A123 10kwh

Hey all,

I have been gifted 4 of these A123 batteries…



I am just charging and testing capacity now to confirm health but have been told they are 4 years old. No idea regrading the cycles done.

here is the data sheet for them…



Running two in parallel and then in series should net me a 48v system of around 8-10kwh of storage.

What battery management system do you all recommend? I already have a solax battery management system and inverter to match for it.
any guidance welcome thanks

Hey all. I have charged three up to about 90% charge and they are all slowly loosing charge. Is this a management system thing or indicative of stuffed cells?

I have found the cases! Got them dropped off after I asked the guy who gave them to me what application they came out of.
They are in a state of partial disassembly but I can see all the parts are still there… shouldn’t be hard to reassemble... Hopefully

the branding on the side says “BLUES” tag line “advanced energy reserve”.

also it says 52v above the main outlet. Is this an American voltage standard? How would this go on a 48v system?

any help or knowledge about either the “Blues“ system or A123 batteries appreciated as I am struggling to find any info on the cases.

Scottietheyoung said:

Hey all. I have charged three up to about 90% charge and they are all slowly loosing charge. Is this a management system thing or indicative of stuffed cells?

Click to expand...

Could be different reasons.
If you are able to completely disconnect the BMS (if there is one internal to the pack) then you can isolate any possible auto-balancing circuitry.

If there is no BMS internally, and the cells are loosing voltage, could be that they are self discharging due to defects, internal shorts, or they need to be cycled a few times because the electrolyte needs to be refreshed. Some times when cells sit a long time, the electrolyte can favor one side and it begins to separate inside. Cycling a few times causes it to be restored to proper function, some times. I'd say cycle them about 5 times and see if there's any improvement in voltage drop and capacity
This would mean you'd need to monitor capacity during charge, and discharge for each cycle so you can properly compare. That way even if they get a bit better over time, you can see if the charge capacity is getting closer to, no change, or further from the discharge capacity. If you dump 5Ah in, and only get 4Ah out, there's an issue. After 5 cycles you still have this variance, there's an issue. If you dump 4.5Ah in, and get 4.3Ah back, then it's getting better.

Note: you'll always have less coming out due to heat during charging. also, as a cell is reconditioned the capacity going in will mostly drop as less is converted to heat. Also, 5Ah was just a random number, not what these should be capable of doing