Home battery lifespan: what do cycles, DoD and warranty really mean?
Last updated: 5 October 2026 · By Team Multi-Solar, home batteries since 2022, Rotterdam
A LiFePO4 home battery is usually rated for 6,000 to 10,000 charge cycles and comes with a 10-year warranty; with Enphase it is 15 years. At one full cycle per day, you reach about 3,650 cycles after 10 years. For most households, it is therefore time that determines how long the battery lasts, not the number of cycles. And when the battery reaches the end of that lifespan, it is not broken: it simply stores less. Below you can read what cycles, DoD, remaining capacity and warranty mean, and how the batteries in our range compare.
How long does a home battery last?
Three figures are often confused.
- Warranty is what the manufacturer commits to. Usually 10 years, sometimes with the addition "or a number of cycles, whichever comes first".
- Cycle life is how many full cycles the cells achieve until a certain remaining capacity, measured at 25 °C.
- Design life is what the manufacturer expects, for example 15 years. That is an expectation, not a commitment.
The lifespan of a home battery is therefore not an end date. After the end of the cycle life, the battery keeps working, just with less capacity.
What is a charge cycle, and how many do you do per year?
A full cycle is fully charging and then discharging the usable capacity once. Twice half full and half empty also counts as one cycle in total.
The roughest rule of thumb: the number of cycles divided by cycles per year gives an upper limit in years. At one cycle per day, 6,000 cycles is about 16 years and 10,000 cycles about 27 years. That is an upper limit, not a promise: the cells also age over time, and the warranty usually ends after 10 years.
How many charge cycles your home battery does per year depends on how you use it. With solar surplus only, it fills up and empties almost daily in summer, and much less in winter. With a dynamic contract, it may charge twice on some days. You can see your own number in the app: divide the total kWh delivered by the usable capacity.
What does DoD mean, and why is usable different from nominal?
DoD stands for depth of discharge: which part of the nominal capacity the battery actually uses. The rest is a buffer that spares the cells.
- The Marstek Venus E 3.0 uses 90 percent of 5.12 kWh.
- The Marstek Venus E 4.0 uses 88 percent of 5,024 Wh.
- The AEG Solarcube Pro uses 90 percent of 6.0 kWh, about 5.4 kWh.
- The AlphaESS VitaPower 3600 AC uses 95 percent.
- The Anker SOLIX Solarbank Max AC uses 100 percent.
So compare batteries on usable kWh, and always check at which DoD a cycle figure was measured. A higher or lower DoD is not better or worse in itself; it tells you how much buffer the manufacturer has already built in. Which usable capacity suits you is explained in how many kWh of home battery you need.
What does 60, 70 or 80 percent remaining capacity mean?
The end of the cycle life is called end-of-life, EOL for short. It is the remaining capacity at which the manufacturer stops the count. After that the battery still works; it just stores less.
- The HYXi HALO is rated for at least 10,000 cycles to 60 percent, at 25 °C.
- The Enphase IQ Battery 5P has a warranty of 15 years or 6,000 cycles, with more than 60 percent remaining capacity.
- The AEG Solarcube Pro guarantees 18.3 MWh over 10 years, to 70 percent.
The lesson: 10,000 cycles to 60 percent is a different figure from 6,000 cycles to 80 percent. Without the EOL percentage, a cycle figure cannot be compared properly. Marstek does not state an EOL percentage in the manual of the Venus E 3.0 or the brochure of the 4.0, and neither does Anker for the Max AC.
How do the specifications compare?
This is how the manufacturers of our batteries state the lifespan, in their datasheets and product data, as of 5 October 2026.
| Model | Cycles | Under which condition | DoD | Warranty | Design life |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marstek Venus E 3.0 | more than 6,000 | 25 °C, EOL not stated | 90% | 10 years | – |
| Marstek Venus E 4.0 | more than 10,000 | 25 °C, EOL not stated | 88% | 10 years | – |
| HYXi HALO | at least 10,000 | 25 °C, to 60% | – | 10 years | – |
| AEG Solarcube Pro | no maximum | 18.3 MWh over 10 years, to 70% | 90% | 10 years | 15 years |
| Enphase IQ Battery 5P | 6,000 | more than 60%, whichever comes first | 5.0 kWh usable | 15 years | – |
| Anker SOLIX Solarbank Max AC | 10,000 | EOL not stated | 100% | 10 years | – |
| AlphaESS VitaPower 3600 AC | 10,000 | – | 95% | 10 years | – |
An empty cell means that the manufacturer does not state it; we do not fill anything in ourselves. The other differences between the two Marstek models are explained in Marstek Venus E 3.0 vs 4.0.
What does "unlimited cycles" mean?
AEG does not attach a cycle maximum to the Solarcube Pro, but guarantees an amount of energy throughput: 18.3 MWh over 10 years, with at least 70 percent capacity remaining afterwards. If you convert that into full cycles of 5.4 kWh usable, you arrive at about 3,390 cycles in 10 years, just over 0.9 per day.
This is how you compare it with other specifications: throughput divided by usable capacity gives the number of full cycles. The same principle applies to warranties with "or so many cycles, whichever comes first", as with Enphase.
Is 10,000 cycles better than 6,000?
Only if you reach them. At one cycle per day, you reach about 3,650 cycles in 10 years. The warranty period then ends before the cycle limit, whether the battery is rated for 6,000 or 10,000. More cycles mainly help if you use the battery intensively, for example on a dynamic contract where it charges and discharges twice on some days. How that works is explained in home battery and dynamic energy contract.
What wears out a battery apart from cycles?
Time
Cells also age when they are not used. Researchers at RWTH Aachen measured 21 home batteries in real-world use for up to eight years (Nature Energy, 2024). They lost an average of 2 to 3 percentage points of usable capacity per year.
Temperature
Manufacturers measure cycles at 25 °C; for the Venus E 3.0, the Venus E 4.0 and the HYXi HALO, this is stated literally in the documentation. Heat accelerates ageing, as long-term research by TU Munich into LiFePO4 cells also showed. In cold conditions, many batteries only charge after heating themselves up.
State of charge
Being left fully charged for a long time at high temperature is less favourable than half full, according to the same Munich research. A hard rule such as "always keep it between 20 and 80 percent" does not follow from this: in a follow-up study, shallow cycles around the middle also caused capacity loss, partly reversible.
Power
The C-rate tells you how fast you charge or discharge in relation to the capacity. With 2.5 kW on a 5 kWh battery, you are at 0.5C. Manufacturers state their cycles at their own maximum power; within those limits, you don't need to worry much about this.
How do you make your home battery last longer?
- Place it indoors or in the shade, within the temperature range in the datasheet, usually -20 to 55 °C.
- Don't leave it completely full or completely empty for weeks; during longer absences, follow the setting the manufacturer recommends in the app.
- Keep the firmware up to date via the app.
- Track your own number of cycles in the app via the kWh delivered.
- If you are unsure about the location, have someone take a look on site.
What is covered by the warranty?
The manufacturer usually gives a 10-year warranty on material and manufacturing defects. Some manufacturers link this to a remaining capacity and a number of cycles or an amount of throughput, with "whichever comes first". We are an authorised dealer; claims are handled via our warehouse in Rotterdam. Keep your invoice; you can find the serial number in the app.
Which specification suits your use?
You only charge with solar surplus, once a day or less. Then 6,000 cycles is more than enough. Focus mainly on the warranty and usable kWh of the plug & play home batteries.
You have a dynamic contract and sometimes charge several times a day. Then choose a battery with 10,000 cycles or a throughput warranty, such as the Venus E 4.0, the HYXi HALO, the Anker Max AC or the AlphaESS VitaPower.
You have high consumption and want a fixed system. Have a look at the fixed home batteries; in the Netherlands, installation is arranged via a quote.
You want to expand later. Check under expansion modules which modules fit your battery.
If you are torn between a plug-in home battery and a fixed system, read plug-in or fixed.
Frequently asked questions
Is a home battery worn out after 6,000 cycles?
No. After the stated number of cycles, the battery still has part of its capacity left, often 60 to 80 percent, depending on the manufacturer. It simply keeps working, but stores less.
What does 70 or 80 percent remaining capacity after the warranty mean?
That at the end of the warranty or cycle life, the battery still has at least that share of its original capacity. A 5 kWh battery with 70 percent remaining capacity then still stores 3.5 kWh.
How much capacity does a home battery lose per year?
In a real-world measurement by RWTH Aachen, it was an average of 2 to 3 percentage points per year. It depends on temperature, state of charge and how intensively you use the battery.
Does a battery deteriorate faster with a dynamic energy contract?
It does more cycles, so it uses up its cycle budget faster. With a 10,000-cycle battery, you usually stay well within the limit during the warranty period.
What exactly does the warranty cover: years or cycles?
That differs per manufacturer. Often it is a number of years, sometimes linked to cycles or throughput with "whichever comes first". Read the warranty terms on the product page or in the datasheet.
How many cycles has my battery already done?
Check in the app how many kWh the battery has delivered in total and divide that by the usable capacity. With 5 kWh usable and 2,000 kWh delivered, you are at 400 cycles.
Not sure which battery suits your use? View all home batteries or request a quote for a fixed system.
Sources
- Marstek, user manual Venus E 3.0 (May 2025) and brochure Venus E 4.0
- HYXi, datasheet HYX-MS3000AC/HYX-MS3000B, version 1.5 (28 April 2026)
- AlphaESS, datasheet VitaPower 3600 AC
- Enphase, product page IQ Battery 5P (consulted 5 October 2026)
- ESS News, AEG Solarcube Pro (24 September 2026) and Anker Solarbank Max AC (9 April 2026)
- Figgener et al., "Multi-year field measurements of home storage systems and their use in capacity estimation", Nature Energy (16 September 2024)
- Naumann et al., "Analysis and modeling of calendar aging of a commercial LiFePO4/graphite cell", Journal of Energy Storage 17 (2018); Naumann, Spingler and Jossen, Journal of Power Sources 451 (2020)
- Product data multi-solar.nl (5 October 2026)