Bought a Tesla 24v 5.3Kwh battery, to keep or sell?

Joey Kendrick

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Mar 9, 2018
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Hey all,

I picked up a 5.3kwh teslabattery out of a 2016 model s from a local guy for $300 yesterday. It has 4 bad cells in it, but the rest of the cells test good and it's sitting at 23.7v currently. No water damage, it just had some impact damage in the corner that caused a couple cells to go bad.

Now I have 1000s of cells from laptops batteries and hundreds of laptop batteries sitting in a box that I still need to go through. I had purchased thosefor ~$0.05/cell, with more on the way. So I have no shortage of cells for my powerwall build already.

So the question is, should I sell the Tesla battery since they sell for so much and just use the profit on other things (I.E. buy more batteries for cheaper), or incorporate it in to my system?

I'm leaning towards the selling side. What do you guys think?
 
The Tesla cells will last a lot of cycles, I would keep them as the base capacity and then add in the laptop cells as you go.
You cought a right bargain at $300....
 
completelycharged said:
The Tesla cells will last a lot of cycles, I would keep them as the base capacity and then add in the laptop cells as you go.
You cought a right bargain at $300....

Yeah the guy had it listed on CL for a few months, I just happen to live in an area where not many people are in to this sort of thing. I've been able to get laptop batteries for cheap/free by asking the computer repair places for them. Most of them are just glad to get rid of them.
 
You really scored on that deal! That is an amazing price... those packs generally sell for $1200-1500 each depending on where you look.

I can get them in bulk, but I don't really get any prices that are that much better than that.

You did good. I got some large format EV cells out of Fiat 500e, but the power density of the Tesla packs are substantially better.
 
CrimpDaddy said:
You really scored on that deal! That is an amazing price... those packs generally sell for $1200-1500 each depending on where you look.

I can get them in bulk, but I don't really get any prices that are that much better than that.

You did good. I got some large format EV cells out of Fiat 500e, but the power density of the Tesla packs are substantially better.

Yeah, see that's why I'm leaning on the side ofselling it, since they sell for so much and they sell quickly. In my mind, I could pay myself back the $300 cost then use the profit to keep working on my powerwall project (and other projects),since my powerwall project is kind of an hour a day backburner project currently and i'm in no hurry to get it done. It would be a long time before I have a use for the tesla battery.

On the other hand, I know that they're damn good cells (better cells than I need honestly) for a damn good price....
 
300$ for 5kwh battery pack?

Man that is an excellent deal. That is under 100$ per kWh! Keep it at all costs.
 
Most people willing to pay the going rate want a fully functional module. Which is also why you got a deal on it.

You could try and sell it but you wouldnt make as much as you would like which is why I would keep it.

The only problem with a Model S packs is they miserable to dissemble... the plastic sticks to the battery, its crums and bits everywhere, and you need to wrap and add an insulator ring to every cell...

Still worth it for $300, but dont expect to sell it for the $1000+ value. Even at $1 per cell, its a good deal, but the processing is tedious which is why you got an deal for the per cell value of what we expect around here.

The real value of buying these packs complete/working are not the cells themselves, but the packaging of them. Look at all the effort we go though to make modules... labor savings
 
CrimpDaddy said:
Most people willing to pay the going rate want a fully functional module. Which is also why you got a deal on it.

You could try and sell it but you wouldnt make as much as you would like which is why I would keep it.

The only problem with a Model S packs is they miserable to dissemble... the plastic sticks to the battery, its crums and bits everywhere, and you need to wrap and add an insulator ring to every cell...

Still worth it for $300, but dont expect to sell it for the $1000+ value. Even at $1 per cell, its a good deal, but the processing is tedious which is why you got an deal for the per cell value of what we expect around here.

The real value of buying these packs complete/working are not the cells themselves, but the packaging of them. Look at all the effort we go though to make modules... labor savings

That's some good perspective. Yeah just looking at this sucker it looks like it would be a PAIN to take apart. Definitely wouldn't come apart by twisting in the vice!!
 
There are some videos on YouTube about pack disassembly, its pretty tedious but its probably worth the effort. 400+ cells all from the same batch would would all just about test the same.

Alternatively I just like looking at it... really well engineered and we have yet to see a DIY pack that can really hold a candle to something like that. The model S pack has inspired a lot of the wall builders to do individual cell level fuses, but still nothing packaged as well, durable, or with thermal management for heavy loads.

Really a shame to tear it apart haha.
 
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