mikemccand
New Member
- Joined
- Dec 5, 2020
- Messages
- 26
I finally received my five OWL MAX batteries!
They were back-ordered for ~1.5 months and finally shipped, arriving this past Friday (day before yesterday), ~two weeks earlier than BigBattery had estimated, yay! I failed to apply the @Will Prowse referral discount code at first, and BigBattery was great: I emailed them shortly after placing my order and they quickly, retroactively applied the discount.
TL/DR: I unpacked them, unscrewed their covers, and they look great, but I did discover a few quality issues:
They were packed well, arrived via FedEx in good shape, each battery in their own box:
with large custom-shaped internal foam to hold them securely:
And a small red/white "this side up" sticker on the outside of the box that I doubt FedEx noticed/respected.
Each battery comes with a sticker attached with QR code identifying when/where this one battery was assembled, and three spare QR code stickers each, I guess in case you want to stick them somewhere more visible in your final installation. Mine were all manufactured April 15 2021, indeed very fresh.
I removed the batteries from their shipping boxes, and placed them cells-down (to reduce vertical stacked weight on the cells and hopefully reduce chance of leaking, thank you @Will Prowse!), volt-meter facing up, and then took the front and top covers off (total nine screws). No cells seem to be leaking so far, so that is a good start.
But one quality issue immediately surfaced, and was a problem, to differing degrees, in all five of my batteries:
Notice how the green/yellow insulation on one of the red wires going into the BMS has a cracked fragment that falls off and slides down the red wire, dangerously exposing the underlying metal contact. I am not sure which wire this is, but it is alarming ... what if that exposed contact touches ground, e.g. the case of the BMS, or the outer case of the battery? I pushed that green/yellow fragment back up over the metal contact and then wrapped this in electrical tape, for all five of my batteries, looking like this once I "fixed" it:
to be continued ...
They were back-ordered for ~1.5 months and finally shipped, arriving this past Friday (day before yesterday), ~two weeks earlier than BigBattery had estimated, yay! I failed to apply the @Will Prowse referral discount code at first, and BigBattery was great: I emailed them shortly after placing my order and they quickly, retroactively applied the discount.
TL/DR: I unpacked them, unscrewed their covers, and they look great, but I did discover a few quality issues:
They were packed well, arrived via FedEx in good shape, each battery in their own box:
with large custom-shaped internal foam to hold them securely:
And a small red/white "this side up" sticker on the outside of the box that I doubt FedEx noticed/respected.
Each battery comes with a sticker attached with QR code identifying when/where this one battery was assembled, and three spare QR code stickers each, I guess in case you want to stick them somewhere more visible in your final installation. Mine were all manufactured April 15 2021, indeed very fresh.
I removed the batteries from their shipping boxes, and placed them cells-down (to reduce vertical stacked weight on the cells and hopefully reduce chance of leaking, thank you @Will Prowse!), volt-meter facing up, and then took the front and top covers off (total nine screws). No cells seem to be leaking so far, so that is a good start.
But one quality issue immediately surfaced, and was a problem, to differing degrees, in all five of my batteries:
Notice how the green/yellow insulation on one of the red wires going into the BMS has a cracked fragment that falls off and slides down the red wire, dangerously exposing the underlying metal contact. I am not sure which wire this is, but it is alarming ... what if that exposed contact touches ground, e.g. the case of the BMS, or the outer case of the battery? I pushed that green/yellow fragment back up over the metal contact and then wrapped this in electrical tape, for all five of my batteries, looking like this once I "fixed" it:
to be continued ...
Last edited: