces the oxidation capacity of the Lithium. That means it won’t release oxygen so it’s extremely resistant to potential explosions.
• Battery Management Systems (BMS) check every aspect of the battery’s cells. They manage the voltages of each cell, which can vary with external circumstances. If any possible dangers are detected, the BMS is highly sophisticated and is able to take automatic preventive action, including shutting the battery down is necessary. Think of a BMS as a perpetually monitoring safety brain within the battery.

The Kepworth BMS is high quality, and that means the battery is very safe.

They’re very long-lasting

Now, we must note that Kepworth claim a lifespan of up to 7000 cycles.

That’s likely to at 50% DoD. DoD means Depth of Discharge and 50% discharge means that if you only discharge the battery to 50% with each discharge cycle, then it can potentially last for 7000 cycles.

The vast majority of people will not come close to a regular 50% DoD and quite frankly they shouldn’t unless they really have some specific need to.

One of the major advantages of Lithium batteries is that they can cope with high discharge, even up to 90%. So you can certainly allow this battery to reach a high level of discharge.

Even at a higher level of discharge, you’re still likely to get thousands of cycles from the Kepworth battery.

That means it’s lasting as much as 8-10 times longer than an equivalent lead-acid battery. (Here’s how long lead-acid lesiure batteries last.)

This battery is one of the lowest cost on the UK market (and we believe it to be the best quality of the lower priced options), so it represents phenomenal value.

It copes well with being left in a discharged state

The Kepworth Lithium battery won’t punish you too much if you ever accidentally leave it in a discharged state.

That’s unlike lead-acid batteries, which develop sulfation on the battery plates if the battery is left in a partially discharged state.

The high quality LiFePO4 cells in this battery don’t get sulfated, and that’s one of the reasons Lithium batteries can last as much as 10-15 years or more.

Super lightweight

The 100Ah model is 9.3kg! That’s ridiculously lightweight, perhaps 30% of the weight of an equivalent lead-acid battery.

The 200Ah model is 22kg, again it’s a massive weight saving compared to other batteries of this size.

That makes installing it much easier, and also if you ever have to move it. And if you’re using it in a campervan, motorhome or caravan – less weight is your friend, and even reduces petrol costs over time.

What We Didn’t Like

The negative aspects were the following:

It’s not fully dustproof & waterproof

A few of the top Lithium (LiFePO4) batteries are waterproof and dustproof to an IP65 level.

This Kepworth battery, though is only resistant to the IP55 level.

What does that mean?

IP55 means it’s protected against an amount of dust that could interfere with normal operation but it’s not fully dust tight; and with complete protection against solid objects. And it’s protected against water splashing from any angle and against water jets projected by a nozzle (6.3mm) from any angle. IP65 means it’s fully dust tight.

Many people won’t be bothered whether their battery is fully sealed against dust and water or not, but if your battery is housed somewhere where it’ll encounter them in large quantities, then this battery may not be suitable for you.