If you've shopped for lithium batteries lately, you already know the story: there are about a hundred brands you've never heard of, all promising the same 4000+ cycles, the same built-in BMS, the same "marine grade" everything, at a fraction of what the big names charge. The cynic, or perhaps realist, in me assumes half of them are the same factory with different stickers. The optimist in me bought some of them anyway.
Here's how that's actually played out across two systems on my boat.
I'm running two separate lithium banks:
Both banks get charged with a NOCO Genius GEN5X3; a 3-bank, 15A onboard charger that handles AGM, lithium, and deep-cycle chemistries. It's been a solid piece of kit and worth mentioning because a good charger matters way more with budget cells than it does with the premium stuff. I actually have two of these chargers: One that lives onboard my 16 foot boat to charge the three battery bank, and one I keep inside the house to charge my Garmin setup, or take out to top off the batteries in my ocean boat before towing it to the coast.
The Weize batteries have been excellent. I get a full day on the Minn Kota* motor without range anxiety. I use spot lock heavily, which tends to be a battery drain in current. I also often use it as my only power during salmon trolling sessions to keep the hours off my newer Suzuki 60hp. They've held capacity well across a full season of weekend use. *Full day really depends on overall usage, but I can fish as long as I need to on the Minn Kota in all but the most extreme circumstances on the longest fishing days
That said,I did have one go down at the start of the 2025 season, exactly one year after I got them. Throwing errors, wouldn't register on the NOCO at all, wouldn't respond to any of the standard "wake up" procedures. Dead BMS, basically. This is the scenario you're afraid of when you buy a no-name brand: you're out a battery, the warranty is in some PDF you didn't read (I definitely didn't), and you assume the support email goes to a black hole (real assumptions based on real life experience).
Lo and behold, Weize replaced the dead battery without much fuss, and the replacement they sent was the Bluetooth version; an upgrade I didn't ask for and didn't pay for. That's the kind of customer service I'd expect from Battle Born, not from a brand most people would call generic. It reads to me like Weize is actively trying to build a reputation, and it worked on me. I'd buy them again.
The smaller LGECOLFP batteries running my Livescope and Garmin head unit have done their job. All-day runtime on the electronics, no errors mid-trip, no weird voltage sag when the sonar gets busy. For ~$66 a piece (and they're frequently on sale), that's hard to complain about.
The caveat: at the start of this season they came out of storage so deeply discharged that the NOCO wouldn't touch them. I had to run a Force mode charge cycle to wake the BMS up enough that the charger would acknowledge them and switch to normal lithium charging. Once they were back on the grid they accepted a normal charge and have behaved themselves since.
Worth noting that this is partially on me. I should've topped them off before winter storage. But premium batteries with smarter BMS firmware tend to be more forgiving about deep discharge events than the budget stuff. Lesson learned.
Here's how I'd frame the budget LiFePO4 market right now: it's a gamble that can absolutely pay off, but you have to go in knowing it's a gamble.
The big names: Battle Born, Dakota Lithium, RELiON make a more consistent product. Better cells, better BMS firmware, better quality control, and a warranty process you don't have to cross your fingers on. If this is your livelihood, or you're running a battery bank somewhere you genuinely can't afford a failure (offshore, extended trips, primary house bank on a liveaboard), pay the premium. It's worth it.
But for those of us using this gear on weekends and the occasional weeklong trip, the math gets harder to justify. A Battle Born 100Ah runs around $900. The Weize is a fraction of that. Even if one in three dies on you, you're still ahead, and in my case the one that died got replaced for free with a better unit.
A few things I'd tell anyone going the budget route:
I'm two seasons in on a budget lithium setup that, if you religiously followed the advice given all over the internet, should've been a disaster. It hasn't been. One battery failed and was upgraded for free. Two more needed a recovery cycle and came back fine. The rest have just quietly done their job, charge after charge.
Would I recommend this approach to everyone? No. But if you're a weekend angler trying to get into LiFePO4 without spending four figures on a trolling motor battery bank, the budget brands are worth a serious look, especially the ones that are clearly trying to build a name for themselves. Weize, in my experience, is one of them.
Just buy a good charger.
Here's how that's actually played out across two systems on my boat.
The Setup
I'm running two separate lithium banks:
- Bow Mount/Trolling motor (36V Minn Kota): Three Weize 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 batteries wired in series.
- Electronics (Garmin Livescope black box + GPSMap 10"): Two LGECOLFP 12V 30Ah batteries in parallel, tucked into a Pelican-style case with the GLS 10.
Both banks get charged with a NOCO Genius GEN5X3; a 3-bank, 15A onboard charger that handles AGM, lithium, and deep-cycle chemistries. It's been a solid piece of kit and worth mentioning because a good charger matters way more with budget cells than it does with the premium stuff. I actually have two of these chargers: One that lives onboard my 16 foot boat to charge the three battery bank, and one I keep inside the house to charge my Garmin setup, or take out to top off the batteries in my ocean boat before towing it to the coast.
The Weize 100Ah - Better Than Expected
The Weize batteries have been excellent. I get a full day on the Minn Kota* motor without range anxiety. I use spot lock heavily, which tends to be a battery drain in current. I also often use it as my only power during salmon trolling sessions to keep the hours off my newer Suzuki 60hp. They've held capacity well across a full season of weekend use. *Full day really depends on overall usage, but I can fish as long as I need to on the Minn Kota in all but the most extreme circumstances on the longest fishing days
That said,I did have one go down at the start of the 2025 season, exactly one year after I got them. Throwing errors, wouldn't register on the NOCO at all, wouldn't respond to any of the standard "wake up" procedures. Dead BMS, basically. This is the scenario you're afraid of when you buy a no-name brand: you're out a battery, the warranty is in some PDF you didn't read (I definitely didn't), and you assume the support email goes to a black hole (real assumptions based on real life experience).
Lo and behold, Weize replaced the dead battery without much fuss, and the replacement they sent was the Bluetooth version; an upgrade I didn't ask for and didn't pay for. That's the kind of customer service I'd expect from Battle Born, not from a brand most people would call generic. It reads to me like Weize is actively trying to build a reputation, and it worked on me. I'd buy them again.
The LGECOLFP 30Ah - One season down, only one minor hiccup
The smaller LGECOLFP batteries running my Livescope and Garmin head unit have done their job. All-day runtime on the electronics, no errors mid-trip, no weird voltage sag when the sonar gets busy. For ~$66 a piece (and they're frequently on sale), that's hard to complain about.
The caveat: at the start of this season they came out of storage so deeply discharged that the NOCO wouldn't touch them. I had to run a Force mode charge cycle to wake the BMS up enough that the charger would acknowledge them and switch to normal lithium charging. Once they were back on the grid they accepted a normal charge and have behaved themselves since.
Worth noting that this is partially on me. I should've topped them off before winter storage. But premium batteries with smarter BMS firmware tend to be more forgiving about deep discharge events than the budget stuff. Lesson learned.
The Honest Take
Here's how I'd frame the budget LiFePO4 market right now: it's a gamble that can absolutely pay off, but you have to go in knowing it's a gamble.
The big names: Battle Born, Dakota Lithium, RELiON make a more consistent product. Better cells, better BMS firmware, better quality control, and a warranty process you don't have to cross your fingers on. If this is your livelihood, or you're running a battery bank somewhere you genuinely can't afford a failure (offshore, extended trips, primary house bank on a liveaboard), pay the premium. It's worth it.
But for those of us using this gear on weekends and the occasional weeklong trip, the math gets harder to justify. A Battle Born 100Ah runs around $900. The Weize is a fraction of that. Even if one in three dies on you, you're still ahead, and in my case the one that died got replaced for free with a better unit.
A few things I'd tell anyone going the budget route:
- Buy a real charger. Don't pair a $200 battery (even if it's of the budget variety we're talking about here... or maybe ESPECIALLY if it's a budget variety battery) with a $40 charger. The NOCO Genius (or a Victron, or a NOCO Pro) earns its keep the first time you have to recover a discharged pack.
- Check the BMS specs, not just the Ah rating. Continuous discharge amps matter more than peak. A 100Ah with a 50A BMS is a bad match for a 36V Minn Kota at full throttle. The Weize battery discussed here has a 100A BMS.
- Top them off before storage. Don't do what I did. LiFePO4 self-discharges slowly, but "slowly" times "six months in a garage" still adds up.
- Save the order confirmation and the warranty PDF. Weize honored their warranty, but I needed the order number to start the process.
Bottom Line
I'm two seasons in on a budget lithium setup that, if you religiously followed the advice given all over the internet, should've been a disaster. It hasn't been. One battery failed and was upgraded for free. Two more needed a recovery cycle and came back fine. The rest have just quietly done their job, charge after charge.
Would I recommend this approach to everyone? No. But if you're a weekend angler trying to get into LiFePO4 without spending four figures on a trolling motor battery bank, the budget brands are worth a serious look, especially the ones that are clearly trying to build a name for themselves. Weize, in my experience, is one of them.
Just buy a good charger.
