ORIGINAL: FatOrangeKat
What do most people do for charging batteries, charge only at the field? Do you charge up first thing, while you're getting all your other stuff ready? I was thinking most people would charge up night before or morning of at home, and only bring charger for emergencies at the field.
My first charger (other than the OEM wall charger) was the Hobbico Accucycle. It worked well for charging Ni-cads & Ni-Mh and cycling Ni-cads. Then I stepped up to the Accucycle Elite. It is a great charger for the money allowing you to charge/discharge 2 batteries at once, get a nice digital readout of mAh pulled out and put into the battery, etc. It even does 3-cell Li-po's. It won't do 12v lead-acid though. The Triton will do the 12V batteries I believe.
When I charge depends how many planes I am taking to the field. I generally fly on Saturday. If I plan on taking my T-28, I charge the Li-po's on Wednesday or Thursday. I normally charge my receiver packs on Friday night but sometimes I'll start Thursday night if I plan on taking a few planes. My transmitter always gets charged the night before I fly. When at the field, I always check my batteries with a load after a couple flights. I haven't had any issues yet and I don't want to. I've seen planes go in due to batteries failing or not being charged adequately. I take the charger to the field just in case I need it and to charge the Li-po's for my T-28.
I also cycle my Ni-cad batteries every 30-45 days to monitor their capacity and condition them. If they start losing significant capacity, I toss them. They are so inexpensive that it isn't worth risking a nice airplane.
Basically, just make sure your batteries are fully charged before heading for the field. Too many people throw it on a charger for a couple hours and call it good only to lose their airplane.