Is this normal?
 

Hi,im using the ice charger with team checkpoint balancer and smc 5000 28c lipo.I have it set to 1c charge rate(5 amps). My charger charges fine for the first 3/4 charge and then the chargers charge rate (amps) drops slowly.it has been gradually droping for the past hour now and at this point its at .4 amps.also my battery is at a stedy 8.4v and has been for the past 30 mins.Any help would be apreciated thanks.

That's the CC-CV function kicking in. It slowly dials back the charge rate until 0.10A to get more capacity in the pack.

i have a duratrax onyx 230 charger and it does the same thing with my LiPo. i charge it at 2C (7.6amps ) and as the pack is getting full the amperage drops. once it gets to about .5amps it finishes.

well im getting ready to start racing again and this seems like its taking way to long to make it to the next heat.

well you don't have to wait till it is to zero. When it is down to 1 mah just take it of the charger. That little bit of mah difference isn't worth the wait and it doesn't help you to drive longer then the 5-7 minutes race. ( i have an ice charger as well)

ok thanks.all this lipo stuff is new to me

oops.

you can bump up your charge amperage. you can do 1.5c if you'd like or even do 2c. i do 2C and i havent had any problems..battery doesnt get warm, nothing. charges just like 1c...just faster :) also its good that you have a balancer because taht will still keep it in check.

yeah you can charge it 2c but it will influance the life expectancy of the lipo plus a balancer only balances like 0.5 mah if you are lucky, so it is always behind. So one cell could already be above 3.7v when the other one isn't even when using a balancer.

i read the manual for the checkpoint balancer and it sais i can only use up to 6 amps and the charger itself only goes up to 8.has anyone tryed using more than 6amps on the checkpoint balancer?

It uses discharge current when balancing and this is only 120 mah per cell.

I use a Checkpoint balancer with a Lipo version CE GFX and it charges the same way as your Ice. The amperage slowly dropping as it is charging. I charge my packs at 6 amp and have not had an issue yet. It does not seem to take any longer then when I used to charge Nimh packs. I have three packs though, so I don't need to wait for the pack to charge to run.

i just tried to make it charge at the max (8 amps ) and it only does 6 so you are correct that the balancer slows it down.