dragline322

Thinking about a Li-Po upgrade for a Plane i havent purchased yet... (I know that sounds friggin strange, but I figure put all the money in at once) Wonderin if there is any real difference between one brand and the next? I mean is one brand of 3 cell 11.1V 2200mAh any better than the next brands 3 cell 11.1V 2200mAh? anbody with experience on batteries please help me out here.

bigedmustafa

My Feedback: (2)

The best I can tell you is I have several flying buddies that are hard-core electric enthusiasts that have expensive Thunder Power and Electrifly batteries as well as very inexpensive Hextronic LiPos, and they seem just as happy flying the Hextronic LiPos as they are their Thunder Power batteries.

You can check out www.unitedhobbies.com for inexpensive LiPo cells.

Montague

The key thing to watch with Lipos is the discharge or "C" rating. If you pull more current from a pack than it can handle, you could damage it and you will shorten it's lifespan. In many cases, what you get for the extra cash is an ability to handle higher current, better pack assembly, and better quality control.

So, do a back of the envelope calculation and figure out how much current (roughly here) you might pull. If it's low enough, then you've nothing to worry about.

Some battery brands rate their packs higher than they really should. There's no standard on how you measure and rate packs when it comes to discharge current. You might find the same cells in two different companies packs with different "C" ratings on them. Some companies rate their packs based on a current draw that allows them to cycle many times, while others rate based on what you can get away with without destroying the pack on the spot. In the first case, the pack will last a long time, in the second, the pack will die after a much smaller number of cycles. Lipos do not take well to being discharged too quickly.

Oh, and finally, some companies have better reputations than others, and price isn't always an indicator. Several guys around here swear by some of the lower priced packs and swear at some of the higher priced brands.

BuzzBomber

My Feedback: (4)

^^^good advice there. I have been flying primarily electrics for several years now, and have used several brands of lithium cells. As noted, there is not always a direct correlation between price and quality. What you DO want to keep in mind is the vendor. Reputable vendors tend to shy away from the brands that have a lot of cell failures, and will try to help you out if there is a problem. I would avoid buying packs through ebay, but that's just my preference. Thunder Power, Tanic, Apogee, Polyquest, and Etec cells have been my favorites so far. Commonsense RC has a variety of "budget" packs which may be a good alternative to ebay for cheap stuff, too. Good luck deciding!

tIANci

Stay away from the cheap China cells, they tend to bloat, there are differences between cells from 'branded' names and the 'cheap super good' names. I have seen too many failures from the China made batteries. They claim 20C but heat up when you pull 20C. Stick with brands like Polyquest, Thunder Power, Flight Power or Hyperion. They use good cells from Korean, the seemingly leading cell manufacturer is ENERLAND.

MX57

Since ur questions already been answered, I recommend Thunder Power lipos!

MX57

tIANci

Hey you cannot trust the opinon of the owner of a nice hobby shop that sells TP batts!!! Hahahahaaa ...

dragline322

Thanks for the advice... now for some more advice... Which specific volt an mAh would you reccomend for the Park Zone Foke Wulf ... I assumed that since Park Zone sells a Lipo that is 11.1V 2200mAh 3 cell I would be best to stick with those specifics, but I really dont know much about Lipos, would another type be better?

CGRetired

My Feedback: (1)

No matter what you buy (regarding replacement LiPo's or any other for that matter), make sure you get a balancer to go with it or that your charger does that automatically. It's important to get the cells balanced when charging.

DS.

Montague

Yeah, I second the "get a balancer" thing.

As for what pack, with any battery type, the right pack size is determined by a number of factors.

- how big is the battery compartment? Really, no sense in buying a pack that won't fit in the plane.

- number of cells, if they recommend 3 lipos, then you might want to stick with that. With lipos, there's a big difference between 3 and 4 cells. With Nicad/Nimh cells, you could play with cell count more, since it was only a 1.2v difference. In your case a 4 cell pack might not fit, and will probably burn up the motor and/or ESC. A 2 cell lipo won't burn anything up, but probably won't have the performance you want.

- capacity has 2 issues. One is flight time. More is better. The other is current capability. A 10C pack that is 2100mah can deliver 21amps. A 10C pack that is 1500mah can only deliver 15amps. So you need a pack big enough that you won't trash it. And the less "C" you draw, the longer the pack will live.

So, for flight time and battery lifetime, you should generally cram the largest capacity pack you can manage for the weight and battery comparment space. Once you've been doing electrics for a while, and want to do things like minimize weight, you can try smaller packs and limiting the current you pull and such. But for sport flyers, bigger packs are the way to go.

Oh, a couple hundred mah on a 2000ish pack isn't noticeable, so a 2100 and a 2200 is about the same for real-world sport flyers. Anything in that range is good.

Also, be aware that some cells are shorter and thicker, others are wide and long and flat and so on. So watch all 3 dimensions of the battery compartment and make sure your pack will fit if you go with something besides the recommended pack. There are some battery vendors out there that acutally have "pack builder" web pages that allow you to enter a battery compartment's dimensions, and they will run the numbers for you.