Disclaimer: Goldenmate sent this product to us for free for a review. That does not affect our opinion about the product. In this article, we list both what we like and dislike. Read more about this here.
Review Of The Goldenmate 12V 100Ah Lithium Battery
The Goldenmate 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 lithium battery is yet another affordable lithium battery, suitable for off-grid applications or RVers looking to upgrade their house batteries.
It doesn’t have any special features that make it stick out when compared to other similar batteries I have tested, but I still wanted to test it to see how it performs.
Let’s start with the specifications of the battery before I share my test results and my thoughts.
Goldenmate 12V 100Ah Specifications
Battery Cells
Goldenmate use the lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) cells, which have a reputation of being both durable and safe.
It’s not a heated battery, so it’s important to be aware of the different temperature ranges for charging, discharging, and storing this battery.
Charging: 32°F to 122°F (0°C to 50°C)
Discharging: -4°F to 140°F (-20°C to 60°C)
Storage: 32°F to 113°F (0°C to 45°C)
If not followed, the battery cells can be permanently damaged and the warranty will be voided.
Ratings – Ampere hours (amp hours) and watt-hours
The battery is rated at 100Ah, which is 1280 watt-hours at 12.8V.
The manual states the standard charge current is 20A, with a maximum of 50A.
For discharging, the maximum continuous current is 100A.
The SOC (state of charge) can be can be roughly estimated by the resting voltage, the numbers below are considered common averages.
Safety features with built-in BMS
BMS is short for Battery Monitoring System.
The Goldenmate battery has a BMS to protect against overcharging, over-discharge, over-current, overheating, and short-circuiting.
Cycle life
I have found different cycle life numbers, but the Amazon listing states 4000-15000 cycles, the manual says 5000+. That’s a very large range, but how many cycles you get out of it is going to depend on several things.
If you only discharge the battery to 50% instead of 0%, it’s likely going to take at least twice as many cycles to lose the same total capacity.
Expandability
If you would like to expand the total capacity of your setup, you can connect up to 16 batteries together in a 4S4P configuration.
If this is something you would like to do, I recommend researching how it’s done and what you need to know.
Size and weight
The battery weighs 28.7 pounds and measures 12.9 by 6.8 by 8.4 inches.
A vinyl strap on top makes it easy to carry the battery.
The battery case is made of ABS and the battery terminal size is M8.
Review And Test Results
The Goldenmate 12V 100Ah battery performed good in my tests
In the capacity test I got 101Ah out of the battery, with a 10A discharge rate. That’s close to 1300Wh at 12.8V.
It did not have any problems discharging at 100A, I was even able to push it to 150A. This isn’t something you should do though, as there are reasons for the 100A limit.
The battery stayed cool during both my charging and discharging tests.
I tested it with a Keurig coffee maker via a 2500W pure sine wave inverter. The voltage was steady at 120V throughout the whole test.
What I like about the battery is that it’s affordable, lightweight compared to a 100Ah lead-acid battery, has a built-in BMS, and a vinyl handle.
What I don’t like is that it doesn’t have built-in heating so it’s shouldn’t be charged in freezing temperatures. It’s also the first lithium battery I test that can’t be stored in below freezing temperatures.
Overall, it’s a good lithium battery. I do think it’s worth spending a bit more to get a battery that can heat itself to prevent permanent damage in cold climates, but for the price it’s a good choice.
Have a question? Leave it down below in the comment section.
