Flight-TX batteries
 

Just out off curiousety,

When do you guy's out there swap out your Systems (rx-tx and ecu) battery's. LiPo/LiFe etc.

I was just wondering cause although i take very good care of them, what would be the point to swap them out just out off preventive maintenance?

1 Season? 2, 3?? x-time charge/de-charge cycles.....??

I do always after use charge them on store program so they should be good, but there must be also a time wise cut of point i suppose...?

Cheers,

Ed

thats a subjective question.. I use about 3 seasons as a guide, however if they puff they go too.. A123's for me last about 5 yrs. LioN batts seem to last 5+, I have some that are 8yr in smaller planes.. but in my jets never more than 5..

I am religious about checking my batteries.. I balance check and balance all of them except Lions. I also store charge them for sitting.. we often charge our turbine batts and then let them sit full.. not good..

I purchased a good charging system that will discharge quickly too, so I can put everything at storage charge quickly.

As far as TX goes, it depends too.. I have Jeti with ION battery, it should last a long time.. and its monitored. I used eneloop nickel packs in my spekky / JR stuff, and they lasted 5 yrs no problem.

so the answer... it depends.

For the Sprint, I use LiPo. I am still using some Spektrum RXer packs that are 4 years old. The Turbine battery is 3 years old now.

For the Flash, I use Spektrum LiPo Rxer Packs and Jetcat's LiFePo4. The Rxer packs are new this year. The Turbine battery is a couple years old.

I put them all in storage mode for the winter. Otherwise they are charged and ready to go all Spring, Summer and Fall. Once the Internal resistance starts showing up as going bad, then they get relegated to bench only use or disposed of. A good indicatorof the IR going whacky is when they timeout on the charger. Then it is time to get the IR meter out and see what is going on.

Before I used to swap my batts every two years, now days with the more efficient batts is more like five years.

my radio batt (LIPO) is around 10 years old and still in good conditions, I also keep a close eye on all my batts.