tomjasz
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Would either or both of these ebike batteries be OK ?
- Thread starter HansTrio
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That price is for the 10Ah battery. The 20Ah battery is around $320.
I have considerable experience with LiFePO4 and Lithium batteries. I have conducted reliable tests on the battery I received.
as noted above it seems to pass all tests. I have no complaints at this time.
If and when I do I will certainly post them.
What specifically was a lie ?
Gionnirocket
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What the sellers of these packs advertise as capacity. If it's not tested and then marketed with the capacity in which it is intended to be used, then you might as well pick a number out of a hat.
Buying name brand cells makes it more likely you get what you paid for as reputations are worth protecting and most give results for different load configurations.
Did another of my usual scenic hilly country rides this morning so now up to ~70 miles with ~5100 ft elevation gain on this battery charge and it is still going strong at 52+V. I may or may not do one last loop with it on this charge to see if I hit the drop off voltage cliff but I don't want to damage the battery by over-discharging it nor have to walk the bike or call my wife to pick me up. Proof is in the use and so far this inexpensive battery is meeting any reasonable expectations, as are the other three cheap China made batteries that are often so maligned.
Gionnirocket
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That's good to hear... Hopefully my pack will be here in the next few weeks.
Which pack manufacturer do you have?
This one is a btrbattery LiFePO4, another working great (so far) is a 36v 10ah lithium btrbattery, as well as a lithium 36v 15ah qzf that's been in use for a couple years and a 48v 15ah that I don't remember the seller. I'm hoping you have as good luck on your aliexpress battery and looking forward to reading your impressions/review.
tomjasz
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With good reason. Having been involved in the sales of hundreds of batteries, I've seen too many disasters with budget packs. Someone ALWAYS posts their good luck. IME the failure rates can be as much as 5% That SUCKS!
one man's meat is another (man)'s poison
Doesn't suck for the other 95% though. A 5% failure rate doesn't sound all that bad as long as they aren't catastrophic failures and if the seller stands behind their product. I'm not trying to convince anyone to buy one but btrpower (not btrbattery that I called it) has excellent reviews on Amazon including standing behind their product - there are 3 1 star reviews and one of those is simply stupid, and no I don't think think the reviews are fake. I think they have a 1 year warranty but I'm not concerned about it. I'd give them an excellent review from the two batteries that I bought from them but I don't do Amazon reviews (much). And why not post one's good "luck" or experience with a product? Is only a bad experience valid?
I've read all sorts of complaints about inexpensive batteries including that the cell discharge rates aren't appropriate for ebikes, that capacity is too low, BMS don't perform etc. It seems like some people who warn away from these batteries don't have personal experience, they are just parroting and propagating what they have heard or read from others or what they saw on youtube. This doesn't include you but most of the dire warnings I've read don't relay any personal experiences, just generic "don't buy" statements.
If the batteries don't last as long as my Yamaha battery that would be OK given that the Yamaha battery cost over 6x as much (including the $250 charger - that's just nuts).
tomjasz
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OK, you cover warranties and tell me it's not over the top. So as long as you're happy, everyone should be?
I'm the consumer, I don't cover warranties. Sounds like you have been stuck with warranty issues that have skewed your perspective away from that of a consumer. I would be interested if an end consumer on EBR has had problems with these cheap aftermarket batteries based on their own experience, not hearsay. I'm sure there is a price threshold below which no manufacturer or assembler can regularly provide a decent product but the <$160 to just over $200 batteries that I have purchased don't seem to have dipped below that point. I'll post up if I have a battery failure that a seller doesn't correct within a reasonable period beyond the date of purchase. My oldest battery is about 2 years old, beyond any warranty period and still works great though.
m@Robertson
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Considering that a lithium pack that fails is as likely to be a bomb as not, you'd best be thinking hard about how bad you want to save those dollars and what you are prepared to lose if you draw a short straw. Its not like you don't know better.
Based on my travels around the various DIY groups, where no pack is cheap enough for the terminally short-sighted, a UPP battery is running a roughly 10:1 success rate, where 10 is a thrilled buyer who saved a couple hundred bucks, and the one is a guy who has a pack performing at a fraction of its capacity, and either UPP is having him ship it to China at his expense for 'evaluation' or they are no longer returning his calls (not counting the vids of them on fire). I saw a Liitokala battery disassembled and evaluated a few days back and the consensus from people who know how batteries are constructed was a) it wasn't constructed well and b) its what was expected to be seen on such a cheap product.
I only buy packs from vendors I have watched over time and see they have a perfect rep across multiple buyers. I don't gamble on sellers who have zero accountability to me, and I don't try to save money on something with that kind of destructive capacity. I'll leave that to the Darwin award winners.
Maybe better to buy from a seller on Amazon then. Amazon does seem to hold sellers to reasonable standards. I've bought hundreds of things on Amazon, only had problems with a couple of them - sellers have either stood behind their products or Amazon has made it right. Again, you are reporting from hearsay, not your own experience. I'm pretty sure that if anyone on EBR burned his house down with a aftermarket ebike battery that they would relay that experience. I am much more careful about charging my cheap batteries than the Yamaha battery though, not that the Yamaha couldn't have a catastrophic failure. Spending more doesn't always translate into getting a better or more reliable product, it can merely translate into higher margin for the seller or a product with premium features that a buyer might not need (higher capacity cells, higher discharge rate, buying a brand, etc).
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m@Robertson
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Well, the world is bigger than EBR. This is just one place on the web. The DIY Ebikes FB group has over 40,000 members. People post direct experience there all the time. Same with Endless Sphere and I can't even begin to guess how large that behemoth is.
Since its the internet... everything could be a lie posted by a fool. You have to keep an open mind. The trick is to not be so open your brains fall out.
endless-sphere.com
Since its the internet... everything could be a lie posted by a fool. You have to keep an open mind. The trick is to not be so open your brains fall out.
Dogman Dans E bike burns his house.
First of all, an apology for just vanishing like that. I told the moderator crew what happened last February, but I was hesitant to talk all about it until I had money in hand. And I had quite a lot to do, with a good dose of PTSD. The short version, my cheap ass shipped illegally 18650 48v...
endless-sphere.com
Gionnirocket
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I have a Liitokala battery on order.... and I'm not expecting much.
It's more of an experiment and I definitely plan on charging it in my bomb shelter
m@Robertson
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I remember the thread where people were looking at them and wondering if they should take the plunge. CATL and similar cells in and of themselves are not evil.I have a Liitokala battery on order.... and I'm not expecting much.
It's more of an experiment and I definitely plan on charging it in my bomb shelter
So far I know of no horror stories tied to them, or even any customer dissatisfaction. The first negative I have seen was commentary from the teardown thread a few days ago. Thanks to that brand name being so unique it was easy to find and screenshot. Take this for whatever its worth as the opinions here are as varied in expertise and reliability as they come on the internet. It will need to be opened up in a new window, maybe saved to disk and blown up so its legible. Its a full-size screen shot done with software that lets me grab the whole thing.
For me, I spend the extra money, oftentimes on custom packs, which I do pay thru the nose for.
Gionnirocket
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That's one of the reasons I'm experimenting... If I find moving the battery to the triangle has enough benefit, I might opt for a thru the nose version.
I really don't ride aggressively anymore and though the battery on a rear rack isn't ideal... honestly I don't notice it much. I'm just curious to how the bike will feel being a little lighter and a little better balanced. That and I'm running out of things to fiddle with.
The battery build looks to be about as basic as one would expect at that price. If I get a year out of it, I'll be more than happy. That said I'll add some vibration protection and won't bring it up to a full charge often if at all
Thanks for the pdf.
The example you posted only pertains to cylindrical cell packs. such as 18650.
LiFePO4 ebike packs do not have cylindrical cells to rub together so they are not subject to this issue.
m@Robertson
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Sure. It was an 18650 pack. And the packs in the thread we're referring to were 21700's. You don't see a whole lot of LifePO packs on ebikes unless its lower voltage with low amp draw requirements. I'm not familiar with the reason why but I would assume lower energy density? I'm not counting the crackpot wall-o'-battery bikes that use duct tape and saran wrap as a structural elements. But those lunatics are usually using LIPO's.
also there's this: cylindrical LiFePo4s
80.93US $ 50% OFF|LiitoKala 24V 7Ah 14ah 21ah 32700 7000mAh lii 70A LiFePO4 Battery 35A Continuous Discharge Maximum 55A High power battery DIY|Rechargeable Batteries| - AliExpress
Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com
www.aliexpress.com
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