I don't like having to be the only one here that tries to warn people of the danger of Lithium batteries, BUT:
Most of what CALB makes is LiFePO4 (LFP), but you need to know exactly what you have before you attempt to use them! The max voltages are dependent on the chemistry. YOU CANNOT GUESS OR ASSUME! ALL Lithium chemistries must have a BMS that protects EACH cell from undercharge/overcharge. LFP is safer than Ternary (3 metals, such as Nickel Cobalt Manganese/NCM), but both can emit toxic gases if abused that can kill people quickly if emitted in a closed space, such as a garage. Ternary can easily go into thermal runaway, which will cause a cell to get hot enough that it can put adjacent cells into thermal runaway. THIS HAPPENS FAST! The most common way to have this happen is to overcharge a cell, or to attempt to recharge a cell that was discharged too low. All production EVs house Lithium batteries in a sealed envelope that contains and protects them, and is designed to help mitigate fire/explosion if something goes wrong. Even cells with proper BMS can have separator failure from random quality issues, and even huge companies building high-quality cells are not immune! With Lead you can mistreat them and do almost anything, and usually the worst that happens is you kill them, or maybe vent some fumes or spill a little acid. Lithium is not like this, you have to use them properly and respect them, they contain a lot of stored energy, and include oxiders inside, so if you have an accident, there is no easy way to stop the resulting conflagration. You can't put the fire out with a fire extinguisher! Search on Youtube for "Lithium battery fire" and watch a few videos before you take on something you might regret. Know what you are doing before you do it. Tesla uses a small 4 cell ternary battery of the "12v" system in most of the newer cars now, and it's only 99 watt-hours, and not much larger than a can of beer, but the fire it makes is easily enough to burn any building down! Here's my video showing what happens when people attempt to charge one of these when it's been discharged too low: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a4l-YT1I6A "With great power comes great responsibility" On Mon, Feb 23, 2026 at 10:43 PM Daniel Eyk via EV <[email protected]> wrote: > I recently sent an email about lithium batteries and I want to thankyou for > replying as > it helped me a lot. > > I have a followup question about how to hook up the lithium batteries and > what > parts are needed to do that. I am used to the old lead acid batteries and > after looking > at my battery box, I realized that I don't know how to connect the > batteries. > > Also, someone asked me what kind of lithium batteries I have. They are > Calb lithium ion batteries. They have a red cap and a black cap and there > is > a barcode with this number on it. NSA 601305040234. I don't know if that > will > help or not in identifying the batteries, but that is what it says. > > Well, if anyone can tell me what parts I need and maybe cables, I > would appreciate it. I did get around $300 worth of cables based on my > knowledge of lead acid batteries and hate to lose that value, but you > can't have everything. > > Thanks in advance for any information you can provide. > > Dan Eyk > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: < > http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20260223/a965d6e5/attachment.htm > > > _______________________________________________ > Address messages to [email protected] > No other addresses in TO and CC fields > HELP: http://www.evdl.org/help/ > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20260223/7302dfed/attachment.htm> _______________________________________________ Address messages to [email protected] No other addresses in TO and CC fields HELP: http://www.evdl.org/help/
