Experience With Cheap LiPO4 Batteries

[RaymondR]

Whilst looking for some replacements for my AGM house batteries I noticed that cheap 100 amp/hour LiPO4 batteries which are very competitive with quality lead acid have now come onto the market.

By way of a combination of ignorance on my part and seriously deficient product manuals my experience with expensive LiPO having proved to be a financial disaster I was going to abandon the technology. However the availability of cheaper lithiums is tending me towards another attempt at technology change.

What has been the experience with these cheaper units by fellow participants in the forum?

[ttex]

It has worked out for me so far. There's a thread in the lithium subsection I started called I bought Chinese batteries on Amazon or something like that.

There was a ton of arguing I didn't bother reading in the thread but at the beginning I say I bought the batteries and at the end I say the batteriesiare working perfectly after a period of time.

[AndyEss]

I started my LFP usage about 5 years ago when I bought 8 cells of 72 Axhr capacity used cells from a terminated DOE project on Ebay. They were K2 cells, but didn’t have any record of how many cycles they had been put through or cycle hi and lo limits. In the last year 2 of the 8 cells failed. I’ma liveaboard so my batteries are cycled every day. Six months ago I bought 12 100Axhr cells of unknown provenence, at an extremely attractive price essentially equal to lead acid. So far, so good. I’m not on my boat for another 3 weeks or so (just had surgery) but can look up the paperwork when I get back.
As far as I’m concerned, my arthritic spine demands that I no longer use lead acid batteries, but I’m waiting for my start battery to die before I’m free of all that awful weight just waiting to injure yet another failing body part:

[soopad00pa]

I'm in camp cheapskate. I have a big 300aH Chinese battery from amazon that I bought used for a great price. I've been running it exclusively for about 4mos with zero issues.

I recommend looking at Will Prowse's solar channel on YouTube. He's constantly buying cheap batts and gutting them to check out their construction. It's pretty interesting stuff.

https://youtube.com/c/WillProwse

[MikeHoncho]

I can show you a bunch of Lithium-Ion battery packs going into thermal run-a-way. I wouldn't go cheap.

[ahun]

I bought 4 100Ah cheap Chinese LiFepo4 batteries from an online store about a year ago. They were put in use, we live aboard since, and sailed some very rough waters as well, they work perfectly. (I had to replace the engine starter lead acid non-marine battery, because after some rough ride it was shaken up too much and didn't produce any power to start the engine. After a bit of rest in calm waters, it came back to life. This never effected the house batteries.)
The Li batteries were so cheap that I thought, even if it's a scam, or has a 50/50 chance, it's worth a trial. So far I am winning.

[mojoman2]

I bought two 200 AHr LiFePO4 batteries from GSL Energy in china. They ship straight to you and the purchase is made via Alibaba.com. I have been very happy with them, in fact, I am adding two more. They have built in BMS and are basically drop in replacement for AGM batteries. I had to add DC - DC chargers to my two alternators (to keep the alternators from over heating), and find a compatible charging profile for my battery chargers, but that was it. I have been using the batteries for 2 years and they work perfectly. I am a full time live-aboard. I charge them with shore power, generator, solar, and alternators. They charge quickly and can handle high discharge rates. When I look at the prices of the big name brand Lithium batteries I am shocked at the difference.

[RaymondR]

I have taken the 6 of the 8 cells which were still OK out of storage and checked the voltages and found 4 of the six still OK. I have ordered a 100 amp Daly BMS to use with the 4 good ones and will make a 50 amp/hour battery out of them and see if I can restore the two bad ones keep them as spares.

Thanks to all who responded and I am beginning to feel that the LiPO4 technology might be worth persisting with. However after the bad experience with the packaged cell/BMS unit I also think I will try the alternative of making up batteries using individual cells and off the shelf BMS systems. I think it was the failure of the BMS which killed the battery which went bad, when I tore it to pieces I found that there had been water ingress via the unsealed terminal post penetrations, something I can prevent in a system with freedom of placement of the BMS.

[Anders]

Originally Posted by MikeHoncho

I can show you a bunch of Lithium-Ion battery packs going into thermal run-a-way. I wouldn't go cheap.

This discussion is about LiFePO4 batteries and they will not go into thermal runaway.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by MikeHoncho

I can show you a bunch of Lithium-Ion battery packs going into thermal run-a-way. I wouldn't go cheap.

Ya ya. Usual ill educated scare mongering

[goboatingnow]

I have a test rig at home for my BMS development project. Personally the cheaper cells seem to be fine. Once I finish the bms project , I’ll move the project aboard.