Solarmd Battery experience

Hi,

I am wondering if anybody else has a similar experience with the solarmd batteries.

My batteries - both 3,7 kWh - one with just above 1100 and the other with slightly more than 600 full cylces, are already down with their capacity to approx. 75%(!)

Solarmd's datasheet says ">4000 cycles". When I asked, I have been told that the capacity will only be 60 % at the "end of life" which in my opinion is rather poor, knowing that major automotive companies regard 70-75 % as a limit where they regard batteries as "to be replaced". Anyway, if I calculate 40 % by 4000 cycles it means that after 600 the capacity should still be 94 % instead of 75 %. The older battery should be at 89 %. If this behaviour would only show on one battery, I would say that might be a defect but with both of them being affected, bought at different times, it feels odd if this might even be a behaviour "as designed" or at least a "normal" behaviour for these batteries, which opens the question of quality.

The thing now is that I have been told that I can send them in to be "rebalanced". I asked if I get a replacement battery for the time my batteries are in the shop the answer was "no", meaning that I have to endure Loadshedding - Great. If this problem is just a singular problem of a few batteries it wouldn't be a problem to offer this service to one's customers. Actually I suspect some of the cells need to be replaced because they degrade much faster than expected, otherwise I can't explain why this "balancing" can't be done remotely? Maybe someone can enlighten me?

The balancing of the support Guy, who is really doing his best to help, took all day, today, discharging the batteries completely and then recharging it up to the maximum and keeping it there for a while. In the end it didn't help and the "fix" was just to reduce the maximum capacity of the battery to pretend that 100% on the display is "100%" - even if it isn't the 100% capacity the battery should have.

I had to send in my older battery once before and now I am wondering if this has already might have been related to the same problem, regarding that with 1100+ cycles it is about twice the cycles as the newer battery has, showing the same symptoms. Anyway, I think if it really is the standard behaviour of the battery, to require them to be sent to Capetown every 500-600 cycles and waiting for weeks to be returned, just to reduce the effect of premature capacity reduction, this would be really poor quality and hidden cost that everyone should know about!

I was thinking about upgrading my batteries, now I am thinking about replacing them and would appreciate recommendations.