'Best' NIMH 6s battery ?

[OldTanker]

My Tiger 1 is nearing completion (log in the Build section), so I'm thinking about the best battery for it.

I'm au fait with the choice of type, so I want to stay with NIMH as the tank has a rather neat in-situ charging option, which think was part of the original kit, with a coax DC power socket on the rear panel which is connected to the battery when the tank is switched off.

I made up a coax power plug to Tamiya plug adapter so that I can just plug it into my nice new SkyRC Q200 neo charger which has a nice range of charging options for all types of batteries including NIMH.

So, which is the best value/highest AH 6s NIMH battery around at the moment ?

[Jofaur86]

Good evening, Old tanker, superb job, for an original Nimh battery (green) rarely has the capacity indicated, and the charger delivered with it, only has the name of charger? if not changed? in reality a common transformer with 4 diodes? So a good change.
Prefer a known brand, to those low pix made in China? Then the capacity is a function of the current (amps) consumed, and the duration of use? 3500 / 4000 Mah, seems to me a good compromise. On the other hand, replace this ugly Tamiya plug, subject to many problems with false contacts, with a Dean type, X60, etc. You should find one directly with this type of plug at a reseller serious
Otherwise, you can look on the blog of "Rad" member of this forum, and use a L.ion type 7.4 volts 7 Ah smaller than Nimh and more efficient, after that it is only a personal opinion.

[Panzermechaniker]

You can't go wrong with these batteries. Melasta 5000mah from Amazon. I have bought 20 of them. Only one ever had one that developed a problem. All are working fine and can power your metal Tiger for hours. All my Taigen/Torro heavy metal tanks and my Tamiyas run on these. Also I keep my batteries in the tanks so LiPo's are not a consideration.

[OldTanker]

Thanks for the replies, I'll look at Rad's blog, and check out the Melasta batts here in the UK.

[OldTanker]

Rad's battery Blog is certainly very illuminating.
I do like the fact that Li-Ion don't suffer from self-discharge, unlike NIMH. He makes a good point that running an RC tank would be on impulse, so it would be a nuisance to find it needed charging after just a few weeks out of use.

After a bit of Googling, it turns out that Heng Long tanks now use an 1800MAH 7.4V Li-Ion Tank Battery as standard fitment, like the one at https://howesmodels.co.uk/product/heng- ... n-battery/ and they're cheaper, at 13.99 each.

Smaller too,and only sightly less MaH. The only downside is that I'd probably need to connect the balance lead to my charger as well, so I'd have to open the tank each time.

[Rad_Schuhart]

Forget about the nimhs. Super old tech.

https://radindustries.wordpress.com/201 ... batteries/

EDIT: Oh, you already found my website, lol

EDIT 2: Even when there is a charging plug in your tank, I'd always charge the batteries in a safe place.

[Ecam]

"… But dangerous as deactivating landmines with your feet."

Well written Rad, but what do you think of my Ni-cads?

[Rad_Schuhart]

"… But dangerous as deactivating landmines with your feet."

Well written Rad, but what do you think of my Ni-cads?

Those are also old tech, super hard to find, and if I remember correctly, they had strong memory effect.

EDIT: I googled a bit about them and they are even banned because enviromental reasons. I did not know that.

[Panzermechaniker]

Old tech perhaps. But in real life Nimh work. Just like cars and trucks from 6 or 7 years ago compared to the high tech drive 500km and blow up marvels in 2024. The guys who's tanks in our battles that die due to low battery are always the LiPo converts and have now switched back. I understand why LiPo are needed for RC planes, ships and subs. Totally unnecessary for tanks. Plus not interested in my house catching fire. How difficult is it to charge your batteries after a long run? Maybe a half hour tops for tanks even that I have had sitting for a couple of months. YMMV. The SoCal club battlers also use Nimh

[Rad_Schuhart]

Old tech perhaps. But in real life they work. Just like cars and trucks from 6 or 7 years ago compared to the high tech drive 500km and blow up marvels in 2024. The guys who's tanks in our battles that die due to low battery are always the LiPo converts. I understand why LiPo are needed for RC planes, ships and subs. Totally unnecessary for tanks. Plus not interested in my house catching fire

If you read my website, I dont recommend lipos but li ions, which are totally different.

I run my tanks up to 6'5 ish hours, non stop. Full sounds, music, more lights than a christmas tree and even sending full telemetry with GPS coordinates, temperature and many more.

No dangerous, no self discharge, no big size, no issues at all.