2022 VoltX Basic and Plus Lithium Battery Tear Down

In this video I cut open the latest and greatest 100 amp hour batteries from VoltX, the basic and the plus and have a look at the differences between the two.
Please remember I am not trying to sell you these batteries and this is all done out of my own pocket.

[@SJ-dn1lc]

Great work as always!

[@mungbean84]

Thanks for your work Phil, I've been trying to decide between the VoltX and Giant Power batteries for a small car aux battery setup and your insight is very helpful. Leaning more towards GP now as your videos have confirmed some of my suspicions that the VoltX were a bit too "cheap for a reason". GP use Daly bms and I am interested in them for these as they are programmable, also they say Australian made, but it's obviously just putting Chinese parts together from the same places, but maybe QA/QC is slightly more reliable... In any case I am interested in the slimline forms (not the blade), and hoping they are just the same cells etc just in different orientation and case. Looking forward to your future vids.

[@351HOON]

Hi Phil, I can confirm your suspicion about the seal around the LCD models is true. i had water ingress inside my battery which appeared to come through the LCD. It wasn't a huge amount of water but enough to kill the BMS, so a word of warning to not use these in a marine environment.

[@philsrandomstuff2392]

The basic version is the better choice for wet areas as it’s sealed.

[@CaptainAustralia64]

Thanks for the videos they have been helpful. I bought the new 2022 basic version, so far no problem. I use it in my dinghy to power a watersnake outboard and it does the job just fine. I note you mention Custom Lithium in the comments of another video. It would be helpful if you could do a similar series to show us the difference between quality and what makes them so good.

[@philsrandomstuff2392]

My plan was to purchase a Australian assembled battery to show people if there was any difference. Unfortunately I blew my back out and ran out of money. The main difference between the two is really the ability to have someone to contact who knows their product unlike VoltX. One problem is we don’t know any of these companies are going to be around in five years time to get warranty claims sorted.

[@CaptainAustralia64]

@@philsrandomstuff2392 Sorry to hear of your pain. I hear you regarding the warranty and its why I did purchase cheap for my purpose. However if I want to throw 600ah into my yacht I want to make sure its the goods. Maybe CustomLithium could donate or lend some for the purpose. you could target the 4DW and Yacht Market. The Yachties will spend if they know the product is good and the back up service is available. The fact they do custom sizes is a winner in our world.

[@philsrandomstuff2392]

@@CaptainAustralia64 I asked a couple of battery mobs and was declined apparently they have quite a number of people that ask them for batteries so they can do a review, I think a review to show the comparison of the two batteries cheap and expensive would show any Justification of their cost of the battery that they are selling but deepdown they know that they are selling an overpriced item. The best thing about lithium batteries is how fast you can charge them that is the game changer. I would rather buy 2 cheap 100AH batteries then 1 100Ah expensive battery that is the same price of the two cheap ones.

[@DoctorVernAcula]

That is a really neat (and safe) way of opening the box. Got to be very careful as the internal wires are close to the edge. I got lucky with my first attempt with an angle grinder, but your method is much safer. These boxes are getting cheaper and cheaper on ebay. And the latest one I got seems to have larger cells for a lower price, which is a bonus! Only catch right now, my favourite charger is the Giantz 20A lithium charger, one per battery as 100Ah battery and 20A charge is 5 hours. If you have batteries in series they need individual chargers to balance properly but it still works out cheaper anyway with one charger per battery. However. you simply can't get these chargers anywhere in Australia. The all seem to come out of the same warehouse and I tried a few ebay sellers and they all had to admit they had none in stock and then (very kindly) did a refund. Other chargers are available but more expensive. 20A constant current and 14.6V to 14.8V constant voltage. I'm using these for home battery storage as they work out cheaper than commercial ones. Four in series for 48V and feed energy into the grid with a standard micro gridtie inverter. Thankyou for these updates, they are very useful :)

[@philsrandomstuff2392]

Hi James really appreciate your feedback and like how are you are doing things . Cutting them open with a sharp scraper means you don’t lose any material out of the case so the case height stays the same and when you glue them back together you can barely see where they have been cut apart I have a cheap eBay 40 amp 14.8 V charger which I paid about $135 for Aud They do 20amp versions for around $60 I believe. I think the way you’re charging Your series batteries is a very smart way to do it. You need to reboot your channel and start filming the stuff that you’re doing as it’s very interesting. I think you would do a lot better job than me. Cheers Philip

[@nathanhart3849]

Thanks for this review. I've just grabbed a basic VOLTX from ebay for $370. Hopefully not faulty like yours.

[@philsrandomstuff2392]

It should be right, at least you know what check of it doesn’t. I’m going to put a new Bms in this one because it’s way too much effort to try and get warranty. I contacted VoltX and they said since I bought it off a another company I will have to go through them so it will probably take forever for anyone to make a decision on what to do with it.

[@craigtomkinson2837]

Awesome stuff Phil, gee Iam glad I found your Channel , Iam just about to buy first Lithium battery,

[@philsrandomstuff2392]

Thanks for watching Craig. Snowed under at work at the moment but soon as I get some time I will post a vid on how they go on the capacity test. My only advice to you is if you’re just starting your lithium set up buy the best charging gear you can afford along with good quality wiring, to start off with and buy a cheap set of lithium batteries if your budget will not extend that far for some better quality ones. No point having you beaut batteries if you can’t charge them properly.

[@craigtomkinson2837]

@@philsrandomstuff2392 Ok thats funny, Some of the better batteries in Aus, DCS and Iteckworld say do not need flash chargers, but I have a Lithium combatable dcdc charger and solar controllers

[@philsrandomstuff2392]

The main reason behind what I said is with lithium batteries you have the ability to charge them very quickly so that’s why I suggested good charging gear and good wiring so you charge these batteries quickly. The biggest problem I have found with lithium systems is burnt wiring from the constant high current draw of charging these batteries. If you have a 30 amp DC to DC charger it will take 30A all the way until it is fully charged unlike Agm

[@craigtomkinson2837]

@@philsrandomstuff2392 Ok yes I have a older 80 series Alt is not that big I bought a 20amp dcdc charger it still takes 32amps from the alt to run a 20amp charger, Thanks for your advice, Love your vids,

[@matthewspringer5457]

Nice work. I'd love to see one of the pricey Century lithium batteries (C12-100XLi) go through the same scrutiny!

[@philsrandomstuff2392]

I believe the century battery missed the mark. when I looked at the specs they only had a 50 amp continuous discharge, a ridiculous price, three year warranty and no mention of temperature protection.

[@matthewspringer5457]

@@philsrandomstuff2392 What a shame. At their price level I was expecting to see the gold standard. As someone who is in the market for one of these batteries it's quite difficult sifting through the crap. Keep up the good work.

[@philsrandomstuff2392]

@@matthewspringer5457 The only thing century can offer over any other lithium battery is after sales warranty support as anyone who sells century batteries can give you warranty.

[@mickwolf1077]

I got 2 of the 200Ah volts units, took 1 apart so far as I want to use cells to build a 48v pack. When using them as they were the voltage jumped to 15 something when charging for both, then stopped taking charge, looking at the opened pack I see the cells have swelled a bit and were in a metal frame. They used new cells and were 100Ah pairs.

[@philsrandomstuff2392]

They say that swelling of the cells is a sign of low quality cells or old cells. As a lithium cell ages, it begins to bulge Changing cells individually is a good way to overcome the problem that you have. If I’m reading what you’re saying right. You more than likely have a cell that is running voltage wise. A new lithium cell is actually squashed in a little, not bulging out.

[@mickwolf1077]

@@philsrandomstuff2392 they still work, not sure of the capacity though so will need to test em. I'll get 2 new ones and open them up right away to see their condition. I wonder if running them in series damaged them. In worst case I can limit the capacity a bit with the new jk BMS when all 4 packs are managed together.

[@peterj5751]

I have to say that the wiring on the later model looks like a fire waiting to happen. The risk of a dead short seems very high, especially if you use it in a vehicle that you drive on corrugations. It makes you wonder what other brands are like inside.

[@philsrandomstuff2392]

The basic was the better of the two, if it had the bms of the premium, plus battery it would be a good purchase.

[@sachah2400]

Hi Phil, great video. Just subscribed. Great well explained tear down. I think if you get these batteries for a good price and okay for people like me, that is the occasional weekend campers. But if you really work batteries and are RV or full time tradie and off roader you need to step up to a better battery. IMO. The existing BMS in this battery, does it allow me to add a bluetooth module, or would i need to change the BMS module? I see online I can buy a BMS with bluetooth with 100AH capacity for about $87 direct from CHINA, that is a Daly and I thought about changing the BMS module, IF, I could not add a bluetooth module to the existing BMS. Thanks again

[@philsrandomstuff2392]

The Bms is just a basic bms. There is plenty of room in the battery case to add a blue tooth or change to a Daly bms. It does look like a common circuit board that they use for all there bms and you can see that there is areas where there could be a Bluetooth module soldered to the circuit board. I agree they a economical battery for the weekend camper. Although I haven’t posted the video yet, after testing, the two premium plus batteries, one of them had only 48 amp hours of capacity yet the other one did 102ah, so the quality is very hit and miss.

[@sachah2400]

@@philsrandomstuff2392 thanks for your reply. I just bought the standard 100AH Voltx. Got a very good price IMO. $397 with a 3 year warranty on sale. So for me as a weekend camper it is great. I have tried to find a Bluetooth module that I could add to this Voltx board, but no luck so far, as i cannot find a bluetooth module that says it will match the board? Thanks for your great videos.

[@NoOne-jy6mc]

Hi Phil I have a late 2020 VoltaX (now they are called just VoltX) battery 12V 300Ah LiFePO4, and have it sitting brand new still in the box at 11.05V when fully charged. I try to charge it a couple times each year just to top up, but this time when I went to charge it, it was showing 10.5V which I've never seen such a low voltage before. Since out of warranty, I'm wondering if I can open it and check the cells, maybe there is a bad cell that I can replace somehow? I have 3 more of these brand new same batteries bought at the same time which are all at around 13.2V when fully charged. It's a pity one of them seems ruined at 11.05V, since I was just about to series the whole 4 into a 48V bank with SPF5000 Growatt and about 5-6kw of solar. If I use the 11V one, would it cause problems with the other 3 in series at 13.2V each? Or if I bite the bullet and buy a new one that might sit at 14.6V when fully charged, wouldn't it also cause problems if the other 3 are at 13.2V? Many thanks.

[@user-gx2ej9nb1x]

I purchased a 120 amp/hr VoltX battery from OutBax and a VoltX 30 amp DC to DC charger, 3 days out on a recent trip I noticed my Engel fridge would not run when the engine was shut down, the battery was reading a nominal 14.4 volts and when the Engel fridge attempted to run the voltage rapidly dropped to 7 volts momentarily before rising to 14.4 volts and repeatidly doing the same when the fridge attempted to start, the Engel fridge has a 10.5 volt cutoff built into the control fortunatly to protect the electrics. I am now being sent a 'Queens" brand 120 amp/hr battery as a replacement so I will see how that performes.

[@philsrandomstuff2392]

Sounds like a faulty BMS.

[@michaelzammit9151]

Have you tested any of the slim range from voltx?

[@philsrandomstuff2392]

No sorry I haven’t. I would like to though. But nothing I have would suit a slim case Battery, so it doesn’t make much sense for me to purchase a battery. Maybe if VoltX start paying me to do reviews I’ll do it LOL

[@herbertvonsauerkrautunterh2513]

Either way they're not bad for the price. Use them, abuse them and replace..

[@philsrandomstuff2392]

That’s what I think too.

[@melbournesubtropicfruits9474]

Only just discovered mine from Aldi is a bloody basic wuth no birdy icon - runs ok Vs yours Side of the battery says can run 4 in parallel but only want to do 2 for 200ah but VoltX says no - would you? Thanks - saw your parallel video - Voltx on side kf battery says to discharge b4 connection in parallel not fully charging -ooks like BMSs are crap

[@philsrandomstuff2392]

I run two in parallel with no problems, just remember that paralleling these batteries doesn’t necessarily double their continuous current output so just keep the current draw to the maximum one battery can handle which is 50 A/100 A depending on which model battery you have, this is so you don’t overheat the BMS that’s in these cheap batteries. Just make sure to charge the batteries fully individually before connecting them in parallel. This is done so one battery doesn’t discharge extremely quickly into the battery with the lesser charge.

[@clintAdventures]

Hi phil. Great video. can you please tell me the brand and model number of the bms in the PLUS battery? i have the basic battery and would like to swap the bms to the one they use in the plus battery to run mine in parallel. thanks. regards Clint

[@philsrandomstuff2392]

I will get that that to you today.

[@philsrandomstuff2392]

The Bms is a JBD-HP28SA-S So far with my testing this has proved to be a very good BMS. It has LED indicator lights on the board to show when the BMS is Passively balancing that individual cell.

[@clintAdventures]

Thank you very much for that. I am hoping to swap the bms in my 3 basic ones to these ones so I can parallel them. Can't find this exact bms unfortunately

[@philsrandomstuff2392]

@@clintAdventures The BMS that are in the basic batteries can be paralleled without any issues but your current will be limited to the output of one single battery. This means if the battery has a 50amp continuous output that’s all you’ll be able to get out of the three in parallel. Custom lithium in Queensland Aust has BMS by heltec for sale on there website of different amperage capacity. Check out the link below customlithium.com.au/product-category/spare-parts/bms/

[@clintAdventures]

@@philsrandomstuff2392 the bms in MY basics is different to whats in the basic you have... mine is jbd hp04s024.

[@zoezoe610]

I wrote on your other video and looks like mine has a BMS problem.

[@philsrandomstuff2392]

It’s very easy to damage the BMS by accidentally shorting positive and negative together even if it’s only very quickly. A new BMS is cheap on eBay, pull the battery apart , fit a new one and you are good to go

[@philsrandomstuff2392]

It’s very easy to damage the BMS by accidentally shorting positive and negative together even if it’s only very quickly. A new BMS is cheap on eBay, pull the battery apart , fit a new one and you are good to go

[@nathanhart3849]

Hey Phil, my 2022 basic voltx drops from 13.1v to 12v when running at a 100amps. Would this voltage drop be from the internal cable size? Is it safe to run these batteries at 100amps?

[@philsrandomstuff2392]

100amp is a lot to ask if you only have one battery and the voltage will drop very quickly under this amount of load. Not knowing what type of setup you have or how many batteries you have, you are running these batteries at the maximum discharge so you are at the limit of the capability of the BMS to handle any more load. I don’t know where you are measuring your voltage from, but if it is from a display, I’d be checking the voltage at the post of the battery and at the load to make sure there is no voltage drop in the wiring, but in answering your question, I think 12 V under that load with one battery or two would be okay. When you are looking at battery voltage for state of charge, you are normally looking at the voltage with no load, so if you put 100 A load on the battery for a short period of time and then take the load off and the voltage goes back to 13.8 V or something like that you know the battery is still holding charge . These Battery should be able to handle 100 A that is what the manufacturer states it can, the cabling inside the battery case seems to be adequate to do the job. But remember the more batteries, the better with that amount of load.

[@nathanhart3849]

@Phil’s random stuff thank you for that detailed reply. Greatly appreciate it. I've got one battery, running a 1500w inverter, with a small induction cooktop. Will only use sparingly at 100amps, just day trips when we're away from the caravan. Mainly used to run 40 ltr fridge in back of 4wd and caravan 3 way fridge when in transit. But sounds like dropping to 12v under heavy load is normal-ish. I'll check the volts at battery post and inverter next time to make sure I'm not getting drop somewhere along the way. I'm monitoring using a shunt so that 12v is at battery.

[@philsrandomstuff2392]

@@nathanhart3849 using it that way will work fine.

[@dalepurdon8948]

@@philsrandomstuff2392 Does this mean the basic 100Ah can have a continuous 100Ah current draw? On their website it still says that the continuous current is 50Ah (for the basic battery). Only for the PLUS does it state 100Ah continuous ? Would love to know where they state the new basic battery can do 100ah continuous, as well as whether you have actually tested this? Thanks!

[@philsrandomstuff2392]

@@dalepurdon8948 i’ll look into it and get back to you. But I think BMS on the basic Battery has 100 amp written on it

[@ford351cleveland]

Hello mate hows your back ?? When the next video ?

[@philsrandomstuff2392]

Struggling a bit to get on top of the pain. I’m managing to work but when I’m on my days off work I am very fatigued at the moment so getting the extra videos done on these batteries it’s just going to take a little bit more time than I had hoped, but hopefully I’ll get on top of things in the next two weeks. thank you very much for asking how I am going. Cheers Philip

[@ford351cleveland]

@@philsrandomstuff2392 sorry man i was asking about your health videos dnt see them any more. I am glad your a still able to work and hopefully in good sprits

[@philsrandomstuff2392]

I am going to do a follow-up on my back surgery shortly. I just had a steroid Injection in my back to help with the nerve pain that I am still getting and I want to comment on whether it’s worthwhile or not so I’m going to give it a little bit of time, but one thing to note if you’re a bloke and you have a steroid injection in your back you’ll end up or you could end up with erectile dysfunction‘s for a bit.

[@ford351cleveland]

@@philsrandomstuff2392 Thankyou for the info man. Does the steroid injection help inflammation and healing or just block the pain as i might just ask my doctor in the future as I must take a big trip for work in in middle December and i am scared of getting a re-herniation

[@philsrandomstuff2392]

@@ford351cleveland I don’t blame you about being worried about re-herniation as it’s so easy to happen. The steroid injection helps by reducing inflammation so stops nerve from being so angry, if the nerve isn’t swollen it will give you less pain is the idea from what I understand. My injection didn’t work for me, made the pain worse which can happen as you as putting fluid into a area that already has swelling. The injection has to be placed spot on to work. The only way to stop re-herniation is good core strength, low stress lifestyle and keeping the weight off. Back pain sucks

[@TimBorg]

did you brick it? reviews on ebay say they are reliable did they replace it? or have you fixed it? can you make an update video on the situation for the budget battery

[@zip-tv_]

On Will prowse channel he has come across. Vip bms

[@philsrandomstuff2392]

Ok thanks I will check it out

[@samueln6303]

ρ尺ｏΜ𝐎ᔕᗰ 😑