# FireFly Oasis is now on sale!!



## major (Apr 4, 2008)

ZeroGasoline said:


> The spec sheet says it has a 10 hour rating of 100A. That seems like it would translate to 200A+ at the 20 hour rate. Does this sound right?


No, sounds way off. First, it says 100 Ah at the 10 hour rating, not 100A. It might translate to 105 or 110 Ah at the 20 hour rate.

Regards,

major


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## ragee (May 25, 2008)

I am glad to see these come to market. The price is a bit much but hopefully it will come down. I want to see the 6v version.

R Agee


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## TheSGC (Nov 15, 2007)

While I like them, they are way too pricey for me at the moment. I would like to see less than $225 before I could add them to my affordable list.

Still, it's great to see that they are now coming out and no longer vapor ware.


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## ZeroGasoline (Jul 30, 2008)

TheSGC said:


> Still, it's great to see that they are now coming out and no longer vapor ware.


That was my thought with them as well. Far too often you come across stories promising the latest greatest battery technology and never actually see them for sale. 

I agree the price is high, and $225 -$200 seems a bit more practical. I assume because it's high because it's the pre-order price.

How about the batteries themselves, am I correct in thinking this is a pretty big jump for lead technology?

How would these compare to Trojans T-1275 for example?


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## DIYguy (Sep 18, 2008)

I'm rather underwhelmed by the specs.

My Sterlings have a shelf life of 10 years. Firefly, 2 years.
Instantaneous amps. Mine = 2100. Firefly = 800
60 minute amp rating to 1.75V is 82 on mine and 70 on the FF.
They are a fair bit lighter...but then again, mine are 140Ah.
I guess the cycle life is better.... but I'm now wondering about the calendar life effect.....???? hmmmmm What am I missing......???


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## QueenFirefly (May 12, 2009)

What you are missing is what this battery is designed to accomplish. You need to compare apples to apples here. If you go to Firefly’s web site you can read the technical white paper on this battery. This is a Group 31 AGM _deep cycle_ battery, not a high-rate starting battery. Too many people buy batteries by CCA. Wrong. The higher the CCA, the faster the failure from corrosion on the positive electrode, especially at elevated temperatures. If you believe their engineers, this battery is built to withstand long, deep discharges, harsh vibration environments (have heard it has passed 12 consecutive off road military vibration tests without failing, flooded’s will never accomplish this), partial state of charge stands (highly resistant to life-deteriorating sulfation), and complete discharges (The military testing requires the battery be brought down to zero volts and sit with a 2 OHM resistor on it for a month), 

From the information I have received, the batteries have been brought back to full capacity without any effect calendar or on the cycle life with a standard recharge). If you continually take most flooded batteries and discharge them to 80%, they will only last 150 cycles (a good AGM goes about 200-300), whereas Firefly’s warranty’s theirs for 600. It is also important to note that Firefly’s battery has been _de-rated_ to 215 minutes of runtime capacity, which is maintained much more consistently throughout the life of the battery (look at the graph on the back of the spec sheet). 

Also, you should note that shelf life in their spec refers to the amount of time you can allow a battery to sit on a shelf (in your garage, in the store, etc) without having to do any maintenance, including boost charging, to keep the battery alive. If you let your battery sit untouched for 3 or 4 months, suflation will occur and significantly reduce cycle and calendar life; let it sit for a year and you buy a new battery. This battery is said to be able to sit for 2 years and still come back to full capacity.


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## favguy (May 2, 2008)

Hmm....1000 cycles at 80% dod! If they get the price down to about 50% of what it is now, and we can get them in the UK, looks like a nice halfway house between traditional lead and Lifepo4 to me 

Paul


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## ragee (May 25, 2008)

favguy said:


> Hmm....1000 cycles at 80% dod! If they get the price down to about 50% of what it is now, and we can get them in the UK, looks like a nice halfway house between traditional lead and Lifepo4 to me
> 
> Paul


My feelings exactly. For my commuter truck these would be excellent for the weight reduction. At half price would be a very serious contender... so I really hope these take off.

R Agee


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## rmay635703 (Oct 23, 2008)

ragee said:


> My feelings exactly. For my commuter truck these would be excellent for the weight reduction. At half price would be a very serious contender... so I really hope these take off.
> 
> R Agee


My hope is a price reduction coupled with releasing their more advanced, lighter more energy dense 3d2 batteries they have been talking about, these prototype 1st batch batteries are just the start of their potential.

Hopefully they do take off.


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## Carroll_1 (Dec 18, 2007)

Did the link get taken down, or am I missing something? When I click on the "Link To Buy", I just get a "not authorized, must log in" message.


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## ZeroGasoline (Jul 30, 2008)

Carroll_1 said:


> Did the link get taken down, or am I missing something? When I click on the "Link To Buy", I just get a "not authorized, must log in" message.


I just tried it and got the same error message.



> You are not authorized to view this resource.
> You need to login.


I went back to the rss feed and tried the original link and got the same message... have these batteries returned to vaporware?

As I remember, the coding on the site was pretty sloppy when I visited before. Once you clicked buy, there was a google checkout window that popped up behind the sites main banner. 

Maybe this was a mistake - if that's the case I hope the price was a mistake also. 

There seemed to be a FireFly associate on the forum the other day (see previous posts). I wonder if that could have anything to do with it?


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## ragee (May 25, 2008)

ZeroGasoline said:


> I just tried it and got the same error message.
> 
> 
> 
> I went back to the rss feed and tried the original link and got the same message... have these batteries returned to vaporware?



Did the same so I followed through on the website and they say that they are only dealing with large orders and for ev convertion people there is this message 

I am about 2 years away from replacing my original pack so I hope this is not vaporware

R Agee


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## ZeroGasoline (Jul 30, 2008)

ragee said:


> Did the same so I followed through on the website and they say that they are only dealing with large orders and for ev convertion people there is this message
> 
> I am about 2 years away from replacing my original pack so I hope this is not vaporware
> 
> R Agee


That message has been up on their site for months. I remember reading that last fall. Their site doesn't seem to be up dated all that frequently. I refreshed my rss, and searched through the sites news releases and white papers - nothing about the recent "disappearing batteries".


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## headrush (Jan 20, 2008)

As with all the "great" batteries around, I can not find a decent dealer that carries these types of batteries. They sound great, but with out pricing it is hard for anyone to budget a build or make a decision on whether I buy these batteries and not the others or wait to add a component so I can get these batteries, etc.

Yes I tried the link from this thread and it tells me I am not authorized to view it.


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## ravlegend (Feb 6, 2009)

I'm not impressed at all.

Energy density at only 39WH/KG? Isn't that similar to a regular lead-acid battery? 

So what's so special about this battery over other AGMs?


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