Recent development with maxamps
 

Hey guys, I recently ran into an issue that appears I wasnt clear enough in my coments reguarding my experiance with maxamps, specifically their battery packs. Apperently I left a bad taste in (Jason) a represenative with maxamps in his mouth because he felt it was unprofessional of me to attack them with out being specific to my experiance with them.

This has been brought on due to a situation that involves my race team. where a specific member of my team was involved in a contest to win a free battery pack to in which he did. Congradulations! In this thead http://www.rcmt.biz/bd/showthread.php?t=8310

I made a comment that I felt personally I wasnt pleased with the maxamps batteries that I purchased and believe now is a good time to clear up this issue.
Any of the Hyperion Chargers are great. You can pick up one usually for about $100.00 -$150.00 if you look hard enough.

Which they are, Hands down! the Hyperion Charger's is without a doubt a great charger that will handle all your Lipo needs and without question. Please let me add that these chargers are not owned by maxamps, but are in fact sold through them. You can however find them on most major RC distribution companies which makes it great to aquire however you choose to do so.

You should also look at the MRC 989. http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...SEARCH=mrc+989
The MRC is also a great find and was nominated as one of the best all over chargers by Extreme RC magazine, The ONLY downfall to this charger is that it has a seperate ac/dc converter. but other than that jjst straight up and simply a great find and again can be purchased through most RC distribution companies.
Both chargers are easy to use, ac/dc in some builds and can be used with most any other type of batteries which makes them higly usefull.

Not like getting a one use charger so if it doesnt work out for you, The sell back is pretty close to what you payed.

You want to be sure to have a charger that is universal in use so you can use it anywhere you race, plus the value in return is worth the extra cash.

I gave up on maxx amps along time ago. The batteries are built badly and for the most part even though maxamps has a great tech dept and will fix your problem, why spend a majority of your time resending your batteries in because of the problems.

This issue seems to be burning a hole in maxamps belly and with due cause. No one likes to get a bad review and its like someone talking bad about my shells I paint not being durable or overpriced. Which so far those of you who have dealt with me know I aim to put out a quality product or I replace it.

So lets wind back the clock a bit because as you can see this issue was a while back.

A couple of years ago I was looking into switching to Lipo because even though NiMH is tried and true I simply wasnt gaining anything by not moving forward. For those who havent as of yet made that transition, I assure you it is well worth the travel basically because of its durability, longevity, and performance witll out run any of the NiMH/NiCD batteries on the market. This technology has been here for along time and was recently as a couple of years ago been introduced into RC Mobile applications. Back then I was looking for information and was talking to Derek Bueno, Editor of Extreme RC magazine about it. he gave me some usefull information to go by and suggested that I speak to Jason Melville whom at the time was promoting Maxamps across the web for the upcoming iHobby show. So I made the attempt through the forums at first and then later tried a couple of times through his email without responce. granted that he may have been busy at the time but still no excuse to not get back to me. After not wanting to wait futher I looked for information through several other RC sites and came across a guy here on RC Monster who was pretty well informed and gave me what I needed to know and get for the project I was working on. I went to my hobby shop and ordered 2 maxamps 4200 batteries as I recall. I then purchased a Hyperion battery charger (EOS 5i dp AC/DC) with an external balancer (LBA10) from a friend of mine but the only problem I ran into was that it did not come with the correct plug that went from the battery to the charger. Again I attempted to make contact with Jason, and again , 3 emails later I finally received a response from him and instead of helping me to get the correct part I needed so I could charge the batteries. He informs me to purchase the new charger with the internal balancer!? Confused, I ask "why would I do that, if this charger is absolutely fine and able to do the job being only a year old?" and again i went on the (No response! list) So then I call maxamps on the phone and explain the situation and was told the exact same thing!? (Now in one respect this seems like a good thing to say if the product is out of date, but it wasnt.) so eventually I got a part number and when my hobby shop went to order the plug, 2 days later they get a responce that it is discontuinued. Luckily I had a hobby shop experianced in the lipo game and the hobby shop was able to not only make a plug for me from a hobbico plug but also walk me through the charger use and appllication. So now we charge up the batteries with no problem. I run the truck, its working great, Im happy! I recharge the batteries 4 times since then, 5th time I notice the batteries aren't holding juice. 6th time both batteries don't work, So I check the voltage and I have 7.8 total volts in each battery. I check the charger and make sure everything is fine, I check the balancer and make sure I am using it right, I even check the ESC and make sure its operating correctly. Cant figure it out! So again I try and contact (yes Jason again) with of course no response, I call maxamps and send the batteries back with NO QUESTIONS they replace or fix them. And I get them back a couple of weeks later. for 2 weeks I charge and run them and it happens again, another short, (I believe it was only one battery this time to be honest). I again send them in to be fixed. Now by this time I talked to a member of SMC and struck a deal with them on R.O.A.R approved battery packs. So when I got the batteries back from maxamps I just sold them to a guy at the track I knew who wanted to try Lipo's. Now to this day I still run the Hyperion charger and my SMC packs with no problems. I will state once again everytime I have called maxamps they go out of the way to help, But I was not happy with making the contact with their rep and to me I can understand once in a great while not getting back to me, But just about everytime I have made an attempt with the exception of once. Im sorry thre isnt any excuse for that at all.

Look at SMC
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...EARCH=smc+lipo

yes, I am promoting SMC because I personally trust them, have never had a problem with them, and used SMC NiMH packs when I raced in the past. I have the theory what is tried is true. This is ONLY my opinion.

By the way dont get sucked into the looking for a cheaper battery pack,

I should of been more clear on this message when I was making referance and honestly this is not a referance directed at Maxamps. What I am refering to is any of those over seas no name battery packs that you feel your getting a great buy on. They are not that great, They dont produce the power you need, and the longevity is half that of the better products.

Lipos are built to be used longer and more effective as long as you treat them well. Follow the instructions and keep them charged the way they should be and they will last 3 times of alot longer than any NiMH or longer. If you charge them correctly and maintain them correctly you should have no need for any problems, alot of people boast that the lipo is unsafe, the truth is that the people its happening to are idiots who dont handle lipo correctly, but if you want to feel safer with charging a lipo, pick up a lipo sack.
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...ARCH=lipo+sack
hope that helps and good luck, your making a great investment and you will definately see the results in how well your R/C runs with lipo

Now on this final note, The reason I am clarifying on this thread is because a certain issue has arose that seems really unfair to my race team who works hard to win races and be respected among the RC community. because of this post, maxamps has made it an issue specifically Jason to not concider or to just out right deny any chance for maxamps to sponsor any of the team3six race team. All because he as well as maxamps feels that I am slanderizing them and thier batteries.

I have the emails to back it up and even though Jason has made claim that their market is aimed at ONLY the bashers (I can respect that) maxamps has a battery that is infact R.O.A.R approved according to the president of maxamps.

But this is a direct quote from a represenative who claims to have the best product in Lipo.

"As for the whole ROAR thing well lets just say we could really care less about that It's a small market and lets face it the back yard hobbyist are the ones we focus on the most. they account for 90% of the market compared to that 10% that races and then has to follow a smaller percentage of rules."

I dont appreciate maxamps attitude towards my racers based on my personal thoughts, I dont appreciate being blackballed because a certain rep didnt do his job and a certain company sold me a less than superior product. And for the record, I am a member of maxamps forums because I had to research just like everyone else when I couldnt count on the rep to help me.

As a final note: I am sure maxamps has improved their product line, Not everyone has an experiance like I did, even more so there are many who swear by maxamps products and most likely its because things fell right into place. I again state that thier tech dept and phone service dept is great, and their chargers are the best value. But be sure what you want, research anything RC related, because it is an expensive decision that will benifit you or hurt you. Lipo batteries are safer than ever, and there is always someone on your local forum who can help you decide.

I have mixed reviews with MaxAmps myself. I liked there betteries when I first got a couple for my Rustler. Then I got an E-Revo and a set of packs for it. They worked ok for awhile but as time went by they started going further and further out of balance. I made contact, eventually, with Jason and he was pretty much useless. I figured out how to get the packs back in balance so I stopped trying to contact him. A couple more runs and one pack was 0.25V out of balance. I tried contacting him again, he told me I was over drawing them and it's my fault. Tekno Neu 1515 2.5d on 4s geared for mid 30's - 18 minute run time = way under the rated amp draw for the packs! Finally Jason passed me off to Alex who didn't know why I got passed off to him, he passed me onto the correct person....Josh! It took awhile to get things sorted out but in the long run Josh REALLY took care of me. Instead of sending me back rebuilt packs with mixed old/new cells or competely new packs of the same kind he instead gave me what I wanted! I went from 2 2s 6000mah packs to a 2s and 3s 5000mah pack. Increase voltage decrease amp draw, better packs for the application. It was about a $60 upgrade and I was charged nothing. I'm at the silver level of membership so I get a nice discount and I bought a new charger from them at about the same time.

Long story short...There Lipos aren't the greatest, I won't say they are the worst either though. As far as customer service goes, it depends on who you deal with! I was so impressed with how Josh handled everything that I sent Austin, the owner, an e-mail thanking him and Josh for the great service I received from him after getting the run around from Jason

why do you care if they won't sponsor you? I would want to be sponsored by a good battery manufacturer.

I tried to hold my tongue but as you all know I cant, Jason is a real inapproriate sales rep or whatever he chooses to call himself today. Austin is a man who knows whats up and is a real business person. I cant comment on their new lipos as I havent tried them, but because of past differences I never will. I wish them luck in a struggling economy but that Jason guy, sheesh