What's better 2 3s lipos or 1 6s for kraton

[Iceman]

I am going to buy a kraton v3 this weekend a d I'm wondering if I should get 1 6s or 2 3s lipos. Sounds easier to use 1 battery. Has anyone gone from one to another. Also any other tips when buying battery and charger. Thx

 

[ThatDrewGuy]

I have used both, and prefer the single 6S pack. That being said, The charger is going to be different for charging a 3S vs a 6S. You can get away with charging a 3S at 50 watts, but not a 6S pack. You will kill the pack much quicker charging at such a low wattage. Most Lipos now can also be charger at a 2C rate. Didn't have a charger that could do that either. I didn't want to have to buy a big power supply, and a charger, so I did some looking, and found this....

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Good-Ultra-Power-UP240-AC-DUO-240W-Dual-Port-Multi-AC-DC-LiPo-Charger-M2R9/362218603066?hash=item5455e9423a:g:0WQAAOSwealaYcup&_sacat=0&_nkw=UltraPower+UP240AC+Duo+2&_from=R40&rt=nc&_trksid=m570.l1313

It will charge my 6S packs at 1C rate of 240 watts, and all others (2,3,4S packs) at a 2C rate as well. Channel 1 is 240 on its own, or charge 2 at 120 watts per channel. It's been a good charger, and saved me from replacing the super expensive packs before they were dead.

Battery tech is changing a lot, so I'm still learning as I go here. The above charger is working well for myself and a close friend of mine. The price is reasonable as well.

Oh and I would recommend starting on 4S. 6S rocks, but you will break stuff quick.

 

[WTF MIKE]

I am going to buy a kraton v3 this weekend a d I'm wondering if I should get 1 6s or 2 3s lipos. Sounds easier to use 1 battery. Has anyone gone from one to another. Also any other tips when buying battery and charger. Thx

I like to use 2 3s packs reasons being if your 6s get damaged you have to replace it. If you damage one of the 2 3s packs it will be cheaper to replace. Second reason is I had 2 chargers that only charged up to 4s and I didn’t want to buy a new charger

 

[2fast4u]

I am going to buy a kraton v3 this weekend a d I'm wondering if I should get 1 6s or 2 3s lipos. Sounds easier to use 1 battery. Has anyone gone from one to another. Also any other tips when buying battery and charger. Thx

Currently using both. But I think I prefer the single brick. I only use hard case, as soft packs are too easily damaged. I also stay around 5000 mAh because I don't think the extra weight of a bigger brick is worth it. It also helps by not needing a bigger charger.

 

[Paultro84]

I like to use 2 3s packs reasons being if your 6s get damaged you have to replace it. If you damage one of the 2 3s packs it will be cheaper to replace. Second reason is I had 2 chargers that only charged up to 4s and I didn’t want to buy a new charger

I'm with WTF Mike on this one.

 

[Dustin Mustangs]

You are technically not supposed to run packs in series that are not matched. So the whole ‘I can just replace one of my 3s packs when cells start to go bad’ is flawed logic. Doing this will very likely shorten the life of the better pack due to it being forced to pull more than it’s fair share of the load. And now you are stuck in this endless cycle of mismatched packs.

 

[joostin420]

I run both matched packs (3s, 4s) and also single 6s packs.

I have always used this method of charging lipos which has worked out very well: milliampere hour (mah) to ampere hour (amp)

example:

5000mah pack charge @ 5amps
5200mah pack charge @ 5.2amps
6000mah pack charge @ 6amps

I even charge my turnigy graphene packs with the same methodology even though they say that they “can” be charged at a rate of up to 15c.

I have also recently started using high quality cap packs, and they make quite a difference in throttle response and overall bursts.

 

[ThatDrewGuy]

So this is a good site for safe charging numbers.
http://www.radiocontrolinfo.com/information/rc-calculators/rc-charger-wattage-calculator/#A

Enter in your battery specs, and it will let you know what is the proper charging rates for your battery. Now I have to question the 15c charge rate through. That’s 75 amps on a 5000 mAh battery. I’m not a expert, but that doesn’t sound right. A lot of home run a 100 amp box from their service drop, and bigger home run a 200 amp. Most electrical outlets are rated at 10-20 amps. Above that they trip the breaker. Most breakers are 10-20 amp. Again, not a expert...

 

[chevys10zr2003]

So this is a good site for safe charging numbers.
http://www.radiocontrolinfo.com/information/rc-calculators/rc-charger-wattage-calculator/#A

Enter in your battery specs, and it will let you know what is the proper charging rates for your battery. Now I have to question the 15c charge rate through. That’s 75 amps on a 5000 mAh battery. I’m not a expert, but that doesn’t sound right. A lot of home run a 100 amp box from their service drop, and bigger home run a 200 amp. Most electrical outlets are rated at 10-20 amps. Above that they trip the breaker. Most breakers are 10-20 amp. Again, not a expert...

You have to keep in mind that the home power is at 110-120 volts while dc power is normally at 12v, so a 10 amp home circuit is good for 1100 watts and a 20 amp circuit is good for 2200 watts. So charging a 4s battery at 75 amps is about 1260 watts (4.2 volts per cell x 4 cells x 75 amps = 1260 watts). So the 75 amp charge of the 4s battery is about 11.5 amps on your home circuit.

 

[Dustin Mustangs]

You have to keep in mind that the home power is at 110-120 volts while dc power is normally at 12v, so a 10 amp home circuit is good for 1100 watts and a 20 amp circuit is good for 2200 watts. So charging a 4s battery at 75 amps is about 1260 watts (4.2 volts per cell x 4 cells x 75 amps = 1260 watts). So the 75 amp charge of the 4s battery is about 11.5 amps on your home circuit.

Residential 120v wiring in the US is typically either 15a (white jacket) or 20a (yellow jacket). Pretty sure there is no such thing as a 10a circuit.

Regardless, a 15c charge rate is quite something and would work out to charge times well under 10 minutes even with balancing. What could go wrong?

 

[chevys10zr2003]

Residential 120v wiring in the US is typically either 15a (white jacket) or 20a (yellow jacket). Pretty sure there is no such thing as a 10a circuit.

Regardless, a 15c charge rate is quite something and would work out to charge times well under 10 minutes even with balancing. What could go wrong?

Good to know. I know I've seen 15 amp and 20 amp but wasn't sure about 10 amp. I was just more pointing out that DC and AC are at different volts so when they say "amps" you need to do the math to figure out the wattage.

 

[2fast4u]

Residential 120v wiring in the US is typically either 15a (white jacket) or 20a (yellow jacket). Pretty sure there is no such thing as a 10a circuit.

Regardless, a 15c charge rate is quite something and would work out to charge times well under 10 minutes even with balancing. What could go wrong?

Charging a Lipo at 15c,
Sounds like the Big Bang theory to me.

 

[joostin420]

I think they have a misprint and it should be 15amps, but that is still high...

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/graphene-6000mah-6s-65c-w-xt90.html