I prefer cylindricals because I don't have to think about cell-compression like I did with my prismatics.
The funny thing is watching marketing try to play this difference out on consumers. Watched a manufacturer take some campers into a new facility ....
"You see Cindy, the important thing is to keep cell-count down. Here, with our prismatics, unlike cheaper offerings that use cylindricals that come out of your computer, in our 4S 12v battery there are only 4 cells to deal with, hence we offer much tighter specifications and integrity!"
Had Cindy been shown that there are up to 10-20 flat-pack pouches paralleled inside each those prismatic cells, well ... game over salesbuddy!
Cell quality: So ok, no this isn't a Battleborn. But as some may surmise, it may not be a case of "Grade-B" cells. Just ones designed for a much lower level of performance, still "Grade-A" for the low-current application they were intended for.
Consider the following LFP's for your solar garden walkway lights. They aren't using "Grade-B" AA cells. Look at the spec *carefully*
- Max Constant Discharge Current 3C5A
- Max Continuous Charge Current 1C5A
WHOA! You CANNOT hammer these things at 3C or 1C as we know it. That "5A" represents at the 5-hour rate, not the 20-hour rate we are accustomed to! Which means you have to base your C rate on a much LOWER capacity. (which is lead-acid thing really, but the math for the average consumer may mislead them into thinking you can hit these like cells hard using the C/20 rate as a reference - not intended for solar-garden use.
So just saying that the Talentcell's and perhaps even the Miady's are similar over-grown LFP cells which are designed for a different low-power application, and not simply Grade-B rejects. Hence your bms cost can be cheaper too since you don't want to exceed 0.5C (at the C/20 rate) anyway. Makes me wonder if other prismatic makers may be leaving off that all-important "5A" - even if the cells pass an initial bench-test, but I'll take my conspiracy hat off now.
That's what I think is happening at this low end anyway. My 24ah Talentcell's have been doing fine, but I'm not going to punish them.
