What the heck is wrong with UPP packs!?

[markz]

Why do people think everything made in China is inferior and crap, there are lots of stuff made in China thats superior and high quality. I bet even some of the brand name battery cells are made in China. The off brand cells can be just brand name C-grade cans rejected for QC purposes sold to a 3rd party to re-sleeved, branded and marketed.... e-cigarette's, lighting.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/rrapier/2019/08/04/why-china-is-dominating-lithium-ion-battery-production/?sh=5e8ee26f3786

The first pics posted on this topic show batteries wrapped in blue heat shrink ,
Hailong cases definitely not waterproof due to not having any gaskets or sealant on areas like joints ,lock and charge points, I got lucky accidentally leaving bike with hailong out in rain couple times but wouldn't ride though puddles with it though, that Luna potted battery is a work of art , think the extra you pay for premium battery well worth it in the long run the Chinese cell definetely inferior to brand name cells especially in performance

 

[Greendog]

:thumb: I agree with you about Chinese manufacturing majority of it is very good and would not be wrong to say they have some of the best engineers in the world ,
not to mention expertise that means other countries source there manufacturing equipment there , think the tone of my other posts reflect this,
most of the things we have are of Chinese origin even my awesome e bike kit,
but on the flip side there is also a lot of what I call disposable engineering things designed be used couple of times then thrown away or not made well enough to be repaired totally against my ethos ,
I recently bought a cheap shock pump , did not ever have chance working, design and materials just not up to pumping up to 100psi,
also had a 48v Chinese cell battery not broken but lost range and volts after 6 months , replaced with with brand name and was at least 25 % improvement these Samsung cells actually manufactured in China amongst other countries, :wink:
maybe I should have said no name or generic cells rather than Chinese , last thing I want to do is sound chineseist, my bike frame generic chinesium beautiful welds and hydroforming cheap too and going strong even with very heavy e bike kit and rider

 

[Just Give'r]

Is uppbattery.com the site most people order them from, or is there a better source? Battery choices in USA seem limited at this time, nothing at luna for example. I realize it's a bit of gamble with UPP, I'm ok with that.

 

[Manbeer]

Is uppbattery.com the site most people order them from, or is there a better source? Battery choices in USA seem limited at this time, nothing at luna for example. I realize it's a bit of gamble with UPP, I'm ok with that.

Better yet, if you can find the one you want from their Amazon store, add the two-year Square trade warranty for 25 bucks and if it breaks but it doesn't burn your house down You will get a new one or your money back.
I can't stand reddit, But that's a trick I learned on there that seems to have decent success

 

[Just Give'r]

Thanks, a good tip to keep in mind. I am seeing $100 shipping fee with UPP on Amazon, so that's not worth it.

 

[HK12K]

I can't believe people are still actively considering purchasing these garbage packs just to save a buck.

 

[Manbeer]

I can't believe people are still actively considering purchasing these garbage packs just to save a buck.

The pickings are pretty slim right now. I've been trying to get a luna wolf for a build now for months and they are all sold out. Sporadic availability of anything at best

Em3ev even appears out of a lot of things now, though if you aren't too picky you may find a configuration that works. Shipping to the states sucks though

Possibly better quality stuff through eco ebike/electrify etc but still only a few choices

 

[markz]

What you looking for 48V 52V and 40A discharge and what Ah capacity?

.

 

[Manbeer]

What you looking for 48V 52V and 40A discharge and what Ah capacity?

.

You know, I'm actually pretty flexible. I have a few bikes and do builds for a lot of other people so when decent stuff comes along I try to grab it in advance. The problem with this b and c tier companies It's just basically that we are taking their word that was inside is really what's inside, whether it be cells or the nickel strip they use, BMS or whatever. Since the latest round of 21700 have been of interest (molicel in particular) I'm really contemplating just biting the bullet and getting the stuff to make my own packs, but I just have a lot on my plate at the moment

 

[markz]

https://ebikes.ca/shop/electric-bicycle-parts/batteries.html
Top notch quality, I purchased their 52V battery last year.
In retrospect I should have bought more Ah
But I got mine on sale and its good enough as I have another battery that both supply most of what I need thats why I bring along a charger and lately been bringing two chargers. I get 55km out of both, if I tuck and use control I can get an extra 15-20km, but ideally I'd like a 52V 60A 50Ah, and ideally the size would be a 2L half gallon jug.

You know, I'm actually pretty flexible.

so when decent stuff comes along I try to grab it in advance.

 

[Just Give'r]

https://ebikes.ca/shop/electric-bicycle-parts/batteries.html
Top notch quality, I purchased their 52V battery last year.
In retrospect I should have bought more Ah
But I got mine on sale and its good enough as I have another battery that both supply most of what I need thats why I bring along a charger and lately been bringing two chargers. I get 55km out of both, if I tuck and use control I can get an extra 15-20km, but ideally I'd like a 52V 60A 50Ah, and ideally the size would be a 2L half gallon jug.

Markz, when you say you purchased THEIR battery, do you mean UPP? Because your link is to super expensive grin batteries.

 

[Manbeer]

Yeah, Grin stuff is definitely up there with the top of the heap. I didn't realize more came in stock since the last time i checked. From what i remember, shipping to the states wasn't cheap but when it comes down to buy nice or buy twice, i have to agree that its often worth it. I almost wish Justin set up a US based shipping location like some of the chinese vendors with the more popular items in stock to save a bit on time and cost but i am probably grossly overestimating the amount of people buying this stuff. Chances are these "ships from the us" shipping warehouses deal with a myriad of other items and the ebike parts are just a tiny portion of what moves through

 

[markz]

Yup I bought my personal battery from Grintech and they are expensive for a reason, because they are top notch quality and I linked to them also because they have batteries available, but also like I said you could wait until they have a sale on and I forget when I bought my battery, before Aug of last year probably July as I had a few rides on it before my accident. Sp maybe they already had a sale on, so maybe just wait until Oct or Nov for another sale, or maybe Jan.

I have purchased batteries from UPP for ebikes I built and sold, and if your wondering they were way cleaner looking then my personal ebikes because I dont care what my personal ebike looks like.

Markz, when you say you purchased THEIR battery, do you mean UPP? Because your link is to super expensive grin batteries.

 

[tomjasz]

How many packs from UPP?

California eBike sold UPP batteries and damn near went bust when UPP refused dealer warranty. Cheap BMS, steel ribbon, and glued cells. Some poor fella that can’t afford to risk the purchase price can be out in the cold.

BTW I have a UPP 13s4p and it performed as expected. Old age will be it’s death. But I could afford the risk.

 

[MattZ]

Is uppbattery.com the site most people order them from, or is there a better source? Battery choices in USA seem limited at this time, nothing at luna for example. I realize it's a bit of gamble with UPP, I'm ok with that.

Better yet, if you can find the one you want from their Amazon store, add the two-year Square trade warranty for 25 bucks and if it breaks but it doesn't burn your house down You will get a new one or your money back.
I can't stand reddit, But that's a trick I learned on there that seems to have decent success

Thanks for the tip on the warranty. I couldn't find a battery that would arrive in a reasonable amount of time and ended up ordering UPP. It's not here yet but I was able to add the protection plan after purchase. I believe you have 30 days from order to add one. It was $43 but got me a lot of peace of mind after reading this thread.

 

[ZeroEm]

Bought a 48V 17ah UPP for my mother's bike 2.5yrs now. It's still ok but she is not very hard on it.

My trike has 2 20s 7p 24ah from Cali-bike still working after 2yrs.

 

[tomjasz]

This battery builder is getting great reviews.

Contacts are in this thread.
https://electricbikereview.com/forums/threads/new-battery-option-48v-25ah.43250/page-3#post-454172

 

[etm]

Thank you so much i was about to buy one.

 

[Matze_Senpai]

just came here to say that im running my 2nd UPP battery and i have no complains about the battery itself. its a 52v 19.2ah 1000wh hailong battery with 40a bms, i get good range on the BBSHD ~around 80km with a 50/50 ratio of PAS and throttle. some minor complains would be the charger gets pretty hot while charging, and that the LED indicator on the pack is not that accurate. other than that i think UPP delivers good packs if you dont wanna spend too much $$$

 

[biphaeboh]

Mine lasted less than 20 charge cycles, but unfortunately beyond the warranty period. Avoid UPP.

 

[riding_on]

I've been using a 48v 24Ah Unit Pack Power downtube LiFePO4 battery for a few months now, and it's solid and reliable. I've put it through a few dozen charge cycles, I'd estimate. It's been about 1,000 miles, but it's my second battery and my bike drains them sequentially instead of round-robin style, so who knows how many miles it's really been.

Anyway, I bought it before I knew their reputation -- I've only been cycling for a few months now -- but it was only ~$479, and takes about 1.2KWh (1,200 watt*hours) according to my meter to go from fully drained to fully charged; so unless someone wants to point out that a 48v 24Ah battery should be holding more energy, I don't have a single complaint about its performance.

It does, for some bizarre reason, still read 48v on a multimeter even when the power switch on the battery unit is turned "off" and not "on," but that's pretty trivial for my purposes (it still won't power the bike up when off, etc.)

 

[amberwolf]

The latter is normal with "any" FET-based BMS due to leakage currents thru the FETs (they're not perfect switches). Iff you leave the meter on it the voltage will probably drop over time; if not then if you put any load across the + and - it will drop to zero as fast as the leakage current can drain thru the load. It's one reason why leaving packs connected to a stored disused system with no physical switch between it and the controller/etc will eventually still drain the pack (will take a long time, as the leakage is probably in the microamp range, so the power used by the BMS itself could be greater and drain the pack faster).

 

[riding_on]

The latter is normal with "any" FET-based BMS due to leakage currents thru the FETs (they're not perfect switches). Iff you leave the meter on it the voltage will probably drop over time; if not then if you put any load across the + and - it will drop to zero as fast as the leakage current can drain thru the load. It's one reason why leaving packs connected to a stored disused system with no physical switch between it and the controller/etc will eventually still drain the pack (will take a long time, as the leakage is probably in the microamp range, so the power used by the BMS itself could be greater and drain the pack faster).

I've only just arrived, and I already feel obligated to thank you for your service, amberwolf. Keep doing what you do (and if you can't, I hope I can help you figure out how to).

Let me try and repay you in a hurry -- I like your music, and it sounds well mastered to my layman's ear. But I don't think you should be on the radio, personally. But it's worth the listen, definitely!