Liberty's LiPo Hot Box build ( LiPo warmer )

[LibertyMKiii]

As a follow-up on the hot box worked great!
The only issue is that I had to turn it way down to something like 100 F to maintain 120F temps once everything was warmed up.

It was so nice to drive in the car to my run spot without the heater blasting and utilize this hot box instead.

 

[King blitz]

As a follow-up on the hot box worked great!
The only issue is that I had to turn it way down to something like 100 F to maintain 120F temps once everything was warmed up.

It was so nice to drive in the car to my run spot without the heater blasting and utilize this hot box instead.

You heat up your lipos in the summer wouldn't leaving them in the sun for a bit so the same thing if it's hot out?
Summer I do the opposite.i bring a cooler with a few ice packs so they don't blow up in my car works great

 

[LibertyMKiii]

You heat up your lipos in the summer wouldn't leaving them in the sun for a bit so the same thing if it's hot out?
Summer I do the opposite.i bring a cooler with a few ice packs so they don't blow up in my car works great

Yes, you could leave them up on the dash and the sun would warm them up. If you are parked that works pretty well. You can position the car with good sunlight hitting the dashboard. In my situation, I drive about 1 hr north into Oklahoma and the blasting A/C sort of keeps the LiPos from getting as warm as I would like. I keep the inside of the car frosty cold in the summer

I need the Lipos ready to go when I arrive considering its 1 hr there, 1hr of playing, and 1 hr drive back home. Thats a good chunk of a busy Saturday.

 

[SrC]

Suggestions, some of which you already mentioned.

Move the fan+heater to the inside and close that hole, you want to circulate your warm air, not blow in uncontrolled air from the outside. Also, exchange or add a large PC style fan for more airflow, I'd even double up on those.

Actually, you would have extreme poor performance in your current design, assuming it's somewhat airtight. Your fan will only be noisy, but very little air will go inside your box due to static back pressure.

170F sounds scary, Lipos will degrade rather quickly. I have proven this many times myself. I understand this is for initial warm up only, but it will fail eventually. I'd max it at 140F and increase airflow instead, you will easily gain 30-40% efficiency that way and won't need those high pre-heat temps.

Suggest an over temp alert or cut-off, there are plenty of temp controllers in the Aquarium world, but mostly 115V.
A cheap independent alarm might be the way to go. Opening the box and checking with a gun just seems silly.

At the end of the day, I'd have all the wiring inside and maybe integrate the display as well, else you will just rip it off during transport.

'Cool' idea though, or dare I say it's a 'smokin' idea?

+!
Racers typically shoot for 140F Lipo temps. And just cycling them, high discharging them, then recharging them at a High C rate seems to also warm them up just before a Race.
Amperage burst rates seem to be better giving the track guys an advanatage in competition. I guess this would matter with Speed running to some extent.
Raz has done this.
For bashing not really practical or makes much of a difference IMHO.
But I have observed that warm to hot Lipos do perform better for the most part. Noticed when they sit in my Hot car on a sunny day, just before using them.
Surely you can't expect a long life using them this way. But Racers eat lipos left and right. Normal for them to spend $$ on Lipos anyway.
The lipo industry obviously doesn't recommend warming Lipo packs. But yeah it is a thing.
Just Govern yourself accordingly.
For safety's sake.

 

[jkflow]

Kind of funny that many consider 140F almost the limit to 'death of a lipo'.
I get nervous at those levels as well and see serious degradation once I cross those temps. My worst lipo temp was 175F after running it hard in my boat, that was way above my comfort level and the lipo is degraded in capacity for sure.
I try to stay below 140F at all times and that is without preheating, just normal running.
My bashers usually end up in the 120-130F range on a warm day ~85F.

 

[LibertyMKiii]

+!
Racers typically shoot for 140F Lipo temps. And just cycling them, high discharging them, then recharging them at a High C rate seems to also warm them up just before a Race.
Amperage burst rates seem to be better giving the track guys an advanatage in competition. I guess this would matter with Speed running to some extent.
Raz has done this.
For bashing not really practical or makes much of a difference IMHO.
But I have observed that warm to hot Lipos do perform better for the most part. Noticed when they sit in my Hot car on a sunny day, just before using them.
Surely you can't expect a long life using them this way. But Racers eat lipos left and right. Normal for them to spend $$ on Lipos anyway.
The lipo industry obviously doesn't recommend warming Lipo packs. But yeah it is a thing.
Just Govern yourself accordingly.
For safety's sake.

I have seen some pretty good speed gains by warming the lipos.
I agree its not necessary for bashers and due to the long duration of use probably the opposite of what you should do.

For speed running and our short 6-8 seconds of use it is "safe".