Received 'new' power station with zero% charge

[nettrust2]

I bought a non-branded version of Oupes 600w power station on Amazon for slightly reduced price ($350 vs $460),
but when I received, battery SoC was at 0%, date of mfg was 5/2021.

Every Oupes 'unboxing' video I've seen, the units have 80% charge,
and most of us know to keep lithium healthy to not DoD below 14%,
who knows how long this was at 0%..

Wondering if I should return to amazon, ask for (partial?) refund, or live with it.

I've read about dead lithium shunting out (shorting), so, is this a fire risk?
Is capacity/longevity impacted? I did charge to 100% SoC and run to 20% successfully, it generated 340 watts of used load power in that 80% reduction of SoC..
(battery rated at 595wh)

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Send it back.

 

[jleblan1]

Lifepo4 is more robust at being deep cycled. I have LiFePO4 18650 based solar garden lights that go to 0 volts every night and are nearly 5 years old (over 1700 cycles) still working pretty well. Likely the power stations BMS also have a 10% buffer built into the BMS to have the unit go to deep sleep to avoid running the batteries to 0. I'd run a full 100 to 0 test and if you are getting ~80% I'd say you are good.

 

[nettrust2]

Lifepo4 is more robust at being deep cycled. I have LiFePO4 18650 based solar garden lights that go to 0 volts every night and are nearly 5 years old (over 1700 cycles) still working pretty well. Likely the power stations BMS also have a 10% buffer built into the BMS to have the unit go to deep sleep to avoid running the batteries to 0. I'd run a full 100 to 0 test and if you are getting ~80% I'd say you are good.

thanks, but these could have been dead for a year, while they seem to work, cycles could be reduced to a fraction, which I wouldn't find out about until after return period ends

 

[sunshine_eggo]

send it back.

 

[chrisski]

You can message the seller on Amazon and ask them how to proceed. This gives a record that you contacted them. I have run lithium phosphates below 2.5 volts per cell on a BMS that has a lower cutoff than that and it recovered. I’ve been using that 1.2 kwh battery pack 1 to 2 kwh per use and have racked up 62 kWh on it with no issues.

@sunshine_eggo is correct, especially if you want to really get the full use out of it. If the $345 is more important than using it now, than start a return.

 

[Geno Velasco]

I bought a non-branded version of Oupes 600w power station on Amazon for slightly reduced price ($350 vs $460),
but when I received, battery SoC was at 0%, date of mfg was 5/2021.

Every Oupes 'unboxing' video I've seen, the units have 80% charge,
and most of us know to keep lithium healthy to not DoD below 14%,
who knows how long this was at 0%..

Wondering if I should return to amazon, ask for (partial?) refund, or live with it.

I've read about dead lithium shunting out (shorting), so, is this a fire risk?
Is capacity/longevity impacted? I did charge to 100% SoC and run to 20% successfully, it generated 340 watts of used load power in that 80% reduction of SoC..
(battery rated at 595wh)

If you can recharge it back to 100%, it it were me, I would keep it.
If you can't recharge it, I'd return it.

 

[Will Prowse]

Return it.

 

[nettrust2]

If you can recharge it back to 100%, it it were me, I would keep it.
If you can't recharge it, I'd return it.

and when the batteries swell up and catch fire in a year, then what??

However, Amazon gave me a full refund and told me to keep the unit, so we'll see!

will recharge (forever) in fireproof area, and monitor it's kwh

Oupes has father's day sale on same model (600w) for $390, tempting..

It seems there are only a few brands that offer pass-thru charging, and LiFePo4, Bluetti and Oupes, among them

 

[jleblan1]

and when the batteries swell up and catch fire in a year, then what??

However, Amazon gave me a full refund and told me to keep the unit, so we'll see!

will recharge (forever) in fireproof area, and monitor it's kwh

Oupes has father's day sale on same model (600w) for $390, tempting..

It seems there are only a few brands that offer pass-thru charging, and LiFePo4, Bluetti and Oupes, among them

Hard to get LiFePO4 to ignite.

 

[chrisski]

Hard to get LiFePO4 to ignite.

There's plenty of accidents in up in smoke with lithium builds.

 

[SupraSPL]

I got one of the unbranded Oupes 600s and same thing happened it was a 0% SOC right out of the box. It charged up to 100% and seems to work fine. Was only $100.

A few quirks, it doesn't like to charge from 12V sources because it seems to be buck only and the internal battery is 12.8V nominal. Charges from 25.6V battery bank nicely.

When connected to a 100W solar panel it charges only if there is perfect sun/steady voltage so the MPPT sucks. On top of that, it doesn't have a built in diode so if the panel gets shaded at all it feeds power back to the panel and drains the battery! Maybe a 5amp MC4 diode would solve that.

Upsides, all the other functions seem to work well and the LED light on the is awesome, very bright diffuse warm white.