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diy solar

Lithium Valley Batteries

Oddly enough I had emailed them a few hours before you asked.

In the 11 weeks I have been waiting since I paid for the battery I have only reached out twice and each time my email was answered within a few hours.

This time it's over 24 hours with no response. When I do know something I will post it here for sure.
 
And now the latest target is for my battery to arrive in Texas September 27, then on to Ohio.

Hoping this target is not missed by a Texas mile! :cool:
 
Mine are expected to land today, but we have industrial action happening in our ports so there could be a delay. At least they're nearly here.
 
roleo said:
Mine are expected to land today, but we have industrial action happening in our ports so there could be a delay. At least they're nearly here.
Click to expand...

I was told they showed up today. Ground shipping number to follow.
 
Robert Clark said:
I am using solar power, so I decided to buy Battle Born Batteries. Lead-acid batteries are much cheeper, but over the life of the Battle Born, you will spend more money and time on the cheeper lead-acid. This battery is guaranteed for 10 years. After that date, the capacity will fall off about 10% to 20% and still work great. With lead-acid, you will be buying another one to add to the big pile of dead batteries you have in your back yard.
Click to expand...

All the batteries mentioned in this thread are LiFePO4.

Since ALL LiFePO4 cells are made in China we have shipping delays.

Battleborn does a nice job of assembling their batteries in the US but the cost is 3-4 times greater than the DIY LiFePO4 batteries you can read about on the forum.
 
JoeHam said:
The specs look good although I don’t understand why the BMS cutoff is so low at 36.8 v.

Hopefully that is adjustable.

What are they quoting you with DDP delivery?

Unfortunately I have no experience or direct knowledge of the company.
Click to expand...
Our G4ll batteries just arrived today! We ordered 3 of them for around 15kw. Hopefully this weekend we can start the setup
 
Dear JoeHam, I too am very keen to hear your experience with the G4LL battery, which has specs very similar to the Fortress Power eFlex at one-third the price. The Texas distributor, Signature Solar, says they are selling a lot of these to very satisfied customers. Trust, but verify!
 
euphonius said:
Dear JoeHam, I too am very keen to hear your experience with the G4LL battery, which has specs very similar to the Fortress Power eFlex at one-third the price. The Texas distributor, Signature Solar, says they are selling a lot of these to very satisfied customers. Trust, but verify!
Click to expand...

Mine is in use on a daily basis without issue. I did not take the time to capacity check, I just put it in service.

However, this 100 Ah battery is doing much better than my 60 Ah fortune build, as expected.

I did deliberately let it run down once and the BMS shut down the battery. Fired right back up when I started charging it.

The built in breaker has been nice when I want to have it off to service something else in the system.

When I got it I opened the case and a superficial inspection showed everything professionally done. I was a little surprised that the manufacture date on the BMS was only a month before I got it and the shipping took about a month so these appear to be made to order for just in time shipping.
 
JoeHam said:
Mine is in use on a daily basis without issue. I did not take the time to capacity check, I just put it in service.

However, this 100 Ah battery is doing much better than my 60 Ah fortune build, as expected.

I did deliberately let it run down once and the BMS shut down the battery. Fired right back up when I started charging it.

The built in breaker has been nice when I want to have it off to service something else in the system.

When I got it I opened the case and a superficial inspection showed everything professionally done. I was a little surprised that the manufacture date on the BMS was only a month before I got it and the shipping took about a month so these appear to be made to order for just in time shipping.
Click to expand...
Very encouraging! Thanks for this solid review, JoeHam.

My 7-year-old lead acid (golf cart battery) bank is failing, and it's tantalizing to know there's a quality LiFePo4 option that's in the same price ballpark even before factoring in the advantages of deeper depth of discharge and far greater cycle life. (The L4LL is rated at 6,000 cycles, though the importer is now saying 7,000; needless to say, without doing rapid discharge/charge tests on the bench, we won't know for years, or even decades, how these very long lithium battery cycle lives will play out in reality.

One more question: Would you mind sharing details of the Chinese manufacturer? Google is coming up empty in searches for GYLL and G4LL. I don't think these are from Lithium Valley, which is where this thread began.

Again, thanks!
 
I agree completely. I really don't place much value on cycle estimates or warranties that I am unlikely to collect on. Of course 6000 cycles is over 16 years of daily cycling and I would be happy with half that.

I also hope there is some corollary of Moore's law for batteries and I expect in a decade to be able to purchase something much more energy dense and cost effective. That is my conjecture.

Regarding the GYLL innards, there was nothing I was able to identify inside. The date on the BMS is all I could decipher. Here is a picture and I apologize for my complete lack of photography skills:

1605729303615.png

Someone on the forum suggested the GYLL might be related to the SEPLOS and I have no idea if that is true. Check that out here:

 
JoeHam said:
I agree completely. I really don't place much value on cycle estimates or warranties that I am unlikely to collect on. Of course 6000 cycles is over 16 years of daily cycling and I would be happy with half that.

I also hope there is some corollary of Moore's law for batteries and I expect in a decade to be able to purchase something much more energy dense and cost effective. That is my conjecture.

Regarding the GYLL innards, there was nothing I was able to identify inside. The date on the BMS is all I could decipher. Here is a picture and I apologize for my complete lack of photography skills:

View attachment 27915

Someone on the forum suggested the GYLL might be related to the SEPLOS and I have no idea if that is true. Check that out here:

Click to expand...
Thanks again for your timely response. I've just ordered a G4LL/GYLL unit to replace my failing lead acid bank.
 
Keep us posted on how it goes.

Although I’ve seen it both ways I think G4LL is correct.
 
JoeHam said:
Keep us posted on how it goes.

Although I’ve seen it both ways I think G4LL is correct.
Click to expand...
Dear JoeHam,

I'll be installing my first 48v G4LL battery on my 3kw system tomorrow. Any thoughts on charging parameters for programming my charge controller (Midnite Classic 150)? Absorb, float etc.? The battery came from Texas with no instructions...

Thanks!
 
This is a good, quick read:

How to Find Happiness With LiFePO4 (Lithium-Ion) Batteries –...

By: Rob Beckers You have just sold your first-born into slavery, remortgaged the house, and bought yourself a lithium-ion battery! Now you want to know how to take care of your precious new purchase: How to best charge lithium-iron batteries, how to discharge them, and how to get the maximum...
www.solacity.com www.solacity.com

You can use the “cheat sheet” in the left margin and multiply those numbers X4.

And good luck lifting the battery into place, it’s a beast ?
 
JoeHam said:
This is a good, quick read:

How to Find Happiness With LiFePO4 (Lithium-Ion) Batteries –...

By: Rob Beckers You have just sold your first-born into slavery, remortgaged the house, and bought yourself a lithium-ion battery! Now you want to know how to take care of your precious new purchase: How to best charge lithium-iron batteries, how to discharge them, and how to get the maximum...
www.solacity.com www.solacity.com

You can use the “cheat sheet” in the left margin and multiply those numbers X4.

And good luck lifting the battery into place, it’s a beast ?
Click to expand...
Many thanks, JoeHam. Very useful. Incidentally, Signature Solar just emailed me the following links for the G4LL user manual and BMS instructions.
+ USB Cable and Software link: https://workdrive.zohoexternal.com/external/5NOLY0McZXc-M7rSB
+ Manual link: https://workdrive.zohoexternal.com/external/5NOLY0MdfyV-M7rSB/download

My immersion in lithium begins!
 
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