What is your RC LiPo of choice in 2022

[Armarookie43]

I've been saying Zee sucks for a while now and people would get salty lol. If you're new to the hobby and zee is what you get you won't even know it sucks until you randomly decide to try out something else. At least thats what happened to me. Every battery I've bought since the Zee have had more punch to the point it's been very noticeable to me.

At least they have a one year warranty. Zee is going to give me back the money for one of the two batteries that I bought from them. So I'll give them that. They didn't ask too much. They just wanted pics of the batteries and such. Same thing with powerhobby. TBH, for bashing, you don't need much. For speed runs, absolutely get the best. But I keep destroying my crap with lots of big jumps and abuse. I've destroyed everything : Zeee, PowerHobby, Gens A, and SMC. So yeah. For bashing, I'd say get the cheapest stuff you can find. The Zees lasted almost a year while Doug crazy crap with my V2 Maxx. The 8s stuff is even worse at destroying batteries.

 

[Adiabatic]

Have you tried the Ɠens Ace bashing packs? They're supposedly heavily reinforced and tested by doing what you do with your cars, dropping from large heights.

 

[Armarookie43]

Have you tried the Ɠens Ace bashing packs? They're supposedly heavily reinforced and tested by doing what you do with your cars, dropping from large heights.

I'm probably going to try those next. But it's like $200 for two 4s batteries. Ouch.

 

[Diem Turner]

Have you tried the Ɠens Ace bashing packs? They're supposedly heavily reinforced and tested by doing what you do with your cars, dropping from large heights.

I've used the G-Ace bashing 3S 15000 and 4S 11000 packs, but only for speed running so I can't say how they'd hold up under bashing conditions. Other than that they've done fairly well and they make a pretty rugged impression.

I'm probably going to try those next. But it's like $200 for two 4s batteries. Ouch.

I used to think that was expensive for batteries. Recent purchases, however, have shown this to be incorrect.

 

[Armarookie43]

I've used the G-Ace bashing 3S 15000 and 4S 11000 packs, but only for speed running so I can't say how they'd hold up under bashing conditions. Other than that they've done fairly well and they make a pretty rugged impression.

I used to think that was expensive for batteries. Recent purchases, however, have shown this to be incorrect.

It Also gets expensive when you do intermediate bashing. I've destroyed at least 15 batteries in 3 years. Not a good thing at all. Also, I killed another Zee battery yesterday. I landed upside down with my XRT. That might have done it. The more expensive powerhobby batteries have been able to take the abuse better. But they go bad too in less than a year. The cheap Zee battery lasted way less after being abused. These are just a small amount of batteries I've killed. I'll probably try the basher batteries from Gens :

 

[olds97_lss]

It Also gets expensive when you do intermediate bashing. I've destroyed at least 15 batteries in 3 years. Not a good thing at all. Also, I killed another Zee battery yesterday. I landed upside down with my XRT. That might have done it. The more expensive powerhobby batteries have been able to take the abuse better. But they go bad too in less than a year. The cheap Zee battery lasted way less after being abused. These are just a small amount of batteries I've killed. I'll probably try the basher batteries from Gens :

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Makes me wonder what your doing to these poor things. I've been running electric stuff since 2018 and have yet to "destroy" a pack. I've had some lose cells (voltage drops below 3v) or they puff up a bit or they don't hold a charge well or they take forever to balance. But that's typically after 16 months or so of use. Which was when I had 6 or 8 packs total for 2 or 3 trucks and I ran them waaaaaay more than I do now.

I think once I ripped the balance lead off a pack when the end dangled out of a savage flux battery holder and caught something. I just opened the pack up and soldered on a new one.

I have only used soft packs since 2019 I think. Prior to that, I'd use 2x2S SMC hard packs and 2x2S soft packs in my e-revo.

 

[Armarookie43]

Makes me wonder what your doing to these poor things. I've been running electric stuff since 2018 and have yet to "destroy" a pack. I've had some lose cells (voltage drops below 3v) or they puff up a bit or they don't hold a charge well or they take forever to balance. But that's typically after 16 months or so of use. Which was when I had 6 or 8 packs total for 2 or 3 trucks and I ran them waaaaaay more than I do now.

I think once I ripped the balance lead off a pack when the end dangled out of a savage flux battery holder and caught something. I just opened the pack up and soldered on a new one.

I have only used soft packs since 2019 I think. Prior to that, I'd use 2x2S SMC hard packs and 2x2S soft packs in my e-revo.

Yeah, that hapenned to most of these batteries. They went dead inside. I abused the crap out of them by doing lots of big jumps. I storage charge them and balance charge them every single time, but they can only take so much abuse. The better ones have lasted almost a year. I've over heated some of them due to high gearing too. So yeah, lots of abuse. I'm trying to be more careful now. I'm lowering the gearing and trying not to do huge jumps every time.

 

[Adiabatic]

I was going to ask some similar questions: Do you pull the battery straps as tight as you can to keep the pack from moving excessively in the tray? Are you padding the tray? That's something I like to do when running soft packs, 3mm foam on the bottom to help absorb jumps, and if there's any lateral gap, along at least one side to prevent the battery from shifting side-to-side and bouncing off the walls.

 

[JustAnOutcast]

That's something I like to do when running soft packs, 3mm foam on the bottom to help absorb jumps

+1 on the foam. I started out using a strip of leather, then found some dense packing foam trimmed to fit nice and snug.

 

[JustAnOutcast]

I always make sure not to go too low with the LVC (set at 3.5V per cell) , I storage charge and balance charges every single time.

This got me to thinking…

I storage charge after every run and balance charge just before heading out too, but I have no idea how to set LVC on the stock Firma 150A (or if it’s even possible?)

I monitor the discharged voltages after a run and one pack is usually around 3.29v, 3.31v per cell. Should I be concerned they are discharging this low?

 

[Diem Turner]

This got me to thinking…

I storage charge after every run and balance charge just before heading out too, but I have no idea how to set LVC on the stock Firma 150A (or if it’s even possible?)

I monitor the discharged voltages after a run and one pack is usually around 3.29v, 3.31v per cell. Should I be concerned they are discharging this low?

No, that's fine. Nothing to worry about. If they were going under 3V, that would be concerning. But do continue to storage charge them when you're done. You're doing everything right.

 

[Armarookie43]

This got me to thinking…

I storage charge after every run and balance charge just before heading out too, but I have no idea how to set LVC on the stock Firma 150A (or if it’s even possible?)

I monitor the discharged voltages after a run and one pack is usually around 3.29v, 3.31v per cell. Should I be concerned they are discharging this low?

That's not too bad. Some of my cells were like 2.9v after running (both Castle and HW did it). If I remember correctly, the Firma ones did OK with the stock LVC settings. So I had to calibrate them accordingly. Son now they only go down to 3.5V per cell . And there is calibration on the firrma ones, but it's a bit more limited.

 

[Armarookie43]

No, that's fine. Nothing to worry about. If they were going under 3V, that would be concerning. But do continue to storage charge them when you're done. You're doing everything right.

And double check once in a while how much all your cells got discharged to keep an eye on things. That's what I do.

+1 on the foam. I started out using a strip of leather, then found some dense packing foam trimmed to fit nice and snug.

I do that, and I also put gorilla tape around the sides to protect them. I even do it for the hard case batteries. I'm jumping so high, that the case starts to slip. Yeah I know. But it's the high jump that do it. There's only so much you can do when hitting 26ft high and 100F long jumps sometimes. Trust me, I'm diving them less and less.

 

[JustAnOutcast]

And double check once in a while how much all your cells got discharged to keep an eye on things. That's what I do.

My OCD has already kicked in on this one…

For each pack, I record cell voltages after discharge, after storage charge, before full balance charge and after full balance charge. As I learn more about IR I’ll probably start logging that too. Heck, before your post I thought IR had something to do with a cool infrared sensor you could buy.

 

[KnowAir]

I was buying Zeee batts..say 2 years ago. Good batteries, but now they're too expensive for me. I've had good luck from the Sypom and Socokin batteries which were really cheap. I have a mix of hard and soft case, I prefer the soft case myself as it's easier to see what the battery is doing as far as puffing. I think the 2 most damaging things to lipo batteries are overheating by using a battery that's not sufficient and physical damage by not holding the batteries in place.. I go to lengths to make sure my batteries aren't shucking in the trays while in use..if I can move a battery with my hands after strapping it in, it's not good enough..
Also, I balance charge every time, storage charge rarely..voltage check only when I think there's a problem..

 

[Armarookie43]

My OCD has already kicked in on this one…

For each pack, I record cell voltages after discharge, after storage charge, before full balance charge and after full balance charge. As I learn more about IR I’ll probably start logging that too. Heck, before your post I thought IR had something to do with a cool infrared sensor you could buy.

Check your IR too once in awhile. Yesterday I took my small 1/10 truck out with a 2s battery fully charged. When I went out, the LVC kicked in after like 5 minutes. When I got back home, one of the cells was at a value of 20 (too high), and it was at 80% charge rate. So it's over for that one. And I barely took any jumps with that battery and I took care of it . That one I can't explain. It's was a powerhobby Hardcase 5200mah 60C one. It never ran hot either. It was was about 2 years old. Bummer.

 

[KnowAir]

My OCD has already kicked in on this one…

For each pack, I record cell voltages after discharge, after storage charge, before full balance charge and after full balance charge. As I learn more about IR I’ll probably start logging that too. Heck, before your post I thought IR had something to do with a cool infrared sensor you could buy.

I understand.. you can't help it!! HaHa
I'm curious, so what can you do if the IR readings are not satisfactory? Can't change it can you? I guess it's possible to swap a bad cell, but for bashing? Maybe it's just something to do? IDK I'm at the other end..just blissfully running my cheapo packs without a care..

 

[Diem Turner]

I understand.. you can't help it!! HaHa
I'm curious, so what can you do if the IR readings are not satisfactory? Can't change it can you? I guess it's possible to swap a bad cell, but for bashing? Maybe it's just something to do? IDK I'm at the other end..just blissfully running my cheapo packs without a care..

Nothing. It's just a way to monitor battery health. Yes, theoretically you could swap out a cell. But if you're going to do things like that, it would be best to do that when they're new, taking your packs apart and matching cells. Slow RC Mike does that but he has a CNHL sponsorship which I'm sure helps.

 

[KnowAir]

I'm just a meathead.. I know my battery is bad when either A, it doesn't last more than say 10 minutes..or B, when the esc shuts down every time I pull the trigger all the way..anything else is mint!!

 

[Hector_Fisher]

I understand.. you can't help it!! HaHa
I'm curious, so what can you do if the IR readings are not satisfactory? Can't change it can you? I guess it's possible to swap a bad cell, but for bashing? Maybe it's just something to do? IDK I'm at the other end..just blissfully running my cheapo packs without a care..

IR doesn't affect anything other than heat production and voltage sag. So if the performance of the lipo is still satisfactory (voltage is not dipping too low during use or triggering LVC super early), and the lipo isn't getting too hot in the way you're using it, then i'd still use it.

What does get challenging is when you have a lipo with one cell that is significantly higher than the others. Those are less predictable for when it could fail.