I have two lipo 800mah 2S 20C battery packs that the wires were cut and spliced with a Deans female connection. The battery pack wires are probably 16 gauge and the Deans connectors are 14 gauge wires. Is that difference acceptable and are the battery packs safe to use?

The wire gauge should not be a problem.

The insulation, especially on the black wire looks a little suspect in the photo. Short circuits are bad news at any time, and especially so in lipos!


Terry

It depends on what you are going to have connected to it. If it's going to be a high amperage motor then the smaller wire may cause a problem. However, it's going to power a receiver then it should be ok. Either way, I agree with Redback and the insulation needs to be fixed.  A proper solder job on the wires with good heat shrink to insulate the wires.

Ken</p>

Going to be used on a Park 400 Outrunner motor with 20 amp ESC
The black wire is insulated with shrink wrap and then was covered with electrical tape because a tiny spot was not covered by the shrink wrap

More than enough...-BW

Agreed.

Ken

Yea, Ken, what you forgot is that with wire gauges, the smaller the number, the heavier the wire. So the soldered-on leads are actually BIGGER than the originals.

No problem - but I would re-wrap that splice.

Yeah, I gotta agree. Electrical tape has a bad habit of coming un-done. I'd cut it and re-splice it with the correct amount of shrink tubing.

CGr.

While your splice (wrapped with tape) may not look so good, IMHO it is perfectly safe and should cause no ill effects on performance. Yes, the larger gage wire you used is very adequate.

As said, going from a smaller wire at the pack to an equal or larger size at the plug will not be a problem. Going the other way could be. Just ensure those spliced connections are good and solid as well as well insulated.