Want the absolute best quality components for my DIY battery. Where?
- Thread starter WilliamC
- Start date
Best quality? Good luck. Prepare to spend 2-3X what you see thrown around here if you can find legitimate source for matched cells. Might start to make more sense to just buy a SOK, Battleborn or other reliable non-DIY solution.
There are a handful of obvious threads of "trusted" sources where the vast majority of the stuff received works as advertised, but I would never call those "best quality" due to the source - these are distributors selling alleged Grade A cells from various manufacturers. The sources that are common on this forum appear to be reasonably reliable.
That said, my recent purchase included 9 cells instead of 8 because I don't want to risk having a bad or outlier cell. I recommend you do the same.
There are a handful of obvious threads of "trusted" sources where the vast majority of the stuff received works as advertised, but I would never call those "best quality" due to the source - these are distributors selling alleged Grade A cells from various manufacturers. The sources that are common on this forum appear to be reasonably reliable.
That said, my recent purchase included 9 cells instead of 8 because I don't want to risk having a bad or outlier cell. I recommend you do the same.
Maast
Compulsive Tinkerer
Best for what? High capacity? High Discharge? Cold temperature resistance? It all depends on what you're looking for and the operating conditions. There isnt any prescriptive list of "do -this- using -that- checklist and you'll have a outstanding system". Building a DIY battery bank out of raw cells requires you understand in detail what you're doing which requires a HELL of a lot of reading and research on your part, almost all of what you'll need to know can be found on this forum if you dig around and learn enough to do searches that'll be relevant.
As others have noted, building your own battery is not as simple as getting a shopping list, if your goal is 'absolute best quality components' you also need to put in the time and effort it takes to get a basic technical understanding of LFP, what makes it happy, what makes it unhappy, what makes it useful to you, and how to design a system around it.
I suggest you start your reading with:
1. Finding Happiness with Lifepo4
2. Nordkyn Design Series on Lifepo4
3. Marinehowto Lifepo4 Article
All three articles are linked to in my signature.
Once you have read those over once or twice, you have the base knowledge necessary to start asking more informed and focused questions and will be more empowered to know what you are looking for. They also discuss how to source top quality matched cells (something almost nobody here does, even though many are under the impression that they do). Then circle back here with more focused questions.
If the premise behind your question is more about how to ensure high quality matched grade A cells (available to little guys like us), I think there are some generalizations that can be made:
1. Avoid the grey market.
2. Narrow your search to manufacturers that sell directly, or sell through authorized reputable resellers ideally in your home country (Frey, CALB, Winston, GBS, and possibly ETC and EVE are the brands I know of that meet one of these two stipulations).
3. The manufacturer and the seller should have a good reputation and a decently long track record.
4. Factory warranty and support, I'm not sure what the warranty is worth in practice if you need to use it (I've heard CALB honors theirs) but regardless it is an indication of legitimacy in my eyes (B grade and grey market cells rarely or never have factory warranty or support)
5. Price, expect to pay more. Price is a pretty good indicator of cell grade.
6. Due Diligence, ask for the datasheet, ask questions, ask how (not if) cells are matched.
If you are in the US, here is a list of authorized 'Trusted Vendors' of CALB cells from the CALB USA website. Many of these sellers have a decently long track record with the EV community, and CALB cells have had a long time to prove themselves in this community as well.
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