Higher priced battery packs have better quality control, so you're very unlikely to get a lemon. You might get a low cost battery pack that's just as good as one that's more expensive, but the likelihood is lower. Also no one talks about lifecycle. Now maybe to the serious racers this isn't an issue because they are throwing their batteries away every 3-6 month because the IR has gotten over 1 milliohm. But I've seen the cheaper lipos I purchased when I started becoming unusable after a year or two, but all brands. One of my cheap ones was holding it's own against higher priced ones. But I also have a high priced one that's still one of the best ones I have after several years of use.

Haven't seen any tests that look at number of cycles before a unacceptable threshold is met.

Most of us have somewhat of a budget for this hobby/profession and aren't fully sponsored drivers. Buy/run whatever is in your budget. Spending $50 more on a battery, might not provide as much improvement as taking that same $50 and buying something like a better motor, servo, tires, etc.

Also with a brand name, you're paying for a marketing budget, sponsored drivers, etc. There's a lot of overhead to run an RC brand, especially one that's race focused.

Lot's of people talking smack about cheaper batteries with no data to back them up.

Naahhh... U just got ripped off by this high end company. If I'm the company, I would love guys like u. I can easily sell u anything at top of the line price and promise u everything the best.

But if u got lots of cash to blow, why not. And seriously, only a stupid guy would get his house on fire due to lipo. Lipo bag is not that expensive. Heck, even the ammo box, u can get that thing for free.

So Losiracer how do you know you High dollar pack is not a relabeled cheap cell pack. Have you even disassembled a pack and tracked down the serial # or run #.?? I have..and theres more than 4 makers of cells in china.

Buy direct...
 

from who?

I ran Zeee once....pack puffed after one weekend of club racing. I don't use them.
I do run budget batteries, just not Zeee

So you had one bad experience and per definition the whole brand/product is bad?
There is always a chance a cell can go bad or you did get a pack that was sitting on the shelf for a long time. In that case there is always a warranty.

Yes I get you can have a bad pack. I move on if the first one does not work. I wanted to try the brand and first try, bad. Done