Well with them I could see why, if their battery goes to low, down goes their plane/heli. If I run out of power, I coast to a stop

Most lipos will fail first from over rated specs, not being built correctly, using them in really cold weather and people just pushing them to their limits. Storing care should be mainly what works for you. Some people will store their lipos in a cool place and it seems to work for them. I just store them in my basement inside a few ceramic pots. I charge them and store over the winter. I charge them before I use them and I've been doing it like that for a while. The only lipos I had that actually scared the crap out of me was my 2 3S Max Amps packs. The problem that we see now is that people will always look at the higher number before questioning where the cells came from and if they're really capable of delivering 30, 35, 40, 45, 50 or 60C. I would like to see them get some sort of data from their sponsored racers to get a base level of an avg. AMP usage at race pace and take that data and cycle their cells/packs at that level and above to see how well it will do. Afterwards rate the pack properly. An example would be: Our pack will deliver 300 cycles at 50A avg. with X amount of % (capacity) left after 300 cycles or our pack will deliver 500 cycles at 35A avg. with X amount of % (capacity) left after 500 cycle and they can even try out X amount of burst amps from data recorded through out a race and give an X amount of time a pack would provide the bursts. Anything above what ever they claim would be up to the user. Yes, it takes time to get a number system going, but a better one would come out of it.

Uhh, cliff notes version of that? :mdr:

EDIT: WEDNESDAY FOLLOW UP

I decided to give Bryan at SMC another today and verify some information about their SMC Lipos, specifically what the safest route is to keep them in a charged and discharged state:

Me: Yes, is this Bryan?
Bryan: Yes it is
Me: Bryan this is Freezebyte again from Montana
Bryan: Hey Freeze, good to hear from you again, what can I do for ya?
Me: Well, I'm calling to give you and update on the condition of my Lipo after I discharged them and left around 1000mAh inside them which put them at around 7.3v. The puffing seem to have gone down a little bit.
Bryan: Ok, you should be in the clear then, the new Lipo cell chemistry is a bit more forgiving then the older batch, so just keep an eye on it.
Me: Sounds good which brings me to my follow up question that I couldn't remember your full answer to. For your guy's SMC Lipos and cells inside them, what is the maximum and safest amount of time to keep them at a fully charge state that won't damage the cells?
Bryan: For our Lipo's, no more then 1 day, 24 hours max. Past that, you greatly increase the risk of causing the chemicals inside our cells to start to break down and risk puffing. I know it sucks, I know its a bit inconvienent for some people but our Lipo's are designed for performance and racing and arn't as forgiving as other "generic" Lipo's. Theres a tradeoff, you either want really good performance Lipo's that require more attention and care or you can have lesser performance but be able to beat the crap out the Lipo for extended periods of time. Its like a Ford Focus ya know, its built to last and go for miles and miles but it sure as hell ain't gonna win you any street races vs a Ferrari. Each one is built for a different reason and use.
Me: Well, that makes perfect sense, I didn't think about that
Bryan: Yeah, the cells we use in our Lipo's are designed to give maximum punch and power for racing needs and that comes at a price, in this case, they require more attention to their charged and discharged state and react poorly when you over or under discharge them vs other Lipos. I know at one race one of the guys their was using Orion packs and was doing pretty good but was having issues over some bigger jumps. He asked if he could borrow one of ours and he was able to clear the jumps no problem now. I"m not saying Orions are crap, they do make good stuff, but I don't think they are geared for real high end demands like our packs are designed for, however the tradeoff is that you can beat, abuse and use them over and over and they just keep taking it. It just a matter of what you want out of the Lipo.
Me: Yeah, i've heard peeps saying that their Turnigys and Zippys are sitting charged for days or weeks on end with no ill effect and last a bit longer
Bryan: Yeah, Orions are apparently the same way, but we've also seen the performance difference between their packs and ours on the track so its either babying a high performance pack more or be able to hammer and beat up a pack but have less performance, you can't have both.
Me: Well, that makes alot of sense now that you put it that way. I"m glad I asked and now know how to properly care for your guy's particular Lipo's and cells. Thanks so much again Bryan, I really appreciate it
Bryan: Hey your most welcome, glad to be of help. Give us a call if you have any other questions or concerns, thats what were hear for. Oh and congrads on your truck in the new RC Car action! Sweet looking color scheme, simple but nicely laid out with the wheels and tires and even nicer scenery and bashing spot, im jealous!
Me: Lol, well thanks so much! I am pretty proud of it myself and I just heard that my truck also made RC Driver in the Jan 2010 issue!
Bryan: Really? We'll congrads again, I'll keep my eye out for that one too! I'd kill to have a bashing spot like you have up there, especially with that scenery!
Me: Ironic, you want my bashing spot, and I want your guys big races and events, lol Thanks again Bryan, take care!
Bryan: You too freeze!

So there ya have it folks, straight from the horses mouth. Needless to say, i've decided I want more "bulletproof and forgiving" Lipos for my needs. I hate babying crap as it doesn't make this hobby fun when I have to spend extra time and effort into something as simple as a battery. Im gonna order some Turnigys when my SMC's give out and take this as another valuable lesson learned in the new world of Lipo and RC usage.

Hmm. Maybe so, maybe its complete bullshido. I don't own them, so IDK.

Either way sounds like a giant pain in the ass and terrible for a bashing rig. G/l w/ the Turnigys

I just hope you don't actually believe that bullshit he's spewing about them being delicate because they're made for racing. He's trying to cover his ass IMO.

skip the turnigy packs also they are no better than smc.

go with the Hyperion G3 vx series youll be HAPPY

Back to your Life question tho

I use them in my Savage Flux, and am very happy with it.

4s A123 is a bit lacking, 5s is the sweet spot but you need to really attack one battery holder with a dremel to get them to fit, and loose the lids.

Sounds like SMC are just puffers! I stick to Polyquest for Lipos, perhaps try a pair of these Turnigy Soft Case Lifepo4 packs on hobbycity and go up to say a 22 pinion.

For the price... it's worth a bash! ($30 a pack 4600mah 30/40C, disable LVC, wooohhoooo!)

For those prices? Hell no!

hobbycity just came out with some 40c 5000mah flightmax packs. they can be charged at 5c and they are dirt cheap.

The hyperion packs are cheap compared to Kokams & TP packs, and proven quality. The hobbycity 40c packs look nice though, may be the guinee pig next month when it comes to getting lipos for the TXT-1 project...

I've been using SMC's for awhile. I really liked my 24c 5200 packs, they were very good packs, that I got around 100 cycles, 6 mos out of with no real noticeable difference in performance. I passed them down the road when I got my SMC 9000's. Me and my buddies got 8 packs that we have all abused in our E-revo's. This was around 6 mos ago. As new they performed much better then my Neu 7800 packs. By far the best batteries I've ever seen. If I was a racer and only concerned about initial performance these would be great.
Currently their capacity and punch have noticeably fallen off, the Neu's are slightly better, but have only about 20 cycles. The SMC's probably have around 50-75 abusive cycles, I normally run geared for low 50's on 4s. My buddy's ,who also got a set at the same time, but runs alot less frequently, performs about the same. There might be something to leaving them stored at partial charge, or not. But either way unless they have something that is proven better, they will not be my next pack.

Another player in the Life cells, but lets see if the S boys will go MA style on prices: http://www.redrc.net/2009/11/speed-p...of-life-packs/. They offer the choices I mentioned before. Looks like MA is lacking behind and have they gone a bit quiet? I'll be posting this at similar threads in here, so in advanced.....SORRY FOR SPAMMING.

Where to buy these Speed Power LiFe packs?