Thank you Sean for clearing that up , when Bruce said batteries , I assumed wrongly he meant complete 12 V Batteries and not individual 3.2 v cells , reason is i have 8 complete lifepo4 batteries that have active balancing and bms built into them and parallel connection is fine but series has a limit of 2 in series due to upsetting the individual bms of each battery .
Dave
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Dave, this is the store. Flower dog store. They are really good at answering questions.
We use this type of BMS for the CALB 100ah battery.
I should probably move any further comments about the car to a different thread.
These comments were about off grid solar. We charge the batteries with off-grid solar, and have had no trouble with that. Itās just bizarre how we do it.
We break up the bank into 48v portions and charge them with individual 48v systems.
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Thatās a neat switch. I checked the specs, 30a, 120v, sometimes Amazon says 277vac. Surprising price 
But then, Iām starting to sound like my grandfather when is comes to prices. Oh, and there was something about āup to 80% of rated currentā for motor use. I canāt seem to get to Levitonās website to get the straight story.
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I initially made the same assumption, but you brought up a good point, so I looked them up, and may not have the right model number.
Now that you mention it, I think 2 in series is the limitation for the dakota lithium batteries. Apparently dakotas are made in China so they donāt qualify for the IRA.
The paperwork claims itās industrial grade, and has a 10 year warranty. I needed to switch from a generator line to an inverter line. The customer has a generac that comes on when the grid fails. I donāt want stick my fingers in all the approved wiring. So I am adding this switch at the appliance. When the generator goes dead, they have to trot out and manually operate the switch and change to the inverter power.
I will have to use the wiring diagram backwards. Line 1 and Line 2 will be the load, and A1,B1 and A2,B2 will be the respective inputs.
I bought some closed knife switches that were turquoise and orangeā¦also some rotary snap switches that claimed to be dtdp but both were just wrong. I need something the customer can easily identify as a switch.
Anyhow, I know the price is steep, but money under a $100 is no object for this customer, itās more about their family being able to identify the correct switch in a snow storm in the dark.
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Sounds perfect for that application. It shouldnāt need to switch under load, so the motor rating probably doesnāt matter.
edit: Neat looking book in the background!
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Thanks for the info Bruce , did you say that cell or rather your 4 cells are showing zero volts ?
I am not a fan of the Daly ,i found so many people on forums with problems that i tried others , the best and easiest one i found was a JK 200 amp with 2AH balancing fantastic unit with built in blue tooth , since then there are even better units on the market .
If anyone has not followed the off grid garage on you tube it might be well worth your while as he buys a lot of these items himself to use on his off grid setup i will drop you a link to his channel always handy to see what he and others think of stuff on the market today .
Dave
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Ooops re read again and you say 8 cells failed ! wow thatās not great is it , where they all on the same bms ?
If they are on zero volts there is a slight chance that you can get each on on its own to charge , i have seen it done before starting with a low cc and voltage charge .
Dave
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Wife ordered a 2000 watt Ecoflow power station yesterday with a PV panel. I guess Iām solar now.
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Congrats. You will be an adict soon.
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Well, not solar after all. Got the big runaround from the Ecoflow people and they never could confirm any solid delivery date. I donāt know if waiting for a shipment means they are out in the pacific somewhere on a boat. Took my wife two days of screwing around just to get them to say they are refunding our money. Iāve decided that for around $600 I can just buy four more Golf Cart batteries. I have the charger and inverter set up on one bank already. Iāll just swap them over from another charged bank if the first one is spent. I donāt really need it to be portable. The plan was to use the power station to run the grow lights in the greenhouse. Around 300 watts six hours a day, every day. I can do it with a WG generator but was hoping to cut that run time down by at least half.
I also know someone who has a auto repair service in Montana. Despite having an in with NAPA they are still waiting days or weeks for a lot of parts, mostly electronics but some mechanical. They are so tired of having people bitch about their cars being tied up that they are thinking about just quitting the business. I see the garage in our little town has a full lot as well.
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And the little wheels fall off one, by one, by one. No longer maintained.
High points. Low points. Mostly it is in decline or ascending between these.
Learn to ride the waves, staying safe.
What was once, has never had an assurance into tomorrow.
9 months waiting for the last snap on grill piece pre-paid for so the front license plate can be re-hung to be legal here.
Waiting now 6 months pre-paid for a metal framed two-sides accessible screened cover to try on one of the raised beds. Pre-paid for:
Still waiting for 2 of 3 small boxes of flower bulbs to surface claimed shipped out 3 weeks ago.
Still waiting two years for a re-printing of wall hanging laminated posters of PNW native trees; PNW wild flowers; PNW weeds and shrubbery. Pre-paid for.
World-wide COVID shutdowns lingering effects? Some say.
Younger generations reluctance to work, works? Some say.
Just too many now giving up Living-forwards for futures, requiring doing daily works of worth? Some say.
Inflation. Stagflation. High interest rates. Unable to earn to save up, and acquire that 1st house until into your late 30ās, early 40ās. Anyone late 60ās and older remembers these all too well.
Sanity is accepting what you do have on-hand is what you may ever have. Make sure your on-hands will always be enough to meet minimums.
Learn to be creative with what you do have.
S.U.
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I would give the LiFe batteries a look. They are more expensive then lead acid but they have come down in price considerably. You shouldnāt have to replace them in you or your wifeās lifetime even with daily use.
I have no idea if these guys are legit but if they are it is less then double the cost for a lead acid set.
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I probably know less about this stuff than anybody here Sean. I know either my charger or inverter is only good for four 215 AH GC batteries. I canāt remember which. Itās a GoCharger GPC55 MAX. I will look into those batteries you posted. Good that they are from Walmart. Iām real leery of ordering anything on-line that comes from China right now. I think the way my current GC batteries are set up I get around 400 AH at 12 volts. I donāt know how that compares to a 200 AH LI battery. I know the GC batteries canāt be discharged below 50 per cent.
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They are through a 3rd party seller on walmart.com which means they arenāt coming directly from walmart. I havenāt ever ordered from a 3rd party on Walmart.com. I would google the seller and check the return policies. I am leary about ordering stuff from china, unless it is cheap crap, and even then, I research it.
Golf cart batteries refer to a case size.
LiFe batteries can provide up to 80% discharge at a fairly constant voltage, then it drops off fast. but they can go to 0% supposedly without any damage. so you are gaining the 30% between the 50% and the 20% cut offs.
LiFe batteries do NOT work below a certain temperature so if they are in an unheated shed, then you need lead acid.
IIRC you had 2 series and 2 parallel for your batteries. So you might look at 2 24v batteries to replace them then you can hook them in parallel for your inverter. Depending on the bms (battery management system) sometimes you canāt connect the LiFe batteries in series, or you can only connect 2 in series. It simplifies the wiring.
If you have a 12v system, then they are all in parallel, and it doesnāt matter.
I donāt think if they are hooked in parallel it matters for the charger, it just takes longer to charge. For discharge, it should just run longer. but it wonāt supply more power then the inverter can handle.
I -think- the BMS can handle the varying charge currents your gocharger supplies, but I would ask GoCharger what happens if you use LiFe batteries with them. it seems like it is overkill for life batteries.
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We ordered that Ecoflow power station on Amazon but supplied from the manufacturer. What a clusterflock. Ecoflow is one of the worst companies we have ever dealt with. Wonāt go into the long story but they were planning on only refunding Eleven hundred of our $1400 charge. No real explanation. After a lot of hassle we got Amazon to contact them and now we are supposed to get the full amount. We will see. Just warning you that they are not a good company. Now I have to question the good reviews from Den of Tools and Will Prowse. We have a 750 W. Bluetti. No problems at all.
In fairness to the two reviewers I mentioned, they donāt have to purchase these units. They are sent to them for review and are doubtlessly pretested for performance to make sure there are no glitches. Iām sure they have never dealt with customer service.
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that certainly is a good price. It does sound like a case of buyer beware though.
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It came up the first googlead, so I have no idea, i was just trying to get a fast price.
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Hi Tom , i was very very lucky 2 years back when a friend took me down to his local scrap yard ( competitor to Brians yard ) as he said they had some new type batteries there on a pallet that came in a week or so ago , when we got there he had 8 left on the pallet he gave us a battery tester and said try them they all seem good to me , so i tried them and they all came up as being good and a voltage of around 12.8 , its just the cases were a little warped and a slight melted plastic case from being in side a shipping container that caught on fire , anyway he wanted $100 each ,my mate said if we take all 8 i give you $70 he agreed and i got me 8 x120 AH Lifepo4 with inbuilt BMS and also active balancing , i still collect old traction lead acid batteries that are almost scrap but after a day of sunlight they produce enough power for Tv, computer , security cameraās and recliners to run all evening and into the next day , and i dont care if they go down to under 12 volts as the inverter will still use them down too 10.8 volts before cutting out .
If was to buy new batteries again i would not worry about buying the top of the range Lifepo4 batteries some of the cheap store rebranded batteries can be ok as long as when you get them you put them to work and do a capacity test and make sure they are within spec and make sure the inbuilt BMS does what it is supposed to do and if not happy take them back and get the next up graded ones or your money back .
Dave
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