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BYD LiFePO4 battery fiasco update

Will Prowse

Will Prowse

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Update on BYD LiFePO4 problem. People bought used BYD packs advertised at 4-4.5kWh, but many of them are testing at 3 kWh.

What matters most is if you bought your pack from batteryhookup.com or bigbattery.com:

Bigbattery.com capacity tests their byd packs sold on their website. After I posted my recent video, they are now making different listings for grade A/B/C modules. if you bought a bigbattery byd pack in the last few months, it's probably a grade A pack. They have only had a single return for this issue. You are probably good to go if you bought from them, and they will give full refund if not.

Batteryhookup.com tested their first batch of packs, but not the drop shipped ones they wholesaled from big battery. Those are untested packs, and if you do not pull the full capacity, Tom will return it. He is really nice and will take care of you with a full refund. My guess is that they are a mix of grade B/C, going by peoples test results, and advertised as grade A.


I am going to use the byd packs from bigbattery.com from now on because they are capacity tested, and now sorted by grade and capacity. So they are a good deal, and are now advertised correctly.

I have been on the phone all morning yelling my head off trying to fix this problem. I am super pissed that people were sold packs that are not pulling full capacity, but I think everyone is happy now, and any packs not pulling as advertised will be returned.

Let me know if you have any problems with either distributor. I will either fix it or get your money back.
 
i got mine from techdirect.com.same issues?bought them last month.just hooked them up 2 days ago.
 
Will Prowse said:
Update on BYD LiFePO4 problem. People bought used BYD packs advertised at 4-4.5kWh, but many of them are testing at 3 kWh.

What matters most is if you bought your pack from batteryhookup.com or bigbattery.com:

Bigbattery.com capacity tests their byd packs sold on their website. After I posted my recent video, they are now making different listings for grade A/B/C modules. if you bought a bigbattery byd pack in the last few months, it's probably a grade A pack. They have only had a single return for this issue. You are probably good to go if you bought from them, and they will give full refund if not.

Batteryhookup.com tested their first batch of packs, but not the drop shipped ones they wholesaled from big battery. Those are untested packs, and if you do not pull the full capacity, Tom will return it. He is really nice and will take care of you with a full refund. My guess is that they are a mix of grade B/C, going by peoples test results, and advertised as grade A.


I am going to use the byd packs from bigbattery.com from now on because they are capacity tested, and now sorted by grade and capacity. So they are a good deal, and are now advertised correctly.

I have been on the phone all morning yelling my head off trying to fix this problem. I am super pissed that people were sold packs that are not pulling full capacity, but I think everyone is happy now, and any packs not pulling as advertised will be returned.

Let me know if you have any problems with either distributor. I will either fix it or get your money back.
Click to expand...
 
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I was dreading dealing with less than 3KWh storage out of them...

Thank you so much Will!
 
I saw Wills capacity test on the BYD battery,they are being advertises at around 4kwh to 4.5 kwh and come in between 3-3.76 kwh and some even less, very misleading. But instead of returning them to Battery Hookup for a full refund. they should refund us the difference between a 4kwh and a 3kwh battery they sold us. The difference is 25% less capacity so they should refund 25% of the cost. I paid $450 for my battery and 25% of that is $ 112.50 that should be refunded. Today Battery Hookup has them listed as 2.8- 3.8 kwh and now only $ 350. I feel that I got ripped off and would like a refund for the difference. If I return the battery all my time, shipping hassle, bms and wiring are a lost. Battery Hookup should made it right. I can live with 3kwh which mine does but not at the 4-4.5 kwh price How do you feel about this ??
 
DouglasHHI said:
I saw Wills capacity test on the BYD battery,they are being advertises at around 4kwh to 4.5 kwh and come in between 3-3.76 kwh and some even less, very misleading. But instead of returning them to Battery Hookup for a full refund. they should refund us the difference between a 4kwh and a 3kwh battery they sold us. The difference is 25% less capacity so they should refund 25% of the cost. I paid $450 for my battery and 25% of that is $ 112.50 that should be refunded. Today Battery Hookup has them listed as 2.8- 3.8 kwh and now only $ 350. I feel that I got ripped off and would like a refund for the difference. If I return the battery all my time, shipping hassle, bms and wiring are a lost. Battery Hookup should made it right. I can live with 3kwh which mine does but not at the 4-4.5 kwh price How do you feel about this ??
Click to expand...
That is a smart compromise. Email them and do that instead. Let me know if that works out. I doubt they would do a full shipping return, and probably do this instead.
 
After having seen all this "Discovery" I have to say I am GLAD they couldn't / wouldn't ship to Canada as I would have bought 3 or 4 of these things and boy I'd sound like a drunken sailor on a Saturday Night after having been at sea for a year.

Thanks for the Consumer Advocacy Will ! Keep up the great work !
 
I just sent a email to Battery Hookup with a copy of my post, lets see what their response is. This forum has a strong voice and has many ears listening. Company should do the right thing, those who do will prosper and those who do not will not prosper
 
DouglasHHI said:
I just sent a email to Battery Hookup with a copy of my post, lets see what their response is. This forum has a strong voice and has many ears listening. Company should do the right thing, those who do will prosper and those who do not will not prosper
Click to expand...
I also did the same.
We shall see.
 
I sent "Sales" an email yesterday evening asking what Voltage I could do a capacity test with my setup.

We'll see what they say. :)

I am in the bought from Batteryhookup and drop-shipped from Bigbattery group.

This is a link to my photos of my installation.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1C34NJAlC04JoOmTMERlNquLTgUXYjF5c

These are my youtube videos of the packs in action:

I'm going in deep on my cycle right now.

Let me know if you think this is too far...

CellLowProtect 2.60V
TotalVoltLowProtect 41.6V
System Shut Down Cell Voltage 2.55V
Cell unit Voltage Gap protection 0.5V

I have a real kWh utility net-meter that I am running my house on through these batteries right now.
I started at 53.2V~53.1 per double pack.
99914 on the net-meter (25 from the batteries, 112 from the house; this includes bypass current)

Duque thinks it's great.

My end result
14 kWh for the 8 packs.
3 packs so far have shown 3 individual cells as "way out of tolerance". 3 out of 64 cells limit this entire setup.
2 dive bombers and 1 rocket ship.
 
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I also bought from batteryhookup and had the batteries shipped here in Eastvale California by their drop shipper bigbattery.com in chatsworth. I am willing to forego the time , cost and effort that i have done so the problem can be rectified. I even sent them an email that i would personally bring the batteries back to their chatsworth source if they wanted to just refund the amount. But in the same email also informed them that a partial refund can also be considered.
 
Just read an email reply from Battery Hookup, they will refund 25% of the battery cost if I want to keep the battery. I told them I will keep the battery and accept the 25% refund. What a great and honest company. Here is a copy of their email.
Hi Douglas,

I'm very sorry for all of the trouble and that you were amongst the people who got lower capacity results. We had no intention of any of this happening, and it is very unfortunate. Our first batch tested out between 4-4.5kwh and then we started drop shipping from Big Battery in California and didn't realize that theirs were not testing the same as our original batch. There was also a lot of miscommunication and misinformation involved in all of this. We can absolutely refund you 25% of the cost of your batteries if you wish to keep them. Now that we got back to you please confirm that you will accept a 25% refund and we will send that over to you asap. Thank you!
 
I hope to report a mutually satisfying outcome also, but I am not having the same luck with responsiveness as it seems others have. I wonder what 'miscommunication and misinformation' they are referring to. Between BatteryHookup and TechDirect or between BatteryHookup and Will P. or something else?
 
Ordered with TechDirectClub.com 4X BYD's $450each and was charged $1000.00 for shipping, 2 of the BYD's are under 3kwh. I was offered $450 refund. I had asked for a $1000 refund. Might just drive them down and ask for full refund.

This one gets crazy on high and low side the shown wh count is low on this.
IMG_20200218_005843.jpg
 
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Make sure they put it in writing before you leave. Like Pappy said,"Trust everyone, but cut the cards...."
 
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