Review of the Vestwoods VT48100B

[rj86]

Well here is my unbias opinion...

Here are the 2 original threads that kicked this off. I took some photos of the unit before I returned it.

Need help with a Vestwoods VT48100B

Just wondering has anyone purchased this battery yet or at least knows anything about it? Just picked up one off of amazon and can't seem to find any documentation on this thing other than the little manual it came with. Looking to at least figure out what the BMS is capable of before I add it...

diysolarforum.com

Need confirmation that I am not an idiot...

So I have a fun one for you all. I recently purchased a Vestwoods VT48100b on Amazon and it claimed to be a 16-cell unit. I received it last week connected it up to my system and immediately started getting Undervoltage errors on my system. Pulled the pack out of the system and started checking...

diysolarforum.com

As I had stated on my other thread I ended up returning this unit because it was listed as a 16-cell unit and had all sorts of problems when I installed it into my system with low and overvoltage alarms. My EG4 and SOK units were not happy with this unit at all mostly because this is a 15-cell unit. It would appear the listing on amazon has been corrected to remove any traces of it being a 16-cell unit.

Out the door with taxes, it ran me close to $1700 as of July of 2022 which is not bad since there were no shipping charges.

This unit appears to have possibly purpose designed for the telecom industry based on what limited info I could find on the company itself. and it is now being sold as a consumer unit. (Pure speculation on my part)

AS a 15-cell unit this pack is pretty well built. I like the plastic battery cell holder that also acts as cable management. Gives the inside a nice clean look. This also gives the cells plenty of protection as there is plenty of spacing between the casing and cells to prevent any external damage. There is a test strip in the front of the unit to test each individual cell. It would appear this test strip is wired directly to each cell but has no protection so could be a potential hazard if you shorted something out. All the cabling is tied up neatly and looks like there is very little chance of accidentally pinching a cable during service. All the heavy cable has fiberglass wrap and shrink tubing. Looks like every cell has its own NTC sensor which is a pleasant surprise. Not sure of the BMS monitoring strategy for temps. The BMS is actively cooled with a small 80mm fan. Not sure who makes this BMS or its feature set.

It did come with some 2awg cables and a ground lead. Not sure if they were CCA or pure copper.

Here are some things I wish I could help with but just didn't have enough time with the unit to test:

RS485/SMTP - Was never able to test any of the communication features​

Cell Grading - I took a shot of one of the sticks on the cell maybe one of you can ID its MFG and if they are true grade A cells​

BMS features - I didn't have time to explore the BMS any further than trying to get it to talk to my system which I was unable to do.​

 

[rj86]

More photos

 

[junkes]

Hi
i am having the same battery

 

[junkes]

these are made in china and is sourced from narada company china
these are also sold in india by exicom as energy qb series

 

[NorMI]

I just ordered the 6 pack of these based on the build information and pictures you posted. They come out to $1500/each plus tax which is much more than raw cells, but I like this BMS design for integrating with my microcontrollers (esphome) vs. others I've seen and I really like the rack mount packaging. The listings at this time are still half wrong information, they advertise 30.72kWh in the text and 4.8kWh each (x6 units) in the images and PDF file. 28.8kWh would be the correct capacity. I've never seen 48V equipment (inverters/charge controllers, etc) that wasn't configurable for voltage so it's not a problem for anything I own, but some low quality equipment might be affected. The images make plain what the voltages are so hopefully not too many people get surprised by that, I can't imagine spending 9 grand and not reading all the data on the ad first, but they need to fix the text on the listing ASAP!

*edit: Just for those wondering why 15S batteries exist, it's most likely for 48VDC telecomm/datacenter use. Many use a 48VDC bus and 48VDC power supplies, and 15S at 48V is exactly 3.2v/cell so they can sit there and float/play nice with common 48VDC power supplies in perpetuity. Also why this BMS looks like it does and has the mix of features SNMP/RS485/RS232 instead of some bluetooth/wifi/led screen consumer gimmick stuff. They are not likely making a custom battery enclosure with one less cell specifically to scam anyone, the people selling these on Amazon probably just don't know much about what they are selling/listing.

 

[NorMI]

I figured I'd do the $/Wh calculation so you can see how the costs stacked up for me against something like the EG4-lifepower4 which I also considered. The delivered cost (free shipping) for these with tax was $9,540/28,800Wh or $0.33125/Wh. The EG4-Lifepower4 Delivered with the cheapest shipping option was $9,577.70/30,720Wh for $0.31177/Wh. They don't collect tax, so settling sales and use tax at the end of year like a honest citizen would add $539.64 to the bill for a true total of $10,117.34/30,720Wh for $0.32934/Wh. The option that pushed me over the edge was Amazon 18 month/0 interest which lets Chase Manhattan Bank take on a year an a half of currency risk for me, which more than made up for the additional $0.00191/Wh by my judgement. This is predecated on the batteries being "good" of course - we'll see

 

[NorMI]

These chuckleheads stealth cancelled my order in the middle of the night last night. I went to reorder since they are still in stock, but I have to wait for the pre-authorization to fall off the card in order to do so.... I'd advise caution dealing with this company until I can report back on what is wrong with them and why they cancelled the order without any explanation while the item is still showing In Stock on Amazon. The merchant selling these on Amazon is called "FOIIOE US" so beware ordering anything from them at this time.

 

[NorMI]

Dear customer
Because the batteries are very heavy, they can only be delivered by truck, our carrier cannot deliver to your address. We are inquiring about a new carrier. But because Amazon's processing time for the order is time-limited, I can only cancel this order first.
If I can deliver to your address in the future, I will contact you again.
Best regards.

I expect that they are cancelling orders that exceed some threshold on shipping cost in a misguided effort to manage overhead. I regularly recieve freight shipments to my farm from tons of carriers as we have fork truck/pallet capability. They are in California, so the farther away you are the more likely the freight quote will get you booted as a customer I'll bet. Stay away from these guys IMO!

 

[Rocksnsalt]

Not a server rack battery but I sure wish I had found this thread before I ordered a 12v/250ah/3.2kwh Vestwoods battery 2 days ago.
Ordered Sunday night, out for delivery via FedEx this morning (Tuesday).
Hopefully it performs well, planning on ordering 3 more over the next year.
Cost comes in at .244 cents per watt with tax and delivered.
??

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B825DFZJ/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[vidya]

these are made in china and is sourced from narada company china
these are also sold in india by exicom as energy qb series

I also have this battery bought from Loom Solar. Can you please help me to get it connected with laptop or mobile phone to monitor bms parameters.

 

[Rocksnsalt]

I also have this battery bought from Loom Solar. Can you please help me to get it connected with laptop or mobile phone to monitor bms parameters.

Contact customer service.
that said, I have the Vestwoods 250ah. I believe the battery may have to be “woke” before it will bluetooth.
They sent me a small charger, after it was charged the bluetooth worked. Good luck!

 

[boenjames]

I also have this battery bought from Loom Solar. Can you please help me to get it connected with laptop or mobile phone to monitor bms parameters.

Hi, so have you got the monitoring software for VT48100? I have got the EXICOM Qb version from India but it states VT48100 and physically has the same exterior build.