Finn's Vaulta Batteries Review & Verdict
Finn Peacock has been a Chartered Electrical Engineer since 1998, and is ex-CSIRO
An interesting aspect of the Australian-made Vaulta Tower is it's designed for disassembly. The average electrician should be able to repair it on-site with guidance from the firm, which could be particularly attractive to those living remotely. But I find the lack of warranty details on the company's website a little unsettling.
Vaulta Batteries: Pros & Cons
- Repairable - designed for disassembly
- Designed and assembled in Australia
- (Some) components made in Australia
- Heavy!
- Lack of warranty information on website
About Vaulta
Australian battery manufacturer Vaulta was founded in 2020 and is based in Brisbane. The firm specialises in advanced battery casing technology and high-performance, recyclable and repairable battery energy storage systems.
Australian Contact Details
Address: 53 Holland Street, Northgate QLD 4013 (note: by appointment only)
Telephone: 0482 083 961
Email: [email protected]
Website
Company Info
Vaulta primarily serves residential, commercial, and off-grid markets. It's also developing battery modules for electric vehicles, supported by the Australian Federal Government's Accelerating Commercialisation grant.
The company was founded by Dominic Spooner, who has extensive experience in the battery industry and as a product design engineer. Prior to starting Vaulta, Mr. Spooner recognised a significant problem with battery recycling and repair - systems are are often difficult to disassemble due to the way they are constructed.
Batteries Designed For Disassembly
And this is where the Vaulta story gets interesting - the company produces batteries designed to be easily taken apart. Their no-weld approach simplifies battery assembly and disassembly, enabling easier repair and recycling, and significantly reducing waste. It's not only waste that is reduced, but also potential repair time and costs .
For example, a single failed cell within a conventional battery pack could spell the end of the entire unit. With a Vaulta battery, that cell can be replaced. Additionally, local licensed electricians can learn to repair them on-site without needing to access highly specialised tools or training - or having to ship the whole unit off to a service center.
Dominic Spooner goes into more detail on Vaulta's no-weld design in this interview with SolarQuotes.
The Vaulta Tower
The Vaulta Tower, distributed by Tropac, is available in 14.36kWh, 28.72 kWh and 43.08 kWh capacities, with useable capacities of 13.84 kWh, 27.28 kWh and 40.92 kWh capacities respectively. The Tower uses Vaulta's 48V 14.36kWh LFP rack mount units. Oddly enough, power output in kW isn't noted on the datasheet.
The Vaulta Tower measures 130cm x 60cm x 80cm and weighs in at around 250 kg for the 14.36kWh configuration - so it's a fair lump of a battery. It is IP 54 rated, which we'd generally consider a battery system needing to be installed indoors or otherwise protected from the elements.
The Tower's Battery Management System ( BMS) boasts a number of safety features including eight temperature sensors, and reverse polarity, over-charge/discharge, over-current, under/over temperature and short circuit protection.
The Vaulta Tower is compatible with various inverters, and the company says it plays particularly well with Victron inverters such as the MultiPlus; which is a a combined inverter and charger..
How "Australian-Made" Are Vaulta Batteries?
Vaulta offers a high degree of transparency regarding the Australian-made content of its products. Barring the battery cells, most components are designed by Vaulta, and all are tested and assembled in Brisbane.
- Battery cell, bus bars, casing housing - made in China
- Cables - sourced from the UK, USA, China and Australia
- Circuit boards - made in Australia, Taiwan or China
- Sheet metal, fasteners, connectors, firmware, software and packaging - manufactured/developed in Australia
Warranty Info - Or Lack Thereof
Vaulta states its batteries come with a comprehensive warranty, but fails to provide any further details - you have to contact them. It may be that warranty depends on the application, but not having this information on the website is a bit odd given the company's transparency in other respects..
The firm says the Vaulta Tower has a "calendar life" of 10 years, and an expected life of 4000 cycles at 35°C, 80% depth-of-discharge ( DOD) and 0.5C/0.5C (compression), and 3000 cycles at 45°C, 100% DOD, 0.5C/0.5C (compression).
Conclusion
Vaulta batteries will probably appeal most to those living off-grid, in the regions or remotely. The company's commitment to repairability and local production is really encouraging. The lack of publicly available warranty details is not.
Vaulta has no solar batteries in our database
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Vaulta Reviews (3)
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20 October 2024
26 November 2024
The batteries are extremely robust and have exelent performance.
I look forward to using them in the future and would highly recommend them for any project.
26 November 2024
I researched many battery options for my solar panels and decided on Vaulta mainly because they are an Australian company who have developed the technology to open the battery and replace individual cells and will recycle the batteries afterwards and at their end of life. The other major factor was that I got more capacity (2 x 14 kW) for a lower price than the other systems I researched, and I can add additional batteriesif I decide I want to increase capacity.
After Vaulta arrived on the install day we decided to change the install location of the batteries from close to the power board to the opposite end of the house. It’s a 36m cable run across the roof, down two levels through two decks and a core filled concrete block wall to under the house. The Vaulta techs were good about it even though it changed a simple 1.5 day install and testing job into a 4 day marathon. Honestly, they did a really great job and I am very happy with their efforts and the finish and the additional installation cost which was very reasonable was absolutely worth it.
The batteries have been operating for over 6 months now. My electricity bill is in the negative numbers. On an average day I typically import 0.2kWh from the grid which is about 6 cents/day and I can export between 5 and 25kWh more than enough to cover the grid connection costs and make a +ve return and when summer comes it will be even better. Even after a few overcast or rainy days, I have enough battery capacity to not draw power from the grid. If I was of a mind to do so, I could export more power during the high demand period.
About 6 weeks after install one of the batteries switched off. I didn't know but Vaulta alerted me and asked me to shut down and restart the system. I did and during testing they identified that the problem returned. The following day the technician came out, did some onsite testing to confirm the problem, opened the battery, replaced a wiring cable and restarted the system. It has been running perfectly ever since.
I can go off grid whenever I like, and the system switches over in milliseconds without affecting TVs, computers or other appliances. So in a blackout, we will still have power. I can monitor the inverter via the phone app and I like to check it every few days to see how it is going.
I can't speak highly enough of Dominic, Jerome and the whole Vaulta team. They did a great job and I am very satisfied with my Vaulta battery system. They are good people, doing good work and providing great after sales service and support.
The Vaulta system was the perfect choice for us because :
- Seamless integration with our existing system components, ie original battery inverter, solar MPPT regulators, old
battery charger and back-up generator.
- Designed to be repaired on a cell level and recycled.
- Good price point
- After sales support with remote system monitoring which is easy to use and reliable.
- No ongoing maintenance.
We are very happy with these batteries, plus we can now charge our EV more
from our Solar system without worring about the batteries being over-discharged and damaged.
Very HAPPY DAYS!!!
Thanks heaps to Dominic and the Vaulta Team!