What amperage is everyone charging their spectrum smart batteries at?

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basher27

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If I remember correctly they have a 3C charge rate. Just curious what the majority of people out there are charging their batteries at? I’ve been charging mine at 5a but I would like to increase it without sacrificing longevity of the battery.
 
If I remember correctly they have a 3C charge rate. Just curious what the majority of people out there are charging their batteries at? I’ve been charging mine at 5a but I would like to increase it without sacrificing longevity of the battery.
To get the most out of your lipo's the common agreement is to always charge lipo's at 1C (unless you are in a hurry).
So if you have a 5000mAh lipo, charge it at 5 amps.
 
The rule of thumb, an Amp for every thousand MAH is what most do. Some of the crawler guys I've been hanging with say I should be doing an Amp less than suggested. They swear it prolongs battery life and makes charging safer. This could be a wife's tale or an accurate observation, but I haven't really seen any science behind the claim.
 
Agreed, I charge everything @ 1C, regardless of the battery make or even its "stated" charge ratings, except for a select few of my racing batteries that I use for endurance races. I'm very rarely in a hurry and I like to stick on the side of caution with Lipos to extend their life for as long as possible.
The rule of thumb, an Amp for every thousand MAH is what most do. Some of the crawler guys I've been hanging with say I should be doing an Amp less than suggested. They swear it prolongs battery life and makes charging safer. This could be a wife's tale or an accurate observation, but I haven't really seen any science behind the claim.
I've heard a few people say that but when I ask for proof it's all anecdotal and hypothetical. One thing I will say from my experience with crawling and other types of driving, I personally use dedicated batteries for each type of RC I own (I have crawler batteries, race batteries, bashing batteries, etc). The crawler batteries do seem to last longer, but I strongly believe this is because they're put under very little strain, and when they are stressed, it's for extremely brief periods of time. My crawlers rarely see 100% throttle, the motors/ESC rarely get hot, etc. On the opposite, some of my race cars are 80-100% throttle for long periods at a time. I compete in a few endurance classes where we run till the battery dies, swap in a new one, throw the one we just pulled out on the charger, and then it gets swapped back in (these races last 2 hours)...those batteries only last me about a year, and even they aren't charged at a ridiculous rate. Now I can't make an "as fact" claim as to specific reasons why, because I'm a sample of 1, but it stands to reason that the less strain the batteries are subjected to on a regular basis, the longer they last.
 
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Here is some reading-
(but does not address charging)

https://batteryuniversity.com/article/bu-808-how-to-prolong-lithium-based-batteries
Key points -
"Battery Life" is a factor and "Battery Failure" is determined when the cell capacity (mah) has dropped to 80% of rated capacity.
Storage Temperature has more to do with battery life than most other factors. Keeping your cells in a hot garage is as bad as storing them fully charged.
Storing lipos fully charged won't kill them overnight, or even in a week or even in a month. But it will slowly eat into your capacity over time.
Best for long lifespan is to charge lipos only to 80% and then discharge only to 40%.

As far as charging, IMHO, if it is OK, then it is OK. Guys that race will charge at 5C+ to heat up the cells a bit - hot cells have a lower IF and therefor more 'punch'. I have charged at 2C for years and have not had a lipo failure I could say was charging related. BUT - you must know your cells are rated for 2C-5C before using these charge rates.

AFAICT, the 1C rule came about because a lot of lipos would not list their charge rate, only their discharge rate. If their charge rate was not listed, the rule of thumb was to use 1C. But if the cell is rated at 3c, that is the MFGR saying that 3C charge will not hurt the cell.

With all that said, yes, MFGRs lie about discharge C all the time, so is the charge C true? IMHO, if they are rating a battery at 3C charge, maybe that is a stretch, but 2c or 1.5c is probably fine.
 
I always charge mine at the 1C rate because I'm not in a rush and I always use the spectrum battery checker to give them a sell balance every now and then I've already had one battery go bad for some reason I lost a cell. I tried to completely discharge and recharge a bunch of times but I couldn't bring it back
Sooooo 🤣🤣🤣🤣 we did this
 
Agreed, I charge everything @ 1C, regardless of the battery make or even its "stated" charge ratings, except for a select few of my racing batteries that I use for endurance races. I'm very rarely in a hurry and I like to stick on the side of caution with Lipos to extend their life for as long as possible.

I've heard a few people say that but when I ask for proof it's all anecdotal and hypothetical. One thing I will say from my experience with crawling and other types of driving, I personally use dedicated batteries for each type of RC I own (I have crawler batteries, race batteries, bashing batteries, etc). The crawler batteries do seem to last longer, but I strongly believe this is because they're put under very little strain, and when they are stressed, it's for extremely brief periods of time. My crawlers rarely see 100% throttle, the motors/ESC rarely get hot, etc. On the opposite, some of my race cars are 80-100% throttle for long periods at a time. I compete in a few endurance classes where we run till the battery dies, swap in a new one, throw the one we just pulled out on the charger, and then it gets swapped back in (these races last 2 hours)...those batteries only last me about a year, and even they aren't charged at a ridiculous rate. Now I can't make an "as fact" claim as to specific reasons why, because I'm a sample of 1, but it stands to reason that the less strain the batteries are subjected to on a regular basis, the longer they last.
Sometimes a logical answer is the best one. Yours makes alot of sense, even if there isn't any official science behind it. I don't use dedicated batteries but my HRB 3s 5000mah will do about 10-15 minutes before lvc on my Senton BLX. Same battery gets 45-60 minutes in my SCX10.iii.
Sometimes a logical answer is the best one. Yours makes alot of sense, even if there isn't any official science behind it. I don't use dedicated batteries but my HRB 3s 5000mah will do about 10-15 minutes before lvc on my Senton BLX. Same battery gets 45-60 minutes in my SCX10.iii.
And before anyone says it, the SCX.10.iii is brushless too.
 
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