Just a FYI as to my experience.
I called so many so called "LiFePO4 dealers" as of March 08 and still do not have a battery.
I called and Emailed the following:
Foxx-spoke to owner once, then no call back(3 calls)
Yesa-paid for battery and have not received it(many communication via email)
Lifebatt-left two emails and 2 phone messages with Don Harmon on answering machine. NO RESPONSE. Now I see his name all over here. I won't do business with him.
Ping- no batteries left.
Ebikes.ca- None/However, very professional and helpful advice.
Anyone else have any positive or negative experience please post.
Thanks
I got my battery from Ping, great person to do business with. I wonder what's up with his battery business, I have heard different things.
Deron.
Gee, if you had ordered your battery from Ping in march, you'd have about a thousand miles on it by now. I ordered mine in April, and he shipped it 10 days later, and it arrived about the first of may, within 6 hours of his predicted arrival. Got a great price by not using the auction route, and the battery works great as long as you buy the largest sise. No cut outs, and it even survived a crash.
The olympics are really screwing up chinas buisness. What I read on other threads was Pings factory can't get a steady supply of cells and his shipping has become a nightmare. I read a thread from a guy who's battery keeps returning to Ping after about 2 weeks. I kinda saw that lifpo4 could get scarce fast so I bought a long time before I had the cash. Thank god I knew tax rebate money was coming. I wouldn't be suprised if other lifpo4 dealers are having a hard time shipping their product.
Be the pack leader.
36 volt sla schwinn beach cruiser
36 volt lifepo4 mongoose mtb
24 volt sla + nicad EV Global
Yeah, tried Ping and emailed me back stating that he is saving his batteries for the auctions. So, he would not let me order directly.
Glad to hear the positive experience.
I also noticed on goldenmotor.com. They have the 36volt 10AH with key, case and battery for $450.00 shipped.
Specs are 20AH continuous and 35 peak so they are not very powerful on paper. I tried to search for reviews but unable to find any.
I wish I did order in March but I was still doing research on what battery to use. This is my first bike(project) so I wanted to research all avenues. I guess in the time it took me to research, I missed the boat for now. But you are right, if I ordered in March, I would be all set.
Too bad, I was among the last to get one with no problems, and had fretted for at least a month about whether it would do the job without cutting out on this big hill i live on top of. I was about to mess my pants when I clicked on the pay pal. In march it was not so clear if a ping battery was a good idea for a bike above 250 watts. Ping will be back, and when he is he'll get slammed, so it's the waiting blues for you i guess. If you have the money, what about those gecko cells? Aren't they buy it now on ebay? If you monitor very carefully you could run em bare till you scare up a bms. Just no long rides till then.
Be the pack leader.
36 volt sla schwinn beach cruiser
36 volt lifepo4 mongoose mtb
24 volt sla + nicad EV Global
Yeah kinda sucks about the batteries. With regards to the gecko batteries, they seem attractive now, but at the time and being my first ebike, I did not want to drop a total of almost $2000 on a bike. Now it seems this may be the only option. I don't like the fact that I have to build my own pack, put a BMS on the gecko batteries and purchase the charger as well for that price either.
I am probably going to go with the NiMH battery from ebikes.ca. It is a 36v 8AH, which sells for $290 and probably will do the job. Rated at 3C continuous. I have the golden motor kit. I am hoping it does not draw more than 24 amps.
I was the first one here to take a chance and order a pack from Ping when they were getting dissed as duct tape specials. My original 48V 20 AH is still going strong in a powerful electric scooter. I got a second pack, a 48v 15AH one for an e-bike, right before all hell broke out. That thing gives me 35 miles on a charge with pedal assist and weighs only 15 pounds. No cutting out issues with either of them.
I also need one more pack for a second e-bike project I am working on. I heard the 3rd generation packs from FOXX power are top quality, but they are bulky. They have a 36V 10AH available for about $400 with a "balancing charger" (no output BMS apparantly needed-Doug at EV tech confirmed this).
I like the compact size of the LIPO packs available at itselectric.ca, but I was told by Doug at EV tech those cells do not hold up well in situations where you are drawing 2C out of them.
Doug has some LIFEPO4 packs in stock and available that are I believe the same as FOXX Power and he is really impressed with their output. he is testing a 36V 20AH one that seems to have an endless amount of AH on an e-bike application-like 60 miles.
I may just wait for Ping to get his cells back in stock again.