Best LiFePO4 Value Ever? - Yes IF you get a good one.
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- Опубликовано: 1 июл 2024
- UPDATE: This battery is no longer available unfortunately. I've left the video up in case anyone is interested in battery testing and how to deal with Watt-Hours as a unit.
I bought a Kanavano 25AHr LiFePO4 battery from AliExpress for $100. That's a ridiculously low price for this chemistry and capacity, so I figured there had to be a catch somewhere.
In the video I:
- Run through the competing options to look at how good the price is
- Look at the specs on this battery to see what we're supposed to get
- Test the battery on the workbench for capacity
- Review the test results 
Хобби
First video of yours, and I subscribed in the first 1 minute. Love that you do not cut-edit your videos so I sounds like shit when you speak.
Well crud, it appears Ali Express figured out they could charge more for this battery. $130 as of 27-June 2020. It's still cheaper than other alternatives though. Also, I subscribed to your channel - great content, my friend!
Great review with a very enjoyable presentation style 👍 Do you know if the BMS board has a temperature sensor? A lot of value battery seem to be missing their charge protection in cold conditions.
I don't know that Drew. It's your run-of-the-mill bulk BMS board, not specifically designed for this battery. I doubt I'll be charging mine anywhere but indoors though.
As always, thanks for the excellent video and for the review. I'm curious how you feel about the battery a little more than a year later. Thanks for taking the time to do this review. 73, de George K2WO
After a year of use I can't complain about the battery at all. It's performed flawlessly. I will say that I almost never need this much capacity though. I could have gone smaller.
Really awesome breakdown Matt. Seems like a killer value! Cheers! Chris - NI7I
As of April 2020 these are now $137+!!!
Just checked the price now in April 2020 and it has shot up over 30% to $137+!!
Hey Matt. I would love to get that excel spreadsheet algorithm(or program?) you put together for analyzing Voltage and ampere output. I am in the process of designing a battery system, considering using 24 3.2v 150 AH LIFEPO4 batteries, I haven't looked at their products very much. So I am searching for max load draw on a serious circuit system like that. I think it will be a lot cheaper than buying a Renogy 150 24v or 200AH 24V. However, I know that product is probably a safer choice because of the fact that these batteries I am sure produce more heat, and it will be used regularly in an RV system. I have seen other people use these 3.2v batteries for a variety of things, even in the use of building a homemade lightsaber, and running a circuit/heat through to the "saber". Anyway, really neat video. Love the tool kit for identifying voltage and amp delivery to your devices.
thanks Matt thanks very much
For around 35-45 Bucks, the NOCO Geius 5 Amp Lithium charger is very good for Ham Use-AC7AA
I just received my 25ah Kanavano yesterday. It must have been one of the last produced. It only tested at 19.57ah using a low 2.5 amp draw. There have been a number of complaints regarding Kanavano batteries being well short in capacity and despite the notation on the Ali Express website that new higher capacity cells were being used.
I'll be avoiding all Kanavano products in the future.
Hey Matt this is the battery we talked about and it LQQKS great Hope it works ok for you AKA KD8EXR
071620/0923pst. Matt, good day to you. The research and the data provided is highly appreciated. I imagine the sincere hard work that was put to gain all the info, therein. I’m also sure that most would not have understood the Excel results and how you derived those numbers. But, there lies an enormous amount of hard work. Thanks.
LiFePo4 as always, is a very stable power supply that can be relied upon, in any configuration, make or model.
Stay safe, Sir, stay Blessed and 73s....
I was just about to drop a bundle on a Bioenno battery. Glad I saw your video first. This compares very favorably with their batteries at almost half the cost. I run an FT891 when I am out and about and would like to be able to run it at higher power. Do you think I can run anywhere near full output of 100 watts? Think it might be worth taking a chance on. Thanks again.
It runs my ft100d at full 100W output, even full carrier modes like CW and FM, with no problems. That's why you have to look for the continuous current output rating and not just the capacity.
@@MattHeere Thank you. For your reply. I mostly run voice when I'm out. At the park
@@dheller777 No problem. Do bear in mind that shipments from China are currently impacted by the coronavirus outbreak. The page for the battery still lists a guaranteed delivery date, but who knows what will actually happen.
@@MattHeere hello de 4z1ar with full 100W CW key down you pull about 20A - what is the bat capacity then ? (in your test it was about just 4A ) how much the voltage sags when cw key down ? in practical therms - how long you used it with full 100W cw - can it last 8 hours of operation (50% rx 50% tx ) ? tu fer review es sharing . 73 Amir
Hello Amir! The voltage will drop to the rated 12.8VDC under a heavy load up to the rated 25A continuous current. It'll maintain that behavior until it's nearly dead though, so well suited for QRO CW ops. Price seems to have rocketed though. Double check that options from more established manufacturers aren't cost competitive at this point.
I have 2 of these batteries, good stuff
Great review Matt. Thanks. Good varied content on your channel. Fellow ham (M1DDD). Presently looking for a premium LiFePO4 circa 20Ah and doing my research. You are spot on re looking at specs and discharge rates plus the curves are important especially for mobile/portable rigs which only have a +/-10% tolerance around 13.8V (get to 12.5V and the rig power needs to be reduced). I just wish more manufacturers design to wider tolerance. I am also sceptical about ‘Chinesium’ construction especially with potentially lethal chemistry. I wonder if many of these have proper CE certification and been properly tested. If I see technical errors of poor spelling on the official tech specs then it red flags with me. Likely I will bite the bullet and buy premium with 5 yr warranty (I did this with my generator and bought a Honda EU20i and never looked after (up to now) 1800 hour portable ops.
So... what is a premium lifepo4? Maybe I go Relion?
Video pitched at a level that I like.
I guess the big question for this Kanavano battery (and other suppliers for whom you tend not to be able to do due diligence) is ‘Do you know it is actually LiFePO4 technology?’
Cheers for now.....Nick
Hi Nick. All good observations. No idea if this batt is certified in any way, but it likely doesn't matter much as it's no longer available anyway. I can tell from the discharge profile that it is in fact LiFePo4, and so far it's held up beautifully. Unfortunate that I may be the only person to ever get one!
As for available premium brands for LiFePo4, esp for radio use, you're going to be hard pressed to do better than Bioenno. They cater to the ham market, so they publish the right specs, they are accurate, and if you call them with an issue they really understand the nature of the use case. Dakota Lithium also makes great batteries. Their target market seems to be RVs and solar systems, but I know a lot of hams that use them and like them.
Do understand though that every LiFePo4 cell in the world is made in Asia at this point, and I believe that all of the packs are assembled outside of the US as well. The premium brands offer better support, but there just aren't options for the actual source of the products at this point.
Matt Heere thanks Matt. Yep I have heard of Bioenno but they don’t list distributors in Europe (I am in UK). I am all for good customer service and long, no quibble warranties. I have written to their sales dept at USA HQ and will see how they respond. Cheers for now,
Nick
With the BMS inside is it considered a “lead acid direct replacement?” Can I install it In my vehicle behind the West Mountain Radio ISOpwr+ and keep everybody happy and not on fire?
I wouldn't call it a SLAB drop in replacement. For instance, it would make a lousy engine starting battery because it can't come up with the needed instantaneous current. In your case it sounds like you still want it to run radio gear, but want to charge it from the vehicle system behind an isolator. There are still two problems. The big one is that the BMS limits charge voltage - but not current. You could potentially be pumping way too many amps into the battery. the 2nd problem is that the vehicle voltage isn't high enough to completely charge the battery. It's close when it's up near 14.4 V, but nominally it's 13.8 and that'll only get you to about 80% charge. That assumes the ISOpwr+ is a FET based isolator. If it's diodes, your voltages all go down by .6V and so it all gets worse.
Matt Heere ok. I’m charging at 14.4-14.8, but still would have to manage current. Thanks!
Looking at the reviews, one person received a battery pack which had lower capacity cells. Can you determine the cell type and capacity?
That is former product(lower capacity cells), This capacity is 25A currently and struture is 4s1p.
Yong-Pyo Lee is that 25A max or continuous? What cell type is used?
@@marcmatz419 4s1p structure is 25A. my battery is 25A(4s1p).
I'm on AliExpress as I write this which is where it looks like Matt found this. The price is now $179.07 - quite a price jump in just 3 months or so!
$138 today
@@lunatik9696 Yep. Looks like price really bounces around. Keeping an eye on it might lead to a bargain.
How is the battery working out coming on the 1.5 year mark? It looks like they still have it (though increased to $130 now).
No complaints. It's still working fine and hasn't lost any capacity. Hard to pass up the Miady 20AHr on Amazon though for $70 and prime eligible though if you don't need the extras like the USB ports or charge meter.
@@MattHeere Oh, wow. I'll have to look at that. Cheers!
So how is the battery doing after 4 months? The question regarding the number of cycles and most importantly the question of loosing it's capacity over time - those are the parameters I would like to know as I really want to buy the 100AH Kanavno one. I am just afraid it won't last... Anyone here with an insight?
I've cycled it a couple dozen times and so far it's behaving exactly the same as my other LiFePo4 batteries. No loss of capacity that I can tell. No issues with it supplying the full 23A needed to run the radio key down CW at 100W, and no thermal issues either charging or discharging.
Great video! I wish I had seen it yesterday. I just ordered 8 headway Lifepo4 8amp cells! With respect to your spreadsheet calculations. I'm just wondering if you limited the 'Total Ahr' calculation to two decimal points, the rounding error of that many calculation may influence the perceived total draw with as many samples that were taken. It might be interesting to allow 4-6 digits behind the decimal point to see if there is a 'rounding error' that accumulates over the hundreds of samples. I just found it on aliexpress and put it in my cart! Thanks!! WB7DUO
The calculations happen with the full precision of everything. The limitation to 2 decimal places is just for display. Reality is that the voltage measurement accuracy is 1mV at best (likely less) so 2 decimal places is the limit of what I'd believe regardless of how many Excel will show you.
@@MattHeere Thanks. That is an amazing output on those batteries! 73
So Matt...
I’m a gold miner and I want to run a 10 amp pump for 8-10 hours.
Going by the spec you show, that smaller battery will run my pump for 20 hours?
That’s a darned good deal when I compare it to a group 24 deep cycle lead acid!
If I’m wrong...do you have another recommendation?
If it's a 10 amp pump then this battery will theoretically run it for 2.5 hours (25 AHr total). The smaller battery would run it for 2 hours (20 AHr total). In practice, the more current you draw from a battery the less efficient it'll be, so you won't get the theoretical max.
BTW, gold miner - that's pretty cool!
Matt Heere thanks!
For better support you can check battle born battery... They have 12v 100Ah battery with super long warranty.
Amps times hours = AH. Do not draw more than 1/2 the AH rating for maximum life and capacity.
Hi Matt.
I want to buy this battery. Is its capacity correct? The quality is good? Can I buy?
Александр Колодяжный .... specibo, Matt has provided an exhaustive result of his research at his Lab/home. The lab conditions, namely, the ambient temperature, atmospheric pressure and the measuring instrument conditions (tolerance) may, vary from geographical locations to the other. But then again, the manufactured product from the factory may also vary, due several factors. ( am unable to describe, due space and time ) But remember, ambient weather conditions (Low) plays a negative role, in any storage Power Supply. Cheers.
How long did it take to arrive?
I got mine in about 3 weeks, but that was a couple weeks ago. I understand that with the virus outbreak things are kind of unpredictable at this point.
As good as today's lithium batteries are just imagine how much better they will be in the future. Smaller and more powerful with a longer lasting charge but I still think yoga pants were the best invention ever.
Then you haven't seen me wearing them... ;)
@@MattHeere like that's a bad thing? hahaha
Would these work for solar ?
With the proper charge controller yes. You'll either need a charge pump / boost type charge controller or a 24VDC solar system though. These batteries need 14.6VDC to fully charge.
@@MattHeere Only if you want to overpay by 2x and then it's wonderful.
Ordered the 120Ah 12v. Tested at 65Ah, and it almost take fire after 1 month. I couldn't get support. The battery is dead, lost $500.
How much current were you drawing from it? All of those things would happen if you exceeded the maximum continuous current rating.
aliexpress and alibaba have buyer protection, you need to contact them right away, think!
I ordered one based on your review. I’ll my share my experience. 73 de K6TjO
Received it today
All talk and no action. You skipped out on promise about sharing your experience with the product.
Yes I bought it and worked my Ft-891 all day and then some. No problem.
1 Year update. Battery stopped charging and voltage went to zero. Opening the battery it appears the BMS has failed but the batteries are still holding voltage. :(
wouldnt accept my credit card for security reasons........ asked me to file an appeal.........
Many credit cards block payments to AliExpress. Many have better luck with a payment service (Amazon, PayPal, Google, etc.)
The best shit I ever bought. I bought a 300ah. 2 of them. And, then, big shit. Not even 20 amps I got from both of them. Don't buy this shit battery.