I have been riding a Stealth Fighter for over 2 years and have replaced battery packs 2 times and now I have another failed pack, LIFEPO4 pouch type 48 volt 20 amp hour 16S with BMS. I have it apart on my bench next to the last years disassembled failed pack, same technology. It would be an easy task to replace the failed cells and get back on the road, but getting replacement cells is almost impossible. Identifying the part by the number on the batteries leads to only "close" and doing it by size is equally inexact. I don't know if I'm the only one collecting failed packs, forced to buy a complete set at wildly inflated prices, more that 2000 dollars from a Stealth dealer or some unknown price, quality and delivery China source. I suspect others are equally frustrated and ultimately end up discarding failed partial packs. Not how electric transportation was intended to treat the environment. Now it is clear that cells, 18650s or at some point Telsa manufactured cells, are becoming the preferred energy source for packs and everyone will be buying or making spot welders to build packs with batteries that are readily available. What can be done to get electric riders a reasonable power source with minimal impact to both the wallet and environment? Anybody?
Batteries and the environment
- Thread starter campbelp
- Start date
What about checking with the (presumably reputable) vendor you bought the batteries from? They should be able to help provide replacement cells, or at least say where they got them so you can check there.
If the batteries are just from a random vendor cuz of a cheap deal, then something to remember about that kind of thing is they are probably building packs out of whatever cells they can get hold of in bulk at the time, which does not mean that those cells would be available in the future--they migth be a one-time purchase of "leftovers" from some big manufacturer's project or custom cell run, and so there are no others of that exact cell, except what's in batteries already.
Best I can recommend is going either with a format (regardless of chemistry) that will be available to physically match the size of the cells in the battery you're getting, like 18650 (and eithe rbuild your own or buy a premade one from a well-known vendor that makes their own packs, not buys from an unknown source), or to go with a cell manufacturer that will have that cell around for a while so you know you can get replacements, etc. Or just buy more cells than you need for your pack so you'll have spares when something happens.
If the batteries are just from a random vendor cuz of a cheap deal, then something to remember about that kind of thing is they are probably building packs out of whatever cells they can get hold of in bulk at the time, which does not mean that those cells would be available in the future--they migth be a one-time purchase of "leftovers" from some big manufacturer's project or custom cell run, and so there are no others of that exact cell, except what's in batteries already.
Best I can recommend is going either with a format (regardless of chemistry) that will be available to physically match the size of the cells in the battery you're getting, like 18650 (and eithe rbuild your own or buy a premade one from a well-known vendor that makes their own packs, not buys from an unknown source), or to go with a cell manufacturer that will have that cell around for a while so you know you can get replacements, etc. Or just buy more cells than you need for your pack so you'll have spares when something happens.
At least they do have the cells available.
I would guess that for the varying configurations, they either don't build their own packs, and just buy whatever is available at the time of that lot that will meet their specifications, or they do build their own but also just buy whatever cells they can for that lot of packs.
But I don't know.
It would be nice if everyone would use consistent stuff all the time, but one problem with that is that there is no improvement over time (or it is restricted to the limitations of the format they choose).
I would guess that for the varying configurations, they either don't build their own packs, and just buy whatever is available at the time of that lot that will meet their specifications, or they do build their own but also just buy whatever cells they can for that lot of packs.
But I don't know.
It would be nice if everyone would use consistent stuff all the time, but one problem with that is that there is no improvement over time (or it is restricted to the limitations of the format they choose).
