Daddy Tanuki
Solar Wizard
So just got my order from Winston finalized. 32 x 400 aamp hour cells. I was worried about packing after some of my prior experiences and reading about some of the issues from other vendors.... Shipping porn:
Shipping porn: this is how you pack cells!
- Thread starter Daddy Tanuki
- Start date
Brucey
Solar Wizard
I guess another one of the advantages of the nylon cells no need to seperate them for shipping or install.
Nobodybusiness
Collecting the leftovers of the Great Sky Reactor.
She’s tight in there.
Always liked the look of Winston cells.
They Just weren’t readily available around here.
Kenny_
Solar Addict
Just add connectors!
Brucey
Solar Wizard
Just need them to ship in cases of 8 or 16.
Daddy Tanuki
Solar Wizard
nor here as well. I have been researching this for roughly the last year. Currently I have CALB cells that I know for a fact were either B cells or rejects. They have plenty of capacity but i know they no longer make them and wanted brand new batteries. After casting about a bit I came across a few entities offering new Winston Thundersky batteries but was not sure if they were new or what.
so muddled about until December when I finally made my decision to buy directly from Winston. they offer small batch cells via a subcompany that Winston directly confirmed was their sales agent for small batch orders.
I cannot confirm, but what I think i am receiving is brand new over runs. it kind of makes sense that if company "A" orders a production run of XX,000 cells that winston/calb/eve/catl would make at least X % over so that they can fill an order when some do not make the grade for automotive (prime mover) grade. what to do with the extra's? well sell them.
These are at a premium price. Seeing all the issues that all of the members on this forum have had with the aluminum case cells and bad players I prefer to pay for the guarantee vice trying to save money over and over and losing in the long run. and these do come with a warranty.
Daddy Tanuki
Solar Wizard
could be for a more temperate location. even though they say these are good charging below freezing, I am still going to build battery heaters, just like my other cells. i have enough capacity that heating them is not an issue. but i need aluminum plates under them as well as aluminum side plate as a fixture rig that have the heating pads on them. (not so much compression pre say), but to keep them in place in an earthquake as they will go onto a elevated rack.
NorthTown2022
New Member
I've been speaking with Mike at Annod Industries regarding heat pads. I've read good feedback here and am in the process of making a purchase myself. They custom build to suit your voltage and size requirements, the pads are made in USA. Mike claims to have been working with and supplying a number of popular battery companies for many years. He said they have found its best to heat LFP (or LYP?) from the side in one direction rather than the bottom (and in my case to add a center pad that will heat in both directions for my 16s twin row config). You won't need aluminum plate and the cost of the pads are peanuts compared to the initial investment. Just something to think about..
Rednecktek
Solar Wizard
My first thought seeing the black corners of the reciept was "Did those short through the paper!?!?" 
Daddy Tanuki
Solar Wizard
$1.00 per a/H definitely not cheap but after ordering my first lithium's 4 years ago and getting what I new at the time were either B grade or pull offs, and after reading all of the horror stories about swollen cells / faked QR codes / bad faith actors in regards to sales I decided the juice was worth the squeeze to go straight to the maker.
I will do a unboxing, top balance, and install on this thread when they arrive. I will probably not do a capacity test as a capacity test and recharge would take an entire day for one cell (ZKE only does 40 amps max) (OK i might do it for a random picked sample or two just for the shits and giggles at seeing 400 a/H capacity for one cell).
biggest problem is if I take every single charger I have I can only top balance at about 80 amps. and only 40 amps of that is CC to the set point. the other 40 is (various chargers) that taper the current down as they approach the charge set point. so the whole top balance thing is going to be a pain in the ass due to the size of the banks.
I am considering using my shop battery charger through a 12 volt BMS to bring them up to 3.5 or so as I can pump 160 amps steady through it until the BMS shuts down. then parallel them to finish it off.
? $313/kWh.
Daddy Tanuki
Solar Wizard
something like that shipping included, warranty included, sold by the actual maker of the cells, and not on alibabba.... yep you do not buy a Ferrari from a dodge dealership do you?
I know but still the makrup on these is at least 3x from what it costs to make LFP cells these days. Either Winston has old and slow production lines, relies on government contracts (no incentive to reduce costs) or does not do big enough volume to compete with CATL or EVE etc. Anyway, I hope they last a long time for you to recoup the cost in energy savings multiple times over.
Daddy Tanuki
Solar Wizard
Possibly, only time will tell though. Being that quite a few of the packs I see on across multiple forums do not last out a year with swollen/bloated cells and fake QR codes I will take my chances with a company with a 20 year track record.
not to say there have not been some people who have had issues with them (winston) as well. I have read.... of one instance on this forum.... compared to many, many other manufactures complaints.
Edited for clarity
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sunshine_eggo
Happy Breffast!
I have a bunch of the blue 40Ah "ribbed" CALB. Abused in Phoenix area as an aftermarket 10kW plug in prius pack and discharged to 0.6V... lucky to get ~26Ah out of them. Honestly, given the heat and the complete lack of cooling provided to these cells, I'm surprised they're that good.
Hmm. Did you happen to sell few of them on ebay years ago?
sunshine_eggo
Happy Breffast!
Nope. I bought them from a guy local to me. tested them, then shelved them until recently when I wanted to try and build a battery for a small PowMr 24/3K AiO... 6P8S coming in at 129Ah
