Running your lipo until cutoff?

[bdebde]

I run about 75% and stop. It is not recommended to completely drain lipos.

[jhautz]

I have run to cut off a few times, but I have the cut off raised to3.2V/cell. I have noticed that running them allthe way down to the 3.0v/cell cut off tends to make them go out of balance much more quickly and with a larger difference between the cells so that alone tells me that the cells are being stressed. I havent seen any isue with the higher LVC settings. ANother guy I race with has seen some issues on the cheaper packs when running them all the way down to the auto cut off on the MMM. Severly unballanced packs to te point that the balancer doesnt even want to balance them any more. requiring some serious TLC to get the pack back into balance without damaging it any more.

But in reality I rarely hit the LVC any more. I know how much run time I get from a pack and usually stop before hitting it and on race days I just make sure I have a pack I can go the distance with and I dont hit the lvc.

I gree w/ bdebde... If possible I dont like to take more than 80% of the juice from the pack.

Oh yes, I know not to discharge a lipo completely. They need to retain some 'juice'.

I think my cutoff is set rather high as well; I believe it is also at 3.2v per cell, as I've noticed the same symptoms occur when the pack gets closer and closer to 3.0v per cell (my current packs haven't really had that problem though, even when they get closer to 3.0v per cell- doesn't hurt to be safe rather than sorry).

Anyways, I figured it'd increase longevity of the pack because after all, the pack is just a big (reversible) chemical reaction; the less reaction you have, the less stress on the components of this reaction.

Thanks for the input guys. I think I maybe only use half of the capcity in most of my packs before I get bored or break something.