Alibaba LiFePO4 lead times?

Hello all! I am a new fourm poster, but been following Will’s videos for quite awhile.

I am finally upgrading my battery in my truck camper. I have an AGM that is completely smoked. I am worried about lead times. Currently we have our first week long trip planned in the middle of May. It looks like the traditional 280ah suppliers won’t be able to meet that deadline from China. Are there any suppliers that people would recommend instead?

I have also considered building a pack using the 100ah fortune cells, but to even get 200ah it looks like it would be double the cost.

Our load is roughly about 40-70ah a day depending on usage. we have a 400w solar array on the roof and a mobile 100w panel. I think 100ah is probably cutting it too tight along with running a 1400w microwave for 5-10 min a day is maybe a little rough on the smaller capacity batteries as well.

I really appreciate any advice or suggestions you kind folks have for a supplier or an easier way to get these cells without waiting for 2-3 months.

Welcome to the forum.

Three choices:

1. 2+ months for commodity cells from China from the few reliable sources identified on the forum.
2. Pay full retail from an authorized US distributor for official North America cells.
3. Find an Alibaba supplier with U.S. stock - these are hit and miss, and to my knowledge, no one on the forum has identified a reliable source.

Will recommends SOK and AmpereTime:


SOK may be out of stock, but AmpereTime shows delivery for me in about a week.

Assuming 1400W is the usage and not the output (if 1400W rated output microwave, it's using 2200W), 1400W * 10/60/.85 = 274Wh or about 21% of the capacity of a 100Ah LFP battery.

Snoobler, thank you so much for your reply. It appears the AmpereTime battery has a max discharge rate of 100a and is recommended to use a 1200w inverter max. The microwave input as measured with a kilowatt meter is 1300-1500. It surges up to 1500w at start then settles in at 1350-1400.

It appears that building a pack from these cells is maybe my best bet in terms of DIY:


Has anyone used these? I am thinking I could do a 4s2p configuration and use the overkill solar BMS with it

ECPC has been around a long time, and has a good reputation.

The BMS is also a limiting factor. An overkill is rated at 120A, so you're going to be riding that line with the microwave. Cells are typically 1C rated (100A for 100Ah) and then there's the BMS limitation. Those fortunes are nice at 2C (200A rated), but you need a BMS with that rating.

Typically better to have two separate 4S batteries each with their own BMS. yes, that adds cost, but it eases the current limit and provides redundancy if you have a problem with a cell.

snoobler said:

ECPC has been around a long time, and has a good reputation.

The BMS is also a limiting factor. An overkill is rated at 120A, so you're going to be riding that line with the microwave. Cells are typically 1C rated (100A for 100Ah) and then there's the BMS limitation. Those fortunes are nice at 2C (200A rated), but you need a BMS with that rating.

Typically better to have two separate 4S batteries each with their own BMS. yes, that adds cost, but it eases the current limit and provides redundancy if you have a problem with a cell.

Click to expand...

Excellent. I will do a 4p2s with 8 of the 100ah cells and two BMS’s from overkill solar. Seems the redundancy would be an additional benefit. I really appreciate the advice, thank you!

Sparkyeng said:

Excellent. I will do a 4p2s with 8 of the 100ah cells and two BMS’s from overkill solar. Seems the redundancy would be an additional benefit. I really appreciate the advice, thank you!

Click to expand...

4P2S is a single 6V battery.

You want 2X 4S batteries - two batteries each constructed from 4 single cells in series each with their own BMS. You would then place the batteries in parallel like you would any two 12V AGM batteries.

Sorry, yes my terminology was incorrect. Thank you. Two parallel banks of four in series. For effective use, I assume I need to keep both sets of cabling a similar length and gauge to keep the resistance equal between both batteries and split the load as evenly as possible.

I was chatting with Wendy from EXLIPORC 2 days ago and she mentioned she would have USA stock this week.



This was what she quoted me to the Oregon Coast.

Here is a vendor with batteries that ship from a U.S. location. He's also a forum member.

Awesome, I really appreciate the leads, I will track these down and see what will work. The EnerAmp gentleman is about an hour away from me so that is pretty convenient.