Ditched my Drifta drawers, lithium in the car for fridge. Sold our Lifestyle camper with the ITechWorld 120SX batteries. Bought a new small Austrack X11 van. Has200AH renogy batteries. Redarc Manager 30 with MPPT 30 charger for roof panels. Batteries have Bluetooth and show individual cell voltages. Victron 100 50A MPPT solar regulator for 500W Portable solar. See how it all goes.

Couple of points - the "damage" to the plastics would not have voided warranty. You mentioned connecting the bluetooth shunt to negative or positive but no, never to the positive circuit. You are right to be cautious about inserting a brand new cell, but if you got one and installed it at the same voltage as the other 3 it would be fine, since the BMS in this battery will keep the balance. I would contact Itechworld again, they probably have a matching cell out the back in another similar age warranty replaced battery.

@Sawadventures67

7 ай бұрын

Cheers, thanks very much. I appreciate you pointing out a few things to me. I did get a little bit confused when talking about that shunt yes definitely goes on the negative , and for confirming my thoughts about putting a new cell with the older cells great idea though I might even give them a call and see whether they have one that they can send out to me. Cheers much appreciated 👍 PS. If you would like one of my patches send me a private message on my Facebook page saw adventures and I’ll send you one out. Cheers

By all means replace the faulty cell, But you would then have to "top balance" the 4 cells ( this is done by wireing the 4 cells in parallel and charging to the correct voltage ( around 3.6 volt ). You also could have a faulty bms as well. Yes i also love blue tooth devices. In my caravan i went down the Victron parth. Victron smart charge ( 12/30-3 ), a Victron smart shunt and a Victron 100/30 smart solar controller. Only now have i upgraded from agm ( 2 x 220 ah ) to lithium ( Voltx 1 x 300 ah) Reset all of the Victron over to the lithium profile and so far all good. Good luck with your adventures

Very interesting, I have one of there 120ah batteries in my Ute and touch wood no problems after about 3 years. I think they kept the pricing down by not having the internal BMS. I do have the Enerdrive 300ah in my van and as you say the app is great for keeping an eye on the battery health, well worth the extra dollars in my opinion too. Cheers Andrew

Looks like a great build not to have any swollen cells considering your use and storage.

@Sawadventures67

6 ай бұрын

Yeah, like I said, I’m not really blaming I-tech world the battery it’s self looks really well built if I could get another cell, I’d probably try and put it back together. Who knows maybe they’ll send me another one out for Goodwill 🇦🇺👍

Good info Steve. Thanks

@Sawadventures67

7 ай бұрын

Thanks Malcolm 👍

I am with you with a bms that has a Bluetooth option. A heads up with putting your faith into a shunt type battery monitor. People need to realize the shunt meter is accurate in telling you what is going in and out but it doesn’t know with the current going in, how much of that current is actually being converted to stored amps in the battery. DCDC charges have an efficiency. That is if the shunt says it has 100 amps passing into the battery, the charger/battery may have only converted 85 amps of stored power. I have observed my shunt meter say that I have 100% but the charger is still pumping in amps for a significant time before the charger registers that the battery is charged.

@retrozmachine1189

7 ай бұрын

If the shunt is between the charger and the battery at least 98% of the indicated amp hours put into the battery are retrievable. LiFePO4 has a very high round trip efficiency. I don't know why you'd put the shunt between the charger and its supply unless the aim is to measure energy being taken out of an upstream storage system.

@frednurks8528

7 ай бұрын

@@retrozmachine1189 your right, if the shunt is between the battery and charger you would only measure charger output amps. I didn’t realize the combination of LiPO4 battery chemistry and the integrated BMS would yield 98% efficiency. Would this be for all lithium batteries on the market or high end makes? Still doesn’t explain my observation of metered amps are at bulk/absorption levels when at 100%. My meter has been set up correctly for my battery. I only consider the battery is full when charging amps drop off significantly. Thanks for your comment.

@retrozmachine1189

7 ай бұрын

@@frednurks8528 It's a pretty standard figure. The lifepo4 chemistry is pretty good in that regards. With good cells (as in not faulty) only power losses are heat, and that is a function of amps. More amps = higher losses in the battery wiring and in the cells themselves. Keep the amps reasonable and the > 98% round trip applies to a battery too.

Lovely Ep and tear down. We got 2 x 140amp Giant Lithium's, bought them from Aussy battery's at Kawana so just down the road from me. had them over 12 months now been good so far. With one trip to SA to Yorke Peninsula, Two trips up tp Weipa and one to Nhulunbuy, I do not have a smart phone I just go off battery Volts as long as the volts are above 12,8 Volts there fine as the battery's VMS cuts them out at 12,8volts, only happered once and the solar chargd them strait back up no kick start needed.

@Sawadventures67

7 ай бұрын

Yeah look like I said in the video in no way was I trying to bag out the maker of this battery? I was only trying to find out what was wrong with it. I take full responsibility for not following up on the warranty. That is my fault, but I would’ve expected this battery to last longer than what it did so lesson learnt , I won’t make that mistake again but who knows life is about learning. Cheers thanks for watching glad you enjoyed PS don’t forget don’t just go off the voltage like I said I have learnt one thing lithium batteries will show a high voltage right to the moment before they go flat. Also use the battery percentage as a gauge on how much is left in your battery. 👍

I would add a new cell without worry. Andy at off grid garage has been running cells with known lower capacity along with 14 or more other cells. As long as they aren't more than 15 percent capacity of the old ones. The new cell won't effect the normal operating range of the olds one negatively the old ones will just lower the range of the new one to match themselves.

@Sawadventures67

7 ай бұрын

Geez, thanks very much for letting me know. If I decide to go that way if I can find one I will

I have a 170ah giants slimline lipo in the back of my fj and it is great. About the same size fits well on the top of the wheel arch.

@Sawadventures67

7 ай бұрын

Awesome mate they are a great vehicle and I’ve seen lots of different ways people have mounted drawers lithium systems all you have to do is make sure whatever you do to your vehicle it’s what you want and how you like it happy four-wheel-driving

Steve Another very good review. 🙂👍 At the current price of 100ah LifePo4 batteries it probally makes better sense to buy a new battery that comes with a warranty and built-in Bluetooth. Cheers Pete

@Sawadventures67

7 ай бұрын

Like I said, I don’t think it’s worth spending money on ,if I was to buy another battery which I’m not. I would definitely buy something bigger and with Bluetooth connectivity to it. Most companies now have that as a feature don’t get me wrong I don’t think they are the bees knees But definitely a lot better, gives you more information who knows one day maybe this company will bring out something with it. I know they’re only doing it to save money but most of the Bluetooth batteries these days have this feature, and they aren’t much dearer than theirs 👍 Australia

Steve that was really informative have just been using Voltage as my measure of Lithium SoC in vehicle, guess that is a fail. I was waiting to see if you blew it up but thankfully (for you) no. Have a great Christmas looking forward to see videos of your new van.🤓

@Sawadventures67

7 ай бұрын

Cheers John voltage is great for agm, lithium batteries not so good yes we are excited to be getting the new van 👍

Great video I'd buy a new cell and use it again possibility a battery for the Friday for the shed hook up a solar panel 😉

I’d say those washers under the plates connecting each cell are part of the reason that cell died 😮

Hi Steve. I’m like you. Always wanting to know why. Enjoyed the vid

Common piss-off reason, big and empty case just to conform to ancient battery size standards. Room for much bigger cells.

Well I live in Canada and can tell you insulation doesn't do much if you leave something enough hours in the cold it will take on the surrounding temperature. Like 8 hours in a box would do it.

@Sawadventures67

7 ай бұрын

I could understand that in Canada, I have mate that lives over there tells me some of the temperatures we very rarely get anything below. Zero here we’re on living

@XonGrid

7 ай бұрын

I think you should replace the bad cell then make A video on the procedure and outcome. @@Sawadventures67

Just charge the individual cell see if it comes back up. Could be a dodgy bms ass not charging that sell

Did you ever charge it when it was cold?

@Sawadventures67

7 ай бұрын

If you’re meaning below-1 I probably have, but if you noticed where I put my battery in my car, it was in a timber box which was lined with Styrofoam covered in carpet so I don’t think cold was ever going to be an issue with it. I was aware that you should never charge lithium in cold climates.

how do you know the bms isn't faulty and wasn't charging that cell

@Sawadventures67

7 ай бұрын

I don’t, but I suppose if it was faulty, it wouldn’t of charged. The other cells doesn’t really matter though I’m not using it any more. I was just more interested in having a look inside and trying to find out what was wrong

@lexicase8805

7 ай бұрын

The bms doesn't charge the cells, it monitors them and balances when they near a full charge. The fault that could possibly occur is the balancing transistor could fail short circuit and enable the balancing resistor, draining that one cell dead

Oi, keep tearing down the dodgy pack and get to the actual 18650 cells. Find the single sus cell and replace it.

@PittsFly

7 ай бұрын

Unfortunately this is not the case. Look up how Prismatic cells are made. They do not contain 18650 cells or similar...

@confuzsays7196

7 ай бұрын

@@PittsFly cheers, I've just learnt something.

The multimeter isn’t going all over the place it’s telling you 176 mV. You could have charged it and held 3.65V for a while and see if it holds charge! But it’s probably in the bin now!😂

@Sawadventures67

6 ай бұрын

Yeah I already tried charging it a few times it just won’t hold a charge goes flat straight away and now I haven’t chucked it out yet👍

And inside the cells are either AA or C type rechargables. You can open them up and test each battery and replace the dud ones and good to go. If you can use a soldering iron you can do it. If you cant mark the dud ones and take it to someone who can

@Sawadventures67

7 ай бұрын

Thanks for the info 👍

@lexicase8805

7 ай бұрын

Inside prismatic cells like the ones in this video are a fully wet electrolyte, you can even see the aluminium burst disc in between positive and negative posts. Thats to let the electrolyte and any pressure out in the event of a catastrophic failure so that the cell doesnt explode.

@cdonuts7335

6 ай бұрын

😂😂😂

At least you can run 9v things. 🙈🙏👍🏻🦘

@Sawadventures67

7 ай бұрын

🤣🤣🪫👍