Heat Sink Battery Bars
 

Just got my R/C Car Action today and as I was flipping through the thousands upon thousands of advertisements, I can across something I had never seen before, heat sink battery bars. They sure do look different and are made by a company called Fusion Batteries.

In the advertisement it said that heat was reduced by 300% using these new battery bars... I've been under the assumption that batteries run better when they're hot, so wouldn't decreasing the heat of the battery "surface area" by 300% produce adverse effects?

Here is a picture of them from www.fusionbatteries.com

http://www.fusionbatteries.com/images/batteriesf.jpg

Those actually look pretty cool :D But I dont think that they would be able to reduce the heat by 300% or anywhere close to that... Wonder if they meant the surface temp of the battery bar itself :confused:

300%? i highly doubt it. thats bull.
like you said, advertisement

assuming that the tempreture of the batts are 50C, and the bars are, say, 30C

300% less would mean its sub zero temps..simple maths.. :weird:

30% maybe..300%? pfft.. i say buy the product, and when its not 300% less, sue them.

Those things look dangerous, cut your fingers if in hurry or something.

Yeah so will an exacto-knife if you're not careful, I like the quick soldering method they have, they might be worth a try although only time will tell if they are good matched cells-that's what you want to buy.

I think they are saying it increases the surface area by 300%

From their website

Heat Sink Battery Bars
 

Guys;

If the Battery Bars are doing their Job properly, there should be little or no heat generated at the Bars themselves and I really doubt that those little fins are going to effectively pull and dissipate the heat from the Cells.

Just my $.02 :D

Maybe it was designed to dissipate heat faster after the soldering process?:confused:

My .02 also.

They take heat out of the cell, but 300%...... If regular batt. bars dissapate one degree, then these dissapate 3.. hm,mmmmmm no thanks.

first off, those wont do a single thing.

second, heat is the #1 enemy to cells, so yes you want to keep them as cool as possible, all the time. It is especially important to make sure they are cool before they are charged.

If you read the ad, it clearly states that there are intended to dissapate heat better during the soldering process. And christ, could they be any more expensive? 10$ for one set? BUHAHA

SO.......That means you need a Hotter iron :weird: or keep it on the Cell longer while soldering. Both sound like a Bad Idea to me.

i think a high powered fan would do a way better job than those tiny fins..dont you think so?

Totally... perhaps they mean less heat will transfer to the adjacent cell? Who cares... the iron has to hit that cell directly anyway!

Virdict? This product is a total scam :)

Let me explain, I guess our ad needs work!
 

I'm Jeff Chaskin, at Fusion Power. I'll go point by point to explain our science.

We sell completely constructed packs we call Fusion Power Modules that are unique for the following reasons:

Heat Sinks
Our patent pending heat-sink battery bars make our packs run 'cooler at the core'. Standard battery pack construction only allows the battery to radiate heat off the outside cases of the cells. Heat at the center (core) of the cell must conduct all the way through the cell to the outside case. Our heat-sink bar allows the interior of the cell to radiate core heat directly to the outside air. When the car moves, we not only dissipate heat through radiation but we also promote convection through turbulance at the fins.

The 300% number - We have measured an increase in core heat dissipation exceeding 300% at a vehicle speed of 4 MPH. It is the increase in Joules we are measuring.

Cooler cells mean lower internal resistance. Lower internal resistance translates to higher voltage (Ohm's Law E=IR). So.... if we keep the core temperature lower we produce higher voltages longer into the run. This translates into 'punchier' packs. I have racers that swear these packs maintain off-the-line punch much farther into a run, and never really flatten out.

Soldering
Hand soldering with a big hot iron generates Thermal Inertia (caps for emphasis) which damages the battery. It's not a matter of if, just how much. The most common area damaged is the plastic vent under the positive terminal. Thermal damage can show up later in the form of packs becoming un-matched sooner, sudden dumping, and blow-outs. See our Tech stuff at the website. We use a patent pending process which utilizes high frequency skin-effect to induce heat into the bar and solders perfectly and very rapidly.

A more perfect metalurgical bond between the bars/terminal and the cell cap means lower internal resistance as a pack. It does no good to have great voltage/low IR cells if the pack connections introduce resistance into the circuit.

We also engineered the composition of our metals and platings for the optimum in conductivity, solderability and anti-oxidation properties.

We do also sell the bars for those who wish to build or re-build their own packs, or use batteries other than the GP3300's we use. You don't get our soldering process however. And yes they seem expensive, but aren't expensive matched cells worth the extra couple dollars for a better assembly and termination kit?

We believe that all of the above contributes to a state-of-the art power pack design that is unequalled. Go to our website at www.fusionbatteries.com and check it out. Look at our Power Module tell me you don't want to drop one of these puppies into your battery tray.
[email protected]

Jeff, thanks for the explanation. I run in the Florida State series and have not seen your batteries. Are there any people that run the series, that run your cells ?. For the average racer without the tech speak, how many degrees differnce is there between a pack with the heatsinks and a pack without.

Thanks