Weight vs capacity

perra

10 mW
Joined
Aug 31, 2015
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27
I bought a new lifepo4 battery, its capacity was promised to be 60 Ah. When testing it I was disapointed with its performance. The weight of the battery is 15 kg. My old 40Ah battery is about 20 kg.

Is it even possible today to produce a 60 Ah lifepo4 battery pack with a weight of 15 kg?
 
How many volts?
If you're comparing with a 12V SLA, you'd be talking 4s lifepo4 or 3s 16580 based.
A 60Ah lifepo4 prismatic weighs ~2kg so your battery would be just 8kg

18650 based - my 2.9Ah cells weigh 45g. 60Ah is 21p; 21p3s would be just 2.8kg in batteries + whatever mounting arrangement you'd go for.

I guess you got a fully assembled thing (maybe lifepo4) with full BMS built in - still surprised it weighs so much...
 
Well 20Ah A123 cells are about 500g each. [strike]So, yeah. You can. 6kg for A123's

But AFAIK, LiFePO4 is basically dead-end at this point, only manufactured in low quantities for niche applications. (And by crappy Chinese manufactures for cheap Aliexpress and Ebay sales) Neither the type of cell i'd want to use in any application I can think of.
I guess Headway still makes LiFePO4? But if you closely analyze their cost vs. quality vs. performance, you will quickly find they are terrible.
 
The ONLY high quality LiFePO4 manufacturer I have ever heard of is A123, and their latest design is almost a decade old. Not even sure if they still manufactur?

Well, I am sure companies like Saft, Xalt or Panasonic once made some LiFePO4... in low quantities.
I think Blue Energy Japan / GS Yuasa also makes some for a specific application.
I have some here... They are awesome cells, but their energy density is barely twice as good as Lead.
 
hi okashira - I was going off the calb/sinopoly lifepo4s. I got a rack of sinopoly 40Ah for my scooter & they've done exactly what the specs said - but I'm still down at 10 cycles.... :)
That's in a e-scooter like the OP's avatar - but can't really speculate on their application...
 
Oops, I made another mistake.
60Ah pack of A123's could weight >6kg or so. In 4s.
 
A 60 Ahr A123 LifePo4 could weigh less than 1.5 kg..!! :shock:
^^But Guys,.. Why do you even try to answer a question when you know the OP has not asked a question that has a specific answer ?
Totally insufficient information.
What voltage ?...no point in guessing 12v, it could be any voltage.
What type was the battery he is comparing it to ?
.....BUT,... The answer to the question..
is it even possible to make a 60Ahr LifePo4 battery that weighs 15kg....
.....is YES .
 
48v 60 ah of ping lifepo4 cells would weigh in at close to 60 pounds,, about one pound per ah.

So no,, 15 k cannot be 48v 60 ah. It's off by close to half.
 
18650 cells would be possible, if 12V is <3kg => 48V would be <12kg....
Also reasonable pricing if you go to the right place.
But lots of work + some extra weight housing, connecting and monitoring
 
18650 lifepo4? I don't think so. If 18650 lifepo4, even heavier than pouch cell lifepo4. He may not have lifepo4 though.
 
I got some details on the battery:
Battery internal use 13S 20P 2850mah =260 PCS Cell, So each CELL weight is 40g *260 PCS=10.4 kg ( Coupled with BMS system and battery insulation material tape weight ... )

Does this describe a 60Ah 48v battery pack?
 
If they are 3000mAh 18650 cells then yes that works out. They're not LiFePo4 though. I guess they didn't specify which brand/model of cells they used.
 
Yes . I think you have a 57 ah nominal pack that is not lifepo4. Or something even less capacity, but claimed to be 60 ah.

Cheapo cell in it, would mean no way they put out the nominal capacity in real use. Best guess,, you may have a 50 ah pack.. possibly less depending on how many shitty cells are in there.

This is pretty much normal for cheap packs,, and I'm assuming you did not pay $2000 for this one. The cells may be the ones listed above, but in the cheaper pack price range, they could be b grades, fakes, or just cheap cells, whatever. Over stating capacity is not unusual in china. So you might just have 2 ah cells, making it in fact a 40 ah pack.

Nothing much you can do about it now,, you can't legally mail it back to china get a refund. You can put a watt meter on it, and prove how low capacity it is, then complain, possibly get some of your cash refunded.

Mostly,, I think likely you got what you paid for,, (But not what they said it would be, 60 AH) it's just not lifepo4, and that's why it seems way to light and small. In that size,,you don't want lifepo4 anyway.
 
I paid about $900 for the battery.

Here is the advert on Aliexpress:
48V 60AH Lithium Battery Pack , 54.6V 2500W Electric bicycle Scooter solar energy Battery , Free BMS Charger Shipping
http://s.aliexpress.com/Zn26NZrE
(from AliExpress Android)
 
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