Soonbuy, I'm starting to worry................

[rogerball0]

Placed my first order for Lifepo4 cells with these guys mid to end of February and its been over 30 days so sent them an email asking for an update as the tracking number they sent me does not work and have not heard anything back from them. I've seen the 'Soonbuy sucks' thread but realise the Chinese aren't that great on customer service or truth telling as i've experienced when ordering various electronics and diesel heaters in recent years. But 90% of the time the seller has always got back to me.........eventually. But these guys (Soonbuy) just aren't responding at all.

Dunno whether i should cut my loses and go for a refund and try a different supplier.

Thoughts?

 

[tim0shel]

This sounds normal to me specially have placed order right before the Chinese New Year. Tracking number does nothing really and you normally have to look at it on a specific site cant recall what I used for mine. But normally you don't see any tracking until it gets through customs. There it could take a good while and then a new tracking number is given or referenced to the international one. Sorry I didn't help much here as some here can explain it a bit better than I. Just wanted to help ease your worry some.

 

[rogerball0]

Cheers for the reply Tim, yeah i've had this before ordering via Aliexpress.com, even tried their parcelsapp.com site putting in my details to no avail, its just i've repeatedly contacted them and heard nothing. In the past, even with the worst suppliers i've always got something from them in terms of comms but Soonbuy have taken the mantle in absolute silence.

I should use this opportunity to 'big-up' Daly who i bought the BMS's from as they actually phoned me my time in the UK (GMT) to double check my address details were correct before they sent the order and i received the goods about 6 days later, absolutely faultless.

I think thats the problem with China; some suppliers are as good as your local high street whilst others leave are dreadful. Just a waiting game i guess.............

Roger (UK)

 

[Skinny76]

Just wanted to chime in on an older thread, but I had ordered 8 cells from Soonbuy on 3/22 and just saw where it has left Carson, CA with FedEx today, 5/5. I'm actually surprised it is here this quickly. I also recently ordered some cells from Wan Amy's company and I have a feeling it will get here in that many days or quicker. That would be great. I want to get my packs built before the heat of the summer. Wanting to test running an 8,000 btu ac in my travel trailer during an Alabama July off these prismatic cells. I have 4 Battleborn batteries doing it now, but only get about 7 hours out of them @4.8kWh. These prismatics will be 13.44kWh if their capacity is true.

 

[rogerball0]

Hi Skinny i guess it is a bit of a lottery, i put in for a refund yesterday (Tues) evening and got an alert that the money had been refunded this morning, so can't fault them in that regard, just wish they were as attentive to replying to my emails as to my batteries whereabouts as they were refunding my money. Makes me wonder whether the batteries had been sent in the first place.

Same as you, i want to get building asap, this first pack being for my van with an eye to ordering more for several projects, its more than annoying Soonbuy have wasted 3 months of my time, now to find a reliable supplier.

 

[Skinny76]

Hi Skinny i guess it is a bit of a lottery, i put in for a refund yesterday (Tues) evening and got an alert that the money had been refunded this morning, so can't fault them in that regard, just wish they were as attentive to replying to my emails as to my batteries whereabouts as they were refunding my money. Makes me wonder whether the batteries had been sent in the first place.

Same as you, i want to get building asap, this first pack being for my van with an eye to ordering more for several projects, its more than annoying Soonbuy have wasted 3 months of my time, now to find a reliable supplier.

I hate to hear you had to get a refund. Does sound odd they did it so quickly. Tells me they never shipped to begin with. I did just get a delivery text, so 47 days from order to delivery. I'm curious about the condition of them. I should know in a couple of hours.

 

[Skinny76]

Just checked the order. It was packaged very well, but there is no code sticker to check. None of the terminals show any scratches. All cells tested 3.281 to 3.283 volts. Wrapping all looked good and all are flush when pushed together with no obvious swelling. I cant test them yet as I'm building the compression pack with threaded rod and wood end caps. Kids soccer is dominating my weekend. I hope to have them top balanced and ready to test by next weekend. I only took one picture of the packaging as they were identical.

 

[Skinny76]

In process to top balance. This ought to take a few days.

 

[pollenface]

I takes months to get stuff sometimes since covid.

 

[Bud Martin]

In process to top balance. This ought to take a few days.

They look well pack indeed. Are they Lishen or EVE cells?
How long are the screw in studs that they include with the batteries? They look very long.

 

[Skinny76]

They look well pack indeed. Are they Lishen or EVE cells?
How long are the screw in studs that they include with the batteries? They look very long.

Well, I ordered Eve, but they dont look like Eve. They have a small "nut" with threads welded on and do not look drilled. They didnt come with studs. I bought them off Amazon. 2cm long. I wouldn't order that long again.

 

[Skinny76]

I'm still charging. I figured they were at about 50% since they had weeks to rest before I got them and based it on the voltage. Not a good way to measure, but probably a decent estimate. It may take 9 days to to balance. So, I'm going to hook these up once ready and test. I wonder if I should start a new thread showing the Soonbuy results? I'm not 100% great at forums, but I think maybe it would be helpful to some folks. Im also going to test the new ones from Wan Amy's company the same way and see how that looks. After I do that, I'll balance all and mix the configuration with each parallel set (4p 4s?) containing one of each batch and build two 560ah 12volt banks and series to 24 volts using two separate overkill 12volt 4s BMS. Just thinking.....

 

[Just John]

I'm still charging. I figured they were at about 50% since they had weeks to rest before I got them and based it on the voltage. Not a good way to measure, but probably a decent estimate. It may take 9 days to to balance. So, I'm going to hook these up once ready and test. I wonder if I should start a new thread showing the Soonbuy results? I'm not 100% great at forums, but I think maybe it would be helpful to some folks. Im also going to test the new ones from Wan Amy's company the same way and see how that looks. After I do that, I'll balance all and mix the configuration with each parallel set (4p 4s?) containing one of each batch and build two 560ah 12volt banks and series to 24 volts using two separate overkill 12volt 4s BMS. Just thinking.....

Two suggestions.
1 Use a BMS and charge as a pack until you hit high voltage disconnect. Don't charge as a pack without a BMS (and verify high cell disconnect is set properly). This will get you there 4 to 8 times as fast (depending on pack size). Once high voltage disconnect is hit, then parallel to finish.

2 I hope that is a 5 amp power supply, if not you can increase the speed by replacing the alligator clips with real wires and ring terminals. The ones included with power supplies are usually a joke.

 

[Skinny76]

Two suggestions.
1 Use a BMS and charge as a pack until you hit high voltage disconnect. Don't charge as a pack without a BMS (and verify high cell disconnect is set properly). This will get you there 4 to 8 times as fast (depending on pack size). Once high voltage disconnect is hit, then parallel to finish.

2 I hope that is a 5 amp power supply, if not you can increase the speed by replacing the alligator clips with real wires and ring terminals. The ones included with power supplies are usually a joke.

1) Yep. My Lifepo charger is not at my home but at the camper I'm going to test it in. The 2nd batch will certainly be done that way to speed this up.
2)It is not a 5 amp power supply. I should be pushing twice that. I'm definitely losing on the clips. I'm just too lazy to wire in a new wire and terminals....I have the terminals, but need a slightly larger guage wire.

 

[Just John]

1) Yep. My Lifepo charger is not at my home but at the camper I'm going to test it in. The 2nd batch will certainly be done that way to speed this up.
2)It is not a 5 amp power supply. I should be pushing twice that. I'm definitely losing on the clips. I'm just too lazy to wire in a new wire and terminals....I have the terminals, but need a slightly larger guage wire.

You have a 10 amp charger hooked up in the picture (AKA power supply). I'm confused.
Best way to charge LiFePO4 is not a magic charger, but 3.4v times the number of cells. for top balancing, use 3.65v.

 

[Skinny76]

You have a 10 amp charger hooked up in the picture (AKA power supply). I'm confused.
Best way to charge LiFePO4 is not a magic charger, but 3.4v times the number of cells. for top balancing, use 3.65v.

My "magic charger" is the 24 volt growatt that I can series charge quickly with the BMS in place. Then I connect to the bench charger in parallel to top balance. Would take a lot of hours out of this step.

 

[Just John]

My "magic charger" is the 24 volt growatt that I can series charge quickly with the BMS in place. Then I connect to the bench charger in parallel to top balance. Would take a lot of hours out of this step.

A very good idea to use that to get the pack close to the top, then use the 10A to finish. Even the 10A supply will charge the pack 8 times as fast. I am impatient, I wouldn't wait to use the Growatt. I would use the 10A until you can use the Growatt.