Kraton Chargers what should I buy

[chevys10zr2003]

Hmmm, Hitec x2 700.... I think I might consider this

Thanx,

Justin

Lol I'm not trying to push the Hitec X2 700. It's just the one that I have. I was just trying to point out that 100 watts for 6s batteries is only really good for 4 amps. After having a high powered charger with external power supply, I'll likely never go back to an AC/DC charger. For 6s batteries I would personally recommend at least 300 watts per channel. That would give you around 12 amps of charging for 6s batteries, be running at less than the 80% rule that Jerry and Slick pointed out and allow room for expanding if your RC battery needs ever expand.

 

[joostin420]

I know not pushing

what kind of power supply is required to run the charger?

Thanx,

Justin

 

[chevys10zr2003]

I know not pushing

what kind of power supply is required to run the charger?

Thanx,

Justin

I'm using this power supply with mine. Like I said in an earlier post, this power supply can't "fully" power my 1400 watt charger, but it exceeds what I use it for. With this power supply you should be able to charge two 6s batteries at once at 19.8 amps each.

 

[Jerry-rigged]

Hmmm, Hitec x2 700.... I think I might consider this

Thanx,

Justin

Yeah, get the Hitec over the Ev-peak. That 100w charger will be struggling, running maxed out all the time, and still taking an hour and a half to charge a battery.

The Hitec, you will be able to charge those big 6s bricks an half an hour. Plus Hitec is a stand-up company. They have been around forever, and they stand behind their products.

 

[Nuanda1978]

Lol I'm not trying to push the Hitec X2 700. It's just the one that I have. I was just trying to point out that 100 watts for 6s batteries is only really good for 4 amps. After having a high powered charger with external power supply, I'll likely never go back to an AC/DC charger. For 6s batteries I would personally recommend at least 300 watts per channel. That would give you around 12 amps of charging for 6s batteries, be running at less than the 80% rule that Jerry and Slick pointed out and allow room for expanding if your RC battery needs ever expand.

I think you exaggerate.
I have just finished fully charging a 5,000 6s battery from storage to full in 80 minutes, balance charging at 50w per channel alongside a 5,200 4s (ended in 45 minutes).

A 100w charger is more than fine for most users i believe.

 

[ebaltazar]

Well, 80 minutes is only 10 minutes shy of an hour and a half, so not much of an exaggeration. I have used a few chargers along the years too, and ultimately, the most reliable, powerful, and flexible have been my Powerlab 8 units. It's so nice to be able to call Revolectrix and talk to the folks who engineered their devices. Their GT line of chargers are fantastic as well. Great displays and easy interface, with consistent updates. Just my experience.

 

[chevys10zr2003]

I think you exaggerate.
I have just finished fully charging a 5,000 6s battery from storage to full in 80 minutes, balance charging at 50w per channel alongside a 5,200 4s (ended in 45 minutes).

A 100w charger is more than fine for most users i believe.

What exactly are you suggesting that I am exaggerating? And 80 minutes from storage charge is a long time. If it was from say 3.4 volts per cell that same battery would take like 2-2.5 hours to fully charge....maybe even longer.

 

[joostin420]

Purchased a HITEC x2 700 and power supply because I had a feeling the graphene 6s 6000mah brick would take a while to charge with my HITEC x4 plus.

Got this power supply:

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-1080w-100-120v-power-supply-13-8v-18v-60amp.html

 

[chevys10zr2003]

Purchased a HITEC x2 700 and power supply because I had a feeling the graphene 6s 6000mah brick would take a while to charge with my HITEC x4 plus.

Got this power supply:

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-1080w-100-120v-power-supply-13-8v-18v-60amp.html

Nice! Let us know what you think about this setup once you get it and try it out.

Just an FYI (unless they have changed the default settings since I got my X2 700 just over a year ago) I was having issues with my charger not using all available power and charging one channel at 30 amps and the other channel at 14 amps. I emailed Hitec and got the following response.

"On the right side of charger when toggling thru the settings there is a choice for (power supply or battery) when on the power supply screen there is a max amp for the supply that defaults at 30A... change this to 60A and it will give you full power on both ports. Also make sure the the Max Power Set is set to 700W."

I have circled the settings in the image below. Mine was set to battery and 30A and I don't recall what the wattage was by default. If you have any questions about the charger feel free to PM me.

 

[Nuanda1978]

What exactly are you suggesting that I am exaggerating? And 80 minutes from storage charge is a long time. If it was from say 3.4 volts per cell that same battery would take like 2-2.5 hours to fully charge....maybe even longer.

I’m simply saying that I believe for an average user a 100w is fine, Not everybody needs to have quick charging if you use a battery once per day.

 

[chevys10zr2003]

I’m simply saying that I believe for an average user a 100w is fine, Not everybody needs to have quick charging if you use a battery once per day.

No, quick charging isn't needed. I never said it was but a lot of people like to charge at a 1C rate, which you can't do with a decent sized (5000mah+) 6s battery on a 100 watt charger. I also didn't exaggerate anything. I was just giving factual numbers that were figured out using proven formulas for amperage using voltage and wattage.

 

[Nuanda1978]

No, quick charging isn't needed. I never said it was but a lot of people like to charge at a 1C rate, which you can't do with a decent sized (5000mah+) 6s battery on a 100 watt charger. I also didn't exaggerate anything. I was just giving factual numbers that were figured out using proven formulas for amperage using voltage and wattage.

Chill out, I don’t mean you exaggerated the numbers, I meant that recolmending 2/300w chargers to me is an exaggeration as I believe the average user won’t need that type of power.
IMHO it’s better to invest on an extra battery.

 

[Jerry-rigged]

IMHO, the average RC basher thinks "I want to go bash" puts a battery on the charger, and then want to go bash ASAP. The difference between 30minutes and 80 minutes is not trivial.

Me and you put a battery on to charge at the same time, and mine will be done, I can drive to the park, bash and LVC the battery, then drive home. Your battery is still charging, and I am doing post bashing cleanup.

And that is no exaggeration.

One more example - my son and I want to go to the track. I say OK, and drop 2 batteries on the charger at 2c, then start loading my truck... (Track days I pack the workbench) 30 minutes later, the truck is packed, and one battery for each of us is charged. We get to the track, unpack, drop another pair of batteries on the charger at 2c, and go race / track bash. Our batteries last 20-30 minutes, guess what? Battery #1 is LVC, and Battery #2 is ready. We can spend all day at the track, and are pretty much never waiting on batteries to charge. With 3 sets of batteries (6 total), they get a 'rest' cycle between LVC and charge, so they don't get overstressed. Plus, my charger is running at 50% output, so it is not stressed either.

Change this race day to a 80 minute charge cycle, and it get boring really fast.

 

[chevys10zr2003]

Chill out, I don’t mean you exaggerated the numbers, I meant that recolmending 2/300w chargers to me is an exaggeration as I believe the average user won’t need that type of power.
IMHO it’s better to invest on an extra battery.

LOL no need to chill out, I'm perfectly calm. I was just trying to figure out what you said I was exaggerating. Yes, the dual channel 300w per channel is over what's needed but I don't like maxxing anything out as it creates extra heat and wear and tear on the electronics, so I tend to go over what's needed on everything. That's why I also put in there that I personally recommend that.

 

[slick2500]

I’m simply saying that I believe for an average user a 100w is fine, Not everybody needs to have quick charging if you use a battery once per day.

The average user has more than one car and more than one battery. I have 7 cars and 10 batteries and tend to take at least 3 of the cars with me at a time.

I like being able to charge more than one battery at a time, with my current charger if I had balance leads I could charge almost every battery I had at the same time, if they weren't a mix of 2s, 3s and 6s.

And as previously stated numerous times running your charger at max is a good way to kill your charger.

 

[Dauransx]

don't buy a HTRC charger, my HT206 blew after 6 uses, as stupid as this sounds, i just got a 2nd one today.... i just love its led screen, its like a smartphone screen and shows % of each cell in a shape of a battery. maybe i got a bad one but ill try with this cheaper newer model https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078762KRG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1. my old one was a $153 one SMC sold me and it was a 400wat 20amp dual.... i was doing storage mode and it made a pop sound and died. Their costumer service ignores you so i got insurance from amazon with this new one if it goes out.

 

[Nuanda1978]

The average user has more than one car and more than one battery. I have 7 cars and 10 batteries and tend to take at least 3 of the cars with me at a time.

I like being able to charge more than one battery at a time, with my current charger if I had balance leads I could charge almost every battery I had at the same time, if they weren't a mix of 2s, 3s and 6s.

And as previously stated numerous times running your charger at max is a good way to kill your charger.

I just don’t think the average user

The average user has more than one car and more than one battery. I have 7 cars and 10 batteries and tend to take at least 3 of the cars with me at a time.

I like being able to charge more than one battery at a time, with my current charger if I had balance leads I could charge almost every battery I had at the same time, if they weren't a mix of 2s, 3s and 6s.

And as previously stated numerous times running your charger at max is a good way to kill your charger.

It’s turning into a polemic and I didn’t want that, so excuse me but probably I got misunderstood.
This post was created by someone who is stating he has “no clue” on what charger to get, thus I highly doubt this is an “average user” with seven cars and ten batteries.
I simply guessed that this was someone who wouod be perfectly fine with something more basic, and i do believe that for this type of user it is better to invest in like 3 batteries and a slower charger instead of two batteries and an Uber charger.

Now, if money is no object it’s obvious that anybody should get the best possible charger and an infinite amount of batteries, but I don’t think this is the point.

This said, this is just imho, i obviously might be completely wrong and I didn’t mean to start an argument of any sort. Is just my 2 cents.

 

[joostin420]

Not “average” I guess... 30 years in hobby (40yr old), 15x vehicles + 2x boats, and 12x lipos in the family.

I rarely invest in chargers, maybe once every 5-6 years; last being the HITEC x4 plus and before that an ICE with power supply. So with the newly acquired graphene 6s 6000mah and 2x 4s 6000mah packs I thought it may be time to add a 2nd more powerful charger to the mix.

The last charge i did with the HITEC x4 plus was 4x brand-new 3s 5300mah packs; I am almost positive I set charge rate at 5.3a balance. It definately took around 90min...

 

[Jerry-rigged]

I just don’t think the average user


It’s turning into a polemic and I didn’t want that, so excuse me but probably I got misunderstood.
This post was created by someone who is stating he has “no clue” on what charger to get, thus I highly doubt this is an “average user” with seven cars and ten batteries.
I simply guessed that this was someone who wouod be perfectly fine with something more basic, and i do believe that for this type of user it is better to invest in like 3 batteries and a slower charger instead of two batteries and an Uber charger.

Now, if money is no object it’s obvious that anybody should get the best possible charger and an infinite amount of batteries, but I don’t think this is the point.

This said, this is just imho, i obviously might be completely wrong and I didn’t mean to start an argument of any sort. Is just my 2 cents.

I see what you are saying about the new guy with one car maybe not thinking he needs a 2 or 4 channel, huge wattage charger. But a few points -
One - yes he is not "Average" now, he is New. And as a New Guy, I think it is fair to say that he will start to move towards "Average" and start collecting batteries, and probably another car or three...

And second - as you gain more models, what you needed as a new guy with one car changes - let me use myself, and my bad decisions as an example again-

So I restarted this hobby a few years ago, after a 15 year break. I bought an ECX truck that had a 2a "Fast Charger" in the box, which quickly dies. At this point, I knew I wanted to get into 1/8 scale, but I didn't understand all the lipo issues, and C-rating charging, and wattage and stuff. I spent $100 on what I thought was a "Good" charger - a 2 channel, 50w per channel Dynamite. It was fine as long as I only had Nimh and 2s lipos. Once I got into 1/8, though and 4s packs, the charger was not 'enough'. Charge time started to stretch out, and the charger started throwing error codes and doing thermal shutdowns, and eventually dies. Even while it was running, going to bash with my 1/8 rigs needed to be planned out the night before...

So for my next charger, I read up on wattage, Charge C-ratings, and then tried to "over buy" - cuz, I won't really NEED 300w per channel, right? Turns out I pretty much love it. My bottleneck right now is I need a bigger power supply - I am using an old converted 500w PC/ATX power supply, and I am run it at max (not good). But my current charger was just $125 - $25 more than my first charge, but much more useable - it allows me to have a short notice bash. It lets me spend the day at the track and not worry about "we can only run 2 or three packs each, then we gotta go home"

Third - we KNOW the OP wants to run 6s - and we KNOW 6s needs more than 100w to do a 1c charge - so why tell him 100w is fine, when we know, long term it won't be?

Last - why call us out as attacking you when you were the one that accused all of us of "exaggerating" by pointing out that big batteries need big watts?

 

[Lee Boyce]

I see what you are saying about the new guy with one car maybe not thinking he needs a 2 or 4 channel, huge wattage charger. But a few points -
One - yes he is not "Average" now, he is New. And as a New Guy, I think it is fair to say that he will start to move towards "Average" and start collecting batteries, and probably another car or three...

And second - as you gain more models, what you needed as a new guy with one car changes - let me use myself, and my bad decisions as an example again-

So I restarted this hobby a few years ago, after a 15 year break. I bought an ECX truck that had a 2a "Fast Charger" in the box, which quickly dies. At this point, I knew I wanted to get into 1/8 scale, but I didn't understand all the lipo issues, and C-rating charging, and wattage and stuff. I spent $100 on what I thought was a "Good" charger - a 2 channel, 50w per channel Dynamite. It was fine as long as I only had Nimh and 2s lipos. Once I got into 1/8, though and 4s packs, the charger was not 'enough'. Charge time started to stretch out, and the charger started throwing error codes and doing thermal shutdowns, and eventually dies. Even while it was running, going to bash with my 1/8 rigs needed to be planned out the night before...

So for my next charger, I read up on wattage, Charge C-ratings, and then tried to "over buy" - cuz, I won't really NEED 300w per channel, right? Turns out I pretty much love it. My bottleneck right now is I need a bigger power supply - I am using an old converted 500w PC/ATX power supply, and I am run it at max (not good). But my current charger was just $125 - $25 more than my first charge, but much more useable - it allows me to have a short notice bash. It lets me spend the day at the track and not worry about "we can only run 2 or three packs each, then we gotta go home"

Third - we KNOW the OP wants to run 6s - and we KNOW 6s needs more than 100w to do a 1c charge - so why tell him 100w is fine, when we know, long term it won't be?

Last - why call us out as attacking you when you were the one that accused all of us of "exaggerating" by pointing out that big batteries need big watts?

I am that guy nice one for all the info guys really appreciate it. From all this info i think i've found the correct charger for me as it stands at this moment in time. the charger is Absima CtC 100w £125.00 reduced to £35 a steal at that price should i go for it