Updated October 2025

What's happening?
The current situation with batteries reminds me a lot of our early days in solar.
Rebates on solar panels and a flood of cheap Chinese panels and inverters.
Inverters failing left right and centre, brands disappearing, retailers going broke.

Is history repeating with batteries?

I think it very well might, but for possibly a different reason.
I expect the batteries, even the budget brands, are fit for purpose.
A series-connected battery full of Lithium Iron Phosphate cells and a decent BMS, isn't exactly 'new tech'.
They may fail a bit more than better brands, but I don't expect a repeat of the inverter failure situation.

In my opinion, the problem is size.
The Australian population is 27 million. We are a very small market.

With the current generous battery subsidies there is plenty of business for everyone.
There's a pile on of new battery brand arrivals, mostly budget brands.

But what happens when demand slows down to more normal levels when subsidies end?

If we take the inverter situation of the early days, I can predict the answer.
Once sales no longer make Australia viable, they leave and ignore pleads for support and warranty.

The safe battery brands.
Now there's a Clickbait heading if ever there was one.
With fires from cheap lithium battery chargers burning houses down daily, 'safe' is an important word.
I think there is a world of difference between a cheap e-bike charger, and a home storage battery.

What I really meant by 'safe' is 'here for the long haul'
Here to support their products for the 10 year warranty.

On that score I think Fronius, SMA, iStore, Sungrow, Growatt, Solaredge, Alpha ESS and Goodwe are 'safe'.
There are others of course who have also got a long track record in Australia.

Less safe, simply because they are so 'new', Sigenergy, Hinen, FoxESS, Anker Solix, Dyness...and many more.

The best battery
Ironically, the best battery is one of the new ones. Sigenergy. Been here a bit over a year.
It's got a fantastic suite of safety features, the batteries are in parallel and work independently.
It allows new batteries of different storage capacity to be mixed with old, future-proofing it.
It's really well-made and very reliable (so far).
The reporting is first class with additional AI functionality.
It's just an absolute gem of a product and now Australia's market leader.
It's immediate success winning over usually hesitant Australian installers makes it a 'safe' brand.

The cheapest battery.
FoxESS, a new brand, comes in the cheapest and whilst a 'basic no frills battery', seems fine to me.
What I like about its design is that even with a stack of 9 x 4.66kWh batteries, it's only 1.35m high.
It sticks out a bit further (380mm) than some but is also not quite as wide as most.
The inverter is a separate unit rather than sitting on top of the battery stack.
That makes install a bit longer but it's not a big deal.
Fox are a very large long established company too, so I'm going to include Fox in my 'safer zone'
I'd prefer to see some fire extinguishing features, parallel not series connection but that comes at a price.

Level-playing field pricing
The best, Sigenergy v the cheapest, FoxESS.
(1) 5kW single phase inverter, backup, ~16kWh battery, Fox is $4,000 cheaper than Sigenergy.
(2) 10kW single phase inverter, backup, ~24kWh battery, Fox is $5,600 cheaper than Sigenergy.
(3) 10kW three phase inverter, backup, ~ 32kWh battery, Fox is $6,000 cheaper than Sigenergy.
(4) 15kW three phase inverter, backup, ~40kWh battery, Fox is $8,400 cheaper than Sigenergy.

In the above examples I included 'backup' which means powering circuits in your home during a blackout.
Fox's backup is wired directly from the inverter. (You would need to install a manual bypass/changeover switch).
Sigenergy's backup can support the whole house.

As you can clearly see the price difference is absolutely massive.
Sigenergy may respond with lower battery prices, but why would they when they are Australia's No.1 ?

They reduced the price of their amazing DC EV charger by 40% on 1st October.
That was a very clever move.
This 12-25kW bi-directional charger that charges the EV directly from solar and battery is unique.
It's bi-directional too so the car battery can be used to power the house (V2H).
Fox doesn't have a product like this; nobody else does.
By reducing the price to not much more than the cost of a regular slow AC charger, Sigenergy have created a 'USP'
That's 'Unique Selling Proposition' for those unfamiliar with sales jargon.

• Sigenergy EV DC charger.
• Sigenergy fire extinguisher (aerosol) in each battery. Safer.
• Sigenergy independently charged/discharged batteries for longer life and future-proofing.
• Sigenergy best reporting platform with AI.
• Sigenergy is Australia's leading battery brand means likely future security/warranty.
• Sigenergy stock availability excellent, FoxESS currently very hard to get.

There's usually more to the buying equation than price alone.
Having said that, when we can get our hands on some FoxESS stock, we will be installing them.
I'm certain we will be installing 5 x as many Sigenergy's despite the price difference though.

Other battery brands.
I rate iStore very highly. Best support too.
Fronius have just released their own battery.
Sungrow have always been a solid brand.




This review was written by Andrew MacKeith, Solar4Ever service manager since 2011.