I just bought/received a Turnigy c3 2s-3s balancing charger and a 3s Flightmax Zippy Lipo 2000 mAh from Hobbyking/hobbycity. THe Flightmax had a Deans-type t connector so I attemted to plug it into the factory equipt Deans Ultra plug on a Ultraflight Apollo 25 esc. One brief spark and i didn't attempt to seat them.
I cut the Flightmax connecter off and used a Deans Ultra lead pair I had handy ( from the lhs). No response from the esc when plugged together. When I put the Lipo on the Turnigy 3c charger it blinks red leds which means "Fault". I put a 2s lipo on the charger and it balanced and charged it just fine ( or at least it went from one green and one red led to 2 green in about 20 minutes.) Could a brief cross polarity destroy a Lipo that fast? I will take the battery to my field this weekend and have some of the electric guys check it out with the Wattsmeters, fancy chargers, etc. but if Lipos are that sensitive and unforgiving, I think I better stick to NiMH
BTW, the battery shows no puffyness, not even warm to the touch. No smoke, no hissing. These batterys are only $20 online from Hong Kong, but shipping is $ 9 so sending it back and paying shipping 2 ways plus 2-3 weeks transit time means I will not be doing business with them again, even if its my fault on this[
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Mike[
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