China’s Ruixu is looking to grab some of the home battery rebate action in Australia with its Lithi2-16 offering. It looks like it could be competitive on pricing, but will it be any good?
To say Australia’s recently launched Cheaper Home Batteries rebate program has been popular would be a bit of an understatement. More often than not in the past few months, SolarQuotes has seen quote requests for battery upgrades and solar + battery installs eclipse the total of solar-only submissions each day.
Battery manufacturers see the opportunity down under, particularly given more than 4.15 million small scale solar power systems have been installed across Australia to date; so we can expect to see a bunch of new brands available here.
Among them is Ruixu Battery.
Founded in 2017, Ruixu manufactures lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries and inverters at its 20,000 m² manufacturing facility in ZhuHai city, Guangdong Province, China. The company doesn’t have an office in Australia per se, but has a warehouse in Sydney and the local importer is Gecko Solar Vault, which is based in Queensland.
The Ruixu Lithi2-16
The Ruixu Lithi2-16 was first launched in 2023, and in early July this year was approved by Australia’s Clean Energy Council; meaning it is eligible for the national battery rebate.
This battery features a useable capacity of 16 kWh, but see warranty notes below. It can be expanded by adding more units in parallel. The Lithi2-16 can deliver continuous 7 kW output, with a maximum discharge power of 10 kW.
Among the Lithi2-16’s features is an integrated colour LCD touchscreen for monitoring and control and lockable FUMA wheels for mobility (although that’s not particularly useful when it’s wired in), along with an anti-tipping wall anchor for secure installation. The unit has a Battery Management System (BMS) maintenance and inspection port on the side.
It also includes a self-heating function for colder environments that activates at 5°C and turns off at 12°C, consuming 480W while in operation — which seems a lot. The Ruixu Lithi2-16’s operating temperature range is from -20°C to +55°C (yet the storage temperature range is -20°C to +45°C) and it has an IP65 ingress rating, so it can be installed outside.
An interesting safety feature is an integrated aerosol fire extinguisher. SolarEdge’s Home Battery was originally released with an in-built fire extinguisher, but the feature was dropped. According to SolarEdge, it just wasn’t needed given other safety features. Sigenergy’s Sigenstor also has a fire extinguisher.
The Ruixu Lithi2-16 measures 924 x 543 x 250 mm (with its wheels) and weighs 145 kg.
A hybrid inverter is needed for the Ruixu Lithi2-16. Ruixu Battery says the Lithi2-16 is compatible with a range of hybrid inverters other than its own, which is just as well given no Ruixu inverters are CEC-approved yet. Among compatible inverter brands listed are SMA (Sunny Boy Smart Energy series), Growatt, Solis, Deye and GoodWe (all LV series), but confirm compatibility if you’re thinking of taking the plunge.
Lithi2-16 Warranty
As for warranty, the company offers 10 years. But the Australian datasheet states a design life of 15 years. Such a statement could be considered an express warranty in Australia, which is where a manufacturer or seller makes additional promises about a product’s quality or performance that aren’t necessarily in a warranty document but still enforceable.
The warranty could also use some clarification with regard to the performance aspect and capacities. The Ruixu site says 16.38kWh usable capacity, the datasheet originally only stated 16kWh nominal capacity (no useable capacity figure), and the warranty says:
“The battery is rated for 9500 cycles at 80% DOD over 10 years, with a guaranteed State of Health (SOH) ≥ 60% during this period.”
80% DOD is 12.8 kWh and 9,500 cycles over the 10 years works out to around 2.6 cycles a day.
Update: In follow-up discussions with Ruixu, the company confirmed the *useable* capacity was 16 kWh and the datasheet was updated; but I’m awaiting further clarification on how/if that affects the performance warranty.
What Does The Lithi2-16 Cost?
Recommended retail pricing for Australia is still being confirmed, but Ruixu is eager to be “most competitive”. According to the company, around 500 Lithi2-16 batteries were ordered by Australian dealers in the first couple of weeks after CEC listing.
The Big Test
However competitive the pricing is here, the big test of course is how these batteries perform over time under Australian conditions, and how the company’s (overseas) after-sales support stacks up. We’ll be keen to hear from installers about what they think and have set up a Ruixu battery reviews page on SolarQuotes in anticipation of feedback from local customers.
With so many options available to Australians now and more being added regularly, choosing a residential storage solution can be confusing. Learn everything you need to know in our comprehensive home battery guide.
About Michael Bloch
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It is going to have to have something going for it to break into the market. As you say working off their warranty statement, 12.8 usable out of 16 – that sounds pretty poor in it self for a product with no local track record or history of service / warranty support. I think it would have to have substantial price discount on known brands, or there be a battery shortage, to get many sales.
(Installation) manual says: “Support a maximum of 96% DOD under off-grid and back-up application” making usable 15.4kwh.
Thanks for pointing that out Lachlan, I’ve sent Ruixu a couple of questions to get clarification around useable capacity and warranty. I’ll update the post with any new/corrected information if/when I get it.