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Battery Coolers?

Battery Coolers?

Old 07-21-2004, 07:25 AM
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Default Battery Coolers?

Hi

I've seen a few guys using "battery coolers" when charging there batteries, does this help?

The battery coolers is normally a 8cm fan or 2 blowing on the batt when charging in a home build wind tunnel.

L8er
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Old 07-21-2004, 07:59 AM
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You want the cels to heat up when you charge. Only put a fan on them after the run to cool them off so you can charge them
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Old 07-21-2004, 08:24 AM
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I have been told (by battery sponsored drivers) to not put a fan on the batteries while charging OR after running - just let them cool on their own.

I'm still pretty new, but that is what they told me, and they have the battery sponsorship to back them up.
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Old 07-21-2004, 08:25 AM
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Originally posted by rctoyguy
I have been told (by battery sponsored drivers) to not put a fan on the batteries while charging OR after running - just let them cool on their own.

I'm still pretty new, but that is what they told me, and they have the battery sponsorship to back them up.
You've gotten the right information my friend.

I do admit that I do have one of those units though, but I use it for placing my xray on it after a heat to cool the motor down so I can work on it. (not with the batteries on it of course, right after the race I discharge it automatically to 5.4 v/pack)
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Old 07-21-2004, 08:57 AM
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Default Battery theory

Here's some things that will explain some stuff about batteries. you want them to be warm, not hot when charging them up. They tend to have a little more capacity when warm. The back draw to warming them up is that they also increase internal resistance.
So it should come ideally that when you are racing, you would want to keep them cool, but not too cold, to lower the resistance for increased battery proformance.
When I was in High school, I was in a class called transportation of the future. The class built two race cars from scratch. They were 3 wheeled machines, built out of titanium, and powered by two car batteries hooked up in series. When we charged them for a race, we would stick them in the pick up truck, and keep the truck running with the floor heaters cranked up full blast while charging the batteries. After we slid them into the race cars, just before the race would start, we would tape on as many ice packs we could to help keep the battery cool. We noticed a huge diffrence of not only increased power, but also longer run times. I did feel sorry for the drivers though, as they had to stratle one battery and use the other one for a pillow/head rest. I wouldn't reccomend going to that extream for RC batteries, since they are more suseptable to temperature variations, but just to show that temperatures can and do make a diffrence.
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Old 07-21-2004, 02:02 PM
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i put a fan on the charger to make sure that it doesn't overheat. speeds up charging by about a minute or two. doesn't sound like much but at the races, 1 or 2 minites can make a big difference in charging time!
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Old 07-21-2004, 03:49 PM
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Default Warm not hot!

You want your batteries to be warm but not hot, heat kills NIMH batteries, yes when the ambient temperature is high say 90+ keep a little fan on your batteries & charger if it doesn't have one built in to it, ever heard of cell venting from heat? it's where a cell will actually leak and be ruined, & chances are the others in the pack will be bad to, play it safe and keep them from getting hot.
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Old 07-21-2004, 04:35 PM
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i second that
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Old 07-21-2004, 10:15 PM
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its more of a question of location. take us for example. we live in the tropics. the weather is usually hot so this would make our batts heat up more in less amount of time. so by the time the charger peaks the batts its alittle bit too toasty for comfort. if you are in a place where its kinda chilly then you wont need a fan for your batts. heck you might not even need one to cool your motor down after a run.

you should get your batts peaked at 122 *F or 50 *C. try setting your charger at a delta peak/fallback where it will detect that peak at this temp. for tropical climates when outdoors we set it at .3mv/cell when we charge indoors normally its at .4mv/cell.

just my .02 cents
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Old 07-22-2004, 12:27 AM
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they should make a mini fan heatsink battery bar!
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Old 07-22-2004, 01:50 AM
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Originally posted by TCRacerPro
they should make a mini fan heatsink battery bar!
I use a Sort of Battery Heat Sink if you want to call it that.. It draws heat away from the Battery while charging.. ATLAS just released it.. works quite well
-Dave
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Old 07-22-2004, 05:23 AM
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my buddies here just use a regular mini fan. its about a size of the aux fan in your cpu...
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Old 07-22-2004, 08:50 AM
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interesting
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