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Warning when buying EVE LF280K Grade-A cells with new terminal type!

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vist

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Aug 8, 2022
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Hi,

I would like to take this opportunity to warn all consumers and companies considering purchasing EVE LF280K Grade-A cells with the new type of terminal.

The reason is that EVE has not adapted the packaging in which the battery cells are shipped.

As you can see in the pictures, the terminal is the highest non-flexible point. On top of the terminals there is then an 8mm polyfoam for protection and then the box is closed. Any force on the top of the box will be distributed to the cell terminals.

When ordering a full sea pallet, 144pcs LF280K cells, several cartons are stacked on top of each other. When the carton absorbs moisture during the sea transport, strength is lost, and with the small margin that exists in the height, the weight of the stacked cartons ends up on the terminals of the cells.

The terminals are subjected to stress, and the Grade-A cells you bought are now Grade-D cells or should possibly be discarded immediately.

I think it is unbelievably bad that the cells are packaged in a way where the weight from cartons above ends up on the terminals.

We have an order placed 1 month ago directly with EVE for 144pcs LF280K cells. These will be shipped in the coming days. EVE's official sales representative is of the opinion that we should have specified when ordering if we wanted them better packaged. And if there has been stress on the terminals during shipping, which might lead to malfunction of the battery packs in our product, "it will be covered by thier 1 year warranty". Well, that will not help us.

As we refuse the cells being shipped like this, they have now offered to put the cartons in wooden boxes if we pay extra. However, uncertain if this can be resolved as the sea pallet has already been shipped to the CIF agent.

Images below are from a shipment we received a week ago, all the terminals are bent due to force from above. These are EVE LF280K cells bought via a distributor in EU, which claim to also buy directly from EVE. I have sent these images to EVE which has confirmed that the 144pcs cells in our order are packaged the same way.

I'm kinda upset that one of the biggest LFP manufacturers in China act like a random scam guy on alibaba, and has such poor packaging that the integrity of the cells can't be garanteed upon arrival.

EVEA_1.pngEVEA_2.png
 
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vist said:
Hi,

I would like to take this opportunity to warn all consumers and companies considering purchasing EVE LF280K Grade-A cells with the new type of terminal.

The reason is that EVE has not adapted the packaging in which the battery cells are shipped.

As you can see in the pictures, the terminal is the highest non-flexible point. On top of the terminals there is then an 8mm polyfoam for protection and then the box is closed. Any force on the top of the box will be distributed to the cell terminals.

When ordering a full sea pallet, 144pcs LF280K cells, several cartons are stacked on top of each other. When the carton absorbs moisture during the sea transport, strength is lost, and with the small margin that exists in the height, the weight of the stacked cartons ends up on the terminals of the cells.

The terminals are subjected to stress, and the Grade-A cells you bought are now Grade-D cells or should possibly be discarded immediately.

I think it is beneath all criticism that the cells are packaged in a way where the weight from cartons above ends up on the terminals.

We have an order placed 1 month ago directly with EVE for 144pcs LF280K cells. These will be shipped in the coming days. EVE's official sales representative is of the opinion that we should have specified when ordering if we wanted them better packaged. And if there has been stress on the terminals during shipping, which might lead to malfunction of the battery packs in our product, "it will be covered by thier 1 year warranty". Well, that will not help us.

As we refuse the cells being shipped like this, they have now offered to put the cartons in wooden boxes if we pay extra. However, uncertain if this can be resolved as the sea pallet has already been shipped to the CIF agent.

Images below are from a shipment we received a week ago, all the terminals are bent due to force from above. These are EVE LF280K cells bought via a distributor in EU, which claim to also buy directly from EVE. I have sent these images to EVE which has confirmed that the 144pcs cells in our order are packaged the same way.

I'm kinda upset that one of the biggest LFP manufacturers in China act like a random scam guy on alibaba, and has such poor packaging that the integrity of the cells can't be garanteed upon arrival.

View attachment 105947View attachment 105948
Click to expand...
That is unfortunate.

I haven’t ordered any of these type with these connectors.

Hopefully they will remedy this or suffering the results of lower sales.

No way to run a business.
 
That is pretty bad. Maybe ok cells in real life but I wouldn’t want them at full price.

Too bad. Hope you can work something out.

Note to self-avoid this terminal type for a while so I don’t end up buying the ones that are just bent back in place.,
 
When I bought cells in 2020, there was a change in packaging by the seller to provide better protection. I question whether EVE is on the hook for this problem or it's the seller. I'm thinking it's the latter.
 
I have now learned that the European distributor of the EVE LF280K cells actually do rearrange the cartons on the sea pallets in China before they are shipped by sea to thier warehouse in Europe.

The EVE factory ship the cells with the terminals pointing up, with poor protection. So the European distributor has a "middle man" in China that tilt the cartons 90 degrees on the sea pallets so that the load from the cells/cartons above are pushing on the wide side of the cells instead. Which is the same way the force are put on the cells when clamped.

The damage on our cells from the European distributor seems to have happend between the EVE factory and thier "middle man" in China, before they were rearrenged to prevent this from happening during the rest of the shipping to thier warehouse in Europe.

Funny how the problem with damaged terminals due to the EVE Factory poor packaging seems to be well known. And companies need to find workarounds as EVE does not seem to be interested to fix the problem with the packaging.

I'm lucky we got a bad feeling early on from EVEs customer service and decided to just buy one sea pallet of 144pcs to evaluate doing business with them instead of a full 20' container with 1152pcs which was the original plan.
 
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Wow, so EVE knows how to make batteries but does not how to pack batteries for shipment, sad.
I wonder how many damaged cells 18650batterystore.com get from EVE.
 
Bud Martin said:
Wow, so EVE knows how to make batteries but does not how to pack batteries for shipment, sad.
I wonder how many damaged cells 18650batterystore.com get from EVE.
Click to expand...
I was wondering this too. I might hold off on ordering from there until the next shipment.
 
It's amazing how careless EVE is shipping cells, especially when you consider some of these orders are evaluation orders for containers worth of battery cells. You'd think EVE would understand that is just leads people to go with CATL or whatever. You'd think EVE tries to get a bit more market share, but they're ruining opportunities by shipping carelessly...
 
I've some cells with the new terminals en route from Amy now. Can mark this as as a new worry to add to the list. ?
 
Order from EU distributor update:
16 cells of the 18 cells from the European distributor of the LF280K cells had bent terminals. They will send new ones to us once they receive the next batch in 4 weeks. 16 of these cells will be cycled by us continously in a test bench prior to our 10.000pcs order.

Order from Amy@Luyuan:
Shipment has been delayed quite some time. However, in 2 days it will be loaded on ship.

Order from EVE update:
EVE has finally managed, at our cost, to build wooden boxes for the poorly designed cartons. However, they deviated from our design proposal that extra walls should be inserted between the cartons, and the pallet legs should be positioned above these walls.

We are now told that we have to accept this design flaw of the wooden boxes, otherwise we'll have to pay $80 for each day the goods are stored in the warehouse until we accept it, as they refuse to fix the misstake by adding a few more legs in-line with the reinforcement walls.

I may seem picky here, but the lid/cover is only 8mm thick, and in the 20 years I have been responsible for LCL/FCL imports from Asia, I have seen too many examples of poorly constructed wooden boxes that sag in the middle and the middle legs deform the cover/lid on box below and damage the goods.

Not sure how we will proceed. I'm very tired of that amateurishness and attitude from EVE.
 

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It's hard to imagine a company of this magnitude wouldn't recognize the problem and mitigate it mediately on their end/dime!
 
vist said:
I may seem picky here, but the lid/cover is only 8mm thick, and in the 20 years I have been responsible for LCL/FCL imports from Asia, I have seen too many examples of poorly constructed wooden boxes that sag in the middle and the middle legs deform the cover/lid on box below and damage the goods.

Not sure how we will proceed. I'm very tired of that amateurishness and attitude from EVE.
Click to expand...
Can you have them put "DO NOT STACK ANYTHING ON TOP" labels on the top, and require these pallets be single layer only?

That said, I suspect your best bet in the future is to have someone in china build the boxes to your spec, deliver them to EVE for packing, and then have them shipped, or find a middleman who will accept delivery, package them according to your spec, and then ship them.

EVE, and most other $1bn/year+ companies, don't typically customize for small customers. Order a million dollars worth a quarter and maybe they'll consider your requirements, but I'm not really surprised they aren't going any further than this.
 
stienman said:
Can you have them put "DO NOT STACK ANYTHING ON TOP" labels on the top, and require these pallets be single layer only?

That said, I suspect your best bet in the future is to have someone in china build the boxes to your spec, deliver them to EVE for packing, and then have them shipped, or find a middleman who will accept delivery, package them according to your spec, and then ship them.

EVE, and most other $1bn/year+ companies, don't typically customize for small customers. Order a million dollars worth a quarter and maybe they'll consider your requirements, but I'm not really surprised they aren't going any further than this.
Click to expand...

Yeah, we don't norally expect a $bn/year company to build customized wooden boxes for us for a small order. They offered to build this at our expense since we could show proof that the design of thier cartons bend the terminals of the cells during shipping when stacked on eachother.

Maybe they offered to do this because this is a sample order for the next order of 10.000pcs LF280K.

The best solution would be if they improve thier packaging so that this is not repeated. However they are too proud to admit that there is a problem with thier carton design.
 
vist said:
I'm kinda upset that one of the biggest LFP manufacturers in China act like a random scam guy on alibaba,
Click to expand...

Because China! But apart from the “say anything to avoid owning the problem“ customer service and the deficient packaging, I have to say those terminals look ace! Or would do if they weren’t bent, you know. So much better for making secure connections to than the standard badly tapped wobbly M6 stud..
 
Sverige said:
Because China! But apart from the “say anything to avoid owning the problem“ customer service and the deficient packaging, I have to say those terminals look ace! Or would do if they weren’t bent, you know. So much better for making secure connections to than the standard badly tapped wobbly M6 stud..
Click to expand...

The new terminals are really nice as they provide good enough contact to be used both during the prototype stage and in a first version of an industrial application. reduces time to market. We will make a copy of them to laser weld on CATL cells in case the problems with EVE are not solved during the next week.
 
The only concern I have with the new design, and the most recent Eve specs which further define the benefits of compression, are how to ideally tie the terminals/cell packs while not over stressing the terminals. With the new design (while seemingly a step forward regarding better connection), it complicates the use of flexible busbars.

Obviously Eve seems to suggest using compression in their latest specs, yet the busbars I received with my cells (new twin post design) are flat/rigid and seemingly will not allow for any "give" between cells/terminals if compressed... Yet it's known the cells expand and contract a significant amount depending on their SoC. One would think if the MFG is recommending compression for maximum life, a flexible busbar design would either be spelled out, or provided, but the busbars I received clearly are not optimal in this regard and would likely result in failure if used in a compressed cell packs as the MFG recommends.

I will likely use the suggested compression and custom twin wired busbars per terminal to allow the required "give" at the busbars, but having a solution provided would save me a lot of time and money designing my own solution!

Latest specs here:
diysolarforum.com

The Newest Specification Sheets of EVE Cells

EVE has updated their specification sheets in July, the new version ones are more detailed, adding more information, such as the information about clamp. I sent them in the attachment, hope it is helpful for you.
diysolarforum.com diysolarforum.com
 
HRTKD said:
If your compression fixture is working right, the batteries shouldn't be moving.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure I would agree. Eve seems to spell out a fixed rigid fixture for testing failure (excessive pressures) and a fixture with a more constant rate of compression in normal use (which would have movement) in section 6.
 
Wet1 said:
The only concern I have with the new design, and the most recent Eve specs which further define the benefits of compression, are how to ideally tie the terminals/cell packs while not over stressing the terminals. With the new design (while seemingly a step forward regarding better connection), it complicates the use of flexible busbars.

Obviously Eve seems to suggest using compression in their latest specs, yet the busbars I received with my cells (new twin post design) are flat/rigid and seemingly will not allow for any "give" between cells/terminals if compressed... Yet it's known the cells expand and contract a significant amount depending on their SoC. One would think if the MFG is recommending compression for maximum life, a flexible busbar design would either be spelled out, or provided, but the busbars I received clearly are not optimal in this regard and would likely result in failure if used in a compressed cell packs as the MFG recommends.

I will likely use the suggested compression and custom twin wired busbars per terminal to allow the required "give" at the busbars, but having a solution provided would save me a lot of time and money designing my own solution!

Latest specs here:
diysolarforum.com

The Newest Specification Sheets of EVE Cells

EVE has updated their specification sheets in July, the new version ones are more detailed, adding more information, such as the information about clamp. I sent them in the attachment, hope it is helpful for you.
diysolarforum.com diysolarforum.com
Click to expand...
Whom exactly did you buy the Eve batteries from ? Do you think you bought 'direct' from Eve ?
 
I've just received four boxes of Eve LF280K batteries from Fogstar in the UK, they have different packaging and none of the terminals are bent, although I'll have a closer look tomorrow.

Edit: I've since found out that Fogstar repackage the cells. This is not original Eve packaging.
 

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Just checked every cell, no damage, and all 16 are at 3.295v, I've no equipment to measure anything else at the moment.

Only thing I have noticed is that the terminals are not welded on straight - see attached.

@Wet1 Flexible busbars - edit: looks like they do ones for the new style terminal - see link below video.
www.aliexpress.com

8.63US $ 3% OFF|BusBar Flexible M6 Connection Copper Plate LF280 DIY 3.2V 280Ah 12V 24V 48V LF280K LiFePO4 Battery Cell Connection Plate BusBars|Rechargeable Batteries| - AliExpress

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com
www.aliexpress.com www.aliexpress.com
 

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