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Leaking Electrolyte from Bigbattery Powerblock

Checking in to say that BB issued an RMA. Apparently I missed it or it went to spam or something. Anyway, I'll let you know how the returns process goes but so far BB CS is way better than Renogy.

I did offer to keep the unit if they would say that the volt meter wasn't used by the BMS (because I'm getting correct voltage) but they still offered the exchange.

Which BTW, has anyone seen the YT video about the Hawk Max? It appears to have more capacity and the Anderson connector on the front. Which I assume is meant to make sure these are installed on their backs.

Edit: I guess I saw the wrong screenshot and the connector isn't on the front?

 
So I returned the unit today. Pro tip: Do yourself a favor and schedule the pickup. Most of the FedEx Locations will NOT accept these 'dangerous' packages. I had to run to the main dist center in my city because of this.
 
glad you were able to complete the mission

sorry about the obstacles, thank you for sharing that info for future reference
 
Looking back at it, I noticed that the hawk maxs have the white handles (like my 4th unit) but of course the regular hawks have the black handles. So maybe they were running out of handles? Or they are going to phase out the old hawks?
 
Will Prowse said:
More than likely, it is coming from the over pressure relief valve.

The evidence we currently have is that Big battery themselves found 11 leaky cells in their inventory, I had a leaky cell, and Seth possibly had a leaky cell. That is 13 cells in a single batch, and all were lishen cells.

I think it might be the supplier at this point. Bigbattery has a lot of people working their quality control, and they use good equipment. So I am starting to think it was the cell supplier.

Because bigbattery also has their own issue of leaking cells, I am guessing that we cannot blame their shipping company. These cells are leaking before they leave bigbattery.

At this point, I am thinking the problem is Lishen cells. What do you guys think?
Click to expand...
@Will Prowse :

I respect your opinion and would love to see you review the mass-produced units that you have been using in your solar trailer.
All changes made to the mass-produced version were made prior to your video on the Beta-Version.
You have had these for some time now in your solar trailer, how are they working for you?

Since your prior review, we have sold over 3,800/Units of the OWL & HAWK without any complaints and have not had a single "Leaking Battery".

Our newest upcoming design is a LiFePO4 Battery capable of 8,000 Cycles at 80% DOD. We call it "The Razor-Back" and looking forward to getting UL Certification on this pack. We have already achieved UL Certification on our 12V Owl Packs as well.

Thank you for your great forum and all that you do. Viva La Prowse! : )

- Eric Lundgren
BigBattery, Inc.
 
solarbot said:
Hmm, I would not call the thread hostile. Justifiably skeptical perhaps. There is the matter of living down the white grease claim. I can understand some discomfort there. As things stand I will forevermore associate Big Battery with "white grease eats your battery".

Then there is the claim that Big Battery discovered 11 leaking cells at the factory by inspection. Please excuse me, but given the circumstances I can't help thinking that when they say they found 11 then the real truth must be "way more" and "it happened to customers".
Click to expand...
SolarBot,
Real number was (11) as stated and shown to Will Prowse. These are "Cells" not "Packs". Our "Packs" contain (4-8) Cells depending if it is our (12V) OWL or (24V) Hawk. We have successfully sold another (3,800) of these units from our mass-production line without any issues.

We have accepted that some people in this thread will forever disapprove of our company and our products. Honestly, that's ok with me.
My goal is to provide 30MWh in cost effective batteries this year to all those in need and more next year.

For all those whom have constructive criticism or advice, feel free to eMail me directly @ Eric@BigBattery.com
To all the "Trolls" too afraid to create; bless your hearts.


Best,
Eric Lundgren : CEO
BigBattery, Inc.
 
MrGreen said:
SolarBot,
Real number was (11) as stated and shown to Will Prowse. These are "Cells" not "Packs". Our "Packs" contain (4-8) Cells depending if it is our (12V) OWL or (24V) Hawk. We have successfully sold another (3,800) of these units from our mass-production line without any issues.

We have accepted that some people in this thread will forever disapprove of our company and our products. Honestly, that's ok with me.
My goal is to provide 30MWh in cost effective batteries this year to all those in need and more next year.

For all those whom have constructive criticism or advice, feel free to eMail me directly @ Eric@BigBattery.com
To all the "Trolls" too afraid to create; bless your hearts.


Best,
Eric Lundgren : CEO
BigBattery, Inc.
Click to expand...
So .... the participants in this forum who question your honesty based on your posts on this thread .... are trolls?
 
MrGreen said:
@Will Prowse :

I respect your opinion and would love to see you review the mass-produced units that you have been using in your solar trailer.
All changes made to the mass-produced version were made prior to your video on the Beta-Version.
You have had these for some time now in your solar trailer, how are they working for you?

Since your prior review, we have sold over 3,800/Units of the OWL & HAWK without any complaints and have not had a single "Leaking Battery".

Our newest upcoming design is a LiFePO4 Battery capable of 8,000 Cycles at 80% DOD. We call it "The Razor-Back" and looking forward to getting UL Certification on this pack. We have already achieved UL Certification on our 12V Owl Packs as well.

Thank you for your great forum and all that you do. Viva La Prowse! : )

- Eric Lundgren
BigBattery, Inc.
Click to expand...

My packs are working well, actually. No issues so far.

That is good news you do not have any complaints. Very nice.

What cell are you using that can pull off 8000 cycles? Are you building the packs? Which company is providing the UL Certification? Is it pack level or cell level certification for the OWL?
 
MrGreen said:
To all the "Trolls" too afraid to create; bless your hearts.
Click to expand...
Not sure what you mean by create but I know there is sarcasm with your statement. Calling people trolls is not very good for your business. Most of what I have seen in this thread has been constructive criticism.

Most important, your honesty is still in question until you report what you found with SethRR's battery that was sent back to you. Remember? The one you claimed had white lithium grease on it and his photos showed something worse than that including corrosion in the area of the BMS?

You promised you would report back with an update. You never did. An honest analysis from you regarding his battery would have went a long ways.

​

 
Will Prowse said:
My packs are working well, actually. No issues so far.

That is good news you do not have any complaints. Very nice.

What cell are you using that can pull off 8000 cycles? Are you building the packs? Which company is providing the UL Certification? Is it pack level or cell level certification for the OWL?
Click to expand...
Please keep us up to date if you get a reply
 
Will Prowse said:
Which company is providing the UL Certification? Is it pack level or cell level certification for the OWL?
Click to expand...
I don't understand this. Are the cells certified? Is the BMS certified? Are the wiring and cells interconnect certified? Do the cell mounts and case need to be certified. Or is the whole unit certified?.

I could be wrong but it's my understanding anything UL certified much have a visible UL label, and even the label must be UL certified.
 
Gazoo said:
I don't understand this. Are the cells certified? Is the BMS certified? Are the wiring and cells interconnect certified? Do the cell mounts and case need to be certified. Or is the whole unit certified?.

I could be wrong but it's my understanding anything UL certified much have a visible UL label, and even the label must be UL certified.
Click to expand...
I should add that UL Certification is done by a 3rd party. Not Underwriters Laboratory. If a company has UL certification, they can advertise "Conforms to UL Standards" or "UL Certified". But they are not allowed to state "UL Listed".

When something is "UL listed", then it is done by Underwriters Laboratory and conforms 100% to a set standard that is code compliant. For example, UL 1741 for grid tie inverters.

You can have UL Listed cells used in a homebuilt pack. It doesn't mean the pack is UL Listed or Certified. A lot of battery salesmen will state "our packs are UL listed", when actually the cells are the only thing that are listed.

So there is a HUGE difference between Eric saying his pack is UL certified or listed, and whether it is at the pack or cell level. Pack level UL listed batteries cost a TON. One example is simpliphi or valence batteries. These are incredible packs, and in my opinion, a world of a difference compared to big battery packs, or any other chinese packs that we test on my channel. 4+ temp sensors, proprietary and conformal coated PCB's and certified for medical device use. Sealed battery cases and brand new cells that are also listed.

That is why I want to know more information here. I never know if it is UL listed, UL Certified, or Conforms to UL standards. Or if it is pack or cell level certification. Or if it is a safety certification. I am hoping Eric will give us more information.
 
Gazoo said:
Not sure what you mean by create but I know there is sarcasm with your statement. Calling people trolls is not very good for your business. Most of what I have seen in this thread has been constructive criticism.

Most important, your honesty is still in question until you report what you found with SethRR's battery that was sent back to you. Remember? The one you claimed had white lithium grease on it and his photos showed something worse than that including corrosion in the area of the BMS?

You promised you would report back with an update. You never did. An honest analysis from you regarding his battery would have went a long ways.

​

Click to expand...
Yeah .... he came on here ....ignored the previous commitment he made ..... bragged ..... and then called us trolls.

I think we all know who the actual troll is.
 
Bud Martin said:
QC issues. When will they learn?
Click to expand...
I find it funny some of $youtube reviewers promoting these products defend Eric and trust him. To each their own. At least some of the reviewers are honest like Will and I do give kudos to LithiumSolar for explaining the QC problems he had with his previous batteries. Personally I would not promote them until all the QC issues are resolved.

Towards the end of the video it's mentioned Eric is going to hire a QC manager. Really? Sounds like much of the same we have heard before.

I have posted before I would like to see Big Battery succeed. Maybe his QC manager will help with that. Eric has the right idea to recycle cells and put them to good use. It's his dishonesty I have a problem with.
 
Will Prowse said:
That is why I want to know more information here. I never know if it is UL listed, UL Certified, or Conforms to UL standards. Or if it is pack or cell level certification. Or if it is a safety certification. I am hoping Eric will give us more information.
Click to expand...
I looked at the OWL's on Big Battery's website. Unless I missed it I didn't see any mention of UL anything. If I had spend thousands of dollars to obtain UL certification as Eric claims Big Battery did, I would put it in plain sight since it is a good selling point.
 
Bob B said:
Yeah .... he came on here ....ignored the previous commitment he made ..... bragged ..... and then called us trolls.

I think we all know who the actual troll is.
Click to expand...

If I was actually going to troll him .... I'd do something like .... ask @MrGreen if he has ever considered including a Microsoft CD with their batteries.
 
Checking back in to say that I received the replacement (or repaired?) 24v Hawk unit today. It was packaged the same as the rest and the volt meter appears to work properly / match the other units. On the whole the RMA process was fairly easy. BigBattery got the replacement unit to me in about the time that Renogy takes to reply to an email. So thumbs up for that but I have to run it for a few days to make sure it works. Like I said before, the other 3 units have been golden. If all 4 work out for me, I'll likely add more as budget allows.

Side note, the unit still has the white handles from the hawk max vs the black from the standard hawks. So not sure if they just fixed this one and sent it back or if they are moving over to those white rope handles for some reason.

On another note, the replacment charge controller from rengoy has been very solid and no screen issues so far. The new unit had a new software version so maybe they fixed the screen issue in the update.
 
colemab said:
Checking back in to say that I received the replacement (or repaired?) 24v Hawk unit today. It was packaged the same as the rest and the volt meter appears to work properly / match the other units. On the whole the RMA process was fairly easy. BigBattery got the replacement unit to me in about the time that Renogy takes to reply to an email. So thumbs up for that but I have to run it for a few days to make sure it works. Like I said before, the other 3 units have been golden. If all 4 work out for me, I'll likely add more as budget allows.

Side note, the unit still has the white handles from the hawk max vs the black from the standard hawks. So not sure if they just fixed this one and sent it back or if they are moving over to those white rope handles for some reason.

On another note, the replacment charge controller from rengoy has been very solid and no screen issues so far. The new unit had a new software version so maybe they fixed the screen issue in the update.
Click to expand...
Thanks for update. Keep them coming if any new developments.
 
colemab said:
Checking back in to say that I received the replacement (or repaired?) 24v Hawk unit today. It was packaged the same as the rest and the volt meter appears to work properly / match the other units. On the whole the RMA process was fairly easy. BigBattery got the replacement unit to me in about the time that Renogy takes to reply to an email. So thumbs up for that but I have to run it for a few days to make sure it works. Like I said before, the other 3 units have been golden. If all 4 work out for me, I'll likely add more as budget allows.

Side note, the unit still has the white handles from the hawk max vs the black from the standard hawks. So not sure if they just fixed this one and sent it back or if they are moving over to those white rope handles for some reason.

On another note, the replacment charge controller from rengoy has been very solid and no screen issues so far. The new unit had a new software version so maybe they fixed the screen issue in the update.
Click to expand...
Good to see BB is taking care of their customers, wonderful, kudos!
 
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