Ripped Off !

[Andy UK]

Hi folks, not sure if I am posting this in the correct section, but Will advised me to mention this so others can avoid, I bought a battery from Aliexpress back in June this year advertised as 100ah, at $197 ok I know what your thinking, that has to be to good to be true, and guess what it was, and turned out to be only a 50ah battery with a 100ah sticker on it.
The annoying thing is that it took 50 days to get to me from China, but I smelt a rat as soon as it arrived as the weight on the package stated 8kg, the battery was in a Group 27 case, but only weighed 6.60kg, I new of course that it would have to weigh 9kg at the very least to be what it claimed it was, so I did a capacity test using one of those testers with the fan and two control knobs, the test (0.1C so 10amp) only took 5 hours, and showed 52ah, so no need to Tear Down the battery, this proved it was a scam, the seller is DGL Battery Store and the battery brand is DGIN.

 

[Lt.Dan]

Not to say you did it wrong, but what were the parameters of your test? What was your start/stop voltages?

 

[DBarr]

Thank you for the information, Hopefully it will keep others from being ripped off in the future.
It would be wonderful if everyone was honest but in the world which we live it is not.
May things go better for you moving forward.

 

[Andy UK]

Start voltage was 14.40v having fully charged the battery with a 14.60v 20amp Lifep04 specific charger, the stop voltage was 0 as the BMS shut down the battery when it was depleted, I checked charge current using a DC clamp meter, and also used the clamp meter whilst conducting the Capacity Test, also I did think that it would be impossible for this fake 100ah battery to deliver it's 100ah capacity, as the battery only weighed 6.6kg, correct me if I am wrong, but assuming the battery has 4 Prismatic Cells if they were 100ah each they would weigh 2kg each so the minimum weight of the battery would have to be 8kg add to that the case and BMS etc and your looking at 9kg absolute minimum weight unless I am missing something.

 

[Andy UK]

Hi DBarr, not to fussed to be fair, this was my first ever purchase of a Lifep04 battery, and hopefully Aliexpress and my Credit Card company will get my $197 back to me, what happens to the battery is anyone's guess, but I have advised the scammer that they have 16 days to collect it or it will be disposed of ! (nod nod, wink wink)

 

[Andy UK]

 

[Andy UK]

The above is how I set up the "Capacity Tester" set it to 10amp and just let it run,

 

[upnorthandpersonal]

Don't buy batteries/cells on Aliexpress. I try to mention that often - Aliexpress is fine for certain things, but batteries/cells isn't one of them.

 

[lexio]

see it on the bright side 200 dollar for a 50 ah battery is not
bad

duck and cover ?

 

[Andy UK]

To be fair lexio, the way it is looking, I may end up with a 50ah battery for nowt !

 

[lexio]

sorry man, probably they will say it is equivalent to a 100 ah lead battery
but aliexpress is bad in that regard.
try to sell it as a 50 ah battery 200 pound is not that bad of a price.
and start rolling your own.
it will cost you a bit more but is worth it i think and prices are coming down a bit
and if you are using a BMS with 2ah balancing power you might come a way with not to buy a lab power supply.

 

[Andy UK]

Can you guys confirm that I am correct in saying that it would be impossible for a LiFeP04 Drop In battery size Group 27 to only weigh 6.6kg (14.50lb) even the Li Time Mini weighs 8.60kg (19lbs) although I think the Li Time Mini uses Pouch Cells, and not Prismatic which I am assuming my battery has Prismatic Cells, and of course the batteries that use Cylindrical Cells are the heaviest of the bunch.
China is 7 hours ahead of UK at this time of the year, and it is quite fun to have my daily morning exchange with the scammer at DGL Battery Store, he (I guess they are a he) is now telling me that there is something wrong with my test equipment, so I replied no, but there is something definitely wrong with you !

 

[crossy]

Cells or battery packs from China are definitely a lottery, with many losing tickets.

This seller on Alibaba is well respected.

Luyuan 12v 105ah Pre-assembled Finished Lifepo4/lfp Battery Pack Using Genuine Grade A Cell For Solar/car/boat - Buy Eve,Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery 12v 100ah,12v 100ah Lifepo4 Battery Pack Product on Alibaba.com

Luyuan 12v 105ah Pre-assembled Finished Lifepo4/lfp Battery Pack Using Genuine Grade A Cell For Solar/car/boat - Buy Eve,Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery 12v 100ah,12v 100ah Lifepo4 Battery Pack Product on Alibaba.com

www.alibaba.com

 

[Andy UK]

Interestingly the sellers listing on AliExpress now states that they do not ship to the UK, there are 79 reviews on the listing and all are positive giving the max 5 Stars rating, the seller has yet to respond to AliExpress who have started the dispute process, the deadline for the seller to respond is later today, all interesting stuff, and I wonder what the final outcome will be.

 

[crossy]

Not with batteries, but I've had reasonable results from AliExpress disputes in the past.

Varying from a full refund (without returning the goods) to a 50% refund (which was acceptable to me).

 

[lexio]

do you have a link to what you have buy

 

[Andy UK]

Hi lexio use this number in the search bar and it will take you to the product listing.

1005005088334210

The seller is still asking for me to provide more information, don't even know why they are still communicating with me, maybe it's a AliExpress compliance thing, to give them some kind of damage limitation, the AliExpress dispute is still ongoing, and is set to be completed later today, so will probably be next week until I get more info.

Got to give a shout out to Will, as his channel got me into this solar stuff, although I have been dabbling with electronic stuff since I was a kid.

 

[RV10flyer]

Now you’ve learned what many of us have. Don’t buy batteries/cells on AliExpress and very few vendors on Aliblabla. Research, check reviews, ask us, research some more then get the $ out. Have fun.

 

[Andy UK]

Hi Lexio.

Here is the link to the listing.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005088334210.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.30.319c1802VaPhmc

 

[MisterB1959]

Hi Lexio.

Here is the link to the listing.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005088334210.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.30.319c1802VaPhmc

Andy, have a look at Fogstar, they're in the UK. Very good reviews (Inc from me !!)

Someone on YouTube took one apart and was very impressed with the build quality !!