Batteries available for canada

[Raphael Bilbisson]

I've been stalking for a while but never took a second to talk here.
What are your options for canada for lifepo4 batteries?

So far ive got a 5 year old lion energy that will recommended a while ago.

Last year i bought 2 -100 ah batteries from renogy and ive got a terrible customer service and i decided that i am done with them.
Now i am chatting with signature solar to try a special delivery of eg4 400ah server racks.

What experience and good product have you guys tried in canada?

 

[OffGridForGood]

I bought one of the Solar Power Store (Orangeville) 100Ah 48 volt name brand -clone of the Jakpier (in 2021) and have been happy with it's performance.
My second option from this store was the SOK's they sell, but I moved on to DIY batteries instead. They have other options since that time, I am not familiar with those.
Check if you need a UL1973 listed battery for your set up (or not) before you sink money into batteries in Ontario.

 

[E. Cho]

If you do a search of the forums there have been recent discussions, info and a few suggested links. Bottom line, there are few affordable options or veryl little variety and some options are just expensive.

I bought 2 from China via Alibaba but hated the experience, the BS, stress and delays.

I recently bought B grade cells and a JK BMS from 18650batterystore.com for a DIY battery and other than no manuals and very little tech info, the process and shipment to Canada was easy and fast and prices were quite good on sale, or even regular prices compared to China.

In your search here, there is a past thread with a link to a builder in Grande Prairie, AB, who puts together DIYs and or into an optional Seplos or SOK? metal case and sells via Kijiji. Very little choice but his builds look very good and you would not have to buy many tools vs a DIY build. Shipping would likely be a lot less than from the USA too.

Knowing what I know now, buying from China in a metal case and doing a DIY, I would probably buy from him, for good cells, personal service, build quality, cells matched and top balanced and no tools or accessories to hunt for, buy and probably not use again. Plus no learning curve drama and build stress. His prices are quite good too and maybe less than DIY unless you want and will use the tools and accessories, power supply and or higher amp charger discharger for top balancing and capacity testing.

Or CurrentConnected.com for server rack batteries from the USA, as the service is supposed to be very good and he wants our business. Not sure about shipping options though.

 

[OffGridForGood]

Or CurrentConnected.com for server rack batteries from the USA, as the service is supposed to be very good and he wants our business. Not sure about shipping options though.

Signiture solar or Current connected - the lowest cost option is to ship to a US side border store for pick up, and pay the inport tax yourself at the border. There are direct shipping options, but these are expensive.

Edit:
From what I have seen, in a factory built server rack, you will spend less going with Solar Power Store, since the SS rack, shipped to US side, plus duty/HST will come to a higher price (after exchange) then the SPS house racks. Just saying.

 

[DaveF]

I bought 3 of the house brand 24v 200Ah server rack batteries from solarpowerstore.ca last November.
They've worked well without any problems, but the tech support trying to get these batteries to talk to my RPi3 running Victron's Venus OS has been practically non-existent.

They have the best prices that I've found in Canada. (plus free shipping if the order's big enough - at least last year they did)

 

[kennyb]

I purchased 4 14.3kwh packs from gsl direct for 6000cad each delivered duty paid. That puts them pretty much on par with ss's current offerings.

 

[RV8R]

For my needs I have had good success with “Rolls Batteries”.

I have been using AGMs as my 12vdc use is pretty minimal & Canada & Cold ??

 

[Alkaline]

I've been stalking for a while but never took a second to talk here.
What are your options for canada for lifepo4 batteries?

So far ive got a 5 year old lion energy that will recommended a while ago.

Last year i bought 2 -100 ah batteries from renogy and ive got a terrible customer service and i decided that i am done with them.
Now i am chatting with signature solar to try a special delivery of eg4 400ah server racks.

What experience and good product have you guys tried in canada?

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

 

[noobie]

I've been stalking for a while but never took a second to talk here.
What are your options for canada for lifepo4 batteries?

So far ive got a 5 year old lion energy that will recommended a while ago.

Last year i bought 2 -100 ah batteries from renogy and ive got a terrible customer service and i decided that i am done with them.
Now i am chatting with signature solar to try a special delivery of eg4 400ah server racks.

What experience and good product have you guys tried in canada?

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.

 

[Alkaline]

You can also drive across the border if you are near or have it shipped to a border town, but you need to take out of the packing to avoid any duties. Royal Canadian Customs like to sniff around and ask a bunch of questions. "So you always had these batteries ehh?" ...

 

[noobie]

You can also drive across the border if you are near or have it shipped to a border town, but you need to take out of the packing to avoid any duties. Royal Canadian Customs like to sniff around and ask a bunch of questions. "So you always had these batteries ehh?" ...

There's these ship and forward services like https://shippsy.com/
I haven't used it and I'm curious if they would forward such large shipments(and at what cost. Battery might be $100 with that one.)

 

[andrew-d]

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

 

[E. Cho]

You can also drive across the border if you are near or have it shipped to a border town, but you need to take out of the packing to avoid any duties. Royal Canadian Customs like to sniff around and ask a bunch of questions. "So you always had these batteries ehh?" ...

There are NO DUTIES to pay when importing from USA or China. Only the usual sales taxes which you will pay anyway if you go pick them up yourself. The most I could have saved is the $60 US + sales tax on $60 that UPS charged me to act as the broker to get them through customs in the middle of the night.

For me to personally pick the battery cells up would have cost me hundreds of dollars more plus sales taxes and 2+ days of time and wear and tear on my old car, motels, food and high risks driving hundreds and hundreds of kilometers. A total waste of time and money if I followed your advice and fears of Canada Customs.

 

[E. Cho]

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

There are No Duties on these products coming into Canada, only the normal sales taxes.

 

[andrew-d]

There are No Duties on these products coming into Canada, only the normal sales taxes.

This very much depends on how Canadian customs treats you that day, unfortunately. Lithium-ion batteries (of which LiFePO₄ batteries are one kind) can be classified as a few things depending on usage; the HS code 8507.60.90 ("Lithium-ion batteries, other") have a 7% tariff per the current Canadian tariff rules. You might be able to argue that they're something else, and get away without the tariff, but that's very much up to your customs officer.

And yeah, there's also sales tax and the (frankly egregious) UPS/FedEx brokerage fees. For those that don't know, you can typically opt-out of the brokerage fees and clear the package with CBSA yourself, as long as you live near an inland office; see this Reddit post for more details.

 

[E. Cho]

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.

 

[andrew-d]

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..

I’m always happy to hear about people not getting charged fees! I think it depends on whether the customs officer (a) believes the person about commercial/personal, and (b) how they’re feeling that day. I’ve had stuff make it through with no tariffs, and I’ve had customs officers go through every item line-by-line and categorize and tariff every item individually.

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.

You may already know this, but if not… packages can be cleared at an “inland” customs office, which can be found in many places far from an actual border. It definitely depends on the location, and if you’re super far from one, it makes a lot of sense to just use a broker ? Also they’re typically quite friendly to people clearing shipments for personal use, in my experience; for commercial stuff, brokers are essential IMHO.

And worth noting: I’ve personally had that 7% tariff applied to one of my orders. Thankfully it was just an order of 18650 cells, but it could very well have been something more expensive!

 

[OffGridForGood]

I was told - "If they ask, say the battery is for an electric wheelchair"

 

[andrew-d]

I was told - "If they ask, say the battery is for an electric wheelchair"

Oh this is a great idea, thanks! I’ll have to try that next time ?

 

[mkaye]

Shop

volthium.com

made in Quebec
just ordered the 300Ah battery, friend has had the 100Ah for 2 years, no issues
$50 shipping to Ontario
someone to talk to for warranty work
they supply NASA & US Military
not cheap, but i went with them for hopefully trouble-free service and a 10 year warranty that i might be able to use
i looked at a bunch of batteries this week before ordering and they don't even mention warranty