Brand new EVE cells catching fire

[rhino]

Are you sure those are EVE cells? I thought all EVE cells have round terminal tops and not the octagon shape. That makes me question what exactly you got.

 

[Brucey]

Are you sure those are EVE cells? I thought all EVE cells have round terminal tops and not the octagon shape. That makes me question what exactly you got.

New 280 V3 and new mb30 and mb31 are octagonal terminals I believe.

 

[Adrian R]

Yes, Eve cells. I got them about 3 weeks ago also from a different supplier with EU warehouse.

This new batch of 48 pieces are from another store, because the previous supplier was out of stock in Europe

Both shipments are with octogonal terminals.

December last year they were round, like you say

 

[hardtop]

If you overtighten the nut will it pull the stud out of the battery or rotate it? If yes that is probably what happened, but then again when you buy cheap there is more risk of buying defective crap and the battery may have arrived with a defective terminal. It could go either way.

 

[Adrian R]

The stud never rotated or got pulled out on any of the cells, I would have felt it right away. No breaking noise, nothing. Well, it's not the end of the world, I am sure I can find a solution together with the seller and be able to recommend them

 

[prosier]

The stud never rotated or got pulled out on any of the cells, I would have felt it right away. No breaking noise, nothing. Well, it's not the end of the world, I am sure I can find a solution together with the seller and be able to recommend them

Who are the sellers of your cells?

 

[Adrian R]

I should have a resolution of the case soon. I will write here more details about the seller right after that. I am hopeful because I have had very good communication with them so far. Today I finalised capacity test for the first 16 cells, 298 Ah between 2,900v and 3,600v, very good for 280Ah cells!

 

[prosier]

According to my seller Wistek (they send me 4 new MB31s because 3 are slight swollen and 1 has some strange bumps on the bottom) I asked about the Nm for the bolts;





So very strange something will get damaged. But, in my case we are talking about MB30/MB31

 

[Adrian R]

Yes, maybe MB30-31 different quality ...

 

[Adrian R]

The company is Braun Power Energy Storage co. on Alibaba, sales representative Joyce, she has been very helpful, situation was resolved in a very elegant manner thanks to her, highly recommended!
WhatsApp +86 191 1868 1835

 

[SparkyJJO]

Can you please explain? How should the top of a good cell look like? The qr codes can be verified with the app, production date June 2024 all 48 cells

Some places sand off the original QR and relaser them. Common (and unethical) practice. there are a few telltale signs - off-center QR, replaced top plastic cover, and if the cover is removed, obvious difference of the top aluminum around the QR indicating a sanded and relasered QR.

 

[hardtop]

The stud never rotated or got pulled out on any of the cells, I would have felt it right away. No breaking noise, nothing. Well, it's not the end of the world, I am sure I can find a solution together with the seller and be able to recommend them

It would be fair to the recomendee (for lack of a better word) that if you recommend the vendor then the fact that they sent you a defective battery that caught fire should also be said with along side the recommendation.

 

[Adrian R]

Well, whoever reads the post should be aware of the situation I was in

Them taking responsibility for the damaged cells and all other cells tested having exceeded the nominal capacity is good enough for me

 

[Daddy Tanuki]

Some places sand off the original QR and relaser them. Common (and unethical) practice. there are a few telltale signs - off-center QR, replaced top plastic cover, and if the cover is removed, obvious difference of the top aluminum around the QR indicating a sanded and relasered QR.

@Adrian R sorry for not answering early I was in the pokey... It happens from time to time as i have a very non typical sense of humor. But what Sparky said was what I was looking at as well, not saying they are or are not, others have more experience in that realm then I do as I use the nylon cased cells exclusively

 

[Capt Bill]

Hi everyone,

I have been into solar since 2012 and assembled many off-grid/hybrid systems
Recently I bought 48 EVE lf280k cells manufacturing date June 2024 according to qr codes, from an Alibaba supplier I trust, from EU warehouse
two days ago I assembled the first 48v pack made of 16 cells in series, 2 parallel rows of 8 cells. Charge from the factory is usually 30%, I was planning on discharging them to 3,000v with an inverter and a load and after that to perform bottom balance on each individual cell with ebc-a20 and ebc-a40-l to 2.900v.

So I do compression as I always do, 6 threaded bars of 10mm diameter and 2 metal plates
I install bms wires on each cell
I install busbars between cells
I start tightening the nuts on the busbars. At this point there is no bms and inverter attached, no load.
I am tightening last nut on the cell number 16, the general positive pole of the battery bank.

I hear a noise, like electrical sparks and I see cell 8 and cell 16 catching fire around the plus pole. I managed to put out the fire quite rapidly, the black plastic sheet on top of those cells was burning.

Initially I thought it was a short caused by one of the bms cables but all bms cables were fine, except the lug from cable 8 which had burnt from the fire on a length of about 1cm. The fire on top of cell 16 had been much less than what happened with cell 8. Cell 8, if I was trying to dettach the busbar that connected it to cell 9 and re-asttach it and tighten it, would generate more sparks under the black plastic cover, therefore I decided to loosen compression on all cells and remove it from the pack. It is indeed very badly burnt and when I put it in horizontal position there was electrolyte spilling out of it.

Cell 16 remained on the pack for the duration of the discharge process and the duration of the bottom balance, it maintains same voltage as all other good cells. My intention is to replace cell 16 with a good cell for the duration of the charging process up to 3.600v because I see a potential safety hazard in keeping it inside the pack.

Cell 8 was replaced altogether by a good cell for the duration of the discharge process and bottom balance, even though right after the fire it still maintained correct voltage as in the photo attached.

I am working with the seller towards finding a solution, maybe replacing the 2 burnt cells

another solar installer, a friend of mine, told me these blue cells are low quality and the threaded terminals have no solid connection to the interior of the cell and they can get damaged when one tightens the nut on the busbar. I did apply a reaonable amount of torque on those nuts as I have always done.

Before assembly of the pack all cells had 3.287v and internal resistance around 0.50mohm

if there was a short caused by one of the bms cables, at the current generated by these cells the bms wire would be instantly vaporised so the short is out of the question

any thoughts?

anyone faced a similar issue so far?

thank you.

Interesting thread. Condolences. I just recently purchased a couple of batches of the EVE LF280k v3 cells from Doc Battery in Texas for shipping to California. When I measured their internal resistance in the 3.03 v State they arrived at, I got
.9 - 0.12 m ohms on my cells via my YR2030+ , ...then at 3.5 v got .12 - .21 m ohms readings. Wonder about my meter giving me different readings on different reads, or if cleaning terminals with contact spray cleaner or alcohol would make a difference. ... I noticed my internal cell resistance readings were a contrast to your s(50 m ohms?) resistance measurement you mentioned. ... On my YR meter I wished had English language (my mistake made in purchase). I noticed my initial resistance readings could be different when I did it a second time after recording the values of the other cells. Just something I noticed.

 

[Capt Bill]

Hi everyone,

I have been into solar since 2012 and assembled many off-grid/hybrid systems
Recently I bought 48 EVE lf280k cells manufacturing date June 2024 according to qr codes, from an Alibaba supplier I trust, from EU warehouse
two days ago I assembled the first 48v pack made of 16 cells in series, 2 parallel rows of 8 cells. Charge from the factory is usually 30%, I was planning on discharging them to 3,000v with an inverter and a load and after that to perform bottom balance on each individual cell with ebc-a20 and ebc-a40-l to 2.900v.

So I do compression as I always do, 6 threaded bars of 10mm diameter and 2 metal plates
I install bms wires on each cell
I install busbars between cells
I start tightening the nuts on the busbars. At this point there is no bms and inverter attached, no load.
I am tightening last nut on the cell number 16, the general positive pole of the battery bank.

I hear a noise, like electrical sparks and I see cell 8 and cell 16 catching fire around the plus pole. I managed to put out the fire quite rapidly, the black plastic sheet on top of those cells was burning.

Initially I thought it was a short caused by one of the bms cables but all bms cables were fine, except the lug from cable 8 which had burnt from the fire on a length of about 1cm. The fire on top of cell 16 had been much less than what happened with cell 8. Cell 8, if I was trying to dettach the busbar that connected it to cell 9 and re-asttach it and tighten it, would generate more sparks under the black plastic cover, therefore I decided to loosen compression on all cells and remove it from the pack. It is indeed very badly burnt and when I put it in horizontal position there was electrolyte spilling out of it.

Cell 16 remained on the pack for the duration of the discharge process and the duration of the bottom balance, it maintains same voltage as all other good cells. My intention is to replace cell 16 with a good cell for the duration of the charging process up to 3.600v because I see a potential safety hazard in keeping it inside the pack.

Cell 8 was replaced altogether by a good cell for the duration of the discharge process and bottom balance, even though right after the fire it still maintained correct voltage as in the photo attached.

I am working with the seller towards finding a solution, maybe replacing the 2 burnt cells

another solar installer, a friend of mine, told me these blue cells are low quality and the threaded terminals have no solid connection to the interior of the cell and they can get damaged when one tightens the nut on the busbar. I did apply a reaonable amount of torque on those nuts as I have always done.

Before assembly of the pack all cells had 3.287v and internal resistance around 0.50mohm

if there was a short caused by one of the bms cables, at the current generated by these cells the bms wire would be instantly vaporised so the short is out of the question

any thoughts?

anyone faced a similar issue so far?

thank you.

Looking at the picture, my initial thoughts without yet reading full thread, are it looks more like a spark at a loose terminal as compared to your fire label. Did a battery catch fire? That would be a bit of a disaster, and somewhat of a Hit on LiFePO4s reputation for being a relatively safe battery chemistry. Though I am sure anything is possible with the various supply options that are definitely not all reputable. Now wondering about your burnt BMS wired to spark marked terminal. ... Got my interest to finish thread :+)

 

[CharlieO]

Looking at the picture, my initial thoughts without yet reading full thread, are it looks more like a spark at a loose terminal as compared to your fire label. Did a battery catch fire? That would be a bit of a disaster, and somewhat of a Hit on LiFePO4s reputation for being a relatively safe battery chemistry. Though I am sure anything is possible with the various supply options that are definitely not all reputable. Now wondering about your burnt BMS wired to spark marked terminal. ... Got my interest to finish thread :+)

Hi everyone,

I have been into solar since 2012 and assembled many off-grid/hybrid systems
Recently I bought 48 EVE lf280k cells manufacturing date June 2024 according to qr codes, from an Alibaba supplier I trust, from EU warehouse
two days ago I assembled the first 48v pack made of 16 cells in series, 2 parallel rows of 8 cells. Charge from the factory is usually 30%, I was planning on discharging them to 3,000v with an inverter and a load and after that to perform bottom balance on each individual cell with ebc-a20 and ebc-a40-l to 2.900v.

So I do compression as I always do, 6 threaded bars of 10mm diameter and 2 metal plates
I install bms wires on each cell
I install busbars between cells
I start tightening the nuts on the busbars. At this point there is no bms and inverter attached, no load.
I am tightening last nut on the cell number 16, the general positive pole of the battery bank.

I hear a noise, like electrical sparks and I see cell 8 and cell 16 catching fire around the plus pole. I managed to put out the fire quite rapidly, the black plastic sheet on top of those cells was burning.

Initially I thought it was a short caused by one of the bms cables but all bms cables were fine, except the lug from cable 8 which had burnt from the fire on a length of about 1cm. The fire on top of cell 16 had been much less than what happened with cell 8. Cell 8, if I was trying to dettach the busbar that connected it to cell 9 and re-asttach it and tighten it, would generate more sparks under the black plastic cover, therefore I decided to loosen compression on all cells and remove it from the pack. It is indeed very badly burnt and when I put it in horizontal position there was electrolyte spilling out of it.

Cell 16 remained on the pack for the duration of the discharge process and the duration of the bottom balance, it maintains same voltage as all other good cells. My intention is to replace cell 16 with a good cell for the duration of the charging process up to 3.600v because I see a potential safety hazard in keeping it inside the pack.

Cell 8 was replaced altogether by a good cell for the duration of the discharge process and bottom balance, even though right after the fire it still maintained correct voltage as in the photo attached.

I am working with the seller towards finding a solution, maybe replacing the 2 burnt cells

another solar installer, a friend of mine, told me these blue cells are low quality and the threaded terminals have no solid connection to the interior of the cell and they can get damaged when one tightens the nut on the busbar. I did apply a reaonable amount of torque on those nuts as I have always done.

Before assembly of the pack all cells had 3.287v and internal resistance around 0.50mohm

if there was a short caused by one of the bms cables, at the current generated by these cells the bms wire would be instantly vaporised so the short is out of the question

any thoughts?

anyone faced a similar issue so far?

thank you.

Hello, Looking at this, is there any way one of the cells was reversed. I have read the entire thread, but I think that the idea of a faulty cell here doesn't make sense to me. It sounds like you got fire/arc at 2 locations at the same time, is this true? If so I think it has to be a short circuit that was possibly initiated when you started torquing down bus-bars and made a solid connection. It just seems highly unlikely to me that 2 issues just happen to occur at the same time. Having a cell with the wrong polarity could definitely explain any "coincidences."

 

[Yurtdweller]

.........I got a old story about a re-wrapped EVE cell.....with the positive and negative being mislabelled by the seller of "Grade A" cell......

Can you determine* the cell polarity? Using a LED will do I guess?

LEDs are not polarity specific, are they?

 

[ScrotpusGobbleBottom]

LEDs are not polarity specific, are they?

Yes, diodes are inherently polarity specific. But with wrong parity it would block voltage.

 

[robbob2112]

Yes, diodes are inherently polarity specific. But with wrong parity it would block voltage.

until it fails - if the reverse voltage is high enough it can burn the diode into a short then all sorts of fun can happen. This is why when using a LED to indicate something you put it in series with something like a 1kΩ or 10kΩ resistor to limit the current in the forward direction as well.

 

[ScrotpusGobbleBottom]

until it fails - if the reverse voltage is high enough it can burn the diode into a short then all sorts of fun can happen. This is why when using a LED to indicate something you put it in series with something like a 1kΩ or 10kΩ resistor to limit the current in the forward direction as well.

Right on, yes. Thanks for mentioning.
All led circuits need current limiting right?