I have 2 100Ah Chins LiFePO4 batteries purchased via Amazon about 5 months ago. I subsequently found that the internal batteries were pouch cells other than the prismatic that I was led to believe. I contacted Chins and they confirmed they were "soft cells" or pouch. I complained and they offered to replace them with prismatic. They sent me a prepaid UPS return label and I returned them for a swap. I received the new cells before they even received my return. I consider this the BEST customer service of any manufacturer I've dealt with! Bravo Chins!.

@ProjectsinParadise808

Жыл бұрын

I have heard nothing but good on their customer service...nice! 🤙

@davidconner-shover51

Жыл бұрын

I ordered a 400Ah for my folks who live off grid to replace 1600ah of lead that failed after only a year (Rolls, really??!!) the first one failed, out of the box. it did still have its stated capacity, but the internal resistance was way too high to be useful (a 20 amp load would trigger the BMS) they swapped it out with a new one, still had to pay shipping on the old one. no issues since. they run it down to 30%DoD daily, but have more than enough collection to recover on all but the most overcast of days

Such a juicy setup. Love it !

@ProjectsinParadise808

Жыл бұрын

Tried and true now! 🤙

I love your documentation and sharing.

@ProjectsinParadise808

Жыл бұрын

Mahalo for tuning in! Much appreciated! Aloha 🤙

Great to see they have exceeded your expectations. Lifepo4 batteries are great. Although some manufactures say they're drop in replacements for lead acid cells but this relies solely on the BMS . They do have different charging requirements that should be considered by users.

I bought one of these 3 years ago, still runs like a champ. though the manual stated (at the time) that they required a full discharge at least once a quarter, this issue has been resolved with the newer batteries. 760W of collection, same model battery, Outside of the flat on the roof of my bus, about the only time I need to charge it outside of the solar is in December. I had some teething issues at first; driving with a full charge presented overvolt problems; mppt couldn't react in time before the BMS disconnected, also starting heavy loads like air compressors, this was all resolved with the addition of a 500F ultracapacitor

@ProjectsinParadise808

Жыл бұрын

I ran into overcharging issues as well initially. For my system, i dialed the absorption down from 14.2v to 14.1, and that works great . No more ov disconnect .🤙

this video was so satisfying, i have 0 interest in solar energy but it was just so calm and something nice to see this evening

@ProjectsinParadise808

Жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it! Aloha! 🤙

Followed you since the beginning, from Australia, about the time I kicked off with lifep04 in my caravan. For storage purposes, you can't beat these. Thanks for your contributions.

@ProjectsinParadise808

Жыл бұрын

Aloha to you down in the Southern hemisphere! And mahalo for being part of the channel! Appreciate the support. 🤙

I really like the calm, peaceful tone of your videos. No unnecessary hyperbole or feigned angst over something, just a quiet explanation of what you have used and what your experiences have been. One question I have is that I got it in my head that you need to draw down a battery to near zero and then back to full in order for the shunt, or battery meter, to be properly calibrated. From what I remember, this is important to do from time to time as the capacity is gradually reduced. Have you experimented with that notion in any way?

@ProjectsinParadise808

Жыл бұрын

I appreciate the kind words and time to drop a line. I haven't as yet done the draw down you mention on the shunts I'm using. I do however charge every battery to full before setting the shunt to what is 100% . Then I just look at percentage and battery voltage, as well as ah's used. I am getting a pretty good read on soc , and this seems to work good. I take note of what you say that periodically I should drain it, then recharge. But have not done that yet. Mahalo for being part of the conversation here. Aloha! 🤙

I had 2 chins 200ah smart batteries for my rv. I sold that RV and purchased a 2024 camper trailer and wanted to convert it to lithium and solar because the chins were so amazing the first go-around. I had them for 2 years and not one problem. I could leave them in my camper covered up the entire winter and went back to them and they still had 60% power! I uncover the camper and they charge right back up. I just purchased 2 of their new 300ah smart batteries and I got to tell you that the new app is even better than the old one! I can turn the battery BMS charge off and on and the discharge off and on all for my phone. Right now I have it sitting over in the storage with the discharge off the batteries and the charge on so the solar keeps them topped off and I have no parasitic draw on those batteries. The camper didn't come with a battery shut off switch so that did save me a few bucks there not having to buy that but I just have to remember to do it for my phone which isn't hard at all because I'm always playing on that app. It's kind of ruin me when we go camping I can't put my phone down lol. On a side note I was able to wire up a 3,000 w inverter to 30 amp outlet so I can trick my RV to thinking it's on shore power and run my air conditioner. I ran the air conditioner the other day for about 30 minutes and the battery's only went down 2%. That was when the sun was down so when the sun is up it should help quite a bit more

Looks good, glad to hear the batteries are doing well. I just bought 4 of these batteries for my diy whole house off grid system. I can't wait to get it all set up.

@ProjectsinParadise808

Жыл бұрын

That's exciting for sure! They are great batteries, and I have heard from so many people over the past couple year's of how much they like them. Good luck on the install, and give us an update sometime! Aloha! 🤙

@donovanturner6284

Жыл бұрын

@@ProjectsinParadise808 update. 7200 watts of solar, 2 mpp lv 6548, and 15 kwh of lifepo4 batteries have been running for about a month. Almost 1 megawatt hour produced and used. Extremely happy with how everything turned out. Planning to add to the battery bank as funds permit.

Nice still kicking after 2 years amazing ....We don't have that kind of batteries here in the Philippines but I have a 100ah Lv top sun lifepo4 battery.

I just bought 2 chin 300 amp batteries replacing my older 6 lead acid batteries thanks to your videos and hopefully I fuse everything correctly lol. Wish me luck.. Aloha

@ProjectsinParadise808

Жыл бұрын

Good luck! You're going to love those batteries . Let us know how it goes for you! Aloha! 🤙

this is what i m thinking about for my warehouse!!! . hope it become true!!! .. plenty of space on the top but prices rise faster than my patience . keep up

@ProjectsinParadise808

Жыл бұрын

Beast of luck to you on your build! Stay in touch! Aloha! 🤙

Congratulations! 🇧🇸

@ProjectsinParadise808

Жыл бұрын

Mahalo! 🤙

Excellent

@ProjectsinParadise808

Жыл бұрын

Mahalo! 🤙

Can't argue with success!! Aloha.

@ProjectsinParadise808

Жыл бұрын

Hands down the biggest game changer to living off grid full time for me has been these batteries. Did fine on LA, but this is way easier, and better. Aloha! 🤙

looking great ! once you get the settings it works for years ! look out for new types of ION buttery's . CATL is putting sodium ION cells in production. and some outher types have been made . just need to get to production . big changes ahead . funny I use a 100 year old battery type. nickel iron . they just big for size . also called the EDISON battery . nice update

@ProjectsinParadise808

Жыл бұрын

Can't wait to see what's coming next. LiFePO4 was such a great step in the right direction! Yeah, for me , after I learned how to dial in the proper voltage it's been smooth sailing for off grid power. Never use that generator to speak of. Maybe twice in past year I actually fired it up to make a difference. Pretty happy with the performance of all the new stuff. Mahalo for all your support over the past couple years. Aloha! 🤙

Bear in mind that 300AH of LFP will deliver almost all of that as usable power. Lead acid will struggle to give 50% of its AH at a usable rate.

@ProjectsinParadise808

Жыл бұрын

Great reminder for all of us! Aloha! 🤙

You sound a bit like kevin Arnolds teacher from The Wonder Years😂

Just use a bit of trunking very easy to use and will look great

I have the 300ah but it would recommend 20mm /1/4” longer bolts on double lugged terminals because of the aluminum terminals. The Bluetooth BAT BMS app that chins recommends work well. I did have one battery that had a defective Bluetooth. Chins replaced it and let me keep it. Don’t know if the heating function works as I haven’t tested it but I’ll use in my bank. Chins is discontinuing the 300 and has them on sale @ $400 off. Get them while you can.

I have two of the 400ah versions!

@ProjectsinParadise808

4 ай бұрын

Nice! Those are the big boy's! I'm sure you're loving them. Had mine nearly 3 years now and working perfectly. Let us know how they do for your system. Best of luck. Aloha!🤙

Nice😊

@ProjectsinParadise808

Жыл бұрын

Thanks 😊🤙

I bought 2 CHINS 280 amp 12 Volt Lithium Iron Phosphate Batteries for My System here on The Ranch and seem to want 2 more for this RENOGY 3000 Watt Pure Sine Wave Inverter in Parallel

I have 2 also. At the 2 year mark batteries were fantastic but at the 3 year mark of which I’ll reach at the end of this month Jan, the batteries are charging very slow and discharging much faster. I bought these thru Amazon. I’m contacting Amazon today to see how good that warranty is.

@ProjectsinParadise808

6 ай бұрын

Would be very interested to hear how this pans out for you. Many of us are using these. To date, mine are still working well. Best of luck and Aloha!🤙

@jeffmays7192

6 ай бұрын

@@ProjectsinParadise808 I’ll definitely let you know.

@smfmotors

4 ай бұрын

​@@jeffmays7192Any update on how this went?

Do you ever worry about heat at wire contact points? I am still trying to get that part balanced, I have some long AC arc welder stinger cables I was thinking I might just start using them maybe cut them to lengths I need it is very heavy gauge copper wire not coated but copper. Always like your videos you are a not too fast talking for me so it helps when I am taking notes. Thank you :)

@ProjectsinParadise808

Жыл бұрын

I still periodically check for heat, and so far, have never encountered it at any contact points. Mahalo for being part of the conversation here! Aloha! 🤙

Hello friend. How your two victron mppts communicate each other ? Via bluetooth ? And what options and advantages you have with that communication they do ? Thank you.

did you increase the fuse size up on this system from 200a with 2000w inverter to 300A with 3000w inverter

I had one of there 24 volt 150 amp battery's shipped out to me right after your first video.. Super happy so far, have the charge controller set to an AGM program that works just fine..

Does the manual say you can make a 48 volts. How to do the connection?

Just purchased one of the 300 ah, was a little worried, but so far it seems to be a great bargain.

@ProjectsinParadise808

4 ай бұрын

Still working great here...I am sure you will love this battery! Aloha!🤙

Hello, I have to VMAX batteries from about 5 years ago that I used to travel in my van and they are 250 and Powers total between the two of them. Would you recommend getting a 300 lithium-ion phosphate battery to replace them or go with 250 watt hour lithium iron phosphate? Let me know please thank you for your time

I can charge my 600ah Litime plus battery's at 140amps. When you have to charge with a generator you devise a way to charge them as fast as possible. 600ah takes me 4.5hr to charge when depleted. Normally off grid power was all gen power, Now I can get more than a week of power with just 4.5hr gen run time. That does not include solar which I also have, which would extend times between gen. charging. I purchased 4 LifePO4 chargers and wired them in parallel to achieve the amps i needed. FYI, When you are pushing that many amps Or any kind of stress testing you should get a Laser Heat sensor so you can monitor what heat is doing. You can size all your cables properly and still have a damaged cable that will heat up. Happened to me when i was building my system, Feeling and touching just will not give you the Data you want. I replaced 200ah of BRAND NEW lead acid, Got jealous of a friend who upgraded to LifePO4 So I upgraded a month after I purchased Lead Acid. Selling them now.

I have the same mppt and 2 chins 300ah. They worked great for just over a year now this weekend they started dumping fast. Dead by morning. Not sure what to do

what i the idle draw of that 3kw inverter

I have 4 100 ah lead acid that can run my pellet stove for 4 hours Will the chins LI PO run that stove longer?

I am getting ready to buy 2 more batteries. The ones I have chosen are Chins. In 2020 I made the mistake of spending a fortune on a Battleborn. Money down the drain. I do have a problem with these 200 or 300 or even 400 hundred AH packs. If one goes down you lose the entire battery. With 100AH units I have a fighting chance of recovery at a lower price.

@ProjectsinParadise808

Жыл бұрын

Good point ...knock on wood I haven't had a failure yet with the larger battery packs. But I understand what your'e saying for sure! Aloha! 🤙

Hi, I've been following you for a few days, and congratulations on the solar system. I also have two victrons with lifepo4. But the default settings, in my opinion are too high as values. I set 27.6v as maximum charge (I have a 24v system) and 27v as float. I set the absorption to not run, and gave it 1 minute. How did you set the battery charge? Congratulations and happy reloading..

@ProjectsinParadise808

Жыл бұрын

I agree the preset is a tad high on the Victron's. I actually set manually on most systems now to 14.0v, or 14.1. Works pretty good in the conditions here, while always trying to squeeze out as much sun in a day as possible.I have plenty of overcast day's here, and some day's with not much sun. All in all a little lower than the 14.2v preset working good. I tried 14.2v , but got alarms on sunny conditions quite often. Not anymore though . Took me awhile to fine tune my system. Mahalo for being part of the conversation! 🤙

Did you manage to use the Epever combiner box AND the display at the same time as I never managed and have no display.

@ProjectsinParadise808

Жыл бұрын

I always used the MT50 display for the EPever's. The main unit functions were just too frustrating to quickly program. The MT 50 I was able to get pretty quick on as I finessed the settings. Aloha! 🤙

After watching your channel, I bought 4 200A chins and the same Victron charger. (mine has 3 outputs). Still deciding which Victron mppt should I get. My setup is 12v with 4 100W panels. My consumption is 1Kw/day. Any suggestions?

@ProjectsinParadise808

Жыл бұрын

I imagine you are loving those batteries! My suggestion would be to oversize your MPPT to allow for expansion....solar systems can be addictive, and overtime you may want to add more of everything! Aloha! 🤙

Just make sure to get models with low temp protection

You made a nice review I'm going to buy some batteries from China.

@ProjectsinParadise808

8 ай бұрын

Best of luck. They work great. Nearly 3 years on those so far, and never let me down. Aloha!🤙

So are you also running AC by chance. You didn't mention it. Nice work BTW. I am in key west and doing a sailboat project. I will purchase two 300ah also.🧐🤙

@ProjectsinParadise808

Жыл бұрын

I was just looking at pictures from a Key West trip years ago. Always thought of it as good place to drop anchor like here. No, luckily I don’t need A/C here at this altitude on the island. Or heat for that matter. I’m pretty lucky in that respect,which makes it easier for 100% off grid. Best of luck with your project ! Please let us know how it goes! Aloha 🤙

GroovyVideo2 I made system for my RV/home 7 years of daily use - back then have to assemble LFP battery from 4 CALB raw cells 100AH - no BMS installed - Victron solar controller - had Zero problems - a few months ago purchased and installed 2 x100ah Weize batteries - removed Calb cells from system - Weize battery seem to be good but voltage seem a little lower and stays at 13.1 verses 13.2 for Calb on flat part of discharge curve - maybe BMS adds some resistance - old Calb battery still has most of its storage capacity but remove from system because of safety concerns mixing battery batteries with BMS and NON BMS battery - Lately some of the battery companies are selling LFP Batteries with Pouch cells - ( Litime Mini ) this is Not a good use for Pouch cells - pouch cells are used in R/C and cheap rechargeable electronics - pouch cells best used in Quick discharge / charge where weight /size /cost matters - pouch cells degrade Quickly - not good use for daily energy storage -

@ProjectsinParadise808

Жыл бұрын

🤙

How do you know that the batteries are delivering 300ah? Have you load tested them?

@ProjectsinParadise808

Жыл бұрын

Over the past couple year's I have been using these , I have tested them several times, and they do have slightly over their rated capacity. 🤙

I am curious, why did you choose to run the batteries with 12V 600Ah instead of 24V 300Ah? The charging speed is slower with 12V.

@ProjectsinParadise808

Жыл бұрын

For me it was just being comfortable with 12V systems since that was really the only experience I had for many year's. Now ,overtime, I have built a 24v, and 48v system and yes they are both way faster to charge, slower to discharge, and more efficient . I learned slowly the advantage to higher voltage system's. It was just a learning curve for me. Aloha! 🤙

Do yall know if I can mix ampre time batteries with Chin batteries? I think they are the same manufacturer? all are 12V 200ah

@daveyboy8907

Жыл бұрын

I believe they are all the same with different stickers and sometimes even different colored cases..I bought litime which was ampretime and possibly even chins at some point..Great batteries.

Of course LFP batteries are superior for solar power. I wanted to replace my car lead-acid batteries. But a battery specialist website I consulted, said that lead-acid are still superior for car starting because of the CCA cold-cranking-amperage that lead-acid can deliver, but not LFP. I was disappointed.

@ProjectsinParadise808

Жыл бұрын

Yeah, they always say not to use for that...maybe that will change someday? Aloha! 🤙

@edwardlulofs444

Жыл бұрын

@@ProjectsinParadise808 I sure hope so. Battery chemistry is complex and I know little about it.

@robertmeyer4744

Жыл бұрын

a better choice for lithium starting battery is the LTO type. some already using them but you have to change stuff in alternator and computer to work and charge correctly. so far no plug and play replacement for starting battery yet. the big problem with LiFePO4 is the BMS and the current of the starter. and the charging is different which adds to problems making them work and LFP do not like under 32F and that can be a bummer. so far the best starting battery is the AGM type. don't give up change is coming just matter of time now not if .

@edwardlulofs444

Жыл бұрын

@@robertmeyer4744 Thanks, I haven't heard of lithium-titanate or lithium-titanium-oxide (LTO) before. At up to 10k cycles, It might last 27 years. Sounds promising. So many chemistries, so little time.

@retrozmachine1189

Жыл бұрын

LFP cells can absolutely provide the current to crank an engine. The main issue is people try to use regular storage batteries, the sort of thing you run your inverter from, as cranking batteries. The BMS in these things usually isn't up to the task and will shutdown on overcurrent, as intended. You can get batteries that are intended to use for engine cranking though and they do the job nicely. You can even get aviation certified batteries to start piston based light aircraft.

do u have tutorials?

@ProjectsinParadise808

Жыл бұрын

Some of my video's are more tutorial in nature. I try to go step by step in how I build these system's. Aloha 🤙

@donovanturner6284

Жыл бұрын

Will prowse also has tutorial videos

I'm pretty sure it's 624AH total

Those things are absolute JUNK! I've had two fail that are a little over a year old. Tried to do warranty claim and they have been giving me the run around for 2 weeks, every time you give them information they want more and respond two days later. STAY away from this junk, it's going to cost you more in the long run.

I just puchased today a chins 48 volt 100 amp battery today. They ran a deal i couldnt refuse for $968.00 iys a 5120 watt hour capacity. Equal to 400 amp hours at 12 volts.