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Tankbear wrote:I'm with Tom on this one. Smart charger all the way has features like timer to stop after determined time or when fully charged and constantly monitors the battery and shuts down if anything is wrong.
I know been in attendance during charging sounds pain in ass but I simply charge them when I'm working on my tanks so actually do two tasks at once. And a smart charger will charge a totally discharged 5000mah LiPo to 80% in 1 hour or fully in under 2 hours, so nothing like the 3-5 hours for others.
Ian
This is the reason I call that little gem a "SMART" charger lol..... the type for Nicds and NiHis you are correct reason I call those "NOT SO SMART CHARGERS" because yes they just cut off at two hours....I use stock trickle chargers for that type of battery and the Timer that Hawkeye just mentioned.....on a brand new Nicd or NiHi I will charge depending on voltage....7.4 and down about four hours... for the initial charge.....8.4 and up..longer on a 12 ... about 10 hours tops
The Lipo "Smart" Charger has a detection circuit in it...as each cell reaches peak...one light will go green.... it's pretty cool.. I actually watched it work before... one at a time each light for each cell went green....and after all read green .... in a few mins following it would fully shut down displaying red....if you unplug and plug it in again... it will detect the battery again... register green then red. like in start up mode.... it will read the battery... if the battery is charged.. it will go green again....what I like is even on partially used battery.. if one cell still has power and one is below... it will detect that... and only one light will go red...( two cell 7.4)...and will go accordingly with higher voltage batteries
I sold hundreds of those little Lipo smart chargers... no one ever complained about them...the fancy dual chargers and digital ones... always gave problems..Like I said ... I have a friend... he has over 60 airsoft rifles for his two sons .... instead of opting for the rig that could charge more than one lipo.... He bought six smarts...put them all on a power strip... and is totally happy with the performance
ALPHA
PS. I've had 11.1 lipos go six hours (brand new)... that charger is great..detects the power levels and does the job needed
tomhugill wrote:
I think your getting confused with cheap nimh chargers. Smart chargers stop when the packs full, no more charge. Lipos don't tend to get overcharged, unless like on those you tube clips you remove all safety features and try and wreck them. The main danger is over discharge, that's when you usually see puffing. Or a duff pack with high internal resistance will puff up much sooner than one with little internal resistance.
Now the example you cite broke the first rule of lipos, don't charge unattended. I'll be honest I've never seen anyone else say dont splash up for a decent charger because it'll eventually burn your house down, and in the model boat world lipos are very widely used to.
Nope... I KNOW what I am speaking of.... there are junk Lipo chargers that look like the one I recommend...(easy ID: one red light one green) those are the old gen and yes do start fires... somewhere there is a plastic table that has a 5 inch hole burnt into it because of that early model... the stock Lipo chargers that are included with helicopters are very similar ... the difference is that the early models and the ones that come with helicopters charge in series ...not parallel ..and are not considered balance chargers...they just don't have the circuitry built in...so by the time the current reaches the final cell ..the one or two that precede it are super heated ...reason the fire hazard
The residual trickle charge that come from the large digital units have the same effect...
What makes the larger fancy ones a even worse buy is that they usually have a speed charge feature...that's the worse thing you can do to a Lipo...as the heat is what causes the polymer of the Lipo to release gas.... you have to have seen that before Tom...and if you haven't ... I pray that you never do... because at that point ..you better get rid of that battery as the next step in it's life is ignition
Once again Tom...you say I do not know what I am talking about... but like always...maybe I do
tomhugill wrote:
I think your getting confused with cheap nimh chargers. Smart chargers stop when the packs full, no more charge. Lipos don't tend to get overcharged, unless like on those you tube clips you remove all safety features and try and wreck them. The main danger is over discharge, that's when you usually see puffing. Or a duff pack with high internal resistance will puff up much sooner than one with little internal resistance.
Now the example you cite broke the first rule of lipos, don't charge unattended. I'll be honest I've never seen anyone else say dont splash up for a decent charger because it'll eventually burn your house down, and in the model boat world lipos are very widely used to.
Nope... I KNOW what I am speaking of.... there are junk Lipo chargers that look like the one I recommend...(easy ID: one red light one green) those are the old gen and yes do start fires... somewhere there is a plastic table that has a 5 inch hole burnt into it because of that early model... the stock Lipo chargers that are included with helicopters are very similar ... the difference is that the early models and the ones that come with helicopters charge in series ...not parallel ..and are not considered balance chargers...they just don't have the circuitry built in...so by the time the current reaches the final cell ..the one or two that precede it are super heated ...reason the fire hazard
The residual trickle charge that come from the large digital units have the same effect...
What makes the larger fancy ones a even worse buy is that they usually have a speed charge feature...that's the worse thing you can do to a Lipo...as the heat is what causes the polymer of the Lipo to release gas.... you have to have seen that before Tom...and if you haven't ... I pray that you never do... because at that point ..you better get rid of that battery as the next step in it's life is ignition
Once again Tom...you say I do not know what I am talking about... but like always...maybe I do
ALPHA
No in this case I don't think you do. All lipos have a safe charge rate, depending on c ratin and capacity. Smart chargers let you set the current to charge to so you can always charge below the safe rate. My charger has a max output of 5a which is below the safe limit on my packs. I can't speak for all smart chargers but mine and Gary's don't do what your saying, there's no residual trickle the whole point of a balance charge is to get the cells to the same voltage. The only time I've through there was a slightly danger was web trying to ring back a pal that had one cell that over discharged. In getting it back the other cells went upto 3.22v rather than 3.20v. Ill point out lipos should NEVER EVER get hot charging. Even when I was binging that pack back to life (I'll point out it was 8ah 4s beast) ad never once did it get warm.
If a battery puffs (which none of mine have) id replace it without question.
Any way as I said I've never ver heard anyone advise to get a cheap charger rather than paying to get high quality smart charger. Make of that what you will.
tomhugill wrote:
I think your getting confused with cheap nimh chargers. Smart chargers stop when the packs full, no more charge. Lipos don't tend to get overcharged, unless like on those you tube clips you remove all safety features and try and wreck them. The main danger is over discharge, that's when you usually see puffing. Or a duff pack with high internal resistance will puff up much sooner than one with little internal resistance.
Now the example you cite broke the first rule of lipos, don't charge unattended. I'll be honest I've never seen anyone else say dont splash up for a decent charger because it'll eventually burn your house down, and in the model boat world lipos are very widely used to.
Nope... I KNOW what I am speaking of.... there are junk Lipo chargers that look like the one I recommend...(easy ID: one red light one green) those are the old gen and yes do start fires... somewhere there is a plastic table that has a 5 inch hole burnt into it because of that early model... the stock Lipo chargers that are included with helicopters are very similar ... the difference is that the early models and the ones that come with helicopters charge in series ...not parallel ..and are not considered balance chargers...they just don't have the circuitry built in...so by the time the current reaches the final cell ..the one or two that precede it are super heated ...reason the fire hazard
The residual trickle charge that come from the large digital units have the same effect...
What makes the larger fancy ones a even worse buy is that they usually have a speed charge feature...that's the worse thing you can do to a Lipo...as the heat is what causes the polymer of the Lipo to release gas.... you have to have seen that before Tom...and if you haven't ... I pray that you never do... because at that point ..you better get rid of that battery as the next step in it's life is ignition
Once again Tom...you say I do not know what I am talking about... but like always...maybe I do
ALPHA
No in this case I don't think you do. All lipos have a safe charge rate, depending on c ratin and capacity. Smart chargers let you set the current to charge to so you can always charge below the safe rate. My charger has a max output of 5a which is below the safe limit on my packs. I can't speak for all smart chargers but mine and Gary's don't do what your saying, there's no residual trickle the whole point of a balance charge is to get the cells to the same voltage. The only time I've through there was a slightly danger was web trying to ring back a pal that had one cell that over discharged. In getting it back the other cells went upto 3.22v rather than 3.20v. Ill point out lipos should NEVER EVER get hot charging. Even when I was binging that pack back to life (I'll point out it was 8ah 4s beast) ad never once did it get warm.
If a battery puffs (which none of mine have) id replace it without question.
Any way as I said I've never ver heard anyone advise to get a cheap charger rather than paying to get high quality smart charger. Make of that what you will.
If Lipos have a safe charge rate.... why do they burn? To me ... you never saw one ignite... I have...that's it ...I have over ten years as an Airsoft tech... and like I said have sold hundreds if not more of those little chargers than the blinged out fancy digital ones.... those can sit on a shelf for a year.. why? ,,,because they always break....and yes they do cause the lipos to heat and puff up like little balloons....
Bottom line for me here right now Tom.. is you haven't seen this happen...It's really your inexperience that is showing.... and reason you all think opposite from me.. no problemo buddy....I'm not the one trying to pimp micheal a fancy thing he doesn't really need... I'm just leading him to a practical way of getting the job done...and that little gem...GETS THE JOB DONE
ALPHA
Last edited by ALPHA on Thu Jul 17, 2014 8:24 pm, edited 3 times in total.
ALPHA wrote:
Nope... I KNOW what I am speaking of.... there are junk Lipo chargers that look like the one I recommend...(easy ID: one red light one green) those are the old gen and yes do start fires... somewhere there is a plastic table that has a 5 inch hole burnt into it because of that early model... the stock Lipo chargers that are included with helicopters are very similar ... the difference is that the early models and the ones that come with helicopters charge in series ...not parallel ..and are not considered balance chargers...they just don't have the circuitry built in...so by the time the current reaches the final cell ..the one or two that precede it are super heated ...reason the fire hazard
The residual trickle charge that come from the large digital units have the same effect...
What makes the larger fancy ones a even worse buy is that they usually have a speed charge feature...that's the worse thing you can do to a Lipo...as the heat is what causes the polymer of the Lipo to release gas.... you have to have seen that before Tom...and if you haven't ... I pray that you never do... because at that point ..you better get rid of that battery as the next step in it's life is ignition
Once again Tom...you say I do not know what I am talking about... but like always...maybe I do
ALPHA
No in this case I don't think you do. All lipos have a safe charge rate, depending on c ratin and capacity. Smart chargers let you set the current to charge to so you can always charge below the safe rate. My charger has a max output of 5a which is below the safe limit on my packs. I can't speak for all smart chargers but mine and Gary's don't do what your saying, there's no residual trickle the whole point of a balance charge is to get the cells to the same voltage. The only time I've through there was a slightly danger was web trying to ring back a pal that had one cell that over discharged. In getting it back the other cells went upto 3.22v rather than 3.20v. Ill point out lipos should NEVER EVER get hot charging. Even when I was binging that pack back to life (I'll point out it was 8ah 4s beast) ad never once did it get warm.
If a battery puffs (which none of mine have) id replace it without question.
Any way as I said I've never ver heard anyone advise to get a cheap charger rather than paying to get high quality smart charger. Make of that what you will.
If Lipos have a safe charge rate.... why do the burn? To me ... you never saw one ignite... I have...that's it ...I have over ten years as an Airsoft tech... and like I said have sold hundreds if not more of those little chargers than the blinged out fancy digital ones.... those can sit on a shelf for a year.. why? ,,,because they always break....and yes they do cause the lipos to heat and puff up like little balloons....
Bottom line for me here right now Tom.. is you haven't seen this happen...It's really your inexperience that is showing.... and reason you all think opposite from me.. no problemo buddy....I'm not the one trying to pimp micheal a fancy thing he doesn't really need... I'm just leading him to a practical way of getting the job done...and that little gem...GETS THE JOB DONE
ALPHA
I've seen lipos burn, usually they've been purposely abused, dodgy cell etc. then purposely overcharged to make them burn. I might not have been using lipos for years and years but I know any people that have and they have the same stance.
I'm not trying to flog anything, just give my experience with lipos. As has been said lipos aren't cheap, why would you risk them with a cheapy charger.
Smacks of watching the penny's whilst the pounds go down the drain.
............. 
