Im starting to get tired of my FreedomWon eTowers. Its a bit useless in CT if if you need to absorb the cost of shipping a battery (R1500) every time there is an issue, and the battery that went up in May needs to go up again for more bad cells.
So I am sure that most of us watch the Off Grid garage and have been seeing the development and progress with the Yixiyang battery cases. I quite like the idea of having a battery that can be self serviced should there be an issue with a cell/bms. I also got hold of Yixiyang, but they dont have a shipping facility to South Africa. Anyone aware of a company that can ship these heavy boxes in a cost effective manner (ship) from China?
Pity that we don’t have EVE cells sold locally anymore, as that would be half the problem gone.
Yes, fuck Scott Shipping. He ripped a mate of mine R30k, taking the money for skiing gear and then never ordered it, banked they money and made up a fake insolvency story. Scum of the earth.
I did however contact PostBox Courtier, who are lovely they cant ship these kinda of goods.
He even still took orders for batteries after he knew there were major issues. Also didn’t honor the warranties of the batteries he did ship.
I’ve also heard that he is back to doing his original shipping business but frankly, I wouldn’t want to use a company that can rip off his clients that badly.
I would also like some MB56 cells and Xiyxiang box. But SA seems really difficult to ship cells into unless its a FCL (full container load) - LFP cells are UN class 9 hazard - so shipping is difficult unless you take the whole container.
What we did: I registered for a import tax number so that a group of us can import two batches of 280ah cells with BMS’es, from Alibaba a few years back. The volumes at the time justified it.
Alibaba sorted it all up to the goods landing in a SA harbour.
Then Aviocean took over to get it to my house as there are a lot of SARS rules and regs to get the load out of the harbour, the goods to my house as the batts are classed as Dangerous Goods.
So go straight to Alibaba, find a supplier, and let them sort it to get it here, ask Aviocean for their advices too.
Cost - from a few years back:
Shipping costs - supplier will work that out.
And work on ±17% for import taxes and VAT.
Some fees and delivery charges on top of it all to get it to ones house.
Personally I’ll wait a few years, wait for another Andy vid to sing the praises or not.
Said this many times before - cause these cells interest me a LOT!
Fewer connection = less points of failure when one has mother big AH cells in one bank.
Some here disagree, having two banks = redundancy if one bank has a problem. Which is true if one has to wait for weeks for a warranty claim.
But what is missed, if it is a DIY bank, that does not apply.
Because we have a spare warranty cell/s on hand, don’t buy 16, buy 17 or 18 cells, have spares.
Even BMS, have a spare or a fast local supplier.
Sorted.
I’ve been quiet on the forum for a while, but it was me that put @TheTerribleTriplet in touch with Amy Wan at the time a few years back.
Over, the past year I retired, and am usually to busy to write much on the forum. However, over the past year I have imported 9 x 304Ah 16s ready made banks.
I was originally going to go 18s, but having them pre-built was worth it to me timewise.
Anyway, Amy told me about a logistics company that ships to your door, with the inco term DDP.
That means they just arrive, with no SA port hassles, vat or duties to pay. I don’t know how it is done, but I am now on my fourth shipment (not batteries this time), that has just worked.
Fees are extremely reasonable, in fact so reasonable I don’t ask too many questions. You will not get a VAT cert.
Understand though this logistics company is not Amy Wan, it is a company she used with someone else in SA, then told me about. I have had 3 shipments now, and the fourth is at sea as we speak.
These things cost a lot of money, so I did a test shipment of 2 banks, when they came through without hassles, then I ordered another 7 banks which also arrived hassle free.
Just relaying my experience, you take your own chances.
The one day, the spare no 19 cell I have just standing here since we imported, decided to swap it out with a cell in the bank.
Drained the bank to 10% - one can easier remove a cell at low SOC if they are compressed.
2 screws for the busbars.
1 balancing lead screw.
And out the cell came.
Reverse and the “new” cell was in.
Hey, what nonsense is he talking! How can it be that quick!?
Easy, I don’t have them in a cabinet.
Just the compression planks on the sides, top covered with perspex, placed out of everyone’s way.
If it was in a cabinet, yeah, THAT is a moerse job.
With the price of complete batteries now, it’s cheaper to buy complete batteries locally and “DIY” them if you need to (as in replace cells yourself, although they are probably laser welded, so I’m not sure how practical that will be). If you choose wisely there should not be a need to “DIY”.
