Batteries keep losing cells??

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tduane

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I have 3 zeee 3s 6000mah batteries and 2 supulse 25w balance chargers and a blx 100 big rock, all three of my batteries have a low cell in them and they are all not even 2 months old yet. I let them cool when I’m done running/charging before I plug them back up. And I haven’t let them sit. 1st battery I got 1 run out of, the second battery got about 15, and the third one got about 5 before they got a low cell. Anyone have Any ideas on what I am doing wrong or did I just get extremely unlucky? I have talked to zeee and they just said to check my connections and I did. They replaced the first one but after 2 more going bad I don’t know if I just want a refund and buy something else? Also has anyone had luck bringing a cell back to life? If so, how did you do it and is it like new again? Thank you in advance!
 
I have 3 zeee 3s 6000mah batteries and 2 supulse 25w balance chargers and a blx 100 big rock, all three of my batteries have a low cell in them and they are all not even 2 months old yet. I let them cool when I’m done running/charging before I plug them back up. And I haven’t let them sit. 1st battery I got 1 run out of, the second battery got about 15, and the third one got about 5 before they got a low cell. Anyone have Any ideas on what I am doing wrong or did I just get extremely unlucky? I have talked to zeee and they just said to check my connections and I did. They replaced the first one but after 2 more going bad I don’t know if I just want a refund and buy something else? Also has anyone had luck bringing a cell back to life? If so, how did you do it and is it like new again? Thank you in advance!
I never say anything but not a big zeee fan.. Sounds like if u didnt have bad luck you wouldnt have any at all!!😭
Where did u get that charger.. Its only 25w? You might wanna look into upgrading it??
 
Agree that it is likely the charger. @Pat_ranch and I have put some serious torture into a bunch of Zeees and they have lasted easily the longest and best of any if the other batteries we have tried, including Smarts, SMC (although admittedly I picked up some race packs for bashing), Gens, etc. The only ones that have held up as long are the Hoovo cheapo with the Spektrum being arguably better but costing much much more.
 
Agreed, it's the charger or you have terrible luck. I don't necessarily think Zeee batteries are the best thing on the market, but I love the price and have about a dozen of them that are over a year old...several are nearing 200 cycles and none of them have failed on me, so as far as I'm aware and from my own experience, there are no inherent issues with the brand.
 
Agreed, it's the charger or you have terrible luck. I don't necessarily think Zeee batteries are the best thing on the market, but I love the price and have about a dozen of them that are over a year old...several are nearing 200 cycles and none of them have failed on me, so as far as I'm aware and from my own experience, there are no inherent issues with the brand.
Yea i didnt mean to bash on them really.. Good lipo for the price.. I try to stay on the higher end side with lipos
 
Actually what kinda charger do you have? Are you sure you are balance charging them?
 
I am not a expert on chargers, but shop around and do your research. I have a SPEKTRUM s2100 for 9 months. It's WAS a dual channel charging system at one time. Lost one channel and can only charge one battery now. Lost my purchase reciept and HORZION want replace. Tried updating the software and still not working.
 
I never say anything but not a big zeee fan.. Sounds like if u didnt have bad luck you wouldnt have any at all!!😭
Where did u get that charger.. Its only 25w? You might wanna look into upgrading it??
Yeah I got it from amazon. Ive just always Thought that slow charging was better but I do plan on getting a new one that I can discharge with so I can try to possibly bring them back to life and maybe 80-100w
 
Yeah I got it from amazon. Ive just always Thought that slow charging was better but I do plan on getting a new one that I can discharge with so I can try to possibly bring them back to life and maybe 80-100w
Don’t attempt to bring it back to life, you could start a fire, discharge it and dispose of it at your local battery drop-off.
 
Yea i didnt mean to bash on them really.. Good lipo for the price.. I try to stay on the higher end side with lipos
Hey, you like what you like. I pay for overpriced Skeptrum batteries for the kids so they can use the smart features.
 
They might all be ok, but you do not have the tools to determine if they are good or bad. Some links below.
Some ideas:
1) What are the cell voltages when you are done bashing? Buy yourself a cheap lipo checker.
You should always be ~ 3.6-3.7V after you are done.
The ESC low volt cut-off is very low and not a good gauge. You can damage lipos by over-discharging.
If that happens, the internal resistance goes up significantly and will render the lipo more or less useless.

The better chargers can measure the internal resistance during charging, and you will get instant feedback.

2) As others stated, might just be a bad charger. I wouldn't touch those with a 10ft pole tbh, utter junknesium.

3) Been using Zeee for a while, and they are good for bashing, no issues on my side. I did over discharge one of them and as expected it's a pile of poop now. Pricing is no longer the best. I'm going SMC which are top performers and about the same price nowadays.

On the links, skip the first 2/3 of the pages or stay within 1 year.

Charger: I suggest the HOTA D6+ with correct cables. Out of stock but check other sites.
https://www.smc-racing.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=113&product_id=541

Full list.
https://www.arrmaforum.com/threads/recommend-me-a-battery-charger.1079/

Lipos:
https://www.arrmaforum.com/threads/what-is-your-rc-lipo-of-choice-in-2021.33223/

Lipo checker with IR meter
https://smile.amazon.com/Tenergy-Battery-Intelligent-Digital-Balancer/dp/B0178P8H9U

On the IR values, only compare amongst the other cells, they should all be roughly the same.
If your lipos have the same IR it's a bad charger.
 
OK so do I just have bad luck or am I doing something wrong? First 2 Zeee lipos both ended up with a dead cell after 4 months use. Zeee just replaced them under warranty. I made sure to take really good care of these. Balance charged and run right after. Run down to LVC, then storage charged. One is fine, the other has a cell that won't charge past 4.01V. They are 10 days old. Used 3 times. I'm using a Venom Pro Duo charger.
 
I'd never run them to LVC, that is already battery overstress land but they shouldn't die immediately.
Ever measured the temps on your lipo? You should stay below 140F.
Might just be bad luck in a batch.
 
Yeah I got it from amazon. Ive just always Thought that slow charging was better but I do plan on getting a new one that I can discharge with so I can try to possibly bring them back to life and maybe 80-100w
Normally you would charge any lipo at a 1C rate.
If the lipo has 5,600mah capacity then a 1C rate would be 5.6 amps for the charge setting.
For a bad lipo with a bad cell or 2, you can try charging at 1/4 C rate. Slowly charging all the cells. Might have good luck if you let them all balance well afterwards. But that pack is on its way out.
I have several Zeee packs. Not my best, not my worst packs. Mine are over a year old. Can't complain for the price. Good enough for bashing only. I would not push these packs hard with any crazy gearing like that. Not for speed running. But No bad cells yet with my Zeee's.
Most importantly always check the Internal Resistance (IR's) of all the cells. That one bad cell will usually have a very high IR compared the other cells. A way to judge the health of all the cells. With age the IR's normally increase for all the cells fairly close. But if you have that cell that is way higher than the rest, the pack is on borrowed time. That one bad cell will trip the LVC more often even while the others are still good to go.
""Storage Charging" them to 3.8-3.85 volts/cell right after you are done bashing keeps all the cells matched. Lower IR's, lasts longer.
All decent modern chargers will have a storage charge mode setting. Set the Amp rate to 1C and the charger will shut off when it reaches storage voltage.
Bad lipos happen out the box. been there. No matter how much or little you pay. But I find it rare.
Lack of Care and feeding/user error usually gets the best of any lipo.
Only takes one time to mess up a lipo/ruin a cell.

.
 
The 'not going 'above 4V' might just be a symptom of a slow charger.
If all the other cells are full (4.2V) the charger will only use its balance current to charge this one cell. That is a rather slow process and depends on your charger. That is the 3rd value that determines if I buy a charger (balance current)
At any rate, it's probably in the 0.5-2A range, and balancing at that value takes forever. I'm fighting this with one of my CNHL and a Zeee right now.

My Zeee had a bad IR on one cell (~15mOhm vs 3mOhm on the others), that is a hopeless case.
The CNHL is fairly equal across, and it worked for me. It wouldn't cross the 4.1V line if I tried it a different route, it was just too far out of balance.

If your IR values are all within margin you can try below:
If possible, set your storage charge value to 3.85V and let them balance out. This might take 1-2h. Do a full charge from that point. Again, might take 1-2h.

I wish they would make chargers that could just specify a single cell to be charged. Yes, you could build a special harness but you would need one for each cell as you never know which one is going bad.
 
I have charged each cell individually with good results on some of my older packs.
Isolating each cell to charge individuaIly, it is easily done with a Balance lead and some wiring patience. Be there to monitor the charge. Charge at 1/4 C rate. Each cell separately. Start with the bad cell to see if it responds well enough to a slow charge.
 
I managed to get it to full charge by balance charging it for a full day. But after using it again, same problem. I contacted Zeee and they told me to cycle charge it at 1A a few times. My charger has a cycle mode for NIMH batteries, but not for Lipo batteries.

So how do I cycle charge? Can I use the NIMH mode?

Or do I manually charge and discharge at 1A? If so, what voltage so I charge and discharge to? If I manually charge/discharge at 1A, they aren't going to be balanced at the same voltage. Which cell's voltage would be my guide for the max charge level and max discharge level?

Or do I balance charge at 1A, then storage charge at 1A? Right now, this seems like the best way to do it.
 
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