diy solar

diy solar

Any experience with Chins?

A little glue, some sandpaper, maybe a can of paint, and it will look just like new. :)

Bad packaging?
hahahaha yeah, well if they leave it with me, I'll at least have a head start on replacing the BMS...

Packaging wasn't -terrible-, but just carboard boxes with 2 thick styrofoam pads on top and bottom. I suspect the ups guy just dropped the one battery on top of the other when loading/unloading as they were stacked on top of one another at my door. A couple pieces of 1x2 on top of the battery would've prevented this.
 
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That is some crappy luck on shipping damage. Let us know what they say.
That is some crappy crap terminal design with a crappy crap unreinforced plastic case that a 5 year could break.
What thread size are those tiny bolts? 6mm?
Just total crap.
Gotta love the 3/8" bolt hole heavy duty blade terminals on a Battle Born that are recessed from the top protecting from anything smashing down on the top and from shorting out between them.
Impossible to strip out the terminals.
 
So CHINS has offered me two options:

1) They will refund me, pay for return shipping, and I can wash my hands of them
2) They will send me a free replacement battery, and I can keep the damaged one

I've decided to go the free replacement route because that basically brings the cost per AH down to DIY pricing so even if I need to buy my own BMS and rebuild them, I'm still doing well on price. I can still pull voltage off the battery so it's still got basic function, and now I can pull this one apart and have a look at the components without feeling bad about it.
 
Companies that don't want an expensive product back tells me they know they have a crappy product.

If you have the time, I would send it back and order some good cells from China.
 
Companies that don't want an expensive product back tells me they know they have a crappy product.

If you have the time, I would send it back and order some good cells from China.
Definitely a risk, but one I'm willing to take now that I can open up the damaged one and see what it's got going on inside. If the cells hold up under testing then I'll move forward with them assuming the bms functions meet my needs or rebuild them it doesn't. If the cells are no good, I'll return them all based on whatever is non-functional or incorrectly identified and go a different route.
 
Definitely a risk, but one I'm willing to take now that I can open up the damaged one and see what it's got going on inside. If the cells hold up under testing then I'll move forward with them assuming the bms functions meet my needs or rebuild them it doesn't. If the cells are no good, I'll return them all based on whatever is non-functional or incorrectly identified and go a different route.
Just wanted to say, i appreciate your time and perspective. Im Looking forward to you update!

planning to buy this battery for camper van solar rig.
320w solar panels
Renogy dc2dc charger controller combo
And 300ah chins

power demands are low and all DC. Im not expecting to drain the 300ah often or achieve full charge.

but, im a total noob and will certainly venmo you a beer for a refined comment on chins and my plan ?
 
I had placed and order for a Chins 200amp LIFEPO4 after thinking I'd done enough research and then stubbled on this website and saw messages relating to the battery not being what it was advertised. Needless to say I was concerned with what I had purchased and was being shipped. Given the tests I just completed, - unless you experts tell me a did something wrong, I'm going to keep it.

Note this is my first lithium battery - and is replacing a 400amp AGM house bank (2 batteries) on a sailboat (360W solar, Midnite Kidd MPPT, 100a/2000w diesel generator, and a 80 amp alternator). I still need to optimize the charging system (i.e. B2B for the alternator at a minimum).

My testing process - I charged the battery up as much as possible:

1) using the 100amp charger I was able to push in 100+ amps (this charger doesn't have a lithium battery setting so I set it to 'GEL')
2) using the MPPT - I upped the absorb and float to 15V
a) It became apparent that the battery would not go above 14.8 Volts and the solar was not able to put any more amps in
1. this makes me think the BMS high voltage disconnect works as expected and the battery was fully charge.
2. I let the battery sit over night. It's voltage dropped to 13.75 (which I think is resting for LIFEPO4?)
3) did a capacity testing using the MakerHawk Electronic Load Tester - (with 10 awg connectors)
a) I did a 10ah draw resulting in 2689wh and 212ah -
b) I had set the tester to shut off at <7.5V however the BMS shut the system down before that (documentation says the LVD is 10.8).
1. once I got the BMS restarted the battery voltage was 11.0V
2, this makes me think the BMS did exactly what it was suppose to (contrary to other posts I've seen in this forum)

So, is the above test valid - does it prove I haven't gotten ripped off? If valid I'm not seeing any justification for returning the battery - and quite honestly I'm pretty happy with it (it weights 50lbs compared to 260lbs of AGMs, effectively gives me 160ah that can be 'throttled with amps' from the generator if my solar doesn't do the job).

So my next step is to try and figure out the optimize the Midnite Kidd MPPT settings to maximize the life of the battery. (any suggestions greatly appreciated).
 

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Jim, I'm not disputing your test results. The point is that the BMS in those batteries has high/low values that nobody would every set on their DIY cells.
 
I seem to have gotten lucky, generally speaking. I've just completed my testing of all 3 of my 300ah CHINS batteries and they, generally speaking, are performing as advertised. To note, there is -no- low temp protection on the bms for the non self heating batteries. There is a high-temp protection that does function. Discharging to 10v, I was able to achieve a full 900ah discharge when using the batteries in parallel, and after a few rounds of charging/discharging, the cells remained top-balanced within .03v of one another (my multimeter isn't great so there's some drift there that could be due to my tools). Low voltage protection kicked in for all 3 batteries at 9.4v (this is low, admittedly, but it it IS as advertised).

The construction on these units is NOT great. I don't think I'd recommend buying them over SOK which are within a couple hundred dollars of the price range, however the cells seem to be perfectly adequate. Given that I received a free battery as a result of shipping damage, I could purchase 3 new BMS's for them and still be ahead on pricing, and because the cases are only sealed with silicone gasket material, I don't have to destroy them to get inside and make modifications. With that in mind, I'm going to keep them.

Edit: As a note, resting discharge with no load was closer to 10.5 after drawing 900ah. I could have taken them lower with a light load and eeked a bit more out of them probably, but I was satisfied with the results.
 
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I seem to have gotten lucky, generally speaking. I've just completed my testing of all 3 of my 300ah CHINS batteries and they, generally speaking, are performing as advertised. To note, there is -no- low temp protection on the bms for the non self heating batteries. There is a high-temp protection that does function. Discharging to 10v, I was able to achieve a full 900ah discharge when using the batteries in parallel, and after a few rounds of charging/discharging, the cells remained top-balanced within .03v of one another (my multimeter isn't great so there's some drift there that could be due to my tools). Low voltage protection kicked in for all 3 batteries at 9.4v (this is low, admittedly, but it it IS as advertised).

The construction on these units is NOT great. I don't think I'd recommend buying them over SOK which are within a couple hundred dollars of the price range, however the cells seem to be perfectly adequate. Given that I received a free battery as a result of shipping damage, I could purchase 3 new BMS's for them and still be ahead on pricing, and because the cases are only sealed with silicone gasket material, I don't have to destroy them to get inside and make modifications. With that in mind, I'm going to keep them.

Edit: As a note, resting discharge with no load was closer to 10.5 after drawing 900ah. I could have taken them lower with a light load and eeked a bit more out of them probably, but I was satisfied with the results.
I appreciate this write up and info, ill be trying a chins in my camper van.
 
I've been tempted to purchase the 300 Ah version of these batteries, but holding off until some reviews come out. How about it Will?
 
I've been tempted to purchase the 300 Ah version of these batteries, but holding off until some reviews come out. How about it Will?
Not Will but my general recommendation would be to go with SOK over these batteries. The price difference will be seen in the more reliable BMS and better cell packaging. I'm only keeping the ones I purchased as I received one battery for free due to shipping damage which brought the price point down far enough to justify purchasing 3 new BMS units from Overkill Solar, and the cells seemed to be otherwise as-advertised.
 
Anyone tried a Chins LiFePO4 heated battery? Thoughts?

View attachment 33699


Specifications

Rated Capacity (0.2C): 200Ah / 2560Wh
Cycle life: > 2000 cycles at 100% Depth of Discharge (DoD),
up to 5000 cycles at 80% DoD
Rated voltage: 12.8V
Charge voltage: 14.4 - 14.6V
Cut-off voltage: 10V
Depth of Discharge (DoD): 100%
Standard charge current: 40A
Charging time: Approximately 6 hours
Max continuous charge current: 100A
Max continuous discharge current: 200A
Peak discharge current: 400A (Duration: less than 5 seconds)
Operating temperatures: Charge -35°C~50°C,
Discharge -20°C~60°C, Storage -20°C~50°C
Impedance: ≤ 15mΩ
I got the 300 amp hour one about 2 weeks ago, doing well, I love it still testing it out
 

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Im new and I dont want to start another thread on this. So, I will drop here:

I have used Will’s website to build my first system; 24volt with 40 amp charger and 3000w inverter. I have other components I will add in the future. The issue Im having is I went with 2x Chins 300ah batteries. The goal is to power a Midea 8k Btu window A/C. All of this was working fine to my delight. I had even run the batteries to 0%.
However, the second test of running the A/C for a full 24hours went great until I once again awoke to my A/C beeping as it died. I thought nothing of it as I was sure by daytime the solar charger would charge them back up like last time.
Now the system is seemingly dead. I have a good week to diagnose and decide if to return these to Amazon. I would ask if anyone can help. I first need help maybe reviving them, and also I need help diagnosing what happened. Perhaps the BMS in these did not perform correctly? However, I dont want to ignorantly claim Chins is at fault since Im new to building a system.
In the meantime, I thankfully have an AC200 og keeping me powered.
 

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You probably shouldn't have ran the batteries to 0%. That's bad for any battery. The solar charge controller may not know what to do with a battery that depleted. Connecting a regular power supply may be one way to resurrect the battery. Once you get the battery to something like 20% the solar charge controller may be able to take over. Depending on the BMS, you may have to bypass it.
 
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