"balancers are just a money grab"

[MetalMan]

In some instances, where Lipo cells are perfectly matched and remain perfectly matched throughout the life of the pack, a balancer is truly useless.

A pack may seem like it remains in balance when a balancer does nothing, but if we don't monitor individual cell voltages, how will we know if a pack is balanced or not? There's no reason for us to constantly monitor the state of balance between cells in a pack if we have a balancer to take care of this task for us...

I think we need to go back to the basics and remember why cell balance is crucial:
-if a cell is overcharged its life may be shortened and there's the potential for rupture
-if a cell is overdischarged its life may be shortened which can result in this cell being overcharged in future use

So if an imbalanced pack is being charged, it's possible a cell will be overcharged past its tolerant limit. If an imbalanced pack is being discharged to the LVC point, it's possible a cell will be overdischarged.

High power setups often can weed out weaker cells and cause imbalances to worsen over time. Rock crawlers are not a high power application, and thus over the life of a Lipo pack imbalance may not be an issue.

Since we cannot be sure that a pack was built with identical cells, we have no way of knowing whether or not it will remain properly balanced. A balancer is "cheap" insurance because it can provide more cycles over the life of a pack and potentially prevent catastrophe.

However, Lipo packs of today are not the same packs of several years ago. Nowadays Lipos tend to be more tolerant and from what I've seen imbalance has been less of an issue. But IMO that's not a reason to disregard a $25-40 balancer...

To not use a balancer is like a biker choosing not to wear a helmet because he doesn't think he will crash. Sure, in Hawaii helmets aren't necessary, but the biker must assume the risk. Though he/she will never be able to completely anticipate future potential situations while out riding.