280AH EVE CELL LASTED ONLY TWO YEARS

[Ralo]

Hello All,

I was one of the early purchasers of the 280ah EVE cells from Amy and one of the cells has malfunctioned already. Do these things have a warranty? How can I reach Amy now days? Is she the one in Houston now?

About the bad cell, it has swollen tremendously and will not take a charge. I made a video but haven't uploaded it yet. I also don't know if it matters, but my cells were damaged during shipping but I was compensated for the shipping fees so I was happy at the time. Maybe that was a mistake.

Anyway, has anyone else had problems with the cells swelling and dying?

 

[Ralo]

Is there no one who can help me with this? How can I find Amy these days?

 

[houseofancients]

Is there no one who can help me with this? How can I find Amy these days?

did you try through her alibaba luyann ?
chat would result in the fastest response

 

[Ralo]

did you try through her alibaba luyann ?
chat would result in the fastest response

I found one of her post and sent her a private message. Hopefully that will work.

 

[Prefersdirt]

Amy is not on here. lifepo4battery@163.com is the email I used

 

[John Frum]

Amy is not on here. lifepo4battery@163.com is the email I used

@Ralo is this the person in question https://diysolarforum.com/members/amy-wan.54027/ ?

 

[Ralo]

@Ralo is this the person in question https://diysolarforum.com/members/amy-wan.54027/ ?

Yes. She responded to my PM. Thanks!

 

[Maitake]

Now that it's public make sure you let us know how it turns out.

 

[John Frum]

Now that it's public make sure you let us know how it turns out.

Did I speak out of turn?
Autistic finesse and all I really can't tell.

 

[Daddy Tanuki]

No knowledge should be freely shared, that’s the idea behind forums

Did I speak out of turn?
Autistic finesse and all I really can't tell.

 

[Ralo]

Ok, I finally took the battery completely out of my RV to take some better pictures and it's worse than I thought. The swollen cell busted completely open at the bottom and the fluid appears to have damaged the blue cover on the other cells. When I peeled the gorilla tape off, the black covering on the bottom and some of the blue covering came off. That revealed damage to another cell which must have been from the original shipping damage. So yeah, excepting damage cells was a really bad idea. Here is a link to the original unboxing video where the shipping damage was discovered. See current pictures below.

I've sent a message to Xuba which is where Amy was working at the time and I'm waiting on a response. I don't expect this to go well for me. I guess this is the risk you take buying individual cells from China and building your own battery. And I was just about to order 32 more cells to build two 48v batteries. I'll have to rethink that decision.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Unfortunately, your clamping method may have contributed to failure, and if I was Xuba, I would claim that was the cause. You ensured the clamping force was concentrated at the edge of the cells. Had you simply placed plywood or some other rigid plate at each end of the battery, there would have been no stress concentration.

 

[Ralo]

Unfortunately, your clamping method may have contributed to failure.

Well I didn't come if with this clamping idea on my own, it was recommended somewhere although I don't remember where. And I'm sure that's not what cause the battery to swell so the more important thing to worry about is buying grade B cells from China. This battery cost me over $500 and didn't last 2 years. So much for 3000 cycles.

 

[niktak11]

The fact that it was an end cell makes it more likely that the clamping method was an issue

 

[Ralo]

The fact that it was an end cell makes it more likely that the clamping method was an issue

Yet the clamp doesn't even make a dent in the case. I wonder why? It's an excuse that they may well use but it's not valid.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Well I didn't come if with this clamping idea on my own, it was recommended somewhere although I don't remember where. And I'm sure that's not what cause the battery to swell so the more important thing to worry about is buying grade B cells from China. This battery cost me over $500 and didn't last 2 years. So much for 3000 cycles.

It's contrary to any semi-recent example (2 years), and it's very atypical for most builds. People were building LFP batteries for plug-in-Prius kits 10 years ago with rigid CALB cells, and they still placed an aluminum end plate on the ends to take the clamping loads.

These folks used Aluminum end plates 10 years ago on their battery on rigid cells:

Yet the clamp doesn't even make a dent in the case. I wonder why?

You can't say that with any certainty whatsoever. There's clearly deformation, but the source is unknown. What little is visible at the other end of the battery looks like there might be some deformation. You can't know what happened as the battery thermally and electrically cycled. All you need is a single short to occur internally, and shit goes south quick. These cans are very thin.

There is no need to be defensive. This isn't an attack. There are lessons to be learned. Regardless of source, there isn't a single contributor on here with any experience that would endorse your clamping method. I've been on and off this site since mid 2020, and I've never seen anyone try this.

I would have absolutely, positively refused to accept even slightly damaged cells. I ordered from Amy after she left Xuba and formed her own company, and the cells were packaged perfectly - two per box fitting perfectly in isolated cavities with no less than 1" of foam everywhere. There was zero damage. I also ordered a spare cell because of the seemingly countless folks posing about problems they had with shipping grade B cells from China, regardless of source. One got lost, one got damaged, one tested lower than the others, etc.

I hope you get support from Xuba, but I can't imagine it happening. Even if they send you a cell, that's just one of your concerns. The other cells need to be fully tested. You likely don't want to put a brand new cell in with the other three, and you definitely don't want to put it back in service clamped like that.

 

[Jim Lahey]

Thanks for posting the interesting pictures. That's some solid damage from the shipping. Was the worst blown open battery one with shipping damage?

 

[Ralo]

Thanks for posting the interesting pictures. That's some solid damage from the shipping. Was the worst blown open battery one with shipping damage?

I don't really know. I thought all of the shipping damage was on the upper corners of the cells. I think this was the cell that was the runner. I always had one and it was on the end. I guess that was the first warning sign.

 

[rhino]

What BMS was used?

 

[ericfx1984]

Unfortunately, your clamping method may have contributed to failure, and if I was Xuba, I would claim that was the cause. You ensured the clamping force was concentrated at the edge of the cells. Had you simply placed plywood or some other rigid plate at each end of the battery, there would have been no stress concentration.

That was exactly what I thought when I saw this