Batteries available for canada

noobie said:

I ordered a 100ah 48v server rack battery from solarpowerstore.ca. Their own brand(probably just something bought from china with their sticker on it I'd guess). The experience was less than ideal. The battery could only get about 94ah with small loads. This thing cost $2800 after tax and shipping and couldn't deliver 100ah. When it came new, it says SOC: 100ah, but it never achieved that.

I went through months of back and forth with them and finally exchanged it for an SOK. I had to pay the difference in cost but they did cover return shipping for the other one and didn't charge additional shipping for the SOK.

Their customer service is very slow and unresponsive, but they were good with the warranty.

The SOK gives me 104.6ah consistently so far.
It is branded with current connected on it, so I'm wondering if they just buy from there and resell to us.
If you buy it from solar power store, you are paying +$500 CAD before shipping and taxes but I'm not sure of the shipping cost from current connected to here(Ontario).
You'd probably be better off buying from current connected if you are buying several batteries at once.

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Thanks i was in contact with them for a server rack! Good to know

E. Cho said:

FWIW, Customs Broker asked me what the LiFePO4 cells were being used for, business or personal home use. I told the truth of personal home use. No duties were charged for LiFePO4 cells imported from the USA nor when importing a complete battery from China 18 months earlier.

Perhaps Tariffs are charged for a commercial purpose or business use? I have yet to read of a buyer being charged a tariff, so people are not saying or it's not charged for that use? I doubt that it is charged based on a whim of a customs officer vs poorly completed documents, misinformation, misunderstanding, customer cheating or lying, etc..

One good reason to use a broker may be for paperwork to be done correctly. My USA import was extremely fast, in the middle of the night and did not seem to cause any shipping delay if being delayed in customs and because I immediately provided the accurate information requested by the broker.

Doing it myself was not an option and the broker fee and service was worth every penny. Kind of like using the proper tool that has a higher cost than a cheap or cobbled together one that costs one much more in expenses, time, money, errors, redos and stress.

I'd rather pay the broker and not have to leave my large rural peaceful wilderness off grid acreage, hundreds of miles from the border and the hell, prices and congestion of that over populated region of Canada and save your so called "egrigious" broker fees. To me, your options cost so much more in other ways, even if the evil customs officer was pissed off that day to charge the horrid but seemingly mythical 7% tariff.

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I’m Canadian. i live an hour from the border, and have a parcel service US shipping address.

we frequently travel to the Us for mini weekend get aways and I bring back tons of stuff into Canada that I have shipped to my US address.

I feel I’m fairly unofficially qualified to offer an opinion with the following disclaimer (not sure what word to use?):

personal import only, not business
theres the way things work, and the way things REALLY work

any items imported for personal use are subject to duty, provincial sales tax, and GST.

anything produced in North America there is zero duty, but the other 2 taxes apply.

canadians,are allowed an 800 dollar exemption per person if you’re in the us more than 48 hours.

the exemption cannot be combined (I.e I buy an SOK rack battery only I can claim the 800 exemption, and pay applicable taxes on the balance).

customs has a “number” in which they just apply a general duty/tax/gst on your purchase rather than going through all your receipts to make the sure proper taxes are paid. (Clothing has a huge tarriff something like 18% or so)

this is because they also have to enforce security as well as collect taxes. they don’t tell you what the number is.

that’s the way things work. But they way things really work is this (using a personal example):

I purchased an sok from current connected and they shipped to the border. We went for 48 hours and I imported the battdry (auto correct sorry) there’s a 7% duty on lithium iron phosphate batteries.

I should have paid 7% duty on my taxable amount as well as tax and gst.

customs allowed my wife and I to combine our 800 limit so we paid taxes and gst on the difference of 3200 (just for easy math) minus 1600.

we were not charged duty on our battery. I don’t know if it was because our amount was within “the number” or our customs officer just waived us through?

sometimes we go for a day trip and we are waived through and not chattered taxes.

occasionally we are brought in, and all our receipts are calculated and after 35 minutes or so we are charged like 52 bucks. Lol.

A neighbour just ordered two of these from Cabin Depot.

Kedron 24V 300Ah (7680Wh) - with heater. $3500Cdn

I have a lot more confidence in buying from an established company like CD than many other places, and the price is excellent.
Free shipping in Canada

Alkaline said:

There are some nice Vids on this Canadian Channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@Roll2Videos/videos

Some good options SOK, Epoch:

SFK has a stand by heater:

If you don't need heating but just cold protection this seems to be the cheapest option with working cold protection:

Here is another good Channel in Canada:

https://www.youtube.com/@LoveYourRV/videos

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?

So Ruixu is just a branded TOPBAND RS-R reference design...
Looks like the SolarPowerStore house brand of Maple Leaf Power Systems is also selling the RS-R in Canada soon called the Beaver.

Same as the Ruixu and also looks like they will have a heater version later on..

Interesting. They sure do look the same on the outside.

noobie said:

Interesting. They sure do look the same on the outside.

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yup, here is the reference design from the TOPBAND website

Detritalgeo said:

So Ruixu is just a branded TOPBAND RS-R reference design...
Looks like the SolarPowerStore house brand of Maple Leaf Power Systems is also selling the RS-R in Canada soon called the Beaver.

Same as the Ruixu and also looks like they will have a heater version later on..

Maple leaf 48v 100Ah Server Rack Beaver Deep Cycle Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery(LiFePO4 Battery) | W/ advance BMS, LED Display and CAN/RS485 port for external communication

Introducing the new Maple Leaf 48V100A Server Rack Beaver Battery—an advanced energy storage solution prioritizing safety and adaptability. Crafted with LiFePO4 chemistry, it meets top international safety standards, offering a secure and reliable power source. Its modular design supports up to...

solarpowerstore.ca

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Saw that today also! Im just hoping they will be selling a rack similar to Ruixu

andrew-d said:

Aolithium is well-reviewed and ships from Canada, so no extra duty from cross-border shipping: https://aolithium.ca/

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they have no certification though