Lidl UK battery offer

paultrafalgar

paultrafalgar

10 kW
Joined
Feb 15, 2008
Messages
915
Location
Forest of Dean, UK
Lidl UK have a battery offer coming up from 10th June. Does anyone know if these Tronic batteries are any good and if so which should I buy for ebike projects? Is it a good price?
http://www.lidl.co.uk/uk/home.nsf/pages/c.o.20080612.p.Rechargeable_NiMH_Batteries.ar4

I was also wondering, Gary Goodrum, if your holder would be any good for the size C batteries? Here:
http://www.tppacks.com/proddetail.asp?prod=EBKE%2DA123%2D4s4p%2DKIT
Obviously, the BMS is for Lithium, not NiMH. The plan would be to buy the NiMH and use them in the holder, then when the Lithium becomes affordable, switch to them.
What d'ya think?
 
The site won't show me anything no matter what code I feed it. :?
 
Maybe you can't get in if you're not in the UK? Go to the Lidl homepage (Google lidl) and select Specials at the top of the page. Hit Travel Accessories and that should take you to the batteries. They have a peculiar way of asking you what is your nearest town, try Cinderford. Let me know if it works.
 
Nope. They want a zipcode, and I don't know what one from the UK should look like. Got one that works? :?
 
The company is from Hong Kong, as far as I can gather. But I was asking if anyone has any knowledge of the batteries and if it was a good price for NiMH?
 
they would be a good price if the capacity is 2ah or more, but they are probably just 1ah it doesn't say. also they would be heavy because comercial cells tend to have more metal in the casing compaired to ebike spesific batteries. paralleling loads of these would be worse than running SLA i would suspect.

but if they are >4ah then buy them all !
 
Thanks, Monster. BTW Knoxie was suggesting these:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/EP-NI-MH-4600mAh-7-2V-Racing-Battery-Pack-R-C-Tank-CAR_W0QQitemZ260249248230QQihZ016QQcategoryZ44026QQtcZphotoQQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
4.6 x 7.2 = 33.12 Watt hours @ £23.99 = £1.38 per Watt Hour.
So I guess we might measure the Lidl cells against that. They need to be ((£1.99/2)/£1.38) watt hours or greater to be better value? i.e. 0.72 watt-hours ... other things being equal.
 
Any views on using this:
http://www.tppacks.com/proddetail.asp?prod=EBKE%2DA123%2D4s4p%2DKIT
as a method of containment?
I like the idea of a non-soldered pack. You could take them out for balancing. What d'ya say?
 
My kit will hold any "C"-sized cells, but the LVC is designed for Lithium-based cells in parallel. You could also try using these, which are designed for C-sized NiCd/NiMH: http://www.modelelectronicscorp.com/browse_product.php?pid=30

-- Gary
 
i used to get 24v 7ah battery from ebikes direct for £90 inc delivery
 
Thanks, Monster. Was that this company:
http://www.e-bikesdirect.co.uk/parts.html ?
and was it NiMH? Sounds a good idea. Maybe I could carry 2 or more and change them en route if needed? Rather than bother with a higher voltage setup. Have you moved up to Lithium now? What was their durability/longevity like?
 
yer it was NiMH. good batteries too. they have lasted a couple of years. let us know if the price is the same or if it has gone up. it may be better to pretend you have bought a bike off them. they like to sell bikes not accesories thats where the profit is.

there are some german ebay sellers that sell cheap Nimh batteries. or if its a big order and you can wait then Ebike.ca is a good place to get from. get them to send surface mail and tell them to write on it "second hand batteries value £5" and youy will not have to pay extorsionate customs charges.

anything sent by priority mail carriers or over £17 will encur 17% vat and £15 handeling charges.
 
Just bought 40 x 4500mah NiMH batteries from Lidl = £40. Don't hold your breath for a test, as I have no e-conversion done at present and I'm SLOW :roll: Just collecting bits when they seem good value. I think I'm going to use a 1.5 inch plastic drainpipe to mount them (solderless). Probably 4 tubes of 10 cells each. What do you think about using a 12 volt car battery charger to charge those strips of 10 in situ? Does NiMH tolerate that? What about balancing?
BTW in my Lidl they had tipped 4 types of cell into one hopper so it took a while to find 20! Think I got all the shop had :mrgreen:
Comments please.
 
wow thats really good value. can that be right? i'll test a couple of cells for you if you want, PM me.

if you do the drain pipe thing then use springs as contractors between the cells. charge them in series V.important. maybe 2x 24v chargers would be best for this. or you could get a 48v PSU and put a thermostat in it. never let them get hot >70C too hot to toutch.
 
i bought a couple and tested them at 400ma they lasted 2hours = 800mah not 4000mah as is claimed. so the deal is fairly lousy for ebike cells 0.96wh/£. we could take lidl to trading standards?
 
monster said:
i bought a couple and tested them at 400ma they lasted 2hours = 800mah not 4000mah as is claimed. so the deal is fairly lousy for ebike cells 0.96wh/£. we could take lidl to trading standards?
Click to expand...
Did you charge them up fully before your test, Monster? I have been charging up the 40 cells I bought 4 at a time. Some took 8 hours to charge and achieved 1.38 - 1.4 volts, so I would be surprised if they were that bad, but I don't have your equipment to test the discharge.
 
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