Lipo battery advice please

[howie4305]

I bought some Lipo batteries and a lipo charger at the weekend.
I would like some advice on how to safely charge my batteries as I've heard some horror stories
Thanks in anticipation of your help
Steve

[gunslinger11]

Re: Lipo battery advice please

let the LiPo charger do the work. Usually they have set programs that they follow dependant on your battery type.(Lipo, Lifepo4 etc.) Just punch in the charge current and the cell count, make sure the ballance leads are connected and press start. Check the guide that should have come with the battery for the maximum charge rate your lipo will accept.

Most people will also tell you to charge them in a lipo bag, this should prevent them from burning your living room if they do decide to go tits up.

If you need more specific advice, drop over your charger model number.
I charge my lipos at 1/2 their advertises charge rate, this may be over cautious but i am sure it puts less strain on the battery, and hopefull this means less chance of them going boom.

[badger906]

Re: Lipo battery advice please

charge your lipo batteries at 1C (C rating is given to the capacity of the battery) so charge a 2000mah lipo at 2amp, or a 1600mah at 1.6amp ect.

Depending on your charger depends on how much flexibility you have in the charge process. If its one of those all in one cheapo kong power balance chargers, then the only options you have is to select between 2 and 3 cell charge, and 2 variable mah settings.

If its something like a Turnigy charger then youve got way more input settings, and the charger itself will check on the number of cells of your pack, and the number of cells youve set it to charge and will give a warning if theres an error.

Dont be scared of lipos, they are no more dangerous than NIMH or NICD batteries, infact ive seen more fires with conventional batteries than i have lipos. Admittedly ive witnessed first hand a few lipo fires at RC car races, and yes the fires are bad, and no extinguishers dont do squat.. but an exploding NI cell, makes one hell of a mess, with hot metal shrapnel to match!!

[No1_sonuk]

Re: Lipo battery advice please

Don't leave it unattended while charging.

I do mine on a metal tea tray to reduce the risk of igniting combustible materials like wood, carpet, etc.
You just need to be careful that you don't have exposed contacts touch the tray. That would be bad...

[howie4305]

Re: Lipo battery advice please

Thanks for all the advice guys
I've also bought a lipo bag, so fingers crossed I won't burn my house down
Steve

[badger906]

Re: Lipo battery advice please

i charge mine on the floor.. made of carpet, next to a nice wooden desk and a very flammable bed!
Fires happen when charged incorrectly, they arent a ticking time bomb thats going to go boom if you sneeze on them..

[No1_sonuk]

Re: Lipo battery advice please

It might if it's a particularly wet sneeze...

[seansamurai1]

Re: Lipo battery advice please

Dont leave ANY battery unattended whilst charging.

[Stickybomb]

Re: Lipo battery advice please

i charge mine on the floor.. made of carpet, next to a nice wooden desk and a very flammable bed!
Fires happen when charged incorrectly, they arent a ticking time bomb thats going to go boom if you sneeze on them..

Same here. Used them for RC planes and cars for years and the only time mine have ever had an issue is when I whacked an electric converted hyper 7 into a wall at about 40mph... even then it just smoked.
You all leave your phones charging unattended and they use Li-ion, another type of lithium battery and you've never had one of those explode have you (unless you use an iPhone, but that's your fault.)

[badger906]

Re: Lipo battery advice please

i think it must be electric conversions ha! only fires ive seen were in losi 8ight 2.0 conversions

I once had a lipo fly out ofr my 1/10th touring car in a race and it hit the wall at about 60mph, there were lots of "ooooooooo"'s from people watching, i just clipped the hard case back together and i still use that battery in my airsoft guns that take large type packs.

[druid799]

Re: Lipo battery advice please

Go on YouTube matey , I did . I think the instructions with my charger had been translated from Latvian to spanish to mandarin to English it was so incomprehensible ! Watched a 5min YouTube and never looked back ! Once your up and running you'll realise there's nothing to it just as long as you don't act like a c**k with the batts