Lipos off Shelves

[DRIFT_BUGGY]

How long should you leave it till you charge the lipos that you buy from suppliers for the 1st time? Is there anyway in telling how long they have sit on the shelf for? And do they get fully charged before getting sent to distributors?
I bought some Lipos that took 1 1/2 weeks to get here and they have been sitting in my downstairs for 1 week now as still waiting for harness to come in for my charger.

ive heard dont let them sit for more than a month without balancing them, just more a safty tho i think, i usually put mine on stand alone balance after a week

[DRIFT_BUGGY]

Ok, hope my harness arrives this week as got no idea on how long they were on the shelf at the store before I bought them

[Sammus]

I dont think it matters really... I assume the manufacturers ship them at 40-60% state of charge, which is apparently the safest storage charge (I think thats a fairly safe assumption), and I read that you can store them for over 12 months like that with no noticeable loss of capacity or charge. I think I got all that from battery university website.. not sure though.

[VintageMA]

^^ what he said.

Lipos will last longest in longer term storage if charged to 50% instead of 100%. From what i've read when you store them for a long time at 100% they degrade faster (sort of like using a laptop always plugged with the battery fully charged and never letting the battery run down - manufacturers recommend unplugging the battery and just using AC)

I've never heard of balancing cells weekly when your not using them. If they go that far out of balance just sitting there I would say get a better battery.

i just do it as a precaution, ive heard of peoples cells puffing in three months, must have been bad cells, and i do it weekly they are not really out if balance maybe 10 mins on min. drain

[lincpimp]

Not sure if the cells going out of balance would cause them to puff. I have had cells puff while sitting, just put it to the fact they were crap cells. If the cells go out of balance while sitting, that usually means that the cells were not matched very well, or the pack has seen heavy use.

I went out of country for what I was told was going to be 3wks and wound up being gone almost 3 months. I had stored 7 lipos at 50% charge and every one of them had puffed a cell - the cell on top the way they were sitting.

If I don't use mine every month, I discharge it at 1C, then charge it. I prefer to use them when I can however, which has been a real prob thanks to work lately.

[skellyo]

Mind sharing what brand/model they were?

[VintageMA]

The only ones I've ever had puff just sitting were the ones marked "Firefox" sold by FDM. Never had a problem with my TP or Apogee packs. I've got an Apoge pack that's nearing 3 years old and it works fine still - it's been sitting in the closet now for over a year with no problems.

After I had 7 3700mAh FDM cell puff in storage I check all my batteries once a week regardless just to be on the safe side, but this is just for puffing not to charge or balance.

I just picked up the TP 1010C charger and I love the fact that it has a 50% charge mode - perfect for storage. And when I do a balancing charge with the 210V balancer hooked up to the data port on the charger I know I am storing a perfectly balanced 50% charged pack. :)

Originally Posted by skellyo

Mind sharing what brand/model they were?

Three were Integy - 2 2S 1500s and a 3S 1500, these were 20C rated and were noticeably better batts. The rest were 2S Dualsky lipos -1700s that were 15C rated.

The were all about 3yr old and the integy's had been thru almost 100cycles. The others even more. I ran my 18th scales with these in various configs. The 1700s wired in parallel would give my Vendetta almost an hour of uninterrupted run time.

Guess someone is going to tell me I got what I paid for.....

[skellyo]

Originally Posted by Duster_360

Guess someone is going to tell me I got what I paid for.....

Nah, I've got a couple of Dualsky 1700's as well. I haven't cycled mine very much for the time I've had them though, but I've had them probably 18-24mos now. However, now you've got me thinking twice about buying any more. I may just have to go with the Flightpower EVOLITE V2 1600's instead.

[VintageMA]

Or...... Go with TPs..... I have TP prolite cells for my 1:18 that are 2 years old and have never had a problem with them.

I have to say that initially I loved the MA packs (which are great for about 6 months until they start to suck) and was very impressed by their ad that all cells were factory fresh.

Recently I've tried a Neu pack and a newer TP eXtreme V2 pack, and I ave to say both rock - but the Neu pack hasn't stood up to the performance of the TP pack.

[skellyo]

Originally Posted by VintageMA

Or...... Go with TPs..... I have TP prolite cells for my 1:18 that are 2 years old and have never had a problem with them.

I have to say that initially I loved the MA packs (which are great for about 6 months until they start to suck) and was very impressed by their ad that all cells were factory fresh.

Recently I've tried a Neu pack and a newer TP eXtreme V2 pack, and I ave to say both rock - but the Neu pack hasn't stood up to the performance of the TP pack.

The TP packs of sufficient capacity won't fit in my Mini Quake. The 1320 pack is the only one that will fit and it's only 13C. I'm running a Permax 480 sized BL motor in there, so I really want higher than a 17A continuous rating.

[VintageMA]

Can you find a better pack that will fit your dimensions? I think you'll be fine with that in a 1:18 scale. I used to run a 3S 1320 in a Mini-T that would pull in the 30-40 Amp range with a mamba 6800 motor and never had a problem.