nomad85 said:
I am considering getting a 48v 20Ah pack from the group buy on yahoo groups. The size is 135*205*290mm, the weight is about 12kgs.
Is this a good idea, I already have a 48v 15Ah ping battery, but I wouldnt mind a 20Ah pack to use for longer rides. Is this something worth considering? Cost is 630$+shipping. The deadline is tonight and I just found out about it.
Thanks,
Kyle
Hi Kyle,
Beware being pushed into buying anything too quickly... if the group buy you are talking about is being "organized" by a certain Mr Joshua G, it is the same one I followed for quite a while a couple weeks ago in the hopes of getting a good deal on some good lifepo4 power. However, the organization was terrible and things didn't smell good at all:
-Up to date info about the order not being readily available to new people arriving on the group (the organiser/buyer in question seemed to think everyone should search through the whole pile of messages to know where things were at).
-Things just turned into a big soap opera drama between the organiser and the company he wanted to buy from (this being Don Harmon and someone named Michelle from LifeBatt) as they went though times of name-calling them hugs, them name-calling then hugs once again... and again! At that third love-hate relationship change I decided to stay sane and stay away from anyone "organising" anything in this way!
- This same organizer has a very odd way of doing business in my opinion, using denigration of other vendors such as Ping (describing him as a chinese hotmail based outfit with no real address who gives no good service - total poo!)
- He also used the time pressure technique a number of times to push people into ordering ASAP, and even put the blame of doing this on his Lifebatt pals at least once.
- A number of racist remarks where posted by this same organizer, both in bad taste, and not at all called for in a group buy setting. I NEVER buy from a vendor who blasts others.
- If one reads all the post history of the group there are a large number of contradictions and other anomalies that just don't make sense when comming from the same person - untrusworthy IMHO.
- Also note that a large number of posts were deleted from the forum, one reason I'm aware of was to remove all the times Josh described his partners as "LifebUtt", as not to piss them off after they got cuddly again.
For your info, I just ordered a pack from Ping today that looks like this:
48v20ah 150x150x270mm 10.5kg 580usd + 190usd shipping
He now uses better cells than before (according to him) that can take 2C continous, and the BMS is set accordingly to 40A. He also says that the cells have under 15mohms internal resistance per 4Ah, which would come to 6mohms per 10Ah equivalent. Ping has excellent rep for good service from all I've heard. He is also very good at answering emails, although once he was slow due to many emails.
Good luck on your decision!
Pat
