Hi All, any feedback regarding this SA made battery?

Regards

@Antonio de Sa May be able to comment as he has one .

1 minute ago, Nexuss said:

@Antonio de Sa May be able to comment as he has one .

Link to his thread:

 

I bought cells from them and I'm running a DIY battery for my house. They refunded me for busbars that they incorrectly packed (about 10 months after purchase) when I finally came around to building my battery. They admit their mistake and promptly refunded the money for the busbars. Had no replacement so I had to DIY my own busbars too. I have 2 DIY batteries, and bought one 24V pre-built battery and have not had any issues.

45 minutes ago, P1000 said:

Link to his thread:

 

Would I purchase another one? NO, due to the fact that if something goes wrong you have to take the battery to them, in my humble opinion they should have a technician to do on site repairs or exchange the battery on site. otherwise even with a problematic cell I still get to 99% SOC 

The problem with one of the cells still there, (see attached dashboard) with the current load shedding we have I cannot afford to be without a battery. Even though LBSA promised to repair the battery if I take it to the factory.  

Running for 18 months now and I can still get to 99% SOC, I'm sure I could push it to 100% SOC if I increase the charging voltage to 56 V as recommended by the OEM, but I don't want to do that.

The BMS does what is designed for, and I can clearly see balancing the cells see dashboard. 

What I dislike the most is the stupid cycle count; it counts one cycle every time the SOC goes bellow 80% in other words if you are running at 80% SOC and if it drops below and charges again pass 80 % SOC it counts 1 cycle.

 

 

 

Edited January 17, 20233 yr by Antonio de Sa

Like Antonio said you have to take the battery to them, however I had a known issue on one of my batteries, took it to them and it was back installed the same day, I waited a couple of hours for the repair. 

On 2023/01/17 at 10:39 AM, Antonio de Sa said:

Would I purchase another one? NO, due to the fact that if something goes wrong you have to take the battery to them, in my humble opinion they should have a technician to do on site repairs or exchange the battery on site. otherwise even with a problematic cell I still get to 99% SOC 

Is there any installer or battery manufacturer that will do on site exchanges? I have had on-site inspections and diagnostics, had batteries picked up and taken back to the manufacturer for checks (I am in the same province), but an on site exchange? 

I want to make a general point here. Whilst I know that times are tight and so is money, it is the case that batteries are not all the same, and so shopping around for the best price on a 10kWh battery may not get you the best deal. There are all sorts of differentiations. There are different lithium chemistries (they all can be honestly advertised as "lithium"), different C ratings, and generally they are not all built to the same specification and tolerances.

I had a complete change of batteries last year - different brand at a different price. The immediate concern that I had was an apparent loss of capacity, but the new batteries have had the overall effect of making the system more stable and reliable. I don't need to watch it and mange it as much, the occasional unexplained glitches no longer happen... 

So do some research first. Start off by googling this brand (LBSA). Then search for and read battery related threads on this and other forums. Check Hello Peter. You will find that some brands get a lot more good mentions than others (and vice versa). Remember that currently we get multiple outages a day (and that's clearly going to be the case for at least another year) and sometimes for four to five hours, and so the batteries are an important component because that's what gives you protection against load shedding.

Edited February 2, 20233 yr by Bobster.

58 minutes ago, Bobster. said:

Is there any installer or battery manufacturer that will do on site exchanges? I have had on-site inspections and diagnostics, had batteries picked up and taken back to the manufacturer for checks (I am in the same province), but an on site exchange? 

@Bobster. at least you had an on-site inspection and diagnostics done to your batteries, LBSA is not prepared to do that. I have to mention they did promise to repair the battery if you take it to the factory. In your case they picked up and returned the batteries. Again, LBSA are not prepared to do that. So, although my battery still does what it's designed for, I'm still left with a battery with a faulty cell. I cannot afford to take the battery to them and be without a battery for a full day, not with the present load shedding schedules. 

i have an LBSA battery, i haven't had issues. If i remember correctly, they will only fetch the battery if you had it delivered but if you collected in person you have to bring it to their offices. 

39 minutes ago, Antonio de Sa said:

@Bobster. at least you had an on-site inspection and diagnostics done to your batteries, LBSA is not prepared to do that. I have to mention they did promise to repair the battery if you take it to the factory. In your case they picked up and returned the batteries. Again, LBSA are not prepared to do that. So, although my battery still does what it's designed for, I'm still left with a battery with a faulty cell. I cannot afford to take the battery to them and be without a battery for a full day, not with the present load shedding schedules. 

And I believe you. I'm asking how many battery companies will do on-site exchanges. I can't see it. The guys who came out to look at my batteries would only look at or change anything on the batteries. I think that's OK, BTW - they have no business changing the installation, and certainly can't be expected to know every inverter and how to configure it.

2 minutes ago, phidz said:

i have an LBSA battery, i haven't had issues. If i remember correctly, they will only fetch the battery if you had it delivered but if you collected in person you have to bring it to their offices. 

@phidz How do you know you have no issues? do you monitor every individual cell, SOC, SOH, cell temps, equalization etc.... I do and as I said it still gives me 3 KW of power, I never discharge past 40% SOC so far I've been able to survive stage 6 LS, nothing wrong with the battery, but in my humble opinion they lack customer service. 

1 hour ago, Antonio de Sa said:

@phidz How do you know you have no issues? do you monitor every individual cell, SOC, SOH, cell temps, equalization etc.... I do and as I said it still gives me 3 KW of power, I never discharge past 40% SOC so far I've been able to survive stage 6 LS, nothing wrong with the battery, but in my humble opinion they lack customer service. 

i certainly don't check individual cells but i haven't noticed any performance degradation. I cycle mine to 10% everyday and battery shutoff is 5%. All i'm saying is i haven't had to use their customer service. 

2 hours ago, Antonio de Sa said:

my humble opinion they lack customer service. 

and that is the obvious issue with most of industry currently, especially the solar sector which has become a prime example of demand outstripping local supply. All desperate consumers that take whatever is available and the sales profits are soaring. The attitude towards acceptable consumer service would be completely different if the customers had a free choice to get a similar product elsewhere without backorder clauses.