Best quality budget battery?

[docw009]

What happens with the 50E's when cold. Tom? Big time voltage sag? Quick capacity drop?

I built a 13S-3P 48V15AH with 50E's last year. Coldest temps they've been used is 40F, Now that you got my interest piqued, I will take a ride tomorrow with that battery if the reads are dry/rideable. High is forecast at 12F. Battery temp will be about 32F if I go out.

I rode today at 28F, The battery was, speak of the devil, my dinky UPP Hailong 48V10AH with generic cells. No obvious temperature issues from battery during a shrt 5 mile ride.

 

[neptronix]

a 1C cont. rated battery becomes a 0.33C rated battery at freezing temperatures, the downside of high energy cells is that you gotta overspec the capacity to help make up for that!

 

[Chalo]

Off topic, but 21700 50E batteries are the worst cold weather performers in a decade of Minnesota winter riding. Hell 22P packs perform better. BTW I rode every day through the last below zero weather and snow storm.

I thought y'all would be using wood-fired steam powered bicycles in the 11 month off-season.

 

[DogDipstick]

In my personal experience, "brand new" and "budget battery" together always turn out to be a disappointment. I've had much better results (not to say perfect) by buying cheap second life batteries that cost somebody a fat bundle on their first pass.

This is it. this right here. 100%.

My last purchase was 8.9kWhof brand new Chevrolet Volt cells... 2019 cell.. for 1400$.. 158 a kWh form a Chevy dealer.. who went under in the pandemic.

He ( the dealer, from GM) probally paid some ridiculous amount, ( remember that Volt battery invoice floating around a lil while ago lol) ... Customer couldnt/didnt want it, got stuck with it, advertised it on Carpart dot com just to get it out of the shop.

Proceeded to build four of the best damn ebike batteries I ever had the chance to. From the new, underpriced, stack of cells in the GM box. No I did not pay real prices... Chevy/GM lost on this sale. Lil bit. Lol.

 

[eMark]

Of late Battery Hookup no longer lists any pouch cells. (any idea why not?) BH now seems to favor selling Lifepo4 cells instead of pouch cells ... Genuine Lithium Batteries for DIY Projects

Besides VOLT (salvaged?) cells are there any other EV pouch cells ("best quality") suitable for an ebike DIY battery upgrade (power and capacity). One that might be considered a "budget" build (title of this thread) ... besides using budget RC LiPos ?

 

[Chalo]

Of late Battery Hookup no longer lists any pouch cells. (any idea why not?) BH now seems to favor selling Lifepo4 cells instead of pouch cells ...

I think what they have available is largely luck of the draw. I've seen many iterations.

Greentecauto lists a number of modules with pouch or prismatic cells at very appealing prices per kWh.

 

[DogDipstick]

I think what they have available is largely luck of the draw. I've seen many iterations.

Greentecauto lists a number of modules with pouch or prismatic cells at very appealing prices per kWh.

Art at Greentec ( also a member somewhere in here) contacted me a few weeks ago and told me he has about a ton of old Chevrolet Volt cells available for a negligible prices, btw. Right now. Probally cost more to ship em than buy em.

 

[DaLanMan]

Yeah I think availability of units has a lot to do with Geo location.

For example, if you are in Central Cali there is a chap in San Jose that has a few pallets of cels he has stripped out of something and is going through the process of testing. I looked a bit at them but never bit down. IIRC he was gonna beat my cost on a unit by about 30% sorry can't be more specific. Brain is mushy

 

[tomjasz]

What happens with the 50E's when cold. Tom? Big time voltage sag? Quick capacity drop?

I built a 13S-3P 48V15AH with 50E's last year. Coldest temps they've been used is 40F, Now that you got my interest piqued, I will take a ride tomorrow with that battery if the reads are dry/rideable. High is forecast at 12F. Battery temp will be about 32F if I go out.

I rode today at 28F, The battery was, speak of the devil, my dinky UPP Hailong 48V10AH with generic cells. No obvious temperature issues from battery during a shrt 5 mile ride.

Yes BIG sag. The problem is exacerbated by longer stops between errands, and below zero F temps cool things down quickly. A new 40Ah heated battery in an insulated Pelican case is in progress.

The salvage packs sold recently here on ES have proved to be excellent packs. AND were cheap! 40Ah for under $250.

Digging around I found some old NOS parts. Anyone use these anymore?
Must be from the earliest rebuilds of 24V scooters. Soon were boring,

 

[tomjasz]

Yes BIG sag. The problem is exacerbated by longer stops between errands, and below zero F temps cool things down quickly. A new 40Ah heated battery in an insulated Pelican case is in progress.

I thought y'all would be using wood-fired steam powered bicycles in the 11 month off-season.

yeah a Sterling! or...<iframe width="781" height="360" src="

" title="Steam Powered Bicycle" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[gromike]

yeah a Sterling! or...<iframe width="781" height="360" src= "

" title="Steam Powered Bicycle" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Yeah, that links to some serious steam porn.