Good point GRANT ED. I was not trying to reccomend that he use that charge rate, just using it as an example to show the relationship between charge rate and charge time. I did say that the slower you could charge, the better for the battery.
Sorry if it seemed like I was reccomending that as a charge rate, I was not.

As long as we're on the subject...
It's my understanding that a slow charge will also give you longer run times than a faster charge.

For your lipo question, is that charger even rated to charge lipo's? You do understand that you need a charger that has been designed to charge lipo's, right? You cannot use a charger that was designed and programed to charge ni-cads and ni-mh's to charge a lipo. As far as needing a balancer, no, they are not absolutely necessary. You do however need to monitor the individual battery voltages in the pack to be sure that they remain with-in a certain percentage of voltage of each other. Last time I looked I think that ballancers started around $20 but check on Tower or someplace like that to confirm. Also, basic lipo chargers are not all that expensive either.