I have a 5 cell 2300mah receiver pack which is about 2 years old. In prep for this season Ive cycled it quite a few times(10+) as upon first charging it a week ago I wasnt able to get mcuh more than about 1300mah into it. At a slow charge of about .30mah I can now get about 1900 mah into the pack; however when I try to fast charge at about .75-.80mah, im only getting about 1500-1700. The 1700 would put it below the acceptable 80% capacity. Is this pack pretty much ready to be retired? Or chould I keep cycling?

I would toss it and get a new one. It is cheap insurance and I am sure you would hate to lose a plane because your battery is no good.

make sure that it can hold its charge under load.
what i mean is discharge it at 1+amps and see how well it works.
if it cant discharge 1500 or w/e at 1 amp then i woulnt use it for planes.
could use the batterys for a flashlight or computer mouse or what ever.

as said the only way to know for sure is test it under load which if you don't have one mean investing in a computerized charger cycler which it sound like you might have. I've found that battery's need to be replaced about every 3 years. It's just the cost of doing business, I just got a new set in today, another 200 bucks, damn [:@]

It's probably shot and it's time to replace it.

For future reference here is what I do. When I first get a pack I cycle it (cycle it 3 times to get a good average) to determine it's base capacity. Don't trust what the label says because every battery will vary in capacity. Once you have the base capacity determined cycle the battery about once a month, or in your case at the beginning of the season. When the capacity drops to approximately 80% of the original base capacity replace it. It's hard to put battery replacement on a time schedule like every 2-3 years because there are so many variables that can change the lifespan of a battery pack. The number of charge cycles, the number of quick charges, operating temperatures, vibration, high discharge current, and other factors can all affect the lifespan of a battery pack. They only real way to determine when it's time to replace that pack is by testing it and comparing to it's initial capacity.

Hope this helps

Ken

I hear ya Ken. I just wasnt sure if I was making progress with the continuous cycling. Thankfully Ive ordered 2 more packs which should arrive tomorrow. Thanks for the help everyone!

But, don't throw away old battery packs if they "still work". They make great bench tools for quite a few things, not only just paper weights.. .

I was given a pair of laser's that operate on 4.8 volt packs. I use them for aligning things (straight line is a good thing. and lasers do that very well). I don't/can't measure because it is just a straight old ruby laser without any computer connections.. but it does make a straight line.

You can also use it to power up and bench test servos, receivers, and whatever will operate on your voltages.

But, if they do go south on ya, and you decide to dispose of them, you may want to consider holding on to them and dispose of them in the proper re-cycle form.

CGr.

Firm believer in recycling. Yes, until then, pack will be used for testing.

Don't forget to mark it as bad. You don't want that to end up in a plane by accident.