Someone school me on LiPo charging voltages and rates? I'm reading conflicting information about how many amps to charge at, and what storage and "never go below" voltages should be?

As far as storage voltage, I've always stored packs at 3.85V per cell. I've also went by information to never discharge to 3.0v per cell.

Soon I'll have a new and better charger that's capable of really pushing some juice, and I see that the charge rate is adjustable. Is there a formula I can use to calculate a good safe charge rate? What if I wanted a little quicker charge? The information I've seen so far is to charge at "1C", so basically I'd charge a 1000mah pack at 1A, a 2000mah pack at 2A, and so on. What's confusing me though is for packs that are 2S, 3S, whatnot. Do I double this? (1000mah 2S at 2A, 2000mah 2S at 4A, etc)?

For example, I'm going to have a 7.4V 5000mah 2S 100C pack. What would be a good safe charge? 5A? What about a quicker charge? Maybe hit it with 6A? Or since it's a 2S would I need to hit it with 10A for a safe charge and 12A for a quicker charge?

The capacity does not change when cells are in serial connected, a 3S 1200mHa pack contains 3x 1200mAh cells. Only when parallel connected you may add all the capacities.

The safest way is 1C but some manufacturere's say you can go higher. eg, Thunderpower says you can charge up to 5C but will shorten battery life. I usually charge at 15A but don't do the high discharge thing some guys do. My storage mode puts my 2 cells at 7.55 volts. Never discharge a cell below 3.0 volts. Most people stop at 3.2-3.3 volts to be safe.

Forget about the number of cells. A 2s and a 4s 5000 mah at 1c is 5 amps. I charge at 2c and 3c all of the time but my batteries support higher c charge rates. Like others have said, the battery life may be shortened vs 1c charging.

Excellent information. Thank you all. I think I'll stick with 1C charging just to stay safe, and utilize multiple packs so I can rotate.

Another question real quick - I have a small LiPo charger that I've been using and it charges from the balance plug. There isn't a plug for the actual battery harness. The bigger charger I'm getting has a plug for the battery as well as the balance plug. So I'll obviously need to charge using the bigger plug in addition to the balance plug, right?

The charger you now have will only do 1 or 2amps?

On the bigger charger you do need to connect the power plugs and the balance plug and choose the balanced charge from the menu.
You can from time to tim do a non balanced charge by only the power plug if you need a quick charge with the battery in the car.

If you get a battery with integrated 4 or 5mm bushings you do need a special charging cable that is not provided with the charger.

And up to 2C charging is pretty safe with todays batteries bur having a LiPo bag would be wise to charge and store your batteries in..