Vatrer Server Rack Battery Review – What Do You Get with Cheap Server Rack Batteries?

Oct 15

Server rack batteries aren’t exactly the most exciting pieces of equipment out there. The truth is, most of the options out there look and feel pretty similar to each other. With that said, some manufacturers go the extra mile and really make sure their products stand out in terms of quality and performance. On the other hand, some cut corners in order to offer consumers a lower price point.

With most server rack batteries priced within a few hundred dollars of each other, it begs the question: is it worth saving a bit of cash by choosing one of the budget server rack batteries, or should you shell out a little extra for a more established name-brand option? That’s what we set out to discover when we set up to review the Vatrer Server Rack Battery, or as we prefer to call it, the V-Bat.

Vatrer Power reached out to us several times asking us to review their server rack battery, and, to be completely honest, we were a bit hesitant. For starters, their website raised some red flags—poor grammar, questionable translations from German, and a rushed layout didn’t exactly inspire us with confidence. However, we wanted to give it a fair shot, and the result is this review.

So, let’s dive into the details of what this budget-friendly server rack battery offers and determine if it’s a worthwhile option!

Overview of the Vatrer Server Rack Battery

The V-Bat weighs in at just over 100 pounds and, according to the company, it is 70% lighter than lead-acid batteries, though this fact isn’t particularly relevant when you’re talking about a lithium battery. At this weight, it just barely passes the “Tiny Baby Lift Test”, but that’s pretty typical for high-capacity server rack batteries, so we won’t hold it against Vatrer.

In terms of storage capacity, the V-Bat is a 51.2V, 100Ah lithium iron phosphate battery, meaning it has a total capacity of 5,120Wh. It’s rated for 5,000 cycles at 100% depth of discharge, which means you can use it from fully charged to fully discharged about 5,000 times before its performance starts to degrade and it needs to be replaced. All pretty standard stuff here.

The battery comes equipped with a really basic Battery Management System (BMS). It protects it from typical issues, including overcurrent problems and it prevents the battery from running in extreme temperatures.

In terms of the build quality, we have to say that it’s actually pretty impressive for a budget product. The entire casing is made of metal, and it feels really solid. Aesthetically, it’s also quite pleasing, with a sleek design, the dark blue color scheme, and a small touchscreen display on the front, it looks like a really respectable unit.

While the V-Bat does offer an app for remote monitoring, the app—featuring an elephant logo and called something like “Zang Chow”—is pretty garbage. It’s the same app we’ve seen used by other budget battery brands and, frankly, it leaves A LOT to be desired. It shows you some basic battery data, but it doesn’t let you make any real adjustments, so you’re better off sticking to the battery’s touchscreen interface.

How Much Does the V-Bat Cost?

The V-Bat is regularly priced at $1,299, but we’ve seen it for as low as $1,023 on Vatrer’s clunky and confusing website. This is a solid price, but as with any piece of equipment, a low price point means very little if the product doesn’t perform, which is why we tore it down and ran it through some tests.

Taking a Look Inside the Battery

Taking the V-Bat apart reveals an interesting layout—there’s a lot of empty space inside. Compared to other server rack batteries, like the EG4 LL Server Rack Battery, or even some of the batteries on offer from RUiXU, this battery looks much more simplistic.

The BMS is also basic, almost looking like a DIY setup. It only has two temperature sensors, one in a big area of dead space and the other beside the battery cells. More premium batteries, like those from EG4, have multiple sensors spread throughout the interior for more accurate monitoring.

Also, the V-Bat lacks fire arresters, a feature found in many other brands, including EG4. While lithium iron phosphate batteries are generally safe in this regard, having fire arresters is an added layer of protection that provides peace of mind.

Test Results and What We Didn’t Like About the V-Bat

We’ve already mentioned that buying a server rack battery should be a decision that is based on a lot more than the price, especially given that most batteries are within roughly $100 of each other.

To help you decide if the V-Bat is a good buy, we played around with it and put it through some tests. Unfortunately, this one fell short in some pretty key areas. Here are the main issues we encountered when we tested the V-Bat:

Inverter Compatibility and Communication Issues:

One of the most significant questions when buying a battery is whether it will work seamlessly with your inverter. Unfortunately, the V-Bat lacks any communication ports, dip switches, or advanced features. What you see is what you get—just two terminals, a breaker, and a display screen. If your system relies on communication between the battery and inverter, the V-Bat might not be the right choice.

Inconvenient Surge Protections:

This battery is rated to handle 100 amps continuously, so we put it through a surge test to see if it would cut power and protect itself when overloaded. In this case, we applied a 6,000W load, and the V-Bat did shut off as expected, which is good. However, the battery stayed off for nearly two hours before resetting itself! Most batteries only take a minute-long breather before they’re good to go.

To say this isn’t ideal is an understatement. If this battery were your only power source and you overtaxed it, you’d be left in the cold—literally, especially if you’re using it as the power source for your home’s heating system. The surge may work, but the V-Bat’s long recovery time is a really serious drawback.

Poor Cold Weather Performance:

Next, we threw the battery in a deep freezer set to -25°C to test its performance in cold temperatures. After 24 hours, we tried to discharge and charge the battery, and it correctly refused to do either since it was below its rated safe operating temperatures of 4°F for discharge and 32°F for charging.

While this alone is actually a positive thing—it shows the BMS does its job—once again, the battery took a really long time to come back to life after warming up. It’s really weird and very inconvenient that it takes as long as it does to power back up again.

Questionable Customer Support:

Not only is the V-Bat website really sloppy, the customer support isn’t great. When we shut it down with our surge test, we shot V-Bat an email. Basically, we were worried we killed it because it was off for so long. The only explanation we could get from the company was that we shouldn’t have allowed it to surge—well, duh. If there’s an obvious fault with your product, don’t just tell the customer not to trigger that fault.

The fact that they actually responded was acceptable, especially when the bar is so low with some of the other budget brands, but we still don’t feel overly confident that V-Bat would have your back if something went wrong with one of their batteries.

What Did We Like About the V-Bat?

It wasn’t all bad for the V-Bat. Beyond its fairly low price point, we also liked a few other things about it.

The Efficiency:

We ran an efficiency test to see if the V-Bat would perform as advertised. We applied a 97-amp load, and the battery lasted for just over an hour, which is exactly what it should do. So, in terms of efficiency, it performed exactly as expected.

There’s nothing to complain about from this perspective. The battery is pretty much 100% efficient, which is about what we expected, but is still a reassuring sign.

The Display Screen:

The display screen works really well, and the fact it's touch-enabled is actually really cool. Not only is it easy to read and navigate, it allows you to monitor everything in one place. With that said, the app is terrible, so you’re pretty much restricted to using the screen for everything, which isn’t overly convenient, especially if you have a full rack of batteries.

Final Verdict - Is the V-Bat Worth It?

Here’s where things get tricky. The V-Bat’s price is often within $100 of name-brand batteries, like the popular EG4 LL 48V Server Rack Battery, or some of the batteries available from Jakiper and RUiXU. These more recognized batteries offer better BMS functionality, more safety features, and, since you can buy them from trustworthy online retailers, like Shop Solar and Signature Solar, you can count on better customer support.

Given these issues, it’s difficult to recommend the V-Bat over these more reputable options, especially when you consider the fact that you’re not actually saving too much money.

If you happen to find the V-Bat at a steep discount—say $500 on Facebook Marketplace—it would be worth picking up. But if you’re hoping to build a reliable system, we’d almost always recommend spending the extra money on a battery with more robust features and better support.

In the end, it’s probably smarter to go with something like the EG4 LL 48V Battery, which has a much better track record. Basically, the V-Bat isn’t an awful battery by any means, but the savings just aren’t good enough to justify the issues we have with it.

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