J.D.T

I would mention the best part about lipos is you can charge them one day and run them the next with very little if any perfermance loss depending on how good the battery, the best NIMH in the world are best when served hot, meaning the second they come off the charger they start falling and you get half the performance the next day

searlesy

That is usually my philosophy as well, so in effect, you arent comparing the same prices.... a good set of 7 cell 8.4v NiMh from Pro match racing is $30-$50 depending on the mAh , whereas a 2s 7.4v Lipo is upwards of $70. and depending on where you order from, the difference may be more substantial. I'm not saying the Lipos are not better (firstly as I dont have any experience in the area, and secondly, from all that Ihave read, they quite obviously are better), but you certainly pay for it.

lee172

i agree with most of your points, apart from the 'easier to maintain' one, what could be easier than: charge>run till it dies>recharge

you try that with a lipo and your in trouble, now when i say try that, i mean if you forget to take the lipo out before the critical point, or if you forget to set the LVC..

sure, they do lose there charge after time, but seriously, half the performance after a day?? thats exagerating a little..

Access

Actually modern-day, a 2s 7.4 LiPo can be as little as $25., $30. or so.
Look at the Zippys and so on that people have linked to in other threads. The LiPo can be cheaper than the NIMH of similar capacity.

Example: $25. for a 4000mAH, 7.4V "40C" LiPo.
http://www.hobbycity.com/hobbyking/s...00mAh_2S1P_40C

djr01974

well I do not have any problems with my lipos because they are cheap . I have over a dozen hard runs on them with no issues . I believe that when a lipo fails its because of the owner operator ... I know of guys that race that charge their lipos beyond what they are designed for , I even know of a few that charge them with a nimh charger ... they watch them till they are nice and warm ... and run the race that way ... very dangerous but the result is crazy power ... so like anything else you abuse it , its gonna fail ... who knows maybe he got the battery a little damp, thats all it takes for a lipo to fail. Thats just my 2 cents .

burnineyes

A poor quality lipo generally has less internal resistance than the highest quality Nimh packs. This equates to more power, more runtime for a given MAH, cooler running batts, and less voltage drop under load. So for equal MAH you do get more runtime. A typical 7 cell Nimh pack will give you about 7.5-8.0V for the first 1-2 minutes of the run, the settle around 7.0-7.4V under load for the remainder of the run, most packs will continue to drop throughout the run. A typical lipo will give you at least 7.4V for several minutes of hard running, and they will not drop rapidly until the last few milliamps. Plus if you simply take your nimh and run them-charge-run-charge-run-etc. they will not perform nearly as well in about 20 cycles. They need nearly constant attention to keep performance decent for 100 cycles. With Lipo I charge them-run them-charge-run-charge, etc.... Charger setup is just as easy, cutoff is set it once and forget it, the only work required is if you plan to store them. They need a storage charge of appx. 60% to stay optimum. My $40 charger has the option built in so thats easy too!
As far as the cheaper lipos, I do own or have owned many different brands. Including Zippy, Turnigy, Thunderpower, Flightpower, SMC, Reedy, Orion, Maxamps, and several ebay cheapies. The Zippy and Turnigy packs are great, the other name brand packs were great. Some of the Ebay cheapos have been great, while some have been junk I am afraid to keep in my house. I have 7 packs from Hobbycity; some with well over 100 cycles. I will keep buying them until they are proven to be poor quality in some way. Having used and abused them over and over I dont think they are anything less than middle of the pack quality.
The argument about if you buy cheap you get cheap? Well this is true, but keep in mind if you get raped your car is not going to run any better, and you will not be any safer just because you spent too much. A cheap lipo to me is $10 from ebay, and yes, they are cheap junk.
If I was racing for my job or to pay bills, I would run Flightpower. They dont perform noticeably better for me, but they stand behind their products very well. I would pay extra for the customer service and warranty if this was the case. But to win races at my local tracks? I dont need them.

searlesy

Ok, well that certainly sounds fair.  I am happy with middle of the range batteries, so long as they are safe, and reliable.  I understand that the performance will not be top of the line, but sounds like still very substantially better than NiMh.  I wouldnt go the $10 Ebay versions, but will probably pick up some blue Lipos or something similar.

searlesy

So, if Iwas to buy

http://www.hobbycity.com/hobbyking/s...idproduct=9172

and

http://www.hobbycity.com/hobbyking/s...idProduct=7224

and for a charger

http://www.hobbypartz.com/thac6smbachw.html

Is there anything else Iwould need to hook this up to a Rustler? Should Ichange the plug on the Rustler to match the battery, or the plug on the battery to a traxxas connector?

Brainanator

My Feedback: (1)

I would change the plug on the battery to match the ESC.

guys2nv

If u treat um right then they should last over 300+ cycles. ive had the same nimh cells for almost 8yrs and they still perform like the day i bought them and thats b/c i take care of um. so im not to worried about my blue lipo's crapping out on me b/c i take of my batts the right way. so ill keep spending under 50 a batt b/c im not worried so have fun spending 150+ for maxamps when their prob. made in the same factory-haha

MCSRacing

My Feedback: (2)

ummmmmm K .... maxamps are not worth buying ... personally i wouldn't put a soft lipo in any vehicle, but to each there own .. anyway the tracks we run won't let ya run if your lipo's aren't hardcased. My ThunderPower's have well over 500 runs on em and they are still top notch .. if ya really wanna compare your lipo's drop em on a GFX35 and give em a work out .. but i guess the guys that buy 25.00 lipo's sure aren't gonna spring for a 500.00 charger.

burnineyes

Not until your driving gets better and you can beat my $25 lipo charged on a $30 charger with your $500 worth of push. Until I start to fall behind too much Ill keep using what works.

MCSRacing

My Feedback: (2)

momogt

do you guy store your lipos in lipo sacks and what voltage do you store them at i want lipos but i dont want to burn my house for the sake of more power and run time

gapjr

My Feedback: (26)

I started back into RC about a year ago after not owning a hobby grade rc for almost 20 years. I had never even heard of a lipo or brushless motor for an RC car/truck. Now, a year later, I have learned lots and if starting over I wouldn't even waste my money on nimh batteries or chargers. I would go straight lipo. I thought it would be way too expensive for me to buy lipos and go brushless until I read about ezrun brushless systems and zippy/turnigy lipos. I know some on here have said you get what you pay for and that they have seen those "cheap" batteries go up in flames but trust me, if you educate yourself on lipos, charge them correct and use them in the manner they were designed, turnigy/zippy batteries work great and make upgrading to lipos very affordable. I've had 6 of hobbycity's lipos for about a year and trust me they've been abused. The cells always balance and charge great. I've seen quite a few over $100 lipo batteries puff or even go up in flames. If some of these other guys want to keep spending over $100 each for their lipos, no problem, but I will tell you from my experience with both that you would just be wasting money buying the more expensive lipo. Okay, well good luck. Gotta go order some $18 5000mah lipos before they're out of stock!

Access

The key is to not _assume_ that just b'cos one LiPo brand is expensive that it is better. Some of the best brands are also on the expensive side. But there are a lot of other brands on the expensive side that are not much better than any of the other packs out there.

Also, compared to the boost from switching from NIMH to LiPo, the gain in performance going from a poor or average LiPo to a top-rated one is not a big one.

searlesy

I'm pretty much convinced, Ithink given the good press that some particular brands are getting on here, Iwould have no hesitation in getting them... just a matter of convincing my wife that spending another couple of hundred on batteries and charger is a good idea!

momogt

yes lipos and brushless is in my future i will get them from hobby city or hobby partz i want to run 7.4 in my e10 and 11.1v in my beefed up wheely king all steel tranny and diffs

burnineyes

Use a Lipo sack please. Its just a little insurance in case anything goes wrong. I dont think lipos are any more dangerous than Nimh; the same malfunction that would cause a lipo fire would cause a pretty serious explosion from a nimh. But, if your nimh goes off and you are in another room, you will hear it clearly and know to run in and put out the smoldering bits of metal embedded in your walls. If a lipo goes you might not know it right away and it is burning the whole time. Not trying to scare anyone, because like I said I think they are both just as dangerous if mistreated. Its just that more people are familiar with nimh handling, so lipo is just an unknown for some.

My charger has a storage charge function on it. When letting my packs sit for more than a few days I will use this. It charges the pack to 7.6V and stops there.

mojoe007

so would it be fair to say that it is more worth it to get 2 cheap ebay batteries, rather than one "venom" or other name brand one for the same price?

i found a 7.2 5000mah no name battery for $21 shipped:

  http://cgi.ebay.com/7-2V-5000mAh-Ni-...item19b8ba9a22

then there is a "venom" 7.2 5000mah for around $50 shipped:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Venom-6-Cell-7-2...item5ad6def0fb

from all the info in this thread, It appears that a well maintained cheap battery lasts as long as an expensive one.  Am I wrong to assume this?