FAQ

For long LiFePo4 battery life, you should be mindful of the following:

  1. In order of importance follow these steps
  2. Keep the battery temperature under 45 Centigrade (under 30C if possible) – This is by far the most important!!
  3. Keep charge and discharge currents under 0.5C (0.2C preferred)
  4. Keep battery temperature above 0 Centigrade and below 30C when charging & discharging – This, and everything below, is nowhere near as important as the first two
  5. Do not cycle below 10% – 15% SOC unless you really need to
  6. Do not float the battery at 100% SOC if possible (it causes bloating in as little as 6-12months)
  7. Do not charge 100% SOC if you do not need it
  8. Clamp your battery cells together to prohibit bloating. Especially for batteries that see a lot of use.

That is it! Now you too can find happiness with your LiFePO4 batteries!

NO! Don’t believe everything you hear. LFP is not immune from risk of Fire and Explosion. it’s not totally safe from fire risk, and the evidence is clear, what we do know that LFP is pretty safe, especially from an explosion. But it can catch fire under the right circumstances, like a direct puncture, especially when fully charged.

It is however very unlikely, and about 1000 times less likely than with NCM and NCA LiPo chemistries, which is what you will constantly see on the news, and on forums. Those chemistries have a low thermal runaway temperature and can be extremely dangerous.

Sources

  1. https://www.pv-magazine.com/2023/10/30/cause-of-30-kwh-battery-explosion-in-germany-remains-unclear/
  2. Youtuber HighTechLab real world puncture test – https://youtu.be/07BS6QY3wI8
  3. GWL – Testing of LiPo and LiFePo4 https://youtu.be/Qzt9RZ0FQyM

Exceeding the battery’s rated discharge can lead to an increased heat generation, too much heat in a cell will decrease capacity by a significant amount. Using the example on a 304ah EVE cell, we can expect 30-50w of heat would be generated internally at 0.5c-1C draw. This is significant and has a cumulative effect on the cell, every time you draw high currents from LFP cells, you will slightly degrade the cell, the more times you do this, the quicker the heat will cause expansion and gas release.

Key points to consider
  • Heat Generation: Exceeding the rated discharge current can cause the cell to heat up excessively. This can lead to a reduction in performance and lifespan of the cell.
  • Capacity Loss: meaning it won’t hold as much charge as it did before.
  • Safety Risks: In extreme cases, overheating can pose safety risks, including the potential for thermal runaway, where the cell could catch fire or explode.

To avoid these issues, it’s important to adhere to the manufacturer’s specifications for maximum discharge rates and ensure that the battery management system (BMS) is appropriately rated to handle the current demands of your application. It’s also advisable to keep the battery temperature under control, preferably under 45°C, and to use the cells within their recommended State of Charge (SOC) range.

Here is a report funded by the National High Technology Research and Development Program (863 Program) of China (No. 2012AA110203) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51634003).
Link
IN SUMMARY – Yes you will damage and degrade the battery life, by how much depends on all the things you would expect, the C rating, the timeframe, and the temperature, and some cells are designed for 0.5C and some for 5C so its all relative.

  1. In order of importance follow these steps
  2. Keep the battery temperature under 45 Centigrade (under 30C if possible) – This is by far the most important!!
  3. Keep charge and discharge currents under 0.5C (0.2C preferred)
  4. Keep battery temperature above 0 Centigrade and below 30C when charging & discharging – This, and everything below, is nowhere near as important as the first two
  5. Do not cycle below 10% – 15% SOC unless you really need to
  6. Do not float the battery at 100% SOC if possible (it can cause bloating in as little as 6-12months)
  7. Do not charge 100% SOC if you do not need it (this is hard to achieve)
  8. Clamp your battery cells together to prohibit bloating. Especially for batteries that see a lot of use and with higher currents

That is it! Now you too can find happiness with your LiFePO4 batteries!

The simplest option is to ensure you buy from an expert seller, there are many scams, the most common is the re lasering the QR codes. We do everything possible to ensure we only buy good quality cells. We have everything tested and can even provide original manufacturer reports to ensure authenticity, Currently, EVE, REPT, Hithium, Winston, Ganfeng are some of our new cell suppliers. And that is because they are the only ones that can be obtained in Automotive Grade.

We also supply the cheaper A grade Storage/ B-grade cells for some applications especially camping and off grid purposes, but we are upfront about this, and we do guarantee the cells with a warranty Usually its 3 Years. We will never misrepresent our cells. And it’s likely we will be cheaper than other sellers in Australia for all our products. This is our intention. To import and sell batteries for a lower price than you might expect from an Australian business.

You may think you are buying new Automotive Grade or A cells from Alibaba and AliExpress and other sellers even in Australia, but it’s almost 100% you are buying Storage and B grade or in some cases, ex Bus or UPS cells that may have been used and dismantled and then rewrapped. Especially CATL, as they most often appear as used cells, but it can be any cells. If you use the internet, you can find almost anything, and the chances are that cheap cells are bad cells.

We highly recommend not buying from AliExpress. Alibaba is usually a better quality cell, but the sellers are trained well to use many tactics to increase the price and lower the quality. They know how to send you all kinds of evidence to prove your cells will be “REAL” A-Grade.

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If you are using the cells for camping purposes. You will probably only use a few cycles each time you go camping. This type of battery does not need to be rated for 6000 cycles, even if you go camping for 60 days a year, you might only do 30 cycles. At that rate, it would take you several lifetimes, to use the cells to a point where they still output 80% of their original capacity, and calendar aging (time) will degrade the cells anyway. An example of this is that I have been using my Automotive Grade 304ah cells on a daily cycle for almost 3 years, and they still have only completed about 300 cycles. They likely have another 10-15 years in them. They have almost 1C or 250amps pulled through them about 15 times a day for a coffee machine. They still have 94% stated original capacity.

B grade cells may already have degraded to 80% by this stage, and remember it only takes one weak cell, to pull the whole pack down. That is the biggest issue with battery packs in series, the more cells in the series eg, 16 cells, only a single cell needs to be degraded for you to loose that same capacity x 15 for the other remaining cells.

If you don’t want the hassle and you are a serious camper, then by all means get an automotive grade, but for 12v it can also be ok to choose the far cheaper option of B-grade cells. the higher the voltage of your battery, the more you should want to get only the best cells. Because only 1 bad cell pulls the rest down, and can kill a battery.

I would imagine many campers, may only use 20-50 cycles over 5 years or even more. But the best thing about LiFePo4 is that they are much happier to sit without a full charge for 12 months or more, than a Lead Acid equivalent.
They have a much better shelf life than any Lead-based batteries and they are much lighter in weight too.
One of my favorite things about LiFePo4 is that it takes about 98% of the power from the solar charge controller, whereas, Lead-based can need a lot of absorption, many times they need twice as much solar to stay within the usability range of the very heavy lead acid with only 50% usability of the AH rating of that battery.

The weakest cell brings the whole pack down! This is all about A–Grade (notice the – just after the A this is common on Alibaba)

How? If you have 16 cells in series that will make up the 51.2v Nominal.

The weak cell, brings down the whole pack by 15 times more.

Let me explain.

If you have 15 cells with a capacity of 304ah and a voltage of 3.3v and 1 cell with 250ah and 3.15v. The whole pack will only be able to function at 250ah. So lets add this up. You should have 15.56kwh. BUT you don’t, you now only have 12.8kwh usuable (that would be a loss of almost 20%. Because of a single cell. Actually its not uncommon to get a B grade cell that only has 100ah capacity. So now you only have 5.12kwh.
Unbelievable right?

But it doesn’t end there.

It also means that when your battery of 16 cells is put under load, its likely the bad cell will drop voltage, and trigger the BMS built in protection features. It will most likely shut the whole battery off. You will look at the battery via your Bluetooth and the cell wont be under any load.
At this point you don’t really know what is happening. And why the battery keeps shutting down. You will get some clues though, if one of the cells needs to be balanced more often actively.

This is a big dilemma, because your BMS is now working much harder and will probably fail much earlier, also you might not figure out you have bad cells, and will waste time trying to figure out what is happening. This is why you just shouldn’t buy Aliexpress and Alibaba cells, because they are almost all B GRADE

  1. Hook up the LiFePO4 cells in parallel – that means connecting all the positives together and the same for the negatives
  2. Charge to 3.45V with a regulated DC power supply with overvoltage protection. This part takes a long time! And your power supply should be large enough to cater to your needs. Our exclusive 30amp Lab supply is voltage and current limited here.
  3. Once it hits 3.45V, then adjust the target voltage to 3.65V, keep an eye on the cells during this stage, the voltage will rise very rapidly and it’s good not to rely solely on the overvoltage protection feature of the power supply. Check with a multimeter very regularly.
  4. Once you hit 3.65V, turn off the power and leave for an hour or more. Check to see if it’s still over 3.5V. If not, charge it up to 3.65V again and leave it for another hour. Repeat until it does.
  5. Once done, reassemble the pack into your desired battery Voltage eg. 12V or 24V, and discharge
  6. Storing at a high level of charge is not good for the LiFePO4 cells. If storing for a long time, discharge down to 30-50%. If possible, keep the battery below 90% SOC and above 10% SOC. It will increase the lifespan of the cells.

    Congratulations you have successfully manually top balanced.

An alternative (not usually recommended) way to top balance a battery pack with a BMS, such as the JK BMS is to connect the battery cells in series, and slowly, incrementally increase the pack voltage inside the Bluetooth app. (occasionally this will not work if the cells are at different SOC, please be aware, it could take weeks to balance if that were the case, and therefore it’s not usually recommended unless you don’t have any access to an appropriate voltage limited Lab supply)

1. Wire up the Battery in series. Eg, connect the 4 cells (positive to negative) Which will create a battery of about 13.2V(3.3v) for a 4s LiFePo4 Battery.
2. Charge with a charger between 14v and 14.6v. Slower and lower is better
3. Inside the Bluetooth app set the fully charged voltage to 3.45v, and a total pack voltage of 13.8v and charge it until the BMS stops.
4. The following day or more inside the BMS Bluetooth app settings increase the pack voltage to 14.4v (3.6v per cell) or 14.6v (3.65v) and ensure the balance on charge is turned off. The battery will then go and top balance itself. Leave here until balanced

B- is where you connect the main Battery negative of the pack of cells, so you have to use that for that purpose, and only that purpose, if you want the BMS to be able to protect your cells.

C- is where you connect the charger to Charge the battery.

P- is where you connect the controller to Power it from the battery.

If the BMS has a common charge/discharge (charger/controller) port, then you only need to use whichever single wire / pad goes to that port for the Charge input and Power output connections. This may be either C- or P- or it may have a completely different designation and not even have a C- / P-; the manufacturer instructions for that specific BMS must be followed. You still have to use the B- for the Battery negative of the pack of cells.

If the charge and discharge ports are separate, then you must use the correct port for the correct input or output connection.

If you do not do it this way, then your cells are not protected against overcharge and/or over-discharge, depending on how you mis-wire it.

Here is a pdf file you can download to choose your optimal cell configuration

PDF here

Our warranty varies based on the grade of cells, but all warranties are pro-rata.

That means that the warranty amount is based on the age and usage of the cells. Unfortunately it doesn’t make sense to have warranty any other way. If this has bothered you, you must understand that batteries are consumable by nature. For example if we provide a 5 year warranty and at the 4th year there is a problem, we have very limited ways of knowing what really happened to that cell.
Not only that, but usually a battery has only 1 or 2 bad cells from the group, usually 16 for 51.2v battery packs, So its actually not a good idea to replace those cells with new cells because the resistance would likely be different, causing a lot more issues.

And finally, Warranties can not be full replacement on batteries, this is because there are a lot of people who know exactly how to game the system. And therefor, it makes zero sense in all possible scenarios to offer a full replacement warranty.

As Lifepo4 cells have maximum and standard charge current rates, no warranty will be valid if you exceed the maximum rates.
In order to be eligible for a warranty, you must have planned and used the cells according to the specifications sheet for that cell.
You must understand rechargeable batteries have a service life, and as such, they will degrade over time and usage, they are likely to change shape and bloat over time, and this is more likely without compression, this is not grounds for a warranty claim, as you yourself will have created this scenario. Even with compression LFP cells will bloat with age and usage with discharge and charge rates over 0.2C. We aim to be fair with the warranty, that is the intention, and we are very happy to sort out any issues early in the process, as this is when the cells are less likely to have been used. As the cells age, there is a much smaller chance of a warranty claim being approved, as you have already been in the use of the cells for a period of time, and as each cells is unable to show how you used it, we can simply refuse a claim on the grounds they are a consumable item, and that we cannot know if the cell is used in accordance with the specifications sheet.

After building any battery pack

About a week after the battery pack is completed and installed, it is necessary to double-check that all battery terminals and the busbars are still tightened, because once loose, there is a risk of causing high resistance connections, (hot joints) which can reduce the performance of the battery pack. At the same time, there is also a risk of electrical fire, and specifically heat near flammable Lithium Battery cells.

Charge Ratings based on Temperature of LFP Cells.

BE WARNED This is an example taken from a popular 100ah 3.2v Prismatic cell, you can see from the table that temperature plays an enormous role in what charge rate a LFP cell should be charged with.

Australian Standards and Safety information – A list of applicable standards at the time of publishing

  • AS/NZS5139 Electrical installations -Safety of battery systems for use with conversion equipment
  • AS/NZS 3000 Electrical installations (known as the Australian/New Zealand Wiring Rules)

Other relevant standards include:

AS 1319
Safety signs for the occupational environment
AS 1530.4
Methods for fire tests on building materials, components and structures – Fire-resistance test of elements of construction
AS 3011.2
Electrical installations – Secondary batteries installed in buildings – Sealed cells
AS/NZS 4509.1
Stand Alone Power Systems – Installation
AS 4086.2
Secondary batteries for use with stand-alone power systems – Installation and maintenance
AS/NZS 3000
Electrical installations (known as the Australian/New Zealand Wiring Rules)
AS/NZS 5033
Installation and safety requirements for photovoltaic (PV) arrays
AS/NZS 4777.1
Grid connection of energy systems via inverters – Installation requirements
AS/NZS 4777.2
Grid connection of energy systems via inverters – Inverter requirements
AS 62040.1.1
Uninterruptible power systems (UPS) – General and safety requirements for UPS used in operator access areas
AS 62040.1.2
Uninterruptible power systems (UPS) – General and safety requirements for UPS used in restricted access locations
AS/NZS 60529
Degrees of Protection Provided by Enclosures (IP Code)
AS/NZS 60898.2
Circuit-breakers for overcurrent protection for household and similar installations – Circuit-breakers for AC and DC operation
AS/NZS 60947.3
Low-voltage switchgear and control gear – Switches, disconnectors, switch-disconnectors and fuse-combination units
AS/NZS 60950.1
Information technology equipment – Safety – General requirements
IEC 62109-1 Ed. 1.0 (English 2010)
Safety of power converters for use in photovoltaic power systems – Part 1: General requirements
IEC 62109-2 Ed. 1.0 (Bilingual 2011)
Safety of power converters for use in photovoltaic power systems – Part 2: Particular requirements for inverters

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