MikeMc

I charged a lipo battery last night and by mistake I charged it again this morning. Is this something really bad or maybe it's ok once or twice in the life of a battery?

Red Scholefield

My Feedback: (9)

If it was a LiPo charger with proper voltage limit you should have no problem.

ChopperMike

It depends on the charger. My Astroflight 109 has 3 stages of charging and in the first stage, the book calls it a "dumb" charge which I believe means that it does not look at the voltage at all. It stays in this mode for 3 minutes during which time it could go over 4.2V per cell if the battery is already at a high level of charge. After that it switches to mode 2 where it closely monitors the voltage of te battery and if the voltage is high enough will instantly switch to level 3. So as long as the voltage didn't go over 4.2V per cell during the first 3 minutes while in mode 1 I'd be OK. Other types of chargers are going to be different. A check of the voltage should tell if it over charged the battery but even it it checks OK now it doesn't mean it wasn't too high just off the charger.

Time will tell.


Mike

Doug Sipprell

My Feedback: (2)

Overcharging or double charging a LiPo is, as you may have gathered, is a No-No. As ChopperMike clearly described, it depends on the charger as to whether or not you may have induced some damage. I also use the Astro 109 which IMHO is a very good charger. However, a fully charged 2 cell LiPo could possibly be "read" as a low charged 3 cell LiPo upon starting the overall charging procedure on the AF109. If you don't watch the LCD on the charger to ascertain 2 cell or 3 cell charging, you would definitely run into a LiPo damaging situation with this charger, especially during the first three minute stage.

One easy way to remember if a LiPo (or any type battery) has been charged is to simply wrap a rubber band around the pack after you have charged it. When you go to use it, remove the rubber band and install the pack. Afterwards, leave the pack without any rubber band on it, indicating the pack has been used. After re-charging, place the rubber band back on the pack! Sounds ridiculously simple, but this procedure has really been a help to me working with numberous LiPo backs of different capacities for an active fleet of 14 planes.

RD

ChopperMike

That's a very good point which I forgot to mention. In any case, it's very important to verify that the charger identified the battery's cell count correctly.


Mike

Flypaper 2

I've done that on the Triton. As soon as it sees that the batt. is fully charged, it shuts off without putting any in.

push rodz

My Feedback: (5)

I've been "peak charging" my TP1320's like this on a Hobbico field charger for over a year now and the batteries are still performing like new. That's not to say that over a longer period that it doesn't have adverse effects on the batts but for all practicle purposes, after a year of use I feel like I've got my monies worth out of the batteries.

I might add that I take great precautions when charging like always being around to monitor the packs - have a fire detector in the charging area, etc.