Batteries keep losing cells??

[jkflow]

Do the latter, 1A full and storage. This will take a while.
I'd give up after 3 cycles (at the most).

 

[olds97_lss]

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 a cheap dynamite version of that charger and it doesn't balance that well. I only use it for my transmitter which has a 2000mah 2S pack and my micro-rc packs that are 650mah 2S. I rarely run any of those down to 3.4V per cell and don't particularly care about their longevity. On occasion, I'll cycle them on one of my good chargers, but usually they come off the charger at least .1-.2V different for each cell.

 

[SrC]

Charge at a 1 amp rate like recommended. Very low rate. This is the only way to revive a bad cell if possible at all. Then discharge it. 7amps will discharge it faster. Need a dedicated discharger to do this fast.
One charge + one discharge is considered One Cycle.
TBH you cannot train the cells like they are Nimpacks. Cycling usually works within 2-3 cycles if it even does at all. That cell may never recover.

Best method way is to Individually Charge each cell. Isolating each cell. Again at a low rate. Perhaps .25 amps. (will take a while) Starting with the suspected bad cell. To see if it responds well enough to do the rest Individually. This has worked for some, but not all of my old lipos.
If the IR of that one bad cell is way off from the others, the cell/pack is toast.

 

[GRC]

Thanks. I'm hoping to recover it. It's not completely dead. It did fully charge even if it took all day. I don't know how to charge cells individually. I'm pretty sure my Venom Duo Pro can't do it. I'm just going to balance charge then discharge for 2-3 cycles and see if it improves.

 

[SrC]

Charging each cell individually is not for the faint of heart. Just charge the whole pack at a slow rate. Cycle and do it again.
But there are videos how to charge one cell in a pack. And most any decent charger can do it. The charger will just recognize that you are charging a 1 cell lipo. Easy enough. That one cell, only, gets charged from the Balance lead connector. (at a very low .25 amp rate ) And Not with the Lipo's Main Power lead. It is left unconnected.
You just need to understand the Pin-Outs for the cells at the Balance lead. This is most important. Just Need a digital volt meter to verify each cells circuit. To confirm each isolated cell you are charging at a given time.

 

[GRC]

Well thanks for the advice everyone, unfortunately the Zeee lipo did not recover after cycling. Not a great review of Zeee lipo's. The first two had a dead cell after a few months. Zeee did sent warranty replacements. But then one of the two replacements showed a defective cell after 3 runs. To Zeee's credit, they sent another replacement of the replacement.

However, since the 7200mah with EC5 connectors come in packs of two, they were not willing to break up a package to send a single replacement. Instead they sent me a single 7200mah with a Dean's plug. Better than nothing. I bought EC5 connectors and did my first battery solder. So far so good, after a single charge and gentle test run. We'll see if this Zeee lasts.

 

[SrC]

Lipos can be a mixed bag. One reason I hate to recommend any one particular brand.
A brand can have a great production run of matched grade A cells. The packs get great reviews etc.
But then subsequent runs of them end up with subpar graded cells. Hence failed cells.
Can happen with any brand or price point. It's the warranty that separates the men from the boys. Zeee's come in at the lower price point of the spectrum as Lipos go. Best for bashers.
I never considered mine the best performing and absolutely not good for Speed Running no doubt. Poor C ratings. But I have not bricked any Zeee packs yet. Knock on wood.

 

[GRC]

And now the replacement of the replacement has a dying cell. Lasted one month, maybe 4-5 cycles? It's not me, I took perfect care of these lipos and the first replacement Zeee sent is still working perfectly. But that's a record of one good battery out of five. Although it's too early to say even that. I've only had it two months. We'll see if they send another replacement.

*EDIT: Actually it's not the replacement of the replacement. It's the previous replacement that died. So my original two purchased batteries died with about 3 months. Zeee sent two replacements. One died after 3-4 cycles. The other died after a month, maybe 8-9 cycles?

 

[ABabyEater]

And now the replacement of the replacement has a dying cell. Lasted one month, maybe 4-5 cycles? It's not me. The first replacement Zeee sent is still working perfectly. But that's a record of one good battery out of five. Although it's too early to say even that. I've only had it two months. We'll see if they send another replacement.

Idk man, sounds an awfully lot like the textbook definition of insanity

 

[GRC]

Idk man, sounds an awfully lot like the textbook definition of insanity

Well they've been replacing them, so I keep using the replacements. No, I'm not going to buy Zeee batteries anymore.

 

[jondilly1974]

Is this the only brand you’ve had issues with?

 

[GRC]

Is this the only brand you’ve had issues with?

I had PowerHobby's before. They were my first batteries. Lasted about a year. Since I was a newbie, I also didn't maintain them correctly. Left them plugged in before and after running. Left them fully charged, etc. With these Zeee's I've been trying to take perfect care of them, but they're not lasting long at all.

I'm hearing people saying they have batteries that have lasted years. I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong. Is my charger crap? I have a Venom Duo Pro. Are the impacts from jumping knocking them out?

 

[jondilly1974]

I had PowerHobby's before. They were my first batteries. Lasted about a year. Since I was a newbie, I also didn't maintain them correctly. Left them plugged in before and after running. Left them fully charged, etc. With these Zeee's I've been trying to take perfect care of them, but they're not lasting long at all.

I'm hearing people saying they have batteries that have lasted years. I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong. Is my charger crap? I have a Venom Duo Pro. Are the impacts from jumping knocking them out?

With that many bad packs, my gut would say that either they were all mistreated or you have a bad charger. Being as generous as possible, I will side with the charger is a problem. Maybe its just an incorrect setting being used?

1) What voltage are your cells (not packs) after use? How low do you drain them?

2) What cycle and rate do you use after use/storage?

3) What cycle and rate do you fully charge them at?

That being said, I believe @slick2500 has had issues with Venom chargers.

 

[slick2500]

I had PowerHobby's before. They were my first batteries. Lasted about a year. Since I was a newbie, I also didn't maintain them correctly. Left them plugged in before and after running. Left them fully charged, etc. With these Zeee's I've been trying to take perfect care of them, but they're not lasting long at all.

I'm hearing people saying they have batteries that have lasted years. I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong. Is my charger crap? I have a Venom Duo Pro. Are the impacts from jumping knocking them out?

I had a pair of Floureons that I recently retired that I originally purchased back in January of 2017. I treated them like crap too even left them charged for a couple of weeks on accident once.

With that many bad packs, my gut would say that either they were all mistreated or you have a bad charger. Being as generous as possible, I will side with the charger is a problem. Maybe its just an incorrect setting being used?

1) What voltage are your cells (not packs) after use? How low do you drain them?

2) What cycle and rate do you use after use/storage?

3) What cycle and rate do you fully charge them at?

That being said, I believe @slick2500 has had issues with Venom chargers.

Nope it was Venom lipos not the charger.

 

[GRC]

With that many bad packs, my gut would say that either they were all mistreated or you have a bad charger. Being as generous as possible, I will side with the charger is a problem. Maybe its just an incorrect setting being used?

1) What voltage are your cells (not packs) after use? How low do you drain them?

2) What cycle and rate do you use after use/storage?

3) What cycle and rate do you fully charge them at?

That being said, I believe @slick2500 has had issues with Venom chargers.

1) 3.66 V
2) 1.0 A, 11.1 V to store. The charger ends when they're at 3.80 V
3) 7.0 A, 11.1V (7200mah batteries). Takes about an hour when the batteries are working well.

I'm actually thinking it's the jumping now that I mentioned it. I forgot I was using a yoga mat under the PowerHobby's. For the Zeee's I switched to velcro to try to solve another problem. Much less cushion. For my last good Zeee battery out of 5, I switched back to the yoga mat. So the yoga mat may be what's making the difference.

 

[Diem Turner]

I've personally had the issue that, if not treated gently, balance connectors can lose connection or develop a poor connection to one of the cells resulting in unbalanced charging if I didn't make certain periodically that the connection was good (I had to place objects on the leads during charging on occasion to maintain a proper connection). Replacing the balance connector with a new one remedied the issue. Not sure if that is what is causing your issues, but it might be worth a shot.

 

[jkflow]

@GRC Sounds more like you are getting a bad batch of Zeee's. Nothing stands out on your values.
Unfortunately, they are not consistent in quality, just like CNHL (hit or miss between batches).

Jumping doesn't hurt them, just make sure they are laying flat and not sideways, if that makes sense.

 

[Sirkensirlot]

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.

I have 3 lipo checkers ISDT / Battery doctor / overlander / & a handfull of the small lipo alarms . none are acuite but give a ball park estimate