Well the sun has been out the last few days so I went over to the garage, dug out my park flyer and 4 600mah 11.1v batteries, put the batteries on charge, the first took 355mah of charge, the second 185, third 436 and fourth 60mah of charge and performed accordingly, recharged and all took similar charges again. Why would this happen?

I also seem to have a lot of lipos that just die on me. Could it be the shock they incur when I crash sometimes? Buying lipos is getting a bit expensive so any advise would be helpful.

Thanks.

I am far from an expert on this, but these are things that I do.

1. For storage longer than 30 days I fully charge the battery, then discharge it (usually by running a motor on it) until it has 3.7 - 3.8 volts per cell (a 3s battery will have 11.1 - 11.4 volts left in it). This is the way batteries are shipped and it is recommended for storage over 30 days. (got this info from Red's battery clinic).

2. If the batteries are not "puffed up" check the voltage on them (your charger SHOULD tell you the voltage when they are fully charged (If your charger doesn't tell you the voltage, use a voltmeter or multimeter). I look at the voltage on mine when they are fully charged - it should be 4.1 - 4.2 volts per cell - usually 4.2 volts per cell (a 3s battery should have a voltage of 12.3 - 12.6 volts when it comes off the charger). All batteries self discharge, but not at the same rate. If the batteries are puffed up, soak them in a bucket of heavily salted water until they are discharged, then toss them.

3. When you charge your batteries, charge them at 1C (or less). For you 600 mah batteries, this is .6 amps (six tenths - point 6 amps) or less. Charging at more than 1C can damage the battery.

4. BALANCE YOUR BATTERY PACK !!! If your charger does not automatically balance them while charging, invest $25 and get a "Blinky" to balance the pack. An unbalanced pack has a very short life.


Crashing (or dropping them) is never any good for the battery.

As far as the battery expense goes take a look at Hobbycity. Their prices are about 1/3 - 1/2 of what they get locally. The downside is that it typically takes about 3 weeks to get the stuff.

Hope this is of some help.