Another balancing thread. My test.
06-07-2008, 05:26 PM
#1
Another balancing thread. My test.
I finally popped for a lipo charger that balances. Will admit that I didn't get a new better charger just for the balancing feature though. I wanted something more accurate and that had a LDC voltage display. My previous charger just had switches and buttons and lights to tell you it was fast or slow charging. Gotta say that it always worked well though.
Because I had this simple charger and no balancer I bought Apogee packs. They always brag that if you buy matched lipo cells there is no need to have a balancer. They even go as far as to say that they prefer you do not use one with their batteries. Their theory is that a pack only gets out of balance if you have junk unmatched cells. Sounds good to me so I bought them since I had no balancer.
Used two of their packs all winter season indoors never having access to a balancer. Well, today I hooked up both of the packs to my new charger with a balancer to see if this was myth or not. Gotta say; I am Very impressed with these Apogee packs. each cell was within .03v of each other. I really used these packs a lot too, racing once a week and practicing 1-2 days per week. Also checked out my larger 1/10 pack with the same results.
My simple experiment is not law but in my eyes this proved to me that if you are buying high quality matched lipo packs you really do not need a balancer. I was really expecting the voltages to be all out of wack but no such case, at least with my 3 packs.
Will I use my balancer on my new charger? Probably since it is there and I paid for the charger. Will it give a better charge? Maybe a tiny, tiny bit but I account the better charge to the way higher quality more accurate charger and not really the balancer. If anything the balancer is just another tool for me to analyze the condition of my pack and to have a red flag if for some reason the pack goes bad. Attached is a pic of the display of my new charger. It is showing the voltages of each cell right after I charged it with my less expensive charger.
Thanks to those who helped me get my charger going this morning.
Tony
Because I had this simple charger and no balancer I bought Apogee packs. They always brag that if you buy matched lipo cells there is no need to have a balancer. They even go as far as to say that they prefer you do not use one with their batteries. Their theory is that a pack only gets out of balance if you have junk unmatched cells. Sounds good to me so I bought them since I had no balancer.
Used two of their packs all winter season indoors never having access to a balancer. Well, today I hooked up both of the packs to my new charger with a balancer to see if this was myth or not. Gotta say; I am Very impressed with these Apogee packs. each cell was within .03v of each other. I really used these packs a lot too, racing once a week and practicing 1-2 days per week. Also checked out my larger 1/10 pack with the same results.
My simple experiment is not law but in my eyes this proved to me that if you are buying high quality matched lipo packs you really do not need a balancer. I was really expecting the voltages to be all out of wack but no such case, at least with my 3 packs.
Will I use my balancer on my new charger? Probably since it is there and I paid for the charger. Will it give a better charge? Maybe a tiny, tiny bit but I account the better charge to the way higher quality more accurate charger and not really the balancer. If anything the balancer is just another tool for me to analyze the condition of my pack and to have a red flag if for some reason the pack goes bad. Attached is a pic of the display of my new charger. It is showing the voltages of each cell right after I charged it with my less expensive charger.
Thanks to those who helped me get my charger going this morning.
Tony
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