Do NOT Buy this Battery!

Рет қаралды 11,877

7 ай бұрын

In my quest to find the Best Inexpensive Lithium Battery available, I've come across some lemons. but when my friend gave me one of these (supposedly) 500Ah batteries to inspect, I was shocked at how truly terrible it was!
I usually don't make videos unless I can say something nice about a product, but I thought this would be a good "Buyer Beware" to show you just how bad a battery can be.
BACKGROUND:
I've developed a device that helps you add LiFePO4 batteries to your power system.
(www.emilyandclarksadventure.com/bbms) Since I started selling them, I can't count how many people have asked me my opinion on what would be a good battery to buy. This series is my mission to find you the best, cheapest LiFePO4 battery out there right now.
THE BATTERY LEADERBOARD: Take a look at this link. It leads to a table of all the batteries we have reviewed, looking for that diamond in the rough. it also contains links to the very best price for each video, including hundreds of dollars off this one.
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dyJf7SuYQFxorzdIANKgf7Qk3hviZYzSHoNdjxqUKeM/edit#gid=0
There is not a link on the leaderboard for this battery. But it does have higher quality batteries I've reviewed and CAN recommend.
Have questions or comments? Leave them below! We do our best to read and answer all comments on our channel.
-----------
LINKS TO PRODUCTS WE LOVE (Affiliate links to things we actually own, use, and recommend. We are almost never paid by companies to endorse products. If we are, we will tell you in the video): www.amazon.com/shop/emilyclarksadventure
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Пікірлер: 126

@johnnylightning1491 7 ай бұрын

About all I can say is caveat emptor. This is one of the reasons I watch you and one other guy that have good honest reviews. Sometimes folks deserve to have truthful bad things said about them, because as you said, " it's criminal". Keep the good stuff coming.

@SailingSisu 6 ай бұрын

Hey there! Firstly, I want to salute your integrity for always looking out for your viewers and exposing scammers. By sharing your experiences, you're protecting us from being cheated. Thank you for your service, Sir! I also appreciate your relentless pursuit of excellence at affordable prices. It's fantastic to hear that you found a reliable battery that exceeded its rated capacity and helped you through those challenging power outages. Stay prepared and keep up the amazing work with your portable power stations! You're absolutely right, disposal is a significant issue when it comes to batteries, and it's something we all need to consider. Let's continue to be mindful of our environmental impact and dispose of these batteries responsibly. Lastly, thank you for being a reliable source of honest reviews. Your dedication to sharing truthful information is truly commendable. Keep up the great work, and I look forward to more of your valuable content!

@raireva4689 7 ай бұрын

Thank YOU for the relentless pursuit of excellence at cheap prices 😅

@japc4326 7 ай бұрын

Junk for sure, you might have saved someone from having a disaster at sea or port. I'm still not a fan of these batteries as of this date so I'm biased. Thanks so much Clark, for all your videos and they are top notch so that most amateurs can fully understand and not feel talked down to. John

@baneverything5580 7 ай бұрын

My Ampere Time 12v 300ah weighs over 60 lbs and produces more than its rated capacity according to my watt meters. It has been a life saver powering my tiny Frigidaire air conditioner during five extreme Louisiana heat emergency power outages this summer. I top it off before storms with a 20 amp charger and connect it to solar panels during power outages that occur in the daytime. I store it at about 75 to 80 percent charged usually. We`re getting storms today and tonight so I just topped it off and I`m doing the same with my portable power stations. My freezer has two, my dorm fridge has two, and the other 7 are small 300w for all the smaller stuff and a little storage.

@EmilyAndClark 7 ай бұрын

That's energy prepping. Good on you

@baneverything5580 7 ай бұрын

If you`ve never used one check out the Dash mini griddle. It`s only 350w and can make one thick 4 inch pancake per minute or a big perfectly browned thick homemade pan biscuit every 3 minutes. They have a thermostat so it`s almost impossible to burn anything. Amazing little cheap cookers. I bought four of them so I can easily cook while camping, or outside, or during power outages. @@EmilyAndClark

@gefginn3699 7 ай бұрын

When Clark talks , I listen !! Have a great weekend my friend. ⛵️🌴🌞

@EmilyAndClark 7 ай бұрын

Thanks. Going great so far. Just had my birthday party.

@adelarsen9776 6 ай бұрын

As a person once involved with maritime safety I find this video eye opening. It makes me think of all those car carriers which are the victim of lithium thermal run away.... I feel for the mariners whose vessels are going to burn because of these cheap Chinese junk batteries.... SOLAS....

@back2backjack1 5 ай бұрын

Glad I found Ur Tubie channel. Vry informative. Love the cut. Wish I knew more about electramatricity.

@andysutils 6 ай бұрын

I have a 100ah and a 280ah lithium battery. The minute he picked that up like it was a small Amazon delivery. I knew exactly what was coming!

@bobuncle8704 6 ай бұрын

While I agree with the sentiment, this is exactly the circumstance where you go against it. This experience is what I’m afraid of when looking at discount batteries. Thank you so much Clark, for posting this.

@DonziGT230 6 ай бұрын

When the price seems too good to be true, it probably is. Your friend should open all of them and check for looming hazards like that wire that was cobbled together. I think the best approach to salvaging what he has would be to test all the cells, group the good ones together, and toss the weak ones. Or maybe group the weak ones so that when they poop out he'll still have the good batteries to run on.

@SoItGoesCAL34 7 ай бұрын

Interesting, as always. Thanks! Happy holidays 🎄🕎

@unionse7en 7 ай бұрын

lol , their defense will prolly be : "500 AH lead equivalent"

@benkanobe7500 7 ай бұрын

Thanks for the warning and exposure. Scary!

@lonnieschreiner5879 7 ай бұрын

Thank you for the review. If you buy a battery without watching a review, these days it is just a crap shoot on what your getting. Amazing how bad this one was. Keep up the good work.

@EmilyAndClark 7 ай бұрын

Thanks

@matteng2332 7 ай бұрын

As always great video

@EmilyAndClark 7 ай бұрын

Thanks Matt

@markbailey6051 7 ай бұрын

Eye opener, thank you.

@EmilyAndClark 7 ай бұрын

You're welcome

@mickymoto100 7 ай бұрын

Great to know, thank you.

@EmilyAndClark 7 ай бұрын

You're welcome Micky

@davidwalsh7603 7 ай бұрын

wow, that has every doubt I have about buying online or sight unseen, thanks

@steveangell4426 6 ай бұрын

Hi Clark. Our mothers had the same saying, and I mostly live by it as you seem to also. However, sometimes you have to break that belief for the greater good, and that it what you did. Most people do not have your skill or knowledge to be able to determine if something electrical is good or not. We all like to save money, but these batteries would be a complete waste of hard earned money. So great video and thank you for sharing. Have a great day!

@EmilyAndClark 6 ай бұрын

I'm planning on doing a video soon where I take a brand new battery and without opening it go through how to check it out. Basically tell how to verify it's a good battery or how to know it should be sent back I'm getting really sick of manufacturers using us as their testing department but when buyers don't even know what to look for they could be using junk that will have a short life.

@TheoSmith249 3 ай бұрын

@@EmilyAndClarkAGREED! I have gone so far as to ask where I can send my R&D invoice . Actually sent one. Fun story. but company got the message. Auto manufacturers are the very worst. Make that vid

@srupp9271 7 ай бұрын

Another excellent video!And questions I have about lithium batteries. I had on my boat 4 x100AH battle borne batteries.I had 1500W in solar power and that whole system worked excellent until one day in the Bahamas we had 2 days out clouds and rain. I was so used to the batteries being fully charged that I didn't really pay attention anymore and after the second night the bms shut the batteries down.Charged with the generator and everything was fine except after that incident the batteries were definetely a lot less capable of keeping the same amount of charge as before. After that incident I always had to keep an eye on the batteries and charge at nighttime before we went to sleep. Contacted battle borne batteries but they weren't as helpful as I had hoped fore They couldn't tell me a good way of how to find out how healthy the batteries were and my one suggestion was to charge the batteries to full and try to count with the viltron battery monitor how many amps used. But this would have to be done individually for each battery and I never got to do it because I sold the boat in the meantime. But ofcourseI did let the buyer know about this problem and told him that the batteries were under warranty and that I had the boxes in case he needed them. This whole incident made me kind of skeptical about the whole hype about lithium batteries and the manufacturers claim that they are almost indestructible. I posted the same comment once before on Ryan&SophieSailing the guy who sells DakotaLythium batteries.But my comment disappeared and I never got an answer from the guy, So my question is how do you test the health of a single batterie?

@EmilyAndClark 7 ай бұрын

Yep discharge it through a coulomb counter to find the capacity. Seems like your cells got out of balance. Carefully top balancing the battery would likely fix your issue but I'm not there to really see what's going on Li is incredibly fragile. That's why I invented the BankManager so you can take advantage of the features of lead. Toughness is one of them.

@srupp9271 7 ай бұрын

Thank you. I did think about that but then I would have had to buy another coulomb counter first and then is the question of how to discharge the battery safely and quickly . I had the idea of a blowdryer or electric heater but then I would need another inverter and I heard that a heat gun or something similar is pretty bad for your inverter and it was just a lot of work and equipment to set up. I kind of expected from BattleBorne with their reputation to just say send us one battery at a time and we will test them. After all the batteries were only about 2 years old and I still have the original boxes.@@EmilyAndClark

@EmilyAndClark 7 ай бұрын

Everyone worships Battleborns. I have some. Nothing special as far as I can tell except how much they cost. And their warrantee? Ever actually read it. It covers nothing that can actually fail and it's prorated at that.

@danielcurtis1454 3 ай бұрын

Please do a review on the VATRER BATTERIES. Thanks

@EmilyAndClark 3 ай бұрын

That starts when they contact me which often happens when someone like you suggests our channel to them

@TheLantzMann 6 ай бұрын

Just found your KZfaq channel and I watched your review of the Voltgo 400ah battery. We have a 97 Chinook class c Rv and want to upgrade the solar and house batteries. This would fit in our battery compartment. So here is my question, the Rv can charge via solar, generator, shore power and chassis engine while driving. All of this tech is old school, I plan on upgrading the solar panels, house batteries, inverter and maybe charge controller. Will this Bank Manager help protect my investment? I’m particularly concerned about the engine alternator charging the LiFePO4 battery. Thanks for time

@EmilyAndClark 6 ай бұрын

I'm assuming you are leaving some lead batteries in your system, at least the start battery. In short yes. With a BankManager managing your new li bank they will be charged correctly (no other charge controller currently does this) and it can take charge from any charging controller that can charge lead including your engine alternator. You should watch my alternator video. I doubt you will have a heat issue as going down the road you should have plenty of air flow and you'd use your generator to charge if you weren't driving.

@TheLantzMann 6 ай бұрын

@@EmilyAndClark yes the start battery for the chassis engine and maybe later change it to an Optima battery

@EmilyAndClark 6 ай бұрын

Good. Optima is lead, and I really like them. The BankManager is designed to run with a lead battery always attached.

@SkypowerwithKarl 7 ай бұрын

The biggest problem is disposal

@EmilyAndClark 7 ай бұрын

Well the manufacturer figured it out. Put the garbage cells in a box and sell them to Americans.

@PyeGuySailing 7 ай бұрын

@@EmilyAndClarklol!

@sleekitwan 7 ай бұрын

When someone with experience opens up a box, and either laughs or looks puzzled…quite funny. I assumed, a decent size of battery warranted a relay, a contacter of some kind, for breaking the circuit for charging or overheat reasons? Good work, thanks. Take care all.

@mgkleym 7 ай бұрын

You can do that but it's pretty uncommon to have a mechanical disconnect. Usually they use solid state components for reliability reasons.

@EmilyAndClark 7 ай бұрын

Yes because transistors are way cheaper. A physical contactor is much better I chose to use one on the BankManager after really looking into it

@nodogrunner 7 ай бұрын

So sorry for the guy that bought them. Still has them opperating. Can't sleep well now.

@johanvantonder4642 6 ай бұрын

Good job Clark, people selling stuff like that should be in jail.

@MrYlojelo 6 ай бұрын

Im waiting for you to finish the electrics on a boat series! So I can figure why a circuit isn't working

@EmilyAndClark 6 ай бұрын

I'm waiting for a friend's boat to get back in the water so I can show how to find resistance in a circuit.

@Powerwinoffical 6 ай бұрын

Hello ,your content is so great . May be you have interested in our Powerwin bt100 12.8v 100ah lifepo4 batteries ?

@EmilyAndClark 6 ай бұрын

Thank you, so nice of you to say. Please write to us at emilyandclarksadventure@gmail.com. Due to the needs of our viewers I'd be more interested in reviewing your 200ah battery.

@Powerwinoffical 6 ай бұрын

thanks for your reply !we will send the email for you .of coure we can apply the 200ah battery .@@EmilyAndClark

@Paul-ou1rx 6 ай бұрын

You could show this to other makers and offer to do a teardown of theirs. I would not expect all to jump at the offer for various reasons, but it would be interesting to see who does. Is there any official organization that gives approval for battery standards being met by manufacturers?

@EmilyAndClark 6 ай бұрын

I suggest you take a look at some of my other battery reviews (and generally at my other videos of course). There is a "leader board" link in their descriptions that has links to all the batteries I've reviewed.

@sailingeden9866 7 ай бұрын

I like when you take stuff apart and reverse engineer it.

@hughvanduyn6482 7 ай бұрын

Any chance you could look into one of the still functioning batteries to see what it looks like before it crashes?

@EmilyAndClark 7 ай бұрын

No the owner is using them.

@EmilyAndClark 7 ай бұрын

But it will look the same without the swelling

@webheadusa9377 7 ай бұрын

After your review, my first thought is how much is it going to cost to pay a company to scrap it? At least you saved time by not adding it to your leader board, although it would have been fun to see red across the spreadsheet row. Oh, have you suffered nightmares from this examination? Have you undergone counseling? I'm hoping you have lined up other battery candidates to test - hate to see your series end like this. :¬) Webhead USA

@EmilyAndClark 7 ай бұрын

I'm getting tired of the battery reviews so you might see them slow down. It's kinda the same thing over and over for me. I think I might add it to the leaderboard for self serving reasons - It would show I'm not all flowers and candy about reviews - it provides a link to another Emily and Clark video.

@bronwynncrosby6681 6 ай бұрын

What is your thoughts on using tesla batteries on a boat?

@EmilyAndClark 6 ай бұрын

ONLY LiFePO4 on boats. You can't slam on the breaks and jump out of a boat if you have thermal runaway. In case you don't know, this is what a boat fire looks like in a surprisingly short amount of time. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ebGGlbuGmJeao5c.html

@marklapierre5629 6 ай бұрын

What you found inside that case is nothing short of amazing. I hope that this was assembled by someone who really had no clue what they were doing and got sold a bill of goods by some other unscrupulous rip off artist, not by someone who knew that they were taking advantage of trusting victims.

@EmilyAndClark 6 ай бұрын

I'm pretty sure they knew what they were doing.

@deanrushing8909 6 ай бұрын

My first exposure to Lithium has put me firmly back into AGM land.

@EmilyAndClark 6 ай бұрын

Keep looking. When it's good, it's great.

@mvintrigue-trawlerdiy1101 6 ай бұрын

Wow. How long ago did he purchase these?

@EmilyAndClark 6 ай бұрын

A little over a year ago

@BlackheartCharlie 7 ай бұрын

Thanks for breaking your normal rule of "If you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything." This battery is just out-and-out fraud. Maybe these purveyors of junk will start to think twice if they know someone is going to call them out on poor quality. Fair winds to you! Capt. Blackheart Charlie s/v Aurora, OBX

@jonathanwetherell3609 7 ай бұрын

"Criminal" sums it up. A fraud and fire hazard with no redeeming feature. Thanks for the expose.

@projecttrawler 7 ай бұрын

Thanks for letting us know what's in there, or Not in there. Lol won't buy that brand ever

@a2022z2 7 ай бұрын

At least there was a BMS inside and no concrete inside!

@Fjord_Driver 6 ай бұрын

When I want high quality mission critical stuff, I immediately think of China and Alibaba. 😂

@EmilyAndClark 6 ай бұрын

The sad thing is they have become the ONLY source for so many things.

@dustins4194 6 ай бұрын

That's pretty horrible, but I have some that may beat it... I have some Taicopower server rack style 100Ah packs that look really legit, but once I opened them up, they are pouch cells that are soldered together. I was promised prismatic cells! It's an absolute nightmare. I think we once talked about them, but I had not started repairing them. Not only that, but they pouches are all different capacity, and get around 70-80% of their rated capacity for 3 of the 6 that I bought.

@EmilyAndClark 6 ай бұрын

Yes I remember the capacity difference issue. You hadn't ripped them apart then. Sorry they were so bad Working with those batteries and the potential AC noise from your inverter totally messed up my confidence with big 48v house systems. Then the contactor thing.... But, we seem to have many 48v (house) installs and really few problems. Really all my field issues have been installation errors and house people seem to install better than boat and camper people. I guess yours was just bad luck/equipment. To the point of your AC noise. I bet it's a final transistor. And since you have three inverters can you shut down one at a time to see if the noise clears up then get someone to go over that unit? Oh, I just placed an order for proper 48v bi-stable contactors! Should have them in about a month I assume.

@dustins4194 6 ай бұрын

@@EmilyAndClark oh that's awesome! I might need one of those contactors. I'm thinking of giving it another go, but I don't have a contactor at the moment. ha! I'd love to see the one you are getting. I figured out how to get my USBs to work reliably with the noise on the Solar Assistant with trial and error. Short USBs with 2 ferrite beads on each was the key. The noise is still an issue for many things, but at least the USBs are working. Still love the product! Seems like lots of people feel the same!

@EmilyAndClark 6 ай бұрын

We will do an e-mailing when I get them in stock. I only ordered 20 this first go. These are supposed to be good for 36/48v. Also I've been developing the Gen3. Along the way, due to an error on my part, I fed a 12v contactor 13v on both the on and off terminals for over 5 minutes until my transistors got so hot they burnt off their conformal coating. I smelled smoke and expected the worst. The contactor was fine and the transistors (I use MOSFETs rated for 80a with proper heat sinks) were also fine. So these are way tougher than I thought. I used a Fujitsu contactor in early development. One coil for 2 seconds and the magic smoke leaked out. This one now seems indestructible by comparison. I think I'll lighten up on the warnings in the manual.

@lanetatom2701 7 ай бұрын

It could be worse. Maybe it was Army surplus supplies abandoned in Afghanistan in 2021?

@bryrensexton4618 6 ай бұрын

👍!!!

@marklchapman2785 7 ай бұрын

At last… really enjoy your videos thank you so much … at last a KZfaq Sailer, who isn’t an egomaniac self-serving twit. Thank you sir.👍🇬🇧

@myparadiseonbantayanisland9030 6 ай бұрын

How much did he pay for each one?

@EmilyAndClark 6 ай бұрын

I don't know if he told me but I understand they were cheap for 500 ah. But expensive for garbage

@mikevoss3 7 ай бұрын

Dates ranging from 2002 to 2015 seems suspect - is it possible they made the same design for 13 years? Maybe they aren’t dates?

@EmilyAndClark 7 ай бұрын

They might not be. But they would continue an old design if they had support contracts for big projects. I've been involved with military projects that still use 20 year old computer boards.

@giterdunpete 6 ай бұрын

Reuse the case....and build your own

@californiakayaker 7 ай бұрын

I don't think LIPO was available in 02

@EmilyAndClark 7 ай бұрын

Could be they weren't dates But I looked it up and they were available back then

@hscrugby 6 ай бұрын

CATL was founded in 2011. But definitely agree with used surplus cells in that rubbish

@EmilyAndClark 6 ай бұрын

I guess they weren't dates then. Thanks

@curacao11 7 ай бұрын

😎

@baneverything5580 7 ай бұрын

You can grow lettuce in it.

@EmilyAndClark 7 ай бұрын

I forgot that upside. It makes a great onboard garden pot

@LithiumSolar 7 ай бұрын

Wow, that battery is an absolute piece of garbage!

@EmilyAndClark 7 ай бұрын

Yep

@djkillachris 7 ай бұрын

This is why it's best to build your own

@robertgarbe6348 7 ай бұрын

Or actual reputable mfg with US presence. Many can't build their own and that's why they watch these videos...

@djkillachris 7 ай бұрын

@@robertgarbe6348its "best" to build your own. If you can't and can afford 2-3x the price per ah then yeah, of course, buy battle born, victron or the like.

@kranzonguam 7 ай бұрын

👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

@jimthesoundman8641 6 ай бұрын

What if you took all three units he bought and load tested all the cells, then cannibalized the best of them and built one battery? Wouldn't that be the best way to handle this? Seems like that's the only way he'll salvage something out of this.

@EmilyAndClark 6 ай бұрын

He bought more than 3. Sadly I gave him the cells back so he can test if any of them still function. He will keep those as spares to replace what dies along the way.

@AAa-qd8hb 7 ай бұрын

Are the claims that LFP batteries can last 10 years true? Where can I go to see the scientific test results?

@EmilyAndClark 7 ай бұрын

I say yes but only if they are charged correctly. And as far as I can tell, for all practical reasons, that means a BankManager

@PyeGuySailing 7 ай бұрын

When solid state batteries come out and are massed produced for general use, I bet most of the batteries online will be scam batteries (analytics comment)

@EmilyAndClark 7 ай бұрын

thanks

@EmilyAndClark 7 ай бұрын

(analytics response)

@PyeGuySailing 7 ай бұрын

@@EmilyAndClark 🤣🤣🤣🤣❤

@Thfeyhvfdetyhbvcd 7 ай бұрын

Ali Express? Need you say more?

@EmilyAndClark 7 ай бұрын

You can get great stuff there as well but it's the wild West.

@NewTwoSailing 7 ай бұрын

Apparently insurers are now charging more if you have Lithium onboard - no pun intended :) You have to inform them if you are using lithium power.

@EmilyAndClark 7 ай бұрын

Anything to make more money or more to the point, a reason to not pay out.

@neilfromclearwaterfl81 7 ай бұрын

@@EmilyAndClark Truth be told there was a rash of lithium fires last year at the docks however it was mostly from embedded batteries inside devices like cheap plotters, GPS, etc at the nav station or at the helm. Unlike EV's though as you just showed while some aftermarket lithium are made quite well and with safety in mind there are however enough of the Criminal ones now out there to raise concern with insurers about fire safety. Bargain E-Bikes are also similarly impacted which people living in low income apartments are more prone to purchasing and have already caused a rash of multi-family apartment fires since once one tenant gets a particular E-Bike several others may do the same so that they all start failing and bursting into flames around the same time. A few bad apples spoiling it for the bunch unfortunately. With live-aboards starting to get these cheap folding E-Bikes it might be good for someone to give them and their batteries a critical eye. Best!

@EmilyAndClark 7 ай бұрын

YES. The most important issue is cell chemistry. A lot of power stations and every bike I've seen uses (not LiFePO4) chemistry Li batteries. On a boat only LiFePO4 people please. You don't want your big decision of the day to be do I drown or do I burn!

@NewTwoSailing 7 ай бұрын

I agree LTO cells are the safest and longest lasting, LiFePO4 not far off. Prismatic Lipo's good luck !.... @@EmilyAndClark