RC10Talk - The Net's Largest Vintage R/C Community

RC10th wrote:If your going to store lipos for a little while don't store them fully charged as they can puff up, store them at about 60%.

Yup, that happened to one of mine a couple years ago. I forgot to take it down from a full charge and left it for a while, and it did exactly that.

You can de-puff packs by throwing them in the freezer. I have two in there right now waiting for disposal. These are PtoTek batteries, the only brand I've ever had puffing issues with.

As for charging, nothing fancy, just check on them every so often, and never leave the house while they are charging. I have a charging bag, but rarely use it. I charge at 5-10 amps, depending on the charger I'm using.

I charge mine in a fire-proof charging bag that I got at Hobbytown for like $15. I do charge in the house, and sometimes in the garage on the workbench, and never unattended. Although most chargers will shut off if they sense a short, I can't trust that either. The damage may have already been done.

The best thing you can do is just use common sense while charging. When you're not using your packs, keep them stored at 3.7V per cell in a fireproof lipo bag. Especially if you have kids or pets.

Is there a temperature range for keeping lipos stored ? What if they were kept at storage voltage, in a lipo bag, in a cooler outside on the patio ? Think it would it get to cold or hot ? If they went off the fire would be kept inside the bag and the lid would pop open from the pressure to vent smoke.

yellowdatsun wrote:You can de-puff packs by throwing them in the freezer. I have two in there right now waiting for disposal. These are PtoTek batteries, the only brand I've ever had puffing issues with.

As for charging, nothing fancy, just check on them every so often, and never leave the house while they are charging. I have a charging bag, but rarely use it. I charge at 5-10 amps, depending on the charger I'm using.

Stupid question, but if you can de-puff packs in the freezer, are they safe to charge again?

As for me, I charge mine in the basement in Lipo bags under observation. All these "fire" threads really have me paranoid.

Regarding charging rate, 1C is fine for me. I don't think there is value in charging Lipo batteries at a faster rate anyway, is there? Other than the pack being fully charged faster...

I have found that they tend to re-puff after being charged again a few times. You could probably freezer them and use them somewhat indefinitely. The freezer tends to be an end-of-life sorta deal for me, de-puff them so they aren't ready to explode, then dispose of them properly.

Is there other advantages of lipos over nimh besides longer run times ?

Less weight, and higher discharge rates. The "C" rating gives you an idea of how fast the battery can discharge it's power. The higher the C rating, the faster your car is. Not something you can do with NIMH batteries.

Lipo is MILES away better than NiMh for RC applications. just need little more attention and care. well worth it.

Lipo's don't drop much voltage expecially under load, so your battery pretty much has the same punch at the start of the pack as it does at the end.

Keeps basically the same charge for the entire "run" time (when it's cutoff by the esc), then drops like a rock over a few seconds, and the car stops. Great for races, but sometimes when you practice and it dies, it just stops somewhere on the track, you cant limp it back like NIMH batteries.

Unlike NIMH and NICD where they start losing power as soon as you start using them.

Beatnik wrote:Is there other advantages of lipos over nimh besides longer run times ?

They don't technically have longer run times...a 4000 mAh NiMH has exactly the same run time as a 4000 mAh LiPo. As the others have stated, the NiMH gets weaker as it discharges, while the LiPo maintains its punch throughout the charge range.

I often wonder why power tool lipo batteries (Bosch, Dewalt, etc...) don't seem to have the complexities of the RC battery packs. You plug them into the provided fast charger, and use them. No lipo bags or swollen battery packs etc.. It would be cool if there was an adapter so you could run your RC vehicles on power tool batteries.

- Limestang

limestang wrote:I often wonder why power tool lipo batteries (Bosch, Dewalt, etc...) don't seem to have the complexities of the RC battery packs. You plug them into the provided fast charger, and use them. No lipo bags or swollen battery packs etc.. It would be cool if there was an adapter so you could run your RC vehicles on power tool batteries.

- Limestang

Those are a different internal chemical composition, they don't have the punch or can take the power load RC cars use. Honestly they'd be super turds, or would actually end up being more dangerous

Hi all,

Does anyone have one of these or heard of it?

http://www.bat-safe.com/web/

I posted this on another forum and got basically nothing, which was a bit surprising. I am a complete newbie so reading about LiPos scare the living heck out of me. I am also looking to prevent stink eye from my wife too.

The website is horrible, which doesn't help but it started as a kickstarter campaign that was very successful.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/228823410/bat-safe

The inventor is the same guy that developed the Rotormast V-22 RC VTOL aircraft and my guess is this box is probably more marketed towards the our propeller cousins.

For $49, it's hard not to give it a shot when I have no other experiences.

Thoughts?