Batrium Discontinued Products

[Solardad]

FYI - Batrium has discontinued a number of their products in favor of the new WatchMonCore & CellMate-K9.

EX: the BlockMons will no longer be stocked and only made to order. Not sure what type of turnaround that will mean and if you will be waiting for months.
https://www.batrium.com/collections/cell-monitor/products/blockmonm8

I currently have the WatchMon 4 and have been happy with it the past few years and may order some extra BlockMons for future expansion / backups.

 

[OffGridInTheCity]

FYI - Batrium has discontinued a number of their products in favor of the new WatchMonCore & CellMate-K9.

EX: the BlockMons will no longer be stocked and only made to order. Not sure what type of turnaround that will mean and if you will be waiting for months.
https://www.batrium.com/collections/cell-monitor/products/blockmonm8

I currently have the WatchMon 4 and have been happy with it the past few years and may order some extra BlockMons for future expansion / backups.

I hope they continue the longmons - I'm up to 112 but have more batteries planned over the next few years. One thing I've really liked about Batrium over the last 3 years is the ability to buy additional longmons and just hook them into my existing setup.

 

[DG98]

I discovered this a few months ago, when I wanted to buy an MM8 to expand my Watchmon 5 system. Even then, the MM8 was "special order only," and Batrium required a minimum purchase of two units -- I believe at a few hundred bucks apiece. They denied that it was discontinued at the time -- I would just call this a "practical discontinuation" so they can try to sell you the newer Core/K9 system instead. That's what they did for me, at least.

The whole thing left a very sour taste in my mouth for Batrium in general. I'm currently building an expansion pack for my existing battery, but will be considering alternative BMS for it. In fact, I may strip out the existing Batrium stuff for a future project that won't need to scale, and I may re-do my entire system with something else. I've never been super-impressed with the Batrium anyway -- it's good, but for its cost, it ought to be better.

Cheers, John

 

[Solardad]

Yeah - the price was a big nut to swallow when I first setup my system. It took awhile to learn the features, which are pretty extensive, and was even able to setup CANBus communication with my inverter (Sol-Ark).

I have not had a chance to investigate the possibility of the WM 4 working with the CellMate-K9 if I wanted to add that for expansion vs. more MM8s..? My gut tells me there is no backward compatibility and you have to buy the new WM core instead.

 

[DG98]

You were smarter than me if you've got CAN working. My inverter (Growatt) is not on the Batrium compatibility list. Supposedly someone has it talking to a Growatt, but...never seen any more about that. My inverter can interface with the LG battery (which I think Batrium called Project Lychee), but I never had any luck configuring that and honestly didn't pursue it very hard. Like OffGridInTheCity, I've basically used the Batrium as a status monitor and a stand-alone safety device on the battery pack.

Cheers, John

 

[slimf]

WM5 customers got a rough deal to - this product never left beta and got shelved.

 

[jtvt]

FYI - Batrium has discontinued a number of their products in favor of the new WatchMonCore & CellMate-K9.

EX: the BlockMons will no longer be stocked and only made to order. Not sure what type of turnaround that will mean and if you will be waiting for months.
https://www.batrium.com/collections/cell-monitor/products/blockmonm8

I currently have the WatchMon 4 and have been happy with it the past few years and may order some extra BlockMons for future expansion / backups.

Well that sucks, but I suspect that the blockmons have a bug in them that hits during balancing. I have no proof of this, but I've had a few go intermittently bad where they show 0 cell volts during balancing. I have a few extras because of that. I also think the daisy chain network cable is a source of problems due to interference. Could be the switch is due to those issues.

IIRC K9s have lower balance capability which is one reason to keep using blockmons. Looks like they are looking to get people to buy the core/k9.

Wonder if I should buy a few more blockmons as a defensive move since eta is surely longer now....