DaveDavenport
New Member
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2021
- Messages
- 1
As newby in solar and LifePO4 batteries, I decided to post a quick review/experience about Voltium Energy batteries.
(apologies if this is in the wrong location)
When looking for a LifePO4 battery I fount a relatively cheap one I could pick up at a local store (slightly under 300 euro, so not as cheap as I would have liked but available the same day).
The battery comes in a strong plastic case, nothing seems to be loose on the inside and overall feels like a decent build (compared to my varta lead-acid battery).
The specifications are:
The battery has a bluetooth interface and an android and apple application:
Battery I have little to say about, the specs (size) seems to match, the terminals are strong and I noticed no flex when tightening the connectors.
The battery does not seem to get hot under my relative low loads/charging currents ( <= 20A).
I monitored the battery (my mistake) with the application and noticed a few oddities:
The responded quickly and very friendly, but did not hand out the api (understandable). I might reverse engineer it when I have some time left.
On the application: it works well and connects easily. There is a 'pro' menu with the password: 1234, to rename the battery use 5678.
Now to get back to the large drop in reported max capacity, I was worried about this, I don't expect a 10% drop after just a few cycles. Also the the difference between cells before cut-off is larger then I experienced with some smaller (8Ah) packs I diy myself.
So I did a manual test, where i charged the battery full, then unloaded it into load at 0.1C. The load indicated a total 40Ah (510Wh) energy, while the app indicated the 35.9Ah.
I am happy the battery did not loose capacity, still going to keep an eye on it. To bad the accounting in the battery itself is not great. I noticed that the app 'ignores' low charging/discharging (<1Ah) currents.
Please let me know if there is more information I can add.
Regards,
Dave
(apologies if this is in the wrong location)
When looking for a LifePO4 battery I fount a relatively cheap one I could pick up at a local store (slightly under 300 euro, so not as cheap as I would have liked but available the same day).
The battery comes in a strong plastic case, nothing seems to be loose on the inside and overall feels like a decent build (compared to my varta lead-acid battery).
The specifications are:
| Brand: | Voltium Energy |
| Type: | LiFePO4 |
| Voltage: | 12.8 Volt |
| Ampere: | 40 Ah |
| Usage: | Cyclic, Deep Cycle |
| Charge and discharge cycles: | 3000 - 5000 |
| Dimensions: | 199 x 151 x 170 (LxWxH) |
| Weight: | 6.8 kg |
| Connection: | M8 |
The battery has a bluetooth interface and an android and apple application:
- https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nrg.power
- https://apps.apple.com/us/app/voltium-energy/id1540058534
Battery I have little to say about, the specs (size) seems to match, the terminals are strong and I noticed no flex when tightening the connectors.
The battery does not seem to get hot under my relative low loads/charging currents ( <= 20A).
I monitored the battery (my mistake) with the application and noticed a few oddities:
- After first charge and then discharge the battery discharged to 30% according to the gauge and then dropped to zero. The max capacity dropped by 5%. (38Ah)
- One of the cells was 0.2V lower then the others.
- On charging the cells balanced out until they reached the top, then some of them dropped out again with sometimes reporting +- 0.15V difference (but not always the same cell).
- After 7 cycles the reported max load dropped to 35.9Ah.
The responded quickly and very friendly, but did not hand out the api (understandable). I might reverse engineer it when I have some time left.
On the application: it works well and connects easily. There is a 'pro' menu with the password: 1234, to rename the battery use 5678.
Now to get back to the large drop in reported max capacity, I was worried about this, I don't expect a 10% drop after just a few cycles. Also the the difference between cells before cut-off is larger then I experienced with some smaller (8Ah) packs I diy myself.
So I did a manual test, where i charged the battery full, then unloaded it into load at 0.1C. The load indicated a total 40Ah (510Wh) energy, while the app indicated the 35.9Ah.
I am happy the battery did not loose capacity, still going to keep an eye on it. To bad the accounting in the battery itself is not great. I noticed that the app 'ignores' low charging/discharging (<1Ah) currents.
Please let me know if there is more information I can add.
Regards,
Dave
