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Dud liitokala "A grade new" cells?

drwormy

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Sep 2, 2020
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So i took the punt and ordered 4x60AH supposedly 5C discharge liitokala cells from liitokala Official Store:


Then i read the feedback :-(.

They arrived all swollen and at around 2.6V. Ive done a quick capacity test (both charge and discharge 10 - 14.6V @ 10A) and looks to be around 45 AH capacity. Voltage drop (measured across the cell pack not incl BMS) is > 1V at 10A - not sure how they could handle 300A!

Anyone know how to interpret this barcode?

Any advice for how to deal with the complaints / refund process with them / aliexpress? From what ive read they tend to either deny or say the measuring equipment isnt calibrated.
 

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I have just received the same 60Ah from liitokala Official Store. The 4 cells came with 2.17V, 2.24V, 2.32V and 2.41V
One cell has serious corrosion issues on the Aluminum casing. This cell however has 50Ah, the others I have not tested yet.

I had another 4 from LiitokalaVariCoreFlagship Store, none of them had even 50Ah, the lowest had 46Ah.

Did you open a dispute for the over 20% capacity issue? Theoretically they are under 80% and therefore considered dead.
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I recently bought 90ah cells from LiitoKala store. They all looked good when they arrived, but so far none have tested above 70ah.
While waiting for them to arrive, they told me to start an item not arrived case, because there was no shipping info, but while that was open they arrived.
Because of that now, there is no apparent way to create an item not as described case.
 
I tried to open a dispute for quality issues, but then Ali does not let you upload the picture and you cannot finish the dispute. Very clever organized LOL.
Just take it as a partial loss and move on. These sellers like liitokala Official Store , LiitokalaVariCoreFlagship Store and many others, only sell G grade (garbage). These are old cells recovered from golf carts and electric motorbikes. If you want real A grade cells, you will have to pay much more and go to Alibaba.
Just leave a 1* review, that's all you can do.
 
I reported LiitoKala and Sanben’s poor cell quality on here and got questioned on my capacity testing procedures. I found out that it’s better to spend a lot of time researching before purchasing. Thankfully they were my first two small test orders.
 
only bought a set of litokala. All shit, some arrived at like 2.0v, swollen, missmatched, used.
Also had marker numbers on it like 1 3 3 4. as if they were part of some mismatched packs that were taken apart.
 
Strange, why did they sent me for both orders of 8 pieces brand new and matched cell's? After 2.5 months of shipping by boat all cell's measured 3.31 volt
 
I did order the 90AH LFP now building my Powerwall with in total 16x LFP
 
Today charged 8x to 29.2 volt. Then top charged to 3.7 volt in 5hours. They took 5A at start and from 3.35 - 3.7 volt in 5 hours
 
The first set is in use since december 28th and deliver 1000 watt in test setup daily.
 
Anyone ever ordered from https://www.evcomponents.com/ ?
I will be on the search for some smaller cells around the 50 - 60Ah rating. Decent BMS for a small project.
I recently (3 week ago) ordered from EVCOMPONENTS.COM, 4 x 280Ah EVE cells.
The price was very tempting, under $600 including DDP shipping.
But, they were supposed to send a tracking number. After about a week I contacted them, and they said that they are preparing the shipment and will ship out soon.
After a few days without any news, I contacted them again. Now they said that they are having trouble shipping to my region (Middle-East) and that they are looking for alternative shipping agents/solutions.
I've been trying to contact them since, and they simply don't reply. Understanding the problematic logistics situation we are all experiencing these days, I offered some suggestions, and even offered to negotiate additional shipping fees if needed.
But again, no response.

I wonder if this is a scam, or they are just careless about their customers.
I am thinking about opening a dispute through PayPal. But then again if these guys are real, and even if I would need to add another $100 in shipping fees, it's a crazy price for genuine EVE 280AH cells.

The best price I found from other suppliers was slightly above $700. But, they don't claim that these are EVE cells (evcomponents are...), but generic Grade A cells (although they look like EVE cells).

What would you do in my situation?
Give up and open a dispute with PayPal?
Wait a while?
 
I recently (3 week ago) ordered from EVCOMPONENTS.COM, 4 x 280Ah EVE cells.
The price was very tempting, under $600 including DDP shipping.
But, they were supposed to send a tracking number. After about a week I contacted them, and they said that they are preparing the shipment and will ship out soon.
After a few days without any news, I contacted them again. Now they said that they are having trouble shipping to my region (Middle-East) and that they are looking for alternative shipping agents/solutions.
I've been trying to contact them since, and they simply don't reply. Understanding the problematic logistics situation we are all experiencing these days, I offered some suggestions, and even offered to negotiate additional shipping fees if needed.
But again, no response.

I wonder if this is a scam, or they are just careless about their customers.
I am thinking about opening a dispute through PayPal. But then again if these guys are real, and even if I would need to add another $100 in shipping fees, it's a crazy price for genuine EVE 280AH cells.

The best price I found from other suppliers was slightly above $700. But, they don't claim that these are EVE cells (evcomponents are...), but generic Grade A cells (although they look like EVE cells).

What would you do in my situation?
Give up and open a dispute with PayPal?
Wait a while?
I would dispute it and go with another vendor. They might just not care or have the team to answer all of the messages flowing in but I would think they would get to yours sooner or later and have some response.
 
Got a set of the 90ah cells from Liitokala. First one just finished testing using Will Prowse's guide on youtube:


So the cells arrived all at around 3.21v except one - that was 2.80v. I'll call that cell the "bad" cell from here on. Anyhow, not a good sign, I thought. Not an expert, but that seems to suggest the cells weren't balanced properly at the factory.

So I charged the "bad" cell to 3.21v, then connected the cells in series parallel *EDIT - brain fart, I meant parallel - thanks meetyg for pointing that out* using some resistors I had lying around and left them to "middle balance". After about 5 hours of sitting, the voltage across any of the resistors was less than 0.025v and the cells all read about the same (3.21v) so I removed the resistors from the mix and just left the cells connected in series parallel *EDIT - brain fart #2* using some 14awg wire I had lying around. Left them like that overnight.

Then reconfigured the pack to series *EDIT - I actually do mean series this time* with a bms and charged them with a 29.2v 2A charger. The "bad" cell had hit 3.6v by the next morning and the BMS was seeming to balance it - I watched the voltage jump around between 3.45 and 3.6v, so I assume the BMS was burning off excess energy from that cell. The rest of the pack was at 3.31v per cell (more or less).

So I rebalanced them to 3.31v. I discharged the "bad" cell down to 3.31v and "middle" balanced them again by putting them in series parallel *EDIT - brain fart #3*. Again. Then charged them at 6A to 3.6v in a 8P 1S configuration.

Tested that "bad" cell and it's 67.47ah. That's just under 75% of the rated capacity. *EDIT - not in series or parallel this time, the cell on it's lonesome*

I set up for an 18A current draw because that should be 0.2C (or C/5). Started at 2.62v and went down to 2.6v. Is my testing method valid, or have I screwed something up?

*Edit note - don't post stuff when you're ill and tired and can't properly recall wordy words of meaningfulness because series and parallel mean very different things, duh.*
 
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