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diy solar

Bought from Shenzhen Basen via Alibaba

So I received the cells this evening. I will admit it, they were packaged very well. I have not tested them yet but did take pictures when I unpackaged them. Just at 2 months from order to delivery.

Have you had a chance to characterize the performance of your cells yet?

Have you found anything to give you any indication that these cells are not delivering the level of quality and performance of those supplied by other vendors such as Xuba?
 
I'll try to answer all your questions.
Shipping and 4 cells was 442.00. I would have to dig out my receipt.

I am in the US(Indiana). Arrival is estimated at 30 days but we know it will probably be longer.(sea freight). I'm not in a huge hurry.

They show in their store how they come packed. Some one on here just got his from them and they were packaged 4 to a box with lots of foam. Just like on their store page.

Bolts and buss bars were included.

I got a quote from xuba(Amy)and they were 40+ dollars more for same thing. I did like the PayPal option.

Hope this helps.

Can you provide the dimensions of the busbars (width & thickness)?

I assume the busbars are tinned like in the photos, right?

What oral amperage are you designing your battery for and are you planning to use single or double busbars?

Thanks.
 
how are the cells holding up?.

for someone running a 48v 400ah smf battery bank, would a 48v 280ah lifepo4 bank be a suitable/equivalent replacement?
 
how are the cells holding up?.

for someone running a 48v 400ah smf battery bank, would a 48v 280ah lifepo4 bank be a suitable/equivalent replacement?

What is SMF?
And what is the usable capacity?

For Lifepo4, 100% of nominal capacity is usable capacity, but closer to ~80% maybe 90% is suggested if you want to maximize cycle life.
 
Hi,

What is SMF?
And what is the usable capacity?

For Lifepo4, 100% of nominal capacity is usable capacity, but closer to ~80% maybe 90% is suggested if you want to maximize cycle life.

SMF = Sealed Maintenance Free

dRdoS7
 
What is SMF?
And what is the usable capacity?

For Lifepo4, 100% of nominal capacity is usable capacity, but closer to ~80% maybe 90% is suggested if you want to maximize cycle life.
SMF is sealed maintenance free battery, ie lead acid. learnt about 70 percent of smf is actually usable, though 50 percent if you want them to last longer. so am guessing 300ah 48v lifepo4 bank would be a suitable replacement for a 400ah lead acid bank?
 
I assume it's these?


I know I looked at that supplier because I remember the contacts name on their website is Alex Chen.

How much was shipping?

When do you expect them to arrive? Are you located in the US?

Did they mention how well they pack the batteries?

Do they include bolts and buss bars?

Why did you choose them over Xuba and the others?

Sorry for all the questions. I like they accept paypal.

I've been dealing with Alex Chen and paid $431.00 door to door for x4 280ah eve cells.

Purchased 6 July 20 and they arrived in Australia by sea door to door on 8 August 2020.

I asked for 6 bus bars and screws so I could top balance and have since doubled them up for the 12v battery as they are a little slim. Was no extra for the bars. The screws were the wrong pitch and did not fit the battery, minor issue as I was using 20mmx6mm set screws instead.

Shipping at that time was considerably cheaper than Xuba. They arrived very well packed, best I've seen. All looked new and unused and each cell arrived at 3.3v.

One cell is out of spec and has a fault, perhaps internal resistance. Extreme volt drop under load of around 20amps. Alex has been good to deal with and offered a refund for the cell straight up. I needed a cell obviously and I have paid air freight as I need the cell sooner rather than later. A little disappointing but no problem dealing with Alex.

battery pack.jpg
 
The screws were the wrong pitch and did not fit the battery, minor issue as I was using 20mmx6mm set screws instead.

That's what I am going to use. Maybe with a little Loctite.

It is disappointing you received a dud. This rarely happens....I think you are only the second one I know of that's received a dud. From your post, and a other posts I have read about Basen, their after sales support is great. Thanks for sharing.
 
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Yes, couldn't believe it, just my luck I guess. Communication with Alex is great. I used a little loctite on the screws to help with issues of dissimilar metals down the track but suggest terminals are well cleaned once loctite is dry... ended up light sanding...
 
I've been dealing with Alex Chen and paid $431.00 door to door for x4 280ah eve cells.

Purchased 6 July 20 and they arrived in Australia by sea door to door on 8 August 2020.

I asked for 6 bus bars and screws so I could top balance and have since doubled them up for the 12v battery as they are a little slim. Was no extra for the bars. The screws were the wrong pitch and did not fit the battery, minor issue as I was using 20mmx6mm set screws instead.

Shipping at that time was considerably cheaper than Xuba. They arrived very well packed, best I've seen. All looked new and unused and each cell arrived at 3.3v.

One cell is out of spec and has a fault, perhaps internal resistance. Extreme volt drop under load of around 20amps. Alex has been good to deal with and offered a refund for the cell straight up. I needed a cell obviously and I have paid air freight as I need the cell sooner rather than later. A little disappointing but no problem dealing with Alex.

View attachment 21809

Can you explain how you tested to find that fault?

20Amps from a 280Ah cell is less than 0.1C - were you able to test individual cells for that current capability and if so, how?
 
By the way anyone knows the difference between Alibaba and Aliexpress?
Alibaba is business to business . You buy directly from the manufacturer but some wholesalers are now getting into selling on alibaba as well.
When buying from alibaba make sure the company has a Gold Supplier sticker and offer Trade Assurance and check the years in business.
Some companies have multiple store pages on alibaba.
Aliexpress =ebay
 
Can you explain how you tested to find that fault?

20Amps from a 280Ah cell is less than 0.1C - were you able to test individual cells for that current capability and if so, how?

A low volt 1000w inverter alarm sounded when a 60amp load was applied to the 12v battery and then cut out. Cell volts indicated a low volt issue under load from cell two as below....

cell v 1.jpg

Disconnected cells, ensured cell two was charged and did a capacity test on this cell. Capacity of the cell came to around 278ah... but this had to be performed at very low amps as cell volt would drop significantly low at around 15-20amps and quickly shut the capacity tester down to it's low volt cutoff... see below


cell v 2.jpg
 
A low volt 1000w inverter alarm sounded when a 60amp load was applied to the 12v battery and then cut out. Cell volts indicated a low volt issue under load from cell two as below....

View attachment 21847

Disconnected cells, ensured cell two was charged and did a capacity test on this cell. Capacity of the cell came to around 278ah... but this had to be performed at very low amps as cell volt would drop significantly low at around 15-20amps and quickly shut the capacity tester down to it's low volt cutoff... see below


View attachment 21848

Thanks.

Testing a cell within a 12V battery I understand, but I’m interested in whether you had a way to you test the single cell with 15-20A current draw?
 
Will explains it here....

By the way, if you’ve purchased one of these capacity testers and are happy with it, can you provide a link to where you purchased it from? There are a bunch of them on AliExpress but I always prefer to purchase from a proven vendor when possible...
 
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