I'm not one who subscribes to the newer is better theory as I've just had a high quality top brand battery pack (transmitter) go bad in less than six months. I was VERY fortunate that it showed up on the ground. On the other hand, my original DX7 battery is still going strong after 4 years. I've been flying RC for about 40 years now and one can imagine I've had my share of battery failures. (It actually hasn't been all that many, you could count them all on one hand.) My experience has been that "total cell continuity failure", which creates an open circuit, is rare and the most common failure I've run into has been a cell rapidly getting weak causing the voltage to drop faster than normal. This is normally noticed before it causes catastrophic loss, at least in my case it has been. I do own a West Mountain Radio CBAIII battery analyzer and use it to help spot a pack headed south although a good computerized charger with discharge capabilities will work well too. Just my two cents.
