(Last Updated On: November 9, 2022)

Power stations are what most consumers look for when it comes to a portable power source. It makes sense, as power stations are already put together usable systems; however, they can also be considered overpriced depending on what brand you buy from, as the capacity and wattage output don’t always match the price. Also, some power station brands can expand their battery, but the extra battery from these brands costs a lot more than what they’re worth.

In this review, we’re looking at this Ampere Time 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 deep cycle battery. A standalone deep-cycle battery may sound like a niche product to the regular consumer. Still, if you know what this battery is capable of, it may change your mind about going with a deep-cycle battery rather than a power station.

What Comes in the Box

What you get in the box when you purchase the Ampere Time 12V 100Ah battery is the battery itself, four bolts, negative and positive covers for the bolts, and a bunch of useful paperwork that gives you tons of info on how to use the battery. The manual included in the box is must read when you get this battery as it gives you vital information on how to use the battery and its specifications of it.

As for the battery charger that we also include in this review, that is sold separately, or you can purchase it in a bundle with the battery; the battery charger box consists of the charger and the manual for the charger.

Power

Power Capacity:

So this Ampere Time battery is rated for 12.8V and has a 100Ah capacity; in terms of Watt Hour (Wh), all you need to do is multiply 12.8V by 100Ah, and you end up with 1280Wh of usable capacity from this battery. This is the spec of the battery that is impressive. A 1280Wh capacity is amazing because that is what most top-tier power stations have. If you’re looking to purchase a power station with a 1000Wh+ capacity, then you’re looking to spend a hefty amount of cash, nearly $1 per Watt Hour.

In the case of this Ampere Time battery, you’re spending far less; go ahead and look at the current price on Amazon or their website. Also, you have to consider that this Ampere Time battery uses a LiFePO4 (Lithium Iron Phosphate) cells which means that it can last for 4,000 or more charge cycles, rather than regular Lithium-Ion batteries that have around 500 charge cycles and also there are power stations that use LiFePO4 batteries. Still, those can get expensive because the type of battery cells can last longer.

When it comes to a 1280Wh capacity, it’s a lot of power, but you have to consider the output you’re using. In this case, the Max continuous power output of this battery is 1280W, and the max discharge current is 280A.

To start using this battery, you need an inverter to start powering appliances; whether you go with a high-wattage or low-wattage inverter is your choice, and we’re going to delve more into how to use this battery in the output section of this review. That said, if you’re curious about runtime, view it as the capacity of this battery (1280Wh) divided by the wattage of the appliance you plan on using with it.

So a 1-watt appliance would last about 1280Wh, while a 1280W appliance would last approximately 1 hour, or a 640W appliance (half the capacity of this battery) would last about 2 hours. So you can do a lot for quite a long time with the capacity of this Ampere Time battery.

MakerHawk Load Tester

So we wanted to test out just how much capacity we could pull out from this Ampere Time 100Ah battery, so we used a MakerHawk load test by using negative and positive clamps that came with the load tester. We set the load tester to 16.5V/8.81A (145W), and about seven hours later, we returned to the load tester turned off.

We’re not sure if this was the load tester automatically turning off or if the battery was fully depleted of its power, but the tester had a reading of 1027Wh and 62.95Ah; so we set it back on at 16.5V/9.06A (149W).

A few hours later, with a total runtime of 11 hours and 40 minutes, we ended the capacity test with the load tester with a 1,691Wh power usage and a 104Ah capacity. Overall, we did mess up a bit with this test because we should have used a 12V power usage when running this load test, which is why the Watt Hour reading on the load tester is not entirely accurate. However, we ended up with 104Ah, which is very close to the original 100Ah capacity of this Ampere Time battery.

Taking into account other reviews, such as HOBOTECH’s review on this battery, we think this load test turned out pretty accurate with its Amp Hour measurement and find it great to see that you can pull out as much capacity as possible as the battery states it has.

Output Charging:

As we mentioned, this battery has a 1280W continuous power output and a 280A max discharge current that can run for 5 seconds. So for our testing, we used a Renogy 2000W Pure Sine Wave inverter. The beautiful thing about using deep cycle batteries like this Ampere Time one is that you can use any inverter you want. However, we highly recommend choosing a Pure Sine Wave inverter to ensure your appliance works efficiently and not go with a Modified Sine Wave inverter.

Also, you do NOT have to purchase a 2000W inverter as we did, you can go with a 200W, 500W, 1200W, or 1500W inverter if you want to, and it all depends on how you can plan on using this battery. So the beauty of this battery is the modularity that you have, as you can use a relatively wide range of inverters, as higher wattage inverters are more expensive. Remember, though; it has a 1280W max continuous power output.

With that said, we wanted to see how far we could push this battery so you don’t have to, which is why we went with a 2000W inverter.

Setting up the Battery

Setup for this Ampere Time battery is easy because, included in the box, you get post bolts that are used to screw into the positive and negative terminals on the battery, and you have to make sure that they’re screwed in tightly. Once the post bolts are screwed in, depending on your inverter, you can clamp the terminal cables from the inverter onto the positive and negative terminals on this Ampere Time battery. Make sure you connect the positive clamp to the positive terminal and the negative clamp to the negative terminal on the battery.

In our case, for the Renogy 2000W inverter, we had screw-on terminal cables; these cables that came with the Renogy inverter would require us to unscrew both of the post bolts from the battery, place the terminal cables over the positive and negative spot and then screw the post bolts directly into terminal ends. This method is more of a more stable way to power an inverter over using clamps.

Just a heads up, though, if you’re connecting a brand new inverter to this Ampere Time battery, we recommend wearing goggles, connecting the negative terminal first, and then touching the positive end of the terminal cable to the positive bolt on the battery (while it’s screwed in), this way the capacitor inside the inverter is powered and your eyes are safe.

There is a way to charge up the capacitor inside an inverter slowly, and you can find resources on that over on Youtube, but the way we explained it is a lot faster, but there will be a spark.

Using the Ampere Time 12V 100Ah Battery

Okay, so the usage of an inverter does add to the cost of purchasing a battery like this, but you’re still saving tons of money over going with a 1200Wh power station.

For our first test, we used a Lasko heater with the Renogy 2000W inverter connected to the Ampere Time battery. We set the Lasko heater to low first, and the output was 850W, and just as a reminder, the max continuous power output of this Ampere Time battery is 1280W, so 850W is easy to power in this case. Then we set the heater to high, and the wattage output jumped to 1400W, well above the 1280W max output of this battery.

We don’t recommend using appliances that surpass the 1280W max output of this battery. Still, because this was a review, we felt we had to push the battery to its limits. Surprisingly, we could pull 1400W continuously for about 30 minutes until the battery’s temperature was too high and automatically turned off.

Once the battery cooled, we continued the test but with the heater set to low at an 850W output, and once the battery was fully depleted, we ended up with a 1100Wh output capacity, which is about a 86% efficiency rating when using the inverter with an appliance that far exceeds the max continuous output.

The one other appliance we used to test with his Ampere TIme battery is a 1000W electric cooktop. We placed a saucepan filled with four cups of water on the cooktop, set it to high, and after about 8 minutes, the water was boiling. Cooktop pulled about 950W; once the water started boiling, it used up 140Wh of capacity from the Ampere Time battery, which is about 10%.

 

Overall, this Ampere Time battery can output high loads even past its 1280W continuous max output, so if you’re powering appliances within the 1280W range, you will have no problems. Of course, we don’t recommend always using appliances over the 1280W max output, as that can shorten the life of this battery.

Input Charging:

If you’re purchasing this battery alone, know that it doesn’t come with a charger, and you must buy it separately. Or you can purchase the battery charger and the battery in a bundle either on Amazon or from Ampere Time’s website. We recommend using Ampere Time’s battery charger as it worked perfectly in our recharge test for the battery.

We used a 14.6V/10A charger, which can recharge the battery at about 146W. Since this Ampere TIme battery has a 1280Wh capacity, if you’re charging it from 0% to 100%, you’re looking at an 8 to 9-hour recharge time.

So this is one of the letdowns of using a deep cycle battery as the recharge speed isn’t as fast as some power stations, so you could be waiting a while, depending on how depleted the battery is.

At the same time, recharging this battery is not complicated; it requires you to clamp the positive on the positive and negative clamp onto the negative bolt. Also, you can recharge this battery faster by going with a faster battery charger, such as a 12V/40A charger that can recharge the battery at about 480W, which can result in a 3 to 4-hour recharge time.

There is a red LED light on the charger when the battery is charging, and while the clamps are still on the battery and the LED light turns green, the battery is fully charged.

Design

Size and Weight:

This Ampere Time battery has a length of 13 inches, a width of 6.7 inches, and a height of 8.4 inches. So the charger has a decent size, but it’s not exactly large, and you mainly have to deal with the weight of 24 pounds, so it’s pretty heavy. Thankfully, there is a handle at the top of the battery, and you can easily remove the handle if you want to.

Build

Structure and Material:

This Ampere Time battery has a good build but nothing exactly groundbreaking. The casing is made of ABS plastic and has an IP65 water-resistant rating. So this means that you can leave it outside in the elements, but we can’t help but think that would shorten the battery’s lifespan. So it’s best to keep the battery in a dry location.

Tech:

On the technical side, this Ampere Time 100Ah battery does have overcharge, over-discharge, overcurrent, short-circuit, and high-temperature control protections. Such as, when we overheated the battery in our heater test, the battery automatically turned off to prevent any damage.

Reliability

A deep-cycle battery will almost always be reliable if you can find a purpose for it. In our case, we made this Ampere Time battery reliable using a Renogy 2000W inverter and were able to power high-wattage appliances. However, you don’t need a 2000W inverter with this battery, as any lower-wattage inverter would be excellent.

You can also use this Ampere Time battery as an expandable battery for power stations. Yes, we know that we mentioned that this type of battery could replace a power station, but it can also solely be used to recharge power stations, too. Take, for example, the EcoFlow DELTA 2, which has an expandable battery slot, which is excellent, but the expandable battery from EcoFlow is quite expensive.

You could go with a 500W Pure Sine Wave inverter, which is relatively low cost, and use this Ampere Time battery as an expandable battery for the EcoFlow DELTA 2.

Summary:

Power:

This Ampere Time 100Ah LiFePO4 battery is excellent for powering appliances and be used to recharge power stations to expand battery life. It has a 1280W continuous output and can take 1280W to recharge the unit. With a 1280W output, you have a wide range of appliances that you can use this battery with, but you will need a powerful enough inverter to match.

The Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) battery cells that make up this battery are another big deal because they’re able to supply up to 4,000 charge cycles which means you’re looking for many years of usage time with this battery and getting your money’s worth. 

Design:

It’s easy to use a battery like this. All you have to do to begin recharging the battery is the screw in the post bolts into the battery, and you’re ready to use the battery charger and any inverter terminal cables that use clamps.

To start using an inverter with screw-in terminals, you have to take the post bolts out and then screw them back on over the terminal ends, which is very simple. We used the Ampere Time battery charger with a red light to show that the battery is charging, and the light turns green when the battery is fully charged.

Build:

The build quality of this charger is good with an ABS plastic casing, and it is IP65 water-resistant, meaning that it can withstand splashes of water. Of course, you should never submerge this battery into the water, and don’t drop it.

Reliability:

This is a reliable battery with output and input capabilities. Its high capacity and usage of LiFePO4 batteries give tons of charge cycles that can last for many years.

	Ampere Time 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 BMS Battery Specs
Usable capacity	100Ah
Nominal Voltage	12.8V
Max. Continuous Charge Current	100A
Max. Continuous Discharge Current	100A
Energy	1280Wh
Max. Continuous Load Power	1280W
Cycles	≥4000 times
Waterproof Level	IP65
Battery Cell Composition	Lithium-Phosphate
Terminal Type	M8
Weight	24.25 lb
Dimension	13 x 6.82 x 8.48 inches

Conclusion:

This Ampere Time 12V 100Ah LiFePO4 BMS battery is a great power source for many types of applications, such as powering appliances via an inverter to being used as an expandable battery for power stations. Also, it comes at a lower price than a station considering this Ampere Time one has a 1280Wh capacity, and even adding the cost of an inverter and battery keeps the cost down and reliability high.