huh? tear up a new tesla pack?

[3roomlab]

@ about 7:30 ... he does something with the hoses ... is that battery coolant?

[max_torque]

I suspect he's just flushing clean water through the cooling system to remove any traces of anti-freeze, which makes handling  and storing the cells sticky/dirty

[max_torque]

From the Author himself:

"I had to first drain the coolant loop. I couldn't find anything that would mate with the quick disconnect easily, so, I rigged up some PC liquid cooling tubing to each outlet, which fit somewhat snug inside them. I then fed air into one side and drained from the other until I didn't get any more coolant. About a gallon of coolant was liberated"


http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/showthread.php/34934-Pics-Info-Inside-the-battery-pack/page24

[okashira]

I suspect he's just flushing clean water through the cooling system to remove any traces of anti-freeze, which makes handling  and storing the cells sticky/dirty

The cells never touch coolant. they just use some thermally conductive putty to the heat exchange tubes.
I don't think he will take out the cells, he is using the modules as they are. Actually, I asked him to sell me some cells , or  a module, and he refused, and would even tell me what he paid for the pack, lol. (this is the 2nd pack he bought)

[eas]

Actually, I asked him to sell me some cells , or  a module, and he refused, and would even tell me what he paid for the pack, lol. (this is the 2nd pack he bought)

I saw an interview where he gave a hint at the price he paid. I don't remember the number, but as I recall, it worked out to ~$3/cell, which is a bargain. I've been able to score new old stock laptop packs with similar cells for about that price, but usually they are at least 2x that.

[MacAttak]

I don't really care for his choice in wrap color. Pastel yellow just hurts the eyes.

[sleemanj]

I saw an interview where he gave a hint at the price he paid. I don't remember the number, but as I recall, it worked out to ~$3/cell, which is a bargain.

Well, sure, except that there's like 7 or 8000 cells in a pack isn't there?  $24,000 is a sizable chunk of change whoever you are.

[Corporate666]

I saw an interview where he gave a hint at the price he paid. I don't remember the number, but as I recall, it worked out to ~$3/cell, which is a bargain.

Well, sure, except that there's like 7 or 8000 cells in a pack isn't there?  $24,000 is a sizable chunk of change whoever you are.

Maybe he's a brilliant businessman.

Buy the pack for $24k.  Part out the cells and sell them as high quality USA-made brand new cells for $6/ea - taking in $48k.

Rinse and repeat.  If you can pull that off once a month, $300k/year in profit for a couple days work parting out the pack and separating out the cells. 

I used to know a guy who would buy one or two of the new model top-of-the-line motorcycles from each of the major manufacturers every year.  He'd bring them home on a truck and rip them apart.  On a new bike, parts are scarce from the OEM, and this guy had a brand new full supply of parts. 

For a bike that cost $10k, he would get $20k back over a month or two.  Do a bike every other week and that's $260k a year in profit for pulling apart new motorcycles.  Not bad.

[okashira]

I saw an interview where he gave a hint at the price he paid. I don't remember the number, but as I recall, it worked out to ~$3/cell, which is a bargain.

Well, sure, except that there's like 7 or 8000 cells in a pack isn't there?  $24,000 is a sizable chunk of change whoever you are.

Maybe he's a brilliant businessman.

Buy the pack for $24k.  Part out the cells and sell them as high quality USA-made brand new cells for $6/ea - taking in $48k.

Rinse and repeat.  If you can pull that off once a month, $300k/year in profit for a couple days work parting out the pack and separating out the cells. 

I used to know a guy who would buy one or two of the new model top-of-the-line motorcycles from each of the major manufacturers every year.  He'd bring them home on a truck and rip them apart.  On a new bike, parts are scarce from the OEM, and this guy had a brand new full supply of parts. 

For a bike that cost $10k, he would get $20k back over a month or two.  Do a bike every other week and that's $260k a year in profit for pulling apart new motorcycles.  Not bad.

He's using the packs for off-grid storage.

$3 ...  ... so hard to get 1 good cell in china web store ... and i guess he just have to do it this way ...

what exactly is the cell? Li-Mn ? or Lifepo4 ? hmmm i thought lifepo4 was a safer/better battery

just curious ... if energy density wasnt high on the list ... in the lithium range ... lifepo4 would be the safest of all of them yes? or would it be li-mn(MNKE?) due to the safe valve construction in 26650 cells?

NCA is the cream of the crop. Panasonic NCA cells are pretty abuse tolerant, have the among the best calendar life, great cycle life treated properly, quite safe, and great capacity and power.

[eas]

I saw an interview where he gave a hint at the price he paid. I don't remember the number, but as I recall, it worked out to ~$3/cell, which is a bargain.

Well, sure, except that there's like 7 or 8000 cells in a pack isn't there?  $24,000 is a sizable chunk of change whoever you are.

Sure, but he already owns a Tesla Model S of his own, so he clearly has a large discretionary income (almost infinitely larger than my own, at this point).  Plus, it sounds like he is using this for solar energy storage, so it is basically an investment in a capital asset that will probably be depreciated over a long time span.

Maybe he's a brilliant businessman.

Buy the pack for $24k.  Part out the cells and sell them as high quality USA-made brand new cells for $6/ea - taking in $48k.

If he's a brilliant businessman then he'll be factoring in the labor cost of parting them out, and the cost of selling them in small quantities.

I think the best business would probably be selling the subassemblies.  The labor required to get them broken out is probably relatively modest, the transaction size would be large enough that transaction costs would be managagable. The likely buyer would be someone who wanted a bank of cells and would appreciate the added value that the modules would save them a bunch of labor building up a pack from individual cells. You'd probably also get people who were happy to tear down the modules themselves in order to get premium, lightly used cells at a reasonable price without having to spend $24K.

[okashira]

I saw an interview where he gave a hint at the price he paid. I don't remember the number, but as I recall, it worked out to ~$3/cell, which is a bargain.

Well, sure, except that there's like 7 or 8000 cells in a pack isn't there?  $24,000 is a sizable chunk of change whoever you are.

Sure, but he already owns a Tesla Model S of his own, so he clearly has a large discretionary income (almost infinitely larger than my own, at this point).  Plus, it sounds like he is using this for solar energy storage, so it is basically an investment in a capital asset that will probably be depreciated over a long time span.

Maybe he's a brilliant businessman.

Buy the pack for $24k.  Part out the cells and sell them as high quality USA-made brand new cells for $6/ea - taking in $48k.

If he's a brilliant businessman then he'll be factoring in the labor cost of parting them out, and the cost of selling them in small quantities.

I think the best business would probably be selling the subassemblies.  The labor required to get them broken out is probably relatively modest, the transaction size would be large enough that transaction costs would be managagable. The likely buyer would be someone who wanted a bank of cells and would appreciate the added value that the modules would save them a bunch of labor building up a pack from individual cells. You'd probably also get people who were happy to tear down the modules themselves in order to get premium, lightly used cells at a reasonable price without having to spend $24K.

I think it's more likely it's a guy with too much money looking for attention. ;-)

The problem with the modules is they are only 21.6V each, and someone looking for that large of a pack probably wants a higher voltage.
Rewiring it for higher voltage would not be trivial. You'd basically have to destroy the design.

[cosmicray]

The cells are 18650 type. See the new listing (as of today) at sparkfun. USPS regs says max of 3 uninstalled batteries per parcel, but sparkfun is being cautious and limiting to 2.

[okashira]

The cells are 18650 type. See the new listing (as of today) at sparkfun. USPS regs says max of 3 uninstalled batteries per parcel, but sparkfun is being cautious and limiting to 2.

Heh. you made me think that Sparkfun was selling Tesla batteries.

Those batteries are crap and not a good value.

Get some genuine Panasonic or LG or Samsung cells from Mountain Electronics LLC or Fasttech and they will be same price and MUCH better quality.

[Corporate666]

If he's a brilliant businessman then he'll be factoring in the labor cost of parting them out, and the cost of selling them in small quantities.

That part is easy... listing many of the same item on eBay is very simple, and you can automate the process to where you click a button and everything prints and charges.  One person can easily process 200 orders per day, and even if each order was for a single cell, it's a max of 15% of your profit gone in labor if you hire someone to do it, and it would take 2 months of normal work days to move all the cells.  And if demand is higher, you can easily scale to whatever level is needed.