Cheap Lipo4 from China

[Old Timer]

Took the plunge and ordered a battery from China as a second battery for my Aurora to lengthen the distances when using high power.

36V 15AH LIFEPO4 Lithium Battery electric bicycle bike on eBay (end time 01-Dec-10 09:18:00 GMT)

Charged up and first run out today trying to get it down for the second charge. Plenty of power and if it stays as is then £185 inc delivery for a 36V 15amp battery and charger( that has a cooling fan inside) delivered inside 2 weeks can`t be bad. I`ve dropped it in one of my front panniers to balance the weight of the heavy rear and the bike seems to handle OK. I went for the standard size and shape to keep the battery more squarish and it does lend itself to fitting in a lot more places in that shape and configuration. BTW he will make your battery in any shape and size you require at no extra cost.
Keeping the battery square does allow low fitting in panniers so I`m glad I went for that size. Weight of box was around 6.4 KG inc the packing and the box was of very good thick quality so I reckon the battery probably weighs in at around 5Kg. No inport duty or vat to pay as the battery was sent EMS and then Parcel force. Sending by EMS cargo plane allows them to carry batteries whereas normal air frieght that travels with passengers don`t allow batteries.

 

[John L]

Looks like very good value - it will be interesting to see how it performs.

John

 

[Scimitar]

Very interested in that. Seller's feedback is crap, though.

 

[TeTs.BiZ]

Interested to see how you get on with this. My one word of advice is not to charge it unsupervised until you trust it - cheap chinese branded batteries are sometimes fine and sometimes not.

 

[onmebike]

I also purchased a battery from this seller[10ah] and it arrived well packaged in 9days from time of payment, also no duty/vat.
Exchanged several emails with seller beforehand and the information received was, battery's are all contructed to order using 5ah cylindrical cells and a high quality smarTEC bms. Seller also assured me there would be no added customs charge's using EMS.
I also got a fan cooled charger.
I later purchased a spare bms for £29.00 inclusive of post although I have no reason to believe I'll ever need it.
This seller seems pretty reliable in my opinion.

 

[Fordulike]

Very interested in that. Seller's feedback is crap, though.

Don't just go on a seller's negative feedback.
5 in 12 months doesn't look so bad when you see that the seller is willing to offer replacement parts.
Some buyers on eBay are too quick to post negative feedback, before giving the seller a chance to rectify the problem. The distance doesn't help in this case either.
I think the problem here is that the batteries come with no instructions and novices damage them by installing them incorrectly.

 

[jbond]

This seller: 36V15Ahr $299.00
Li Ping: 36V15Ahr $385.00 (Results for 36V LiFePO4 Battery Packs)
If the quality is as good, that's a good deal.

Can anyone find a price for 36V 15Ahr of A123 cells?

BTW: Is that a standard kettle plug for the power connection?

 

[onmebike]

This seller: 36V15Ahr $299.00
Li Ping: 36V15Ahr $385.00 (Results for 36V LiFePO4 Battery Packs)
If the quality is as good, that's a good deal.

Can anyone find a price for 36V 15Ahr of A123 cells?

BTW: Is that a standard kettle plug for the power connection?

The Ping battery has an additional $85.00 shipping.
The Kettle plug is on the charge lead. Output lead is unterminated[heatshrinked]

 

[Old Timer]

I just soldered on a kettle plug to the bare wires and that will interchange with all my other batteries and controllers.

First charge last night took around 10hrs and tonight around 6 hrs (thats with the supplied 3amp charger)
Trying to get that battery down to cut off point proved very hard. Using it on the Aurora and using high power with throttle for 75% of the time and pedelec the other 25%. Got it down a fair amount but not quite cut off. Around 25miles so maybe around 30 miles would be nearer what it would have done on the first charge and considering mostly throttle and 350watt I`m more than impressed. What I did notice was the power that you feel early on after a charge hung on for longer (well it would seeing as the standard battery is 2/3rds the size.
When you consider the cost then it must be around 50% cheaper than the UK rip off batteries.
Time will tell but it seems fine so far and the front pannier (although quite small) houses the battery just right and feels fine on the road and certainly balances that heavy rear end.

ONmebike (Tony) that charge line and power line do seem to be soldered to the same point! so you would actually get away with just one kettle plug??

 

[jbond]

battery's are all contructed to order using 5ah cylindrical cells

Are you sure about that? Aren't they the same Prismatic (rectangular) LiFePo cells that Li Ping uses? Or was this an earlier version?

 

[onmebike]

Are you sure about that? Aren't they the same Prismatic (rectangular) LiFePo cells that Li Ping uses? Or was this an earlier version?

According to the seller, 5ah cylindrical cells. I think prismatic's would be lighter and more compact.
Could be these?

LiFePO4 Cell 32600 Cylindrical products, buy LiFePO4 Cell 32600
Cylindrical products from alibaba.com

or these?

32650 5ah LiFePO4 battery cell products, buy 32650 5ah LiFePO4 battery cell products from alibaba.com

 

[Old Timer]

battery update

Went out yesterday using pedelec only with power set to maximum (what a joy anyway! around 25 miles which I find very good considering it`s on a 350Watt motor. Judging by the original battery (which is still in position as back up) that should equate to at least 35miles using my normal medium power setting and pedelec.
What you have to remember is that those 25 miles were covered with a speed of around 18-20mph easily with hardly any effort on my part, pointing to fast commute travel. Weather was fairly cold and the outward journey was against quite a brisk wind in from the sea and the conditions were mixed hills.

So it looks like the new 15amp Lipo4 is more than a 5Amp increase(if you know what I mean.) over the 10Amp Li-ion. I`m hoping that this battery gives me more charges and running time than the supplied Li-ions that I `ve had on various bikes, which is all the more pleasing as a 15Amp Lipo4 battery purchased from the UK would be at least double or maybe triple in price. Like most things with batteries I`m afraid that only time will tell but nothing ventured! nothing gained!

 

[averhamdave]

That's good enough for me Old Timer. I have just ordered one.

Mine will be rack mounted. What's the best way to accomodate one of these batteries on a bike rack? Anyone recommend a waterproof enclose that can be bolted through to the rack?

Thanks, Dave

 

[Fordulike]

Does the charger come with UK plug?

 

[jerrysimon]

When my chargers came with two pin plugs, I simply cut them off and replaced them with a three pin UK one.

Obviously you have to make sure the charger is made for a UK voltage power supply though

Regards

Jerry

 

[Old Timer]

That's good enough for me Old Timer. I have just ordered one.

Mine will be rack mounted. What's the best way to accomodate one of these batteries on a bike rack? Anyone recommend a waterproof enclose that can be bolted through to the rack?

Thanks, Dave

Remember you can order the battery in any configuration, if it is going to be rear rack mounted then a narrow flat config might be better.

I have mine in a front small pannier and my tools in the other side for balance but I put it at the front to balance the weight from the heavy rear of the Aurora because I also keep the original battery in place.
I did look around for a perfect plastic container but found it hard to find the right size. I think(with hindsight) if I were to be using it on it`s own on the rear rack then I would probably knock up a plywood box and bolt it on.

 

[Old Timer]

Does the charger come with UK plug?

The charger comes with a two flat pin plug ( I cut mine off and fitted a 13Amp plug) but since I have found an adapter plug on E bay that takes that design.(let me know if you want the link) The battery has two pairs of leads (black and red =live and neg) the thinner wires are for charging and have a kettle plug fitted that plugs into the kettle plug socket on the charger output. The thicker power wires have no connector which gives you the choice of how you will connect it into your system or controller (mine is via a 10Amp kettle plug to a fly lead coming from my controller box which in turn is wired into a double pole switch that switches between rear battery or new front one.) It would probably be a good idea to fit some sort of inline fuse and switch to the main feed so as to isolate the controller from the battery when not in use.
The BMS is not inside the battery covering but is connected to wires that come out from the battery, if you are running a 250Watt motor then binding them to the battery with gaffer tape or similar should be fine but in my case when running the Aurora on throttle only up and down hills has a fair draw on power and the BMS can start to get warm so mine has been left just tucked down the side of the battery in the pannier where it can breath.

Please be aware

When and if fitting kettle plugs and sockets that you use a meter to determine which side to fit the live and neg.

Not wanting to teach anyone to suck eggs but it can be confusing looking at kettle plugs and assuming which side + and - should go.

The charger has a cooling fan and runs a red light when charging, the light will turn green but don`t unplug right away as the charger will kick back in several times whilst finally topping up the battery (I`m not sure if I left it on all night whether the charger would just keep topping up the battery but I intend to bring it in for the next charge to determine that)

There is just a small amount of warmth in the BMS near the end of charging( nothing serious) but the battery stays cold throughout)

Someone mentioned earlier about being careful when charging the Lipo4`s but I have since be told that they are safe (obviously being around when any battery is charging is wise anyway)

I`m getting a voltage of around 44.5V just at the end of charging that gradually drops to around 40.7V and seems to settle at around that. Not sure if that is about right but can only go by the amount of energy that is on tap from the battery which is very good.

 

[ELECTRIC AVENUES]

The smart thing to do is get a supply of the cells and weld them into a battery of your own.

I have a tab welder.

I made two batteries, one is a 24v 9Ah rated, the other is 24v 11Ah rated.

You can get the batteries in small quantities to avoid the customs, and build up your supply over time.

As for the completed Duct-Tape batteries, they are good, but have to combine large capacities with their low C rate in order to get any performance.

 

[ELECTRIC AVENUES]

This seller: 36V15Ahr $299.00
Li Ping: 36V15Ahr $385.00 (Results for 36V LiFePO4 Battery Packs)
If the quality is as good, that's a good deal.

Can anyone find a price for 36V 15Ahr of A123 cells?

BTW: Is that a standard kettle plug for the power connection?

Pings battery will be lighter, as it is made from pouch cells. Pings build quality is also better.

 

[averhamdave]

Pings battery will be lighter, as it is made from pouch cells. Pings build quality is also better.

I'm sure that is true but they are also substantially more expensive - to the point that I wouldn't have been able to justify buying one for the project I'm looking at. Maybe that was Old Timer's situation as well?