Damnit, the Lipo battery industry needs better standards!

[BrianG]

Another thing is maybe don't charge to exactly 4.2v/cell. I set my CC/CV threshold on my charger to 4.15v/cell. You lose very little runtime but that extra 0.05v/cell gives you a little wiggle room in case the balance is not perfect. That way, there is less of a chance for a cell to exceed 4.2v by the end of the charge.

[lutach]

I've been storing a few of lipo packs I don't use anymore fully charged for a few years now just to see if this claim is correct. Well, none has puffed and I even charged a couple and ran them. Well, they still performed the same way they did before I stored them. A couple of the packs doesn't have balancing wires on them and no problem at all. I hardly balance any of my packs and none have shown any sign of puffing. Now one pack that I don't use anymore is composed of many cells and that packs has been stored fully charged for almost 3yrs now. I only check the voltage to see how far it has drained and it is at 12.3v, not bad when fully charged is was 12.6v.

Originally Posted by lutach

I've been storing a few of lipo packs I don't use anymore fully charged for a few years now just to see if this claim is correct. Well, none has puffed and I even charged a couple and ran them. Well, they still performed the same way they did before I stored them. A couple of the packs doesn't have balancing wires on them and no problem at all. I hardly balance any of my packs and none have shown any sign of puffing. Now one pack that I don't use anymore is composed of many cells and that packs has been stored fully charged for almost 3yrs now. I only check the voltage to see how far it has drained and it is at 12.3v, not bad when fully charged is was 12.6v.

So...... what the conclusion you can come to in this situation with SMC's and their claims in regarding how to properly care for their Lipo's vs other manufacturers?

[lutach]

Originally Posted by Freezebyte

So...... what the conclusion you can come to in this situation with SMC's and their claims in regarding how to properly care for their Lipo's vs other manufacturers?

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?

Originally Posted by BrianG

Another thing is maybe don't charge to exactly 4.2v/cell. I set my CC/CV threshold on my charger to 4.15v/cell. You lose very little runtime but that extra 0.05v/cell gives you a little wiggle room in case the balance is not perfect. That way, there is less of a chance for a cell to exceed 4.2v by the end of the charge.

Wouldn't that be made irrelavent if your balancing your lipos on every charge like I do? My Triton2 charges via the amount of maH the battery is designed to hold, not voltage other then the default 7.2v lipo cell setting which tells it was size of Lipo im using. This however doesn't limit my charges via voltage, just mAh, at least thats what the Triton2 goes by, is probably different for every charger and i've never seen my cells go beyond 4.2v or 8.4v once its completed charging. By changing my MMM LVC to 3.5v, ive been leaving the lipo's around 800mah left in capacity ass soon ast the LVC kicks on. Which is a little bit more then the default Lipo 80/20 rule, but I have better things to do then carry a freaking timer on me when im bashing and having fun