Xtremespeed

Are there any benefits to a balancing charger over a charger using a seperate balancer?
I have been looking at a few different chargers, and this may help make up my mind.
Thanks

Fred Marks

You do away with a lot of extra wiring and connectors so reliability is improved. BTW- The FMA CellPro can operate with an extension cable to allow you to separate the pack from the charger by several feet for charging in the plane, etc. Other chargers may not alllow that.

Xtremespeed

Ok, so, there isn't any functionality difference?
Do balance chargers display individual cell voltages
or anything that a charger with a seperate balancer
would not be capable of?

TampaRCGuy

My Feedback: (282)

There are differences.

When you use an external balancer, the charger charges the pack while the balancer discharges the high cells to maintain balance. Some balancers have a low discharge rate and some are as high as 500 mah which is for medium to larger packs.

Balance chargers usually charge each cell individually and usually display the cell voltages on the screen as well. There are only a handful of balance chargers on the market. Some are lipo only while others are not only lithium, but also charge nicad, nimh, and pb cells. Depends on your needs.

Fred Marks

Please have a look at http://www.fmadirect.com/Detail.htm?...116&section=45 to see that the active , microprocessor controlled CellPro charger does very much more than any external balance circuit including some 14 safety checks continuously. The external balancers use a zener diode / resistor to drain down current as a cell goes over 4.2V and is not nearly as accurate so you can not have fast charge with the external balancers.

Xtremespeed

I think if I go with a balance charger, I may try the Bantam e-station bc5.
It does ni-cd, ni-mh, and li-po. I really want one that does all 3.