been away for a while. Lipo's not taken care of..??

[simplechamp]

Right now my money is still on 3.8V/cell. Since that's the generally accepted amount (for whatever reason that may be) I'm going to stick with that until I find evidence that suggests doing something different.

The problem is that it's so hard to get empirical data here, everything is anecdotal e.g. "Well this one guy at my club stored his batteries at XXX volts/cell and his lasted way longer than mine". There's so many factors to account for that it's nearly impossible to get valid data from all of us users.

And think about how long it would take to do a true standardized test: charge lipo, let it sit for 1 week or 2 weeks or 3 months? Then discharge it and repeat about 250 times? Better start on that experiment now, might get some definitive results by the time lipos are old news and we're all using some new latest and greatest battery technology.

[zeropointbug]

Well I always knew that lipo's can not be fully charged for extended periods of time... I have always seen that, like BrianG mentioned, it was an issue of cathode (or anode?) corrosion that starts to happen around 4.0volts, and increases exponentially as voltage increases... I remember reading this somewhere, but I am at a loss about where. Also, I find it convincing enough that battery makers state the same thing, as you would think they wouldn't mention anything, as the shorter a battery lasts, the sooner you have to buy a new one. Unless... it's a conspiracy on the pack makers, and it's actually damaging for them to be anything but fully charged? (highly doubtful)

[lutach]

I've been using lipos for a while now and I store them at different voltages due to sometimes being lazy. I haven't noticed any difference at all in performance. I have lipo packs that are over 4yrs old and still shows the same level of performance. I still have some older 3S2P packs without the balance leads as well and they are still awesome for 10-15C rated cells (They are rated for a higher C rate since they held over 3.5V at around 20-25C bursts).