wingman2

Hi guys, I bought 5 packs of matched IB4200 from my local supplier but after only 6 meetings, they are now all completely out of match and some cells are totally dead. Obviously I am not happy with this at all, and I understand that many other racers have been in the same situation. So, the question I would like to ask is this, what should I get ready for the summer season, seeing as all the packs I have now I would consider practice packs?

We all know that IB's give great performance, albeit for a short amount of time. My mate tried 5 packs of EP cells, they have gone exactly the same way.

I have really looked after my cells but don't fancy spending another £150+ on IB cells that will only last for a few meetings.

I did notice these VTEC cells, what do you guys think about them?

BTW, I really do not want to turn this into a 'you should buy LIPO' thread please!

Thanks for you views and advice guys,

Chris.

Trips

iTrader: (16)

I've been very lucky with my IB4200's, I bought them last year and they're still working well this year. With indoor season coming to an end soon, I'll probably hold off until September or so to get more packs.

If I were buying packs right now, I'[d be looking at Ener-G or Ep's. I don't know if the Ener-G cells are available in the UK...

Johnny Wishbone

iTrader: (6)

What are you using to base your cell numbers on? If your using a DPD don't even bother trying to use those numbers to match cells.

Desolas

iTrader: (2)

I've been one that's had real good luck with IB4200's and I haven't treated them the best, but I have always kept them charged.

I've since been running EG4600's (EnerG 4600's) and they have been excellent cells. Not one has failed, and even a pack I've really abused has been good. I have heard people having some issues with them also, but nothing compared to IB's.

For all of the electric racing I plan on doing this summer I'll be running EnerG cells. They seem to work well, are reliable, and put out good numbers.

Skitee

Yeah Bud been there done that bought the t-shirt.... Also had relatively new IB4200's go south pretty quickly. So I could not tell anybody to buy IB4200's after the very poor durability displayed, I can however recommend the EP4600 cells which I picked up around 3 months ago. These cells are holding up much much better than the IB4200's, something else I've noticed is that the self discharge on these cells is not as high either.

wingman2

Thanks for the replies guys, I have stripped all the packs down and cycling them individually to test performance. Believe me, it's taking ages!! It's funny really, coz when I used to use GP3300 and 3700's, I never had any trouble with them at all. In fact, I recently found some 3700's in a bag at the back of my garage, cycled them and they work near enough as well as when I used them as race packs! It just does my head in that the IB's have hardly been used and they are now not cells to be relied upon. I would be happy to take a performance drop if it means a reasonable return on what is being paid for new cells. Cheers guys.

Desolas

iTrader: (2)

Yeah...EP and EG's don't discharge as fast...but it's important to still put a storage charge in them every 3 weeks or so just to keep them up as they will still self discharge.

I think this is where I had the most success with IB's...I charged mine every week, not cycled, just charged. I charge my others every couple weeks now.

This is kind of funny ... I was cleaning out my garage a few weeks ago and came across one of my old "good gp3300 race packs" from probably 2 or 3 years ago... did a voltage check and it still had a charge in it...cycled it a couple times and now it's in my Losi rotostart..

ghuber

iTrader: (1)

I'm still firmly supporting the IB4600s... great cells, free of all the previous problems that IB4200 cells had.. Plus I have them on sale on Ebay real cheap this month!