BMSbattery / EcityPower 48v Battery Review

[bicyclemaker]

Has anyone been duped by this manufacturer?

I placed an order for a couple of the Cute Motors and Battery packs in Jan and they still have not shipped.

Jack - the sales guy I assume? - at the company responded to a few of my emails but for the last couple of weeks, no response on the status of my order.

Anyone with a similar experience?

 

[GrayKard]

It took 2 months for me to get a pair of cute motors from them. I also ordered a few other things with that order but the holdup was the motors. They said they were having problems with customs.

I also ordered a couple of shrink wrap 48v 12ah batteries from them and have been very happy with their performance. Came with decent chargers too.

Overall I am happy with their items but the length of time it takes is a pita.

Gary

 

[Russell]

I've purchased 3 items from ecitypower via their eBay listings, 2 chargers and 1 controller, and each has taken from 3 to 5 weeks to be delivered. The last item I bought they flaked and forgot to ship until I asked where it was after waiting 3 weeks. The charger then took 2 weeks to arrive after they actually shipped it.

My purchases have all been under $60 (delivered) and I am hesitant to order any high value items from them. Jack Xie has been quick to answer my emails and seems eager to please but I don't have complete confidence in their organization. The lanquage difference also poses a problem so I won't order anything which requires customization.

-R

 

[dnmun]

did you guys open up the charger and pack to see what is burned up? maybe we can fix the charger and figure out what happened to the battery yet.

 

[maydaverave]

How is the battery holding up? I want one but I am scared of all the negative reviews of the bms battery experience. Maybe they will get things sorted out

 

[GrayKard]

Update, the batteries are still going strong after about 800 miles on each. But the chargers are another story. One went out about 3 weeks ago with a fried NTC 5D-13 thermistor. Then the other went out with what appears to be a blown mosfet. These charge at 5 amps which is apparently more then some of the components can take.

I took the thermistor out of the second one and soldered into the first and got it running again. These seem to be the same chargers that Vpower supplies with their batteries and are not up to continuous use. I had been running them 24/7 but have only used the repaired unit to top off the batteries until replacements arrived.

I ordered two of the Ping 2amp chargers to replace these until I can get some parts to upgrade them. The Ping chargers are much smaller and will make good little travel chargers to stick in my backpack for long trips.

Gary

 

[Hyena]

These seem to be the same chargers that Vpower supplies with their batteries and are not up to continuous use. I had been running them 24/7

How are you running them 24/7 ? Do you leave them plugged in when not in use or are you constantly charging multiple banks of batteries with them ?

If your thermistor blows again and the alternative is to throw out the charger you can replace it with a resistor (usually around 500w but you could use a 2k pot and adjust it to suit) and the charger will think it's warm but not too hot keep working. The risk of course is that if it does get too hot it won't shut down and then something else will burn out. As I said though, if you're only going to chuck it anyway it may be worth trying.

 

[GrayKard]

These seem to be the same chargers that Vpower supplies with their batteries and are not up to continuous use. I had been running them 24/7

How are you running them 24/7 ? Do you leave them plugged in when not in use or are you constantly charging multiple banks of batteries with them ?

I have two packs so when one is charging the other is in use. I leave them on as long as possible so they can balance. I find that even that is not enough for full balancing so occasionally I leave each pack on a charger for several days.

When I had two working chargers, one stayed at work, and the other was at home. At that time I was leaving the extra pack at work most the time in case I had to do an unexpected trip. The work charger blew first, then when the home charger started seeing more action it went...

If your thermistor blows again and the alternative is to throw out the charger you can replace it with a resistor (usually around 500w but you could use a 2k pot and adjust it to suit) and the charger will think it's warm but not too hot keep working. The risk of course is that if it does get too hot it won't shut down and then something else will burn out. As I said though, if you're only going to chuck it anyway it may be worth trying.

Nope, not gonna throw them out, I will upgrade to a bigger thermistor and better fets. The one I fixed is still going for now.

The Ping chargers arrived and I'm replacing the crappy charger wire with better cord I had laying around at work. I'm also waiting on a Powerwerx order so I hope the fixed unit holds out until my Anderson connectors gets here. If not I will rig something up temporarily.

Gary

 

[wakataka]

My battery is still going strong also, after about 7 months of use. I'd guess that it's probably got between 120 and 150 cycles on it by now. I've never run it down very far. My normal commute is about 6 miles round trip and takes a little over 2 ah out of the battery. Peak watts are often over 1,000 and it seems to handle that just fine. I'm very happy with it. The two chargers I got from EcityPower are still working also, knock on wood.

Note that mine is a custom battery made to fit in the Wilderness Energy softpack. It uses 11 AH cells in a heat shrunk package.

 

[Evoforce]

Hey! I just had a (V-Power) charger cut loose its thermistor. Got to say though, mine was involved in 40 mph crash. Look at my other threads to learn more if wanted. My question is, where did you find replacement thermistors? Live in Az amd went to Circut Specialist (very poor service), Frys Electronics, and Radio Shack with no luck. Another forum member is shipping me two. I don't know if they are the same part no. or not. My thermistor was so damaged I couldn't get any part numbers from it. This other forum member has previously repaired 3 other (V-Power) chargers.

 

[Evoforce]

Ok, I put in a new NTC 5D-13 thermistor and then i blew a 63V 1000uF capicitor. :x Temporarily put in a 50V 1000uF and charger is working fine (so far), through 4 cycles, until I receive the 63V caps in the mail from Mouser. No suppliers in town had the thermistors or the 63V capacitor. However, Fry's Electronics had the 50V 1000uF cap that I put in as temporary. I think Radio Shack had the 50's also.

 

[rossasaurus]

I have a 48v 10AH slide-mount pack in the aluminum extrusion housing.
Just have under 30 cycles on it.
I use it on a Sun X3 Recumbent with GoldenMotor Magic Pie, and on a Mundo Cargo bike with Crystalite RoadRunner.

On my second ride I heard some rattling, finally realizing it was the pack.
We popped it open and found ALL the nuts from the handle bolts floating-around in the housing; That's four nuts; they were double-nutted. They were between the wrapped cells and the housing...not a great situation! Where's the globs of hot glue when you need 'em?
Re-assembled with loctite and has been fine.

I really don't care for the 'AC' connectors, as they self-disconnect during riding, and would be a bummer in an intersection and have this happen.
A great improvement would be some sealed, locking connectors.

Would be nice to have some markers for the key positions; say, green dot for on etc
I provided feedback to eCity; we'll see if they make corrections.

I dislike paying for '3-day' shipping and waiting for a month to get something...just doesn't seem right.
However, my battery arrived roughly when they told me it would, so no complaints there.

Bottom line, the price was good, the battery suits my needs, and I have ordered some more 36/48v, LiFePo/LiMn packs.
Also am getting some of their programmable BMS to play around with, and a few Cute motors as well.
I will be opening each pack to check the nuts, and adding some velcro on the 'AC' connectors to hold them in place.

I now know to watch the chargers carefully, thanks folks.

To the guy who has the fried pack; tell us the details of what happened please.
Don't just show the carnage and say "this is crap". Was it charging? being used to power...what? at what C-rate ambient temp?

cheers

 

[kentlim26]

hi everyone,

My bmsbattery story..

they have no language problems. it was their attitude lack of working professionally. The boss of the Bmsbattery don't really take much attention for the items to be ship quickly. Most likely, the company may be very big company. If is small company , the boss will be there all the time, telling the employees what to do... quckily. One thing For sure... im very sure... they don't understand what is the customers Needs. They don't understand... we as a customer... we want our items to be quckily ship as possible. i have ordered a battery from them, date 26july 2010, i should be getting my items on 10days later. however i got my battery much unexpected.. 19days later. (they have to improved that !!, maybe never.. )

for this pack of battery is a 16cells , 38140s, 10c cells/ 12hr cells.it has nothing much to connect, for them to build a battery pack. Just + to minus only. 38140s with bms 40a peak + shipping is USD461.00 No charger. when the battery arrival, i went for a battery test. everything is okay, well build battery. i got 3 test on this battery the troque was very impressive then my vpower battery 48v 20hr. this pack of battery USD461.00 is weight is only 6.7KG, very near light weight LIPo. i can easily reached my speed 50km/h after 10seconds. Im using vpower charger 5amper to charged.. it works well !! that battery pack seem a very excellent one. i can recommend this pack to anyone, and have to accept their slow shipping !! (if they don't mind)

--
just back from from a test. total watts used 471. 8 (turnigy meter), range i got is 43.14km . so this battery pack can give me a good range. The bms haven't come in for cut. my ending voltage is 51.07volts. it will be no problem go on riding until 500watts for this pack of lifepo4 48v 12a.

cheers.
kentlim

 

[barbarin]

Hi guys,

I'm a spaniard living and working in Sshenzhen who became very interested on ebikes some time ago. As I came here my interest raised, because 95% of the mopeds you can see in this city are electric, and they seem to be very well built. It is very usual to see them doing taxi services with two passengers. Shenzhen is a quite flat city, but anyway is impressive to see how those 2200 RMB e-mopeds perform (Yes, that is 366 USS or so).

Well, as I want to make my own very special e-bike I started my research for suppliers, and I did found BMSBATTERY. They are just 35 min distance by train from here, so I'm going to visit them and in case the "audit" is satisfactory I'll buy them a 1000 Watt HUB engine, and all what is needed to convert a bike.

So, I think "I'm your man", because I can give you the information you need to help you decide. At least I can give you my opinion.

Well, thanks for reading, and take care.

Regards,

Javier

 

[Racer_X]

cool Javier, take some pictures of there shop if you can.
and some of there products that they have on display.
thanks

 

[garandman]

Very old thread, but any updates?

I'm interested in a 12-15 AH 36 V LiFePO4 pack that is going to be used to replace the SLA batteries on my son's electric dirt bike [Razor MX500]. The BMS 13 AH is at least $100 less than the Ping 15 AH. As the bike was only around $400 new and SLA replacements are a little over $100, these are all premium upgrades.

 

[dnmun]

Hi,
I guess you were lucky. These people sell garbage - hear my story.
I communicated with this company through email and told them I need a 24V 20A LiFePO4 continuous discharge battery for my bike, a charger and a 500W controller. I paid $423 for it online through PayPal and was eagerly awaiting my new LiPo battery. It It took 8WEEKS to arrive - 4 weeks "processing" and 4 weeks "shipping". When I received the box, it had a 250W controller, not 500W. Pretty much useless controller for my purposes.
I emailed the guy and he agreed that it was his mistake and said he would send me another one - but it has been 3 months and no replacement came.
The charger stopped charging after TWO charges - next day, pretty much. It just puts out 19V and does not charge. I connected to the company through Skype and for half an hour SHOWED the guy on camera all the testing of the broken charger. He promised to send another one - and guess what, NOTHING CAME.
The battery burned out in 2 weeks. I used it on Izip electric bike, which still rides nicely with simple SLA that comes with it. But this company's battery is completely burned (see picture). Needless to say, they promised to send another one and then stopped answering my emails. It's been 3 months and my $423 IS GONE....
I thought I'd save a few bucks but I lost all the money. And have a pile of junk in my apartment.
DO NOT BUY FROM BMSbattery or your money will be wasted!
ebikerider

i just looked at this thread. the battery in that picture did not burn up. it was the fuse holder or wires around it that overheated i think. there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with the battery itself. i wonder if he really did just throw it away. it got hot and i think the BMS is right under that plastic on the end so it may have shorted to something there by the fuse holder too.

also you should always turn on the charger first (plug into AC) to put charge into the output caps and you won't get the spark when you plug in the battery.

 

[Rickj51]

Do not buy from BMS battery (ecitypower) I bought a liFePo4 battery pack from them. It was supposed to be good for 2000 cycles. After less than 600 cycles and not even 12 months the battery is fit for the rubbish bin. It started dying on me prematurely and would not handle any sort of loading without cutting out. I sent numerous emails and got no reply at all. After contacting them through live support, they sent me another bms board thinking that might be the problem. The problem still persisted. I load tested the battery and it would not even put out 7 amps before it would cut out. It just got worse and worse as I tested it until it would cut out at 3.8 amps. This was within a 2 minute period that I tested it. I sent them a video of the test. They said the offer a one year warranty. I have been trying to resolve this issue with them for over a month. So far they have behaved extremely rudely and not been helpful at all and not shown that they are prepared to honour their warranty. Their product is rubbish and and certainly has not met the specifications they state. I will never buy from them again and would suggest people find somewhere else to buy their batteries.

 

[Rickj51]

This is what it is like dealing with BMS battery. They refuse to offer a replacement battery. They did however offer to sell me a new battery at full price and only charge half the cost of postage. It has taken two and a half months to get this far
‎This is a conversation with one of the representative on the live chat. I used the live chat because I got no reply to my emails. I somehow got disconnected several times.

18‎:‎28‎:‎07


System is getting started. [‎23‎/‎05‎/‎2014‎ ‎18‎:‎28‎:‎07]




A representative will be connected, please be patient.





Rita Chen enters the chatroom.





Rita Chen ‎18‎:‎28‎:‎24


hello




Rick ‎18‎:‎28‎:‎38


sorry...lost connection




just sent you an email...the one I sent to Bin Li





I am not going to keep doing this





you know that bad cells will have voltage but no discharge capacity





This is one of the emails I got no reply to.





You sell me a battery that supposedly has 1 year warranty and good for 2000 cycles according to your specifications. It lasts 9 months before having problems and gets not even 600 cycles. This is discharging it to 40% left and then recharging it again and you want me to buy another battery from you again ?





you not talking again ?





Hello ?





Rita Chen ‎18‎:‎52‎:‎00


i am here




Rick ‎18‎:‎52‎:‎23


and ?




do you think I am being treated fairly ?





Rita Chen ‎18‎:‎54‎:‎12


Rick,you know,i really do not know how to deal with that problem now




Rick ‎18‎:‎54‎:‎32


well you better get it sorted




this has gone on too long





it is rediculous





Rita Chen ‎18‎:‎55‎:‎44


you said it is the problem of celss




cells





Rick ‎18‎:‎55‎:‎52


yes




Rita Chen ‎18‎:‎56‎:‎08


but who knows what is the problem next time




Rick ‎18‎:‎56‎:‎21


the battery will not put out more than 7 amps at most




that is when fully charged





within about 5 minutes use it will not even put out 5 amps





when it is at 25 volts..it will not even put out 2.3 amps





Rita Chen ‎18‎:‎59‎:‎36


changed all cells?




Rick ‎19‎:‎00‎:‎01


the battery pack has 3 lights on it with a button you can push to show the state of the battery




when it reads half...the battery is useless





of course I haven't changed all the cells





do you think I have some just lying around for a moment like this ?





I will have to buy 8 new cells and basically make a new battery





of course you could just send me the 8 cells and I will fix it





Rita Chen ‎19‎:‎06‎:‎04


sorry,we can not help you




becuase you have usd battery 9 months





Rick ‎19‎:‎06‎:‎48


so you don't have warranty then ?




System ‎19‎:‎08‎:‎48


Your current position in the queue is 1. Approximate waiting time: 1 minute(s).




The next available representative is reserved for you.





Rita Chen enters the chatroom.





Rita Chen enters the chatroom.





Rick ‎19‎:‎10‎:‎53


Hello ?




This is fantastic... I have nothing better to do with my life than to spend hours and hours each night chatting with you or one of your colleagues and getting the run around.





so now your ignoring me again ?

 

[dnmun]

why did they have to replace your battery again? you used it for one year? or is this a year old too?

 

[Rickj51]

They refused to replace the battery which their site says is good for 2000 cycles. They say they offer one year warranty. The battery lasted 9 months and about 600 cycles. They would not honour their warranty. Occasionally a product is faulty or might not meet the standards advertised...that's fine, I can accept that... but honour your warranty. I tried 2 x 8000mAh lipo batteries wired in series on my bike and they worked great. I have since bought another battery off ebay, also a LiFePo4 battery but twice the capacity for the same price as theirs with postage. I will never deal with BMSbattery again. No one likes getting ripped off or dealing with rogues which is why people like me post on sites like this to warn others. If you choose to deal with BMSbattery, perhaps you might have a better experience but if you don't then don't say that no one ever told you. Jack Xie or Bin Li as he is known will be more than happy to take your money from you. He will reply to all your emails if he thinks he will sell you something. If you say you are having problems with your battery and ask for advise, you will get no reply.

 

[Ypedal]

If you got 600 rides from that battery, you did good.... regardless of it being 9 or 20 months.. imo. ( still no excuse for not honoring warranty, but at the price you paid for this pack... yeah )

 

[gameofbikes]

They refused to replace the battery which their site says is good for 2000 cycles. They say they offer one year warranty. The battery lasted 9 months and about 600 cycles. They would not honour their warranty. Occasionally a product is faulty or might not meet the standards advertised...that's fine, I can accept that... but honour your warranty. I tried 2 x 8000mAh lipo batteries wired in series on my bike and they worked great. I have since bought another battery off ebay, also a LiFePo4 battery but twice the capacity for the same price as theirs with postage. I will never deal with BMSbattery again. No one likes getting ripped off or dealing with rogues which is why people like me post on sites like this to warn others. If you choose to deal with BMSbattery, perhaps you might have a better experience but if you don't then don't say that no one ever told you. Jack Xie or Bin Li as he is known will be more than happy to take your money from you. He will reply to all your emails if he thinks he will sell you something. If you say you are having problems with your battery and ask for advise, you will get no reply.

Can you provide a link to the ebay supplier for your replacement battery?

 

[burningwings]

The 60v 24ah battery 38140 headway cells from BMSbattery : Pure JUNK !!!! After only 31 cycles 12 of the 40 cells are worthless! The 20 cells I am still using only deliver 10ah not the 12ah they are rated . BMS battery does not stand behind their products. DON'T USE THEM!!!!

 

[dnmun]

The 60v 24ah battery 38140 headway cells from BMSbattery : Pure JUNK !!!! After only 31 cycles 12 of the 40 cells are worthless! The 20 cells I am still using only deliver 10ah not the 12ah they are rated . BMS battery does not stand behind their products. DON'T USE THEM!!!!

you have never demonstrated that here so it is only your word against their word.

for the battery to go dead in 35 cycles is not normal just like we told you on the other thread where you trashed them but never proved anything. all bull shit until you got proof.

this place seems to have become the place where people can just come and say anything about the sellers without any evidence, just their idea that someone else is responsible for their usage of the product.

prove it.