You are right. It's my word against others. This discussions are too long already.
I have tried to warn people not to invest so much money in such risky batteries.
If you want to buy from BLS, just do it; after all it is your money.
BLS 4x 3.2V 200Ah LiFePO4 - voltage difference between cells
- Thread starter cyanogenic
- Start date
I have tried to warn people not to invest so much money in such risky batteries.
If you want to buy from BLS, just do it; after all it is your money.
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Are you Tony Vincent? I posted my comment in reply to tonyvincent
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erik.calco
Solar Badger
VPN?
SolarRat
Solar Addict
True, a vpn could display alternative ip location, but let’s just say... company fixed ip and assume scam...
diysolarman
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I wouldn't get anything from Electric Car Parts Company as well. I'm currently having to go through litigation with them. Carl sold me junk chargers; which he admitted to having problems with and therefore stopped dealing with the company. After 3 failures in less than 3 months, he tells me to go to the manufacturer for warranty. Guess what, Chinese company says product doesn't have warranty and to go to ECPC. I have recorded conversations of him stating knowing they are defective. Anyways, Carl last conversation, Carl tells me that the situation (of having to refund the chargers) is making him upset and hung up on me
Dang that blows!
There should be a thread here for bunk vendors!
DavidHouse
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- Sep 23, 2020
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I know this is an old thread but I figured I would add my recent experience with BLS batteries since this is where Google took me when I was looking for info about BLS selling used batteries labeled as new. I can also make a new post if that helps the community: I'm not sure how much BLS batteries are being used.
Anyway, last month I bought of 4 of the BLS 190 Ah batteries that Will has a link to on his website. I had seen his video on the 105 Ah BLS batteries and they looked brand-new, so clearly some of the batteries that BLS is selling are new ones. The ones that I got were clearly used though with a couple dents in one cell and an obvious repair to the plastic film. Plus the batteries were pretty significantly expanded, with the sides bulging outwards. BLS claims that damage to the batteries can occur from, "collision during transportation or testing", which seems like a joke. They don't have any explanation of course for the expanded cells, because new batteries are never going to be manufactured like that.
Instead I bought 4 of the Fortune cells that Overkill Solar is selling and have been super pleased with those.
I don't know why BLS doesn't just list the used cells as used on their website. The pricing is quite good and I imagine they would get a lot of customers even with them listed as used. If you are willing to put in the work to swap out cells as they go bad, since some of the used cells will probably fail early, that could be pretty cost-effective for people who want to go that route. Anyway, that's my caution for anyone buying from BLS.
Anyway, last month I bought of 4 of the BLS 190 Ah batteries that Will has a link to on his website. I had seen his video on the 105 Ah BLS batteries and they looked brand-new, so clearly some of the batteries that BLS is selling are new ones. The ones that I got were clearly used though with a couple dents in one cell and an obvious repair to the plastic film. Plus the batteries were pretty significantly expanded, with the sides bulging outwards. BLS claims that damage to the batteries can occur from, "collision during transportation or testing", which seems like a joke. They don't have any explanation of course for the expanded cells, because new batteries are never going to be manufactured like that.
Instead I bought 4 of the Fortune cells that Overkill Solar is selling and have been super pleased with those.
I don't know why BLS doesn't just list the used cells as used on their website. The pricing is quite good and I imagine they would get a lot of customers even with them listed as used. If you are willing to put in the work to swap out cells as they go bad, since some of the used cells will probably fail early, that could be pretty cost-effective for people who want to go that route. Anyway, that's my caution for anyone buying from BLS.
The 36 BLS cells (200Ah Brand ETC) I bought 14 months ago are used as 2 * 52V banks in parallel (32 cells).
I expected to get about 20KW storage from new cells but 15KW was really the max in the beginning due to large cell capacity differences.
Now after 14 months I hardly have 10KW available and the worst cells are replaced already. I expect the cells to be completely exhausted in the next two years. A waste of money and time.
As 10KW is not enough anymore to power my house, I recently bought 16 new original ETC cells directly from ETC via a Swiss distributor.
The price was 118$/cell for 16 pcs; five years warranty; test reports per cell. No balancing problems and a little more than 10KW for 16 cells.
BLS asked the same price for recycled end of life cells.
They making a lot of profit by cheating people, it is simply criminal.
I expected to get about 20KW storage from new cells but 15KW was really the max in the beginning due to large cell capacity differences.
Now after 14 months I hardly have 10KW available and the worst cells are replaced already. I expect the cells to be completely exhausted in the next two years. A waste of money and time.
As 10KW is not enough anymore to power my house, I recently bought 16 new original ETC cells directly from ETC via a Swiss distributor.
The price was 118$/cell for 16 pcs; five years warranty; test reports per cell. No balancing problems and a little more than 10KW for 16 cells.
BLS asked the same price for recycled end of life cells.
They making a lot of profit by cheating people, it is simply criminal.
DavidHouse
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That's what I was worried about: it's really hard to know how many cycles are left with a used cell. Of course BLS batteries advertises 4000 cycles but it sounds like several hundred cycles of life and is what you are finding. Well, if I have time I'll make a video of my experience which might help alert some folks.
Hello, my cells are new and have not done a deeper discharge yet, the attached image is the deepest discharge I have done. I however I noticed a significant voltage difference between cell 8 and 7, I have an active balancer connected as well and it turns on the red light on cell 7-8 but the voltage difference doesn't seem to be reducing.
I confirm everything is fine connection wise so what else should i be looking at?
I confirm everything is fine connection wise so what else should i be looking at?
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The balancer leds turns on when cell voltage differences are >0.2V. This should not happen between 3V and 3.5V cell voltages on equal and balanced cells.
The balancing current of such balancer is usually lower than 1A. This may be enough for new and equal cells with small capacity differences but usually not for capacity deviations of more than 10Ah. (depends on the cycle use)
To get a quick idea of the equal cell capacity, you can discharge them all to exactly the same voltage, well below the normal working voltage (3 - 3.3V). 2.8V is safe and reliable. Don't go lower than 2.6V.
Discharge all cells by using them normally. When one single cell reaches 2.8V, disconnect your load.
Discharge every other cell individually to exactly the same voltage (2.8V).
You can use an electronic load or simply a 0.3 - 1 ohm power resistor of +-50W with a cooler while monitoring the cell voltage with a decent multimeter.
The resistor may get very hot, put it on a safe place and don't forget it...
After discharging, let the cells rest 15 minutes and measure/discharge more until you get the same voltage.
When all cells are at 2.8V, charge the set again (in series) with max 15A and measure the cell voltages from time to time.
When one cell gets above 3.35V, measure them all frequently. They should rise all equally up to 3.5V.
Between 3.35V and 3.5V, the cell voltage differences should not be more than 0.1V and the leds of your balancer must stay off.
If not, your cells may not have equal capacity which is problematic.
This test says nothing about the cell capacity, only about cell capacity differences.
End of life cells may all have +- the same reduced capacity and can still be used 'normally' for short time.
Capacity differences are really problematic, will only come worse and may lead to severe total capacity loss.
BLS selects recycled cells on remaining capacity and tries to make a matching set (which is never exact for old cells).
How more cells are used, how more difficult to get a matching set. That's why people with 4 cells have less issues than people with 8-16 cells.
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