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Alberta Lithium 12v 100AH battery teardown

Hobbydarren

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May 8, 2022
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Hello there, before I get started I.d like to point out this is not a sponsored post or review. It is simply my own opinion for the tiny bit that it.s worth.

I was recently blessed with a free battery from Alberta Lithium for the purpose of tear down and inspection. This will be solely a mechanical inspection as the unit was returned do to a failed BMS.

ablith12100a.jpg

This particular battery was returned as faulty and I was given permission to open it up and see what i might find. Since I saw a few people on here asking if anyone had a teardown video available, I thought I'd see what I could do. Now, Having a face for radio and being no Will Prowse, I thought iI'd do a picture based review instead.

ablith12100b.jpg

Getting this puppy open was no picnic, after some struggling, a small saw, couple screwdrivers as well as a wood chisel and a hammer, I managed to get a peek inside.

ablith12100c.jpg

Admittedly I am no expert nor do I proclaim to be. I will say, based on many tear down videos I have seen this battery was certainly well sealed. Inside everything was well organized and firmly fixed into position. in my opinion it seems to be well secured and durably built.

ablith12100e.jpg

Getting the cells out took a bit of work as the foam was packed tightly again the pack. The pack stayed tightly arranged due to the fiber tape once it was removed. The cabling seems sufficient and well arranged, should be able to carry the rated load.

ablith12100d.jpg

In this photo I believe that is the low temp cut off, I like that it is not only under the tape but glued to the cells themselves. Yes, in case you are wondering, I have noticed that there are 8 cells, I will get to that in a sec.

ablith12100f.jpg

I was surprised to find the eight cells in a series parallel configuration. I also didn't expect the cells to be welded. The layout and welding seem to be excellent and the charge leads being soldered to the bus bars was a nice touch, though they are firmly fixed, the solder joint does seem to be a bit of a cold solder in my opinion. I did wiggle and tug on the wires to see if I could get one to fail and I could not.

ablith12100g.jpg

The cells were still holding a charge after the fault in the BMS and I will try to get another BMS installed on this battery to test the cells themselves due to the blown BMS on this unit. The balance leads were well organized and I like that they are taped to reduce movement.

ablith12100h.jpg

Another Pic of the temp sensor. I would also mention i like the balancing leads being glued to the connector. I have seen videos where the connector came loose on a battery before.

ablith12100k.jpg

Here is one for all those who would like to research the cells and see exactly whats in these batteries.

In conclusion, mechanically these batteries seem well built and should last anyone a good long time. I did inspect the BMS and although I am a layman in every sense when it comes to the onboard circuitry, I believe the failure may have been caused with the end user. one row of transistors was burned out completely. I wonder if a possible explanation could have been this unit may have been added to a bank of batteries, the newer unit being at a different state of charge, Allowing a huge inrush of high current, Thus only frying one bank of transistors.
??possible the charge side rather than the surviving discharge side??? Again I am guessing,

As I have six of the 12v 100AH heated batteries and each one has tested out at numbers from 100.6AH to 106.7AH. My experience with this particular company has been nothing but excellent. Any questions I have had have been promptly and knowledgeably answered, Any problems I have encountered have been resolved in a prompt manner and to my satisfaction.

Any input or additions to this post are welcome and I hope this answers some of your questions.
 
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Thanks for documenting this tear-down.

I have two TE12100 in our motorhome for almost a year now. We are currently camping and enjoying the
LiFePO4 advantages. I was very happy to see they are well built inside.
 
I have 2x280ah batteries from Alberta Lithium. They had an amazing price and excellent service. One of my batteries wasn’t charging properly and they asked me to do a couple of tests, and then authorized a return and replacement was sent. No hassle! I’m most grateful.
 
I have 2x280ah batteries from Alberta Lithium. They had an amazing price and excellent service. One of my batteries wasn’t charging properly and they asked me to do a couple of tests, and then authorized a return and replacement was sent. No hassle! I’m most grateful.
Backdoctor, I'm just wondering what your charging problem was? I got two Alberta Lithium 100Ahr batteries for our motorhome back in the spring of 2021. I setup my Samlex EVO to charge to 14.4V, then float to 13.5V. The batteries would charge to just over 14.2V, then go open circuit and the EVO would report an over-voltage fault (because it was in constant current mode, it would go high in voltage trying drive the same current.) I called Alberta Lithium and they said that means the battery is fully charged. My 40 years in electronics told me this was not right... the BMS should shut down at just over 14.6V as a last resort and the charger should set the target charging voltage.

We were leaving on a trip, so I just set my EVO to charge to 14.2V which is fine anyway as the battery is charged to the high 90's percent at that point anyway. I'm thinking the battery manufacturer has set the high voltage limit in the BMS to something lower so as to not stress the batteries and have less warranty claims.

Otherwise the Alberta Lithium batteries are working great.
 
Not sure where you got your definition of "sponsored", but in the rest of the world if someone gives you a free battery and you put up a big post telling what a good battery it is, that is a "sponsored review".
 
RF. I don’t know what the problem was with the initial battery. I asked and they said they don’t have the staff to do failure assessments. And I have found the same problem as you, that the charger voltage gets to 14.1-14.2v range and the voltage bounces up and down a few times, and the settles. And charging stops. And at 14.1 it’s at 100% SOC. And the balancing charge is anything above 14v. So 14.2 v is fine.
 
RF. I don’t know what the problem was with the initial battery. I asked and they said they don’t have the staff to do failure assessments. And I have found the same problem as you, that the charger voltage gets to 14.1-14.2v range and the voltage bounces up and down a few times, and the settles. And charging stops. And at 14.1 it’s at 100% SOC. And the balancing charge is anything above 14v. So 14.2 v is fine.
I believe the BMS High-Voltage Cut-off should be set at 14.6V as it should be the last resort in high-voltage protection. That allows the charger to set the bulk charge target and have its high-voltage cut-off just under the BMS level. My Samlex EVO logs and over-voltage alarm, then resets to bulk mode till the BMS cuts-off again... rinse and repeat. Since their specs show the standard 14.6V charge voltage, the BMS should hold at that voltage. Of course now I have set the target voltage to just under where the BMS cuts off and that gives me 90 something percent charge anyway and doesn't stress the battery. I give it 15 minutes of absorption before I let it float to 13.5V
 
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