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Dragonfly Energy sues Will Prowse for trade libel over Battle Born safety videos

On 2 June 2026, Dragonfly Energy — the maker of Battle Born Batteries — filed a trade-libel suit against YouTuber William Prowse in Nevada's Second Judicial District Court, alleging his monetised videos misrepresented the design and safety of Battle Born's 100Ah LiFePO4 battery. The complaint claims Prowse removed internal structural parts and tested damaged units outside specification, that he praised the same product before disparaging it, and that he took more than $200,000 in affiliate and advertising payments from Dragonfly over the years before publicly denying the relationship. Dragonfly seeks damages and an injunction. These are unproven allegations in a civil complaint, and the suit escalates the terminal-failure dispute we covered in April into a courtroom.

The Battle Born terminal saga we tracked in late April has gone legal. On 2 June 2026, Dragonfly Energy Holdings — parent of Battle Born Batteries — filed a trade-libel complaint against William Errol Prowse IV and Prowse Publications LLC in the Second Judicial District Court of Nevada. The dispute is the same one that started when Prowse published a series of videos arguing that the internal terminal construction of Battle Born's 100Ah LiFePO4 battery overheated and failed; Battle Born answered in March that the melting positive terminal was an intentional polymer thermal-fuse mechanism, not a defect.

Dragonfly's complaint makes several specific allegations. It says Prowse presented monetised content as independent technical analysis while removing internal structural components from the batteries and running already-damaged units outside their specifications, producing what the company calls a materially inaccurate picture of the product's safety. It further alleges that Prowse had previously praised the same battery before disparaging it, and that he received more than $200,000 in affiliate commissions and advertising fees tied to Battle Born products over several years — then publicly denied that financial relationship while positioning his videos as neutral. Dragonfly seeks damages and an injunction against further statements. "This lawsuit is not about silencing criticism," said chief commercial officer Wade Seaburg. "It is about accountability when what we believe are false and misleading safety claims are presented as technical fact."

Two things to keep straight. First, every claim above is an allegation in a civil complaint that has not been tested in court; Prowse had not filed a public response as this edition went out. Second, Nevada has an anti-SLAPP statute, and the early forum debate centres on whether Prowse can use it to get the case dismissed and recover fees. Whatever the merits, a battery maker suing the DIY world's most-watched reviewer is a genuine inflection point for how independent testing works — which is the subject of this week's Background.

Sources

Battery

Marine How To makes the case for Wattcycle — and draws a pointed contrast with Battle Born

In a 12 June commentary, Marine How To argues that budget brand Wattcycle is worth keeping on the table despite the quality-control problems Will Prowse documented — precisely because the company acknowledged the faults and changed the product, rather than defending it. The piece is independent opinion, not a bench test, but it's a useful counterpoint to this week's Lead: it credits Wattcycle for swapping its TDT BMS for higher-quality JBD units, moving to 314Ah active-balanced cells, fixing an overcharge-protection bug with a parallel mode, and redesigning the terminal links with tinned-copper braid.

Published the same week Dragonfly took Will Prowse to court, a Marine How To commentary (12 June) takes the opposite stance toward a critic's findings. The author — writing as an owner who bought the batteries, not a sponsored reviewer — acknowledges the quality-control problems Prowse surfaced in budget brand Wattcycle, but says they're "not personally ready to count them out just yet, because they do & have listened to feedback, unlike some others." The "others" is explicit: the piece criticises Battle Born's leadership for a dismissive posture and quotes Wattcycle conceding "we certainly didn't do a good job of maintaining consistency."

The substance is in what changed. Per the article, newer Wattcycle packs swap the problematic TDT BMS for JBD units, move to 314Ah EV-grade cells with active balancing (previously passive), add a parallel mode that addresses an overcharge-protection issue, and replace cramped multi-strand 10AWG terminal wiring with tinned-copper braided links; newer models also get removable lids and an external on/off switch. The author still recommends buying direct rather than through third-party resellers, and points to Epoch as the premium alternative. Treat this as informed opinion rather than a controlled test — but the framing matters: it's a real-world example of the iterate-don't-litigate path.

Sources

Marine How To — Wattcycle Batteries (12 June 2026)

Charging

Victron adds a 70A Orion XS — same fanless case, more alternator current

Victron announced on 10 June that the Orion XS DC-DC battery charger is now available in a 12/12V 70A version, delivering roughly 1,000W in the same compact, fanless housing as the existing 50A unit. It keeps the Orion XS hallmarks — an aluminium-PCB design rated around 98.5% efficiency, full output without a fan up to 40°C, integrated Bluetooth and VE.Direct, and adaptive multi-stage charging with input-current limiting to protect smart alternators. It's aimed at dual-battery RV and marine systems that want maximum charge current from the alternator.

Victron filled the gap above its 50A Orion XS on 10 June, releasing a 12/12V 70A version of the DC-DC battery charger. The headline is more current — roughly 1,000W versus ~700W — in the same compact case, and Victron keeps the design that made the Orion XS notable: an aluminium-PCB thermal layout rated around 98.5% efficiency that delivers full output fanless up to 40°C, so there's no fan to clog or fail in a dusty engine bay.

The rest carries over from the 50A unit: integrated Bluetooth and VE.Direct, adaptive multi-stage charging with a programmable LiFePO4 profile, engine-running detection, and an input-current limit to keep a smart (variable-voltage) alternator from overheating when it's the charge source. For van and boat builders running larger lithium house banks off a single alternator, 70A meaningfully shortens drive-time charging without forcing a jump to a much larger isolated charger. Victron had not published US pricing at announcement; for reference, the 50A Orion XS street-prices around $200, so expect the 70A to land somewhat above that.

Find on Amazon →

Sources

Victron Professional — New: Orion XS now available at 70A (10 June 2026)

Battery

Epoch rolls out a four-tier LiFePO4 line — RV packs with built-in heaters from $1,199

Epoch Batteries released a restructured LiFePO4 line on 2 June, organised into four series — Eco, Essential, Pro and Elite — spanning 12V to 70.4V and up to 460Ah across marine, RV and golf-cart use. The two RV models lead the announcement: a 12V 300Ah Essential at $1,199 (shipping now) and a 12V 460Ah Essential at $1,499 (pre-order, shipping 1 July), both with built-in heaters for cold-weather charging and Bluetooth via the Epoch app. A LiMax golf-cart range (36V/48V/70.4V 105Ah, plus a 48V Mini) rounds it out.

Epoch Batteries reorganised its catalogue into a clear tier structure on 2 June, splitting the LiFePO4 range into Eco, Essential, Pro and Elite series that run from 12V up to 70.4V and as high as 460Ah, aimed at marine, RV and golf-cart buyers. It's a sensible move for a brand that had grown a sprawling SKU list — and it slots the 460Ah V2-T marine pack we covered in April into a wider good-better-best ladder.

The launch leads with two RV models in the Essential tier: a 12V 300Ah at $1,199, shipping now, and a 12V 460Ah at $1,499, on pre-order with shipping from 1 July. Both carry built-in heaters so they can keep accepting charge below freezing — the perennial LFP cold-weather problem — and report state of charge and health over Bluetooth through the Epoch Li-ion app. The LiMax golf-cart line covers 36V, 48V and 70.4V at 105Ah, with a 48V Mini variant on pre-order for 8 July. Epoch sells largely direct, so these are factory-spec packs rather than reseller-variable ones — relevant given this week's other battery stories.

Sources

Epoch Batteries — New LiFePO4 Battery Line for Marine, RV, and Golf Cart Applications (2 June 2026)

Battery

Bluetti's FridgePower reaches retail after a $2M Kickstarter close

The Bluetti FridgePower — the 2,016Wh LiFePO4 backup unit purpose-built to keep a fridge running through outages that we covered at its April Kickstarter launch — closed its crowdfunding campaign on 31 May past $2M and has moved into retail. The slim (75mm) unit pairs 1,800W output with a 10ms switchover and earned a Frost & Sullivan product recognition ahead of the retail rollout. Backer pricing was $759; retail is higher.

Bluetti's FridgePower, the refrigerator-focused backup unit we noted when its Kickstarter opened in April, has crossed from crowdfunding into retail. The campaign closed 31 May past the $2M mark, and Bluetti says the product picked up a Frost & Sullivan recognition on the way. The pitch is narrow and clear: a 2,016Wh LiFePO4 pack with 1,800W output and a 10ms switchover, in a 75mm-slim case meant to sit beside or behind a fridge and carry it through a power cut without a manual restart. Early-bird backers paid $759; retail pricing sits higher. It's a single-purpose device rather than a general house battery, but for grid-tied owners whose only real worry is spoiled food during outages, the focused framing is the appeal.

Sources

The Background · Trend Piece

Litigate or iterate: independent battery testing under pressure

This week handed us two opposite responses to the same thing — an independent critic publishing unflattering findings about a LiFePO4 battery. Dragonfly Energy took Will Prowse to court. Wattcycle, by Marine How To's account, changed its BMS, its cells and its terminal hardware. Set the specific merits aside for a moment (the lawsuit's allegations are unproven, and Marine How To's piece is opinion) and the contrast is worth sitting with, because the DIY DC world runs on independent testing more than almost any other consumer-hardware niche.

Why testers matter here

There is no UL-style gatekeeper for the drop-in LiFePO4 market. Specs on a battery box are self-reported, datasheets are thin, and the gap between a $199 pack and an $1,199 one isn't visible from the listing photos. Into that vacuum stepped a handful of independent voices — Will Prowse, Off-Grid Garage's Andy, Panbo's cycle testing, Marine How To — whose teardowns and capacity runs became the de-facto product safety layer for a generation of van and boat builders. When that layer works, it's genuinely protective: it's how the community learned which budget cells balance properly and which BMS firmware bricks on a bad flash.

The uncomfortable part: money

The Dragonfly complaint's most pointed allegation isn't about test methodology — it's about disclosure: that Prowse took six figures in affiliate and advertising revenue tied to the same product he later criticised, then denied the relationship. Whether or not that's borne out, it lands on a real tension. Almost every major DC reviewer monetises through affiliate links, and affiliate revenue flows from the products reviewed. That doesn't make a tester dishonest, but it does mean readers should know who's paid by whom, and reviewers should make that legible. The episode is a prompt to treat undisclosed or murky affiliate relationships as a credibility signal in their own right — in either direction.

The chilling-effect question

The risk a lawsuit like this raises is obvious: if testing a battery to destruction and saying so can land you in court, smaller reviewers may simply stop. That's why the anti-SLAPP angle matters. Nevada has an anti-SLAPP statute designed to let defendants dismiss suits that target protected speech on matters of public concern — and product safety is about as public-concern as consumer speech gets. If Prowse invokes it successfully, the practical message to manufacturers is that the courtroom is an expensive way to answer a teardown. If he doesn't, expect more makers to reach for legal letters.

What the reader should take from it

Two things. First, no single tester is the last word — triangulate. A finding that Prowse, Off-Grid Garage and Panbo would all reproduce is worth more than any one channel's verdict, and a manufacturer that responds with data (or with a fixed product) tells you more than one that responds with a press release or a complaint. Second, the most reassuring signal a brand can send after a bad review is the boring one Wattcycle reportedly sent: acknowledge the fault, change the hardware, and let the next teardown find the difference. Whatever a court eventually decides about Prowse and Battle Born, that's the standard the community will keep applying.

Sources

Community Pulse

What the forums are talking about this week

Predictably, the lawsuit is the story on the forums. The DIYSolarForum megathread "Battleborn Batteries is Suing Will Prowse" has run past 130 pages, and the discussion is more substantive than the usual pile-on. Two threads of argument dominate: whether Nevada's anti-SLAPP statute should get the case dismissed (with several posters predicting Prowse recovers fees), and what to make of the complaint's claim that Prowse took more than $200,000 in affiliate and advertising payments from Dragonfly over the years. Sentiment skews heavily toward Prowse, but the more careful posts are doing the thing the Background argues for — separating the testing-methodology question from the disclosure question, and noting that "I support the reviewer" and "every allegation in the complaint is false" are not the same statement. As always, a forum thread is a read on community mood, not a finding of fact; the case will be decided on evidence none of us have seen yet.

Threads

DIYSolarForum — Battleborn Batteries is Suing Will Prowse

Product Radar

New and notable components announced or launched this week

Orion XS 12/12-70A DC-DC Battery Charger — Victron Energy

Charging

70A (≈1,000W) version of the fanless aluminium-PCB DC-DC charger for dual-battery alternator charging.

US pricing not published at announcement Announced 10 June 2026 Find on Amazon →

Same compact, fanless case as the 50A unit, ~98.5% efficiency, full output to 40°C; adds input-current limiting for smart alternators.

Essential Series 12V 300Ah / 460Ah RV — Epoch Batteries

Battery

RV LiFePO4 packs with built-in heaters and Bluetooth, part of a new four-tier Eco/Essential/Pro/Elite line.

$1,199 (300Ah) / $1,499 (460Ah) 300Ah shipping now; 460Ah pre-order, ships 1 July 2026

Built-in heater keeps charging below freezing; sold factory-direct, so packs aren't reseller-variable.

FridgePower — Bluetti

Battery

Single-purpose 2,016Wh LiFePO4 fridge backup, 1,800W, 75mm slim, 10ms switchover — now at retail after its Kickstarter.

$759 backer; retail higher Kickstarter closed 31 May 2026; retail rollout underway

Previously featured at its April Kickstarter launch; this is the retail-availability update, not a new product.