Shenzhen Cyclen Technology Co Ltd - Customer Experience?

[Guyo]

Hi there. Just joined this forum in the hope of finding some feedback about Shenzhen Cyclen Technology who run several websites such as http://www.deepcyclelifepo4battery.com/ and http://www.cyclenbatt.com/ and also trade through Alibaba.

My concerns are that I have never purchased anything from china online before although i have heard a few rather negative stories and the world's media does seem to have a bit of a downer on their trading integrity? So I would like to know if anyone has any experience of dealing with cyclen? what sort of buy protection i can get.

On the technical side. Can anyone advise as to the sanity of what i am proposing to undertake. Currently our boat has 10 x 250AH 12vdc house batteries that are normal lead acid type. This gives a total of 2500AH at 12Vdc. The bank is wired up for 24vdc so that brings my capacity down to 1250AH. The usable amount of capacity in reality has proven to be around 5-600AH. So after discussion with Cyclen the solution seems to be to change from 10x250AH 12vdc to 3 x 200AH 24vdc. This effectively giving me 600AH or close to it. Does this make practical sense? In the event that one battery fails that leaves me with an emergency capacity of 400AH at 24Vdc. I would ideally purchase another one as soon as budget permits.

Any practical experienced based guidance with this company would be greatly appreciated. Up until now their liaison person has been very helpful and informative but I need some 3rd party opinion.
Thanks in advance
Guy

 

[Steve_S]

Welcome to the Forum and GOOD on YOU that you are asking BEFORE BUYING ! We have several Known Good & Known BAD vendors and related experience with them here.

You are looking at FLA: It is correct, 1250AH GROSS is 625AH Useable because with FLA, going below 50% DOD is causing harm !

With LFP you can build a large single pack but then it becomes a single point of failure should something go awry. More typically, setting battery Packs in Parallel within a battery bank is the best solution for several reasons. One being Fault Tolerance / Fail-Over but also for Load/Charge sharing which reduces stress on individual packs. To that end, it is suggested that each battery pack be assembled to operate as a Standalone handling all of the potential Discharge & Charge capacity of your system, because a BMS can shutdown a battery pack if Over/Under voltage, out of Temp Range etc.

Standard 24V packs takes 8 LFP cells (in series within the pack), 1 BMS, 1 Fuse and a casing/frame of some sort.
Currently the most popular are Lishen 272AH & EVE 280AH cells.
Almost ALL vendors have Bulk/Commodity cells which are still Grade-A BUT on the edges of the spec. They can also be NOS (New Old Stock). Very Few vendors offer "properly Matched" cells although some flog Bulk Cells as "matched" but they are only Voltage & IR matched at Storage Volts which is useless. * SEE LINKS IN MY Signature related to ESS/Commodity cells.

My suggestion based on what you provided.
You need to have 600AH @ 24V to replace what you have presently.
I would start by building TWO or THREE, 24V/280's using Matched & Batched cells. That is 16/24 Cells, 2/3 BMS' & 2/3 Fuses + boxes/frames.
Set them in parallel and provision the Common DC Bus to be able to take more packs. Unlike FLA, you can add more later without suffering the same issues.
BMS' have to sized relative to the Max Load & Charge potentials your system has.

LINKS OF INTEREST: (besides the ones in my Signature which WILL help you.)

Lithium battery systems | Nordkyn Design

nordkyndesign.com

DIY LiFePO4 Batteries On Boats - Marine How To

DIY LiFePo4 On Boats Last edit;3/26/23:The base of this article was written a number of years ago (2010) but this does not mean the information here is outdated. We have been keeping it updated and have added to it when ever we had the time. This article deals

marinehowto.com

https://www.victronenergy.com/upload/documents/Wiring-Unlimited-EN.pdf <-- Starting Pg17 for LFP)

I do NOT know the vendor you posted about. I can tell you that a LOT of us are extremely happily with Amy Wan & Luyuan Tech who supplies a LOT of cells & gear to our membership here. She is also one of the Very Few Vendors that carries properly matched & batched cells direct from the factory. She does NOT use Battery Cell Brokers like others. There are a few threads on here about her & Luyuan.

Link to the Matched 280 Cells. See the "Genuine Grade-A" set, top row, versus the cheaper Bulk ones below.

Alibaba Manufacturer Directory - Suppliers, Manufacturers, Exporters & Importers

Alibaba Manufacturer Directory - Suppliers, Manufacturers, Exporters & Importers

szluyuan.en.alibaba.com

Hope it helps, do check links in my signature below.

 

[Guyo]

Dear Steve,
Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. I really do appreciate it. 'Shenzhen Cyclen Technology' are proposing to provide 3 complete battery packs of 200AH each. These, I would then link as you have proposed in parallel. If i get your drift correctly. You are talking about buying the cells separately. 8 per pack and building my own set of batteries. Is that correct?
Is this because it is easier to get a full set of matched cells that cannot be guaranteed when buying a battery built by the suppliers? Excluding the shipping they are proposing a price circa $3500 + Shipping. for 3 x 24VDC x 200AH.
Again your insight appreciated
Regards
Guy

 

[HRTKD]

Last summer I purchased eight cells (280Ah 3.2v EVE) for about $950, including shipping, fees, taxes, etc. I still had to buy two BMS for about $120 each. I still came out well ahead of the price you've been quoted and I have more Ah than you would.

If you're not comfortable with putting together your own battery pack, then you'll have to pay the man for that service. Creating your own battery pack isn't simple, but it isn't rocket science either. There are plenty of YouTube videos on how to do this and some excellent resources here on this forum.

Echoing what Steve said, I used Amy and would do so again on my next battery purchase. Using a trusted source is very important when it comes to the plethora of unreliable Chinese sources. Link to Amy's thread/company:

Introducing the New & Improved Shenzhen Luyuan Technology Co.

Dear Members of DIYSolarForum, With the experience I gained while working with Shenzhen Xuba Electronic Co., which I am infintely grateful for. I was introduced to a group of very enthusuiastic and most helpul people which helped me to grow & improve my own knowledge which helps me to better...

diysolarforum.com

 

[Steve_S]

TBH, If you want PreBuilt Packs but Battleborns are too costly, consider GYLL which are assembled in USA. 24V/200AH is $1500 USD I believe.
David POZ on YT just did a set of video's on these as have others and they really look good.

Batteries

www.signaturesolar.us

MANY of us have bought "No Name made by SumYungGy" PreBuilts and got terribly burnt, even some lesser known "brands" have foolied folks.
My lesson was the ShunBin Nightmare which ended up costing me just under 5K USD with extras to fix & repair it and then again to dissamble & rebuild the mess.

I was looking at it from a DIY Build your own Packs for my previous response. Bang per buck, DIY is a good way to go IF you go with Known Good Trusted Vendors. Amy Wan (Luyuan Tech) can also have Batteries Systems assembled with the Matched Grade-A Cells but that would require direct communications with her. She has a standing deal with a Large Battery Systems Manufacturer who builds, tests & assembles quality systems (comes at an extra cost of course). A few members have gotten them and were tickled pink.

If you download the Luyuan Tech LifePo guide from my signature, that will explain the assembly, config, charging & more info. I spent quite a bit of time prepping that doc for everyone to use.

TBH: I built my own packs and do run 856AH FLA & 910AH of LFP (being upped to 1190AH) but if I was building TODAY, if DIY'ing I'd stick to what I did with the 280's BUT if I wanted a prebuilt, those GYLL's hit the sweet spot !

 

[Guyo]

Ok guys I am amazed at your help. It seems like the best approach is for me to contact Ms Amy and get some pricing guidelines from her. By the way are you buying fuses and bms from Amy too?

thanks again all
Of you. Really appreciated
Guy

 

[HRTKD]

My BMS came from Overkill Solar. Fuses and circuit breakers came mostly from BayMarineSupply.com

 

[Guyo]

Ok well I and our boat are in Sicily, Italy so I guess I have some more research to do. Do you guys have a preferred BMS. I appreciate it is critical to get good ones
Rgds
Guy

 

[Balazar]

I went with Shenzhen Luyuan Technology LTD because It was recommended on this forum. The couple that run it treated me well and Amy (sales) spoke very good English when chatting with her on Alibaba. Here is a link to the post with my review. It seems that there are a lot of really happy customers in that thread and on the forum in general. I will buy from them again and I recommend them. Keep one thing in mind. Sea shipping is a s#!t show right now. most are at the long end of the shipping estimate if not a little over. Mine took 66 days from payment to package received. The Suez canal is blocked right now. If you are in Europe that may be an issue. https://diysolarforum.com/threads/i...enzhen-luyuan-technology-co.15880/post-238529

 

[Guyo]

Balazar,
Many thanks for taking the time to share your experience. certainly confidence in supplier is a major issue for us so really appreciated. Also interesting to note your comments regarding quality. the 66 days you got is a lot longer than I was anticipating so i need to check on this. Although we are shipping to italy circa 5500 miles. less than USA i think.
Thank you