Can I reuse the cells inside a ‘drop in’

Hi everyone

I’m still a noob with all of this, I made a mistake a few months back and brought 2 120amp drop in lifepo4 batteries for an rv. I wired them in serial to find it’s not working. Good old eBay didn’t say they couldn’t be used in serial. So the second battery is sitting there not doing anything and I desperately need the amps. We are running two 12v fridges 24x7.

So my thought is, can I strip the cells out of the battery, and then wire them into 1 large battery using a parallel/serial style setup. (Perhaps even grab a third and make is 360amp).

Before I destroy the batteries, has anyone opened up drop ins. What can I expect. Can I wire the cells up easily etc.

Does anyone have any pics or links o a similar project?

Thanks in advance

Yes & No.
It all depends on what the battery pack is made up with. IF LFP the likelihood is really high that you can tear them apart and reconfigure them. If other formats re used like cylindrical it depends of they have soldered or bolted / screwed bus bars.

If you provide a link to the actual cells we may be able to determine that. Also it may be one that Will has torn into, he did a few. Some others have cracked open "drop ins" as well so maybe they would be able to chime in.

Assuming It is LFP (likely is, most are) then yes, a quick rearranging and a new BMS with the features you need and possibly even some you want can be used which will allow for Series &/OR parallel. Typically a 12V pack consists of 4 LFP cells in series internally, so you would be looking for a 4S BMS for each pack. Ideally it's best to parallel matched packs In a way to properly divide load & charging capacity so both packs get their fair & reasonably equal amount of use. For simple setup with two packs that can be done pretty easily using a common post for (-) & (+) where both battery packs are connected along with the inverter & SCC. One fuse per pack @ the (+) terminal on the pack of course to stay safe.

! CAUTION ! Assuming that you haven't cracked them open yet... use caution & take your time when cracking the casing open, there is juice in there that can give you one heck of a zot ! Slow, easy, calm work and take your time. In fact, just watching Will's Tear Down Video's will be a good "primer" before ripping your apart. You'll see the crazy amounts of glue & adhesives used and the different ways they put the casings together... it will help to prepare you for what might be lurking beneath the nice clean packaging.

Hope that helps, Good Luck.

Thank you.

I’ve been googling all sorts of terms as I couldn’t remember the term for cracking open a case. Now I type in tear down I found exactly what I was after. Thank you!

I’ll get some battery specs (they were a no name generic though) and see if anyone knows.

Cheers

The BIG Playlist :

Individual vids. Lots to watch LOL.





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS3OAhOgzOQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XxxO4HeQQs&t=223s

Awesome, thank you. Legend.

Can u share a Ruixu tear down. Can’t find any on the YouTube feed. (Not a yt genius?)

Cheerd

Wait... am I reading this wrong? You're trying to connect two batteries in serial, but the load is 2 12v fridges? Why are we not using a parallel connection? Are you wanting 24 volts?