3 Cell Charging
 

Can anyone tell me about how long a 3 cell 5000 mah battery should take to charge? Charging at 6a and it took 76 mins, seems excessive. New to 3 cell charging. Thanks

2 things can be the cause.

1) a bad balance, balancing cells can take a while if they are far off from each other.
2) you are usenin a simple 50 or 60 watt charger. Charging 6A with 12.6v needs 73 watt of power, chargers with a lower power rating will lower the current.

!c rate max or the cells are junk.
5 amp 1 hr. max.

You didn't mention what charger you're using. The 4 button variety have problems sometimes where they essentially get stuck on the very final balance phase. It will be down to .1 amp and sit there for 10 or 20 mins. You'll see individual cells going up and down in voltage.

My suspicion is an over correction problem. The overall charge current is very low, the charger puts a discharge current on a cell and it overshoots bringing the cell down .02v instead of .01v.

The American law is stupid. Most Lithium cells are by the manufacturer rated to 1C charging, some even 0.5C If an RC brand is not advising this as well but higher for the batteries they make with those cells then they can get a milion dollar lawsuit when something goes wrong

To further this, If your charger only has 50W of power, it will limit the charge current to around 3.8A (13.2v x 3.8A = 50W) for a 3S lipo, which translate to roughly around 78min charge time which somewhat matches what you are experiencing now. You will need a charger with more output power (Watt, not current) so you can charge at a higher current and shorter charge times.

1) What charger are you using?
2) I have a 3s 5200mah 50c battery and I charge it at 2a for around the same time...with that said...and I'm not super knowledgeable in the area but...charging your 3c battery at 6a is bad for the battery and will ruin it if it hasn't already. Please anyone, correct if I'm wrong.

Consider yourself corrected. :)
Charging amperage has nothing to do with number of cells. 3 cells is 3S by the way, not 3c. Charging a 5000mAh battery with 6A is barely more than 1C (1.2C to be exact), so very safe. However, you charging a 5200mAh battery at only 2A is unnecessarily low amperage (way under even the most conservative settings I have seen published) and thereby also extremely slow...

and I don't mean to be rude, but with your level of knowledge, it's probably better if you don't start giving advice on this topic just yet.

Glad I said correct me if I'm wrong lol. Tho I've been in the hobby for awhile I still am not super knowledgeable in tech stuff. I appreciate the feedback, did not mean to give bad advice, so I'm glad you corrected me.
With that said, my brother who is in the RC plane hobby had told me that I should "charge my batteries at 2a (1.5a is best)" which is why I thought that was the best for charging. Now that I think of it tho, there has been multiple times where he has given me bad information/advice.
Like I said I'm not very knowledgeable in this area.
Curious what amperage you would say would be best to charge at.
Appreciate any advice/feedback you can give. Thanks

Just letting you know, SMC is recommending a 1-5C charge rate. I've been charging mine at 2C for the last year and a half. So there's that. And I know of no company that was ever sued by a user after a lithium battery initiated fire. All packs have the same warning - follow the recommended directions and exercise due care.

People got milions because of the most stupid things.....

Yes, if you know the cells and the manufacturer did advise such currents then you can be sure it is right. But keep in mind many small companies in the US need to act safe to withstand any possible lawsuit. And we do not know what brand the topicstarter is using so it is hard to tell. And yes, today's cells can be easy charged with 2C or some even more.

For many years the standard instruction was to charge at 1C, so for a 5200mAh battery that is 5.2A. Modern high quality cells - which yours, by the way (judging by its 50C rating, which is low by today's standards and advertising - if C ratings were real, things would be different, but I digress) is not - you could go way beyond that. But 1C is the minimum I would charge any LiPo battery with, personally I've never felt the need to go much beyond 2C yet, but I'd feel fine with 3C as well (again with fairly modern, high quality cells, so-called "C-ratings" somewhere beyond (unrealistic) 100, that is). Far more important for your battery life is to never over charge or worse over-discharge them. Always use balanced charge/discharge and you should never go below 3.0V per cell (in fact, you may want to keep away from that by some margin, say never go below 3.3V or so). Also make sure you do not pack away your packs fully charged or fully discharged, always put them to storage voltage first. While deviating from these rules should not lead to an immediate catastrophic LiPo failure (=fire), you can damage your battery, it can and probably will diminish its safety and/or lifetime.

So...what I said wasn't all that wrong then? I said to charge at 2a which you just stated is what I should charge at...am I missing something?
With the battery being 50c. Last year when I got my Arma Senton 3s (from a hobby shop), they grabbed this battery and said this was the best battery and the one I should get. Me being an idiot didn't really think much or look at the specifics of the battery and just bought it. I wish back when I got it that I would have gone for higher then 50c but oooh well.
I know your supposed to store batteries and not drain them and stuff like that. I will say, I don't storage charge them(because my smart charger doesn't have the option).
I use my Lipo batteries until 3.7-8V, which isn't that around storage charge? When I do fully charge my batteries I don't let them sit for more then a day or two before I use them. Which I feel doesn't hurt..Correct?

a 1 c charge is not a 2 amp charge. a 1 c charge with a 5000mh pack is 5 amps not 2 amps

As has been already pointed out by the_rc_guy, you really need to watch more closely for what people say: "A" is not the same as "C" or "S". Neither in letter nor in meaning. 2C for a 5200mAh battery is 10.4A not 2A. And those two are not really close, are they?

Ok, next issue: 50C isn't even close to "the best" battery, and hasn't been for years, but my guess is, it was cheap. However, while not being great, it is good enough for most hobby users / bashers - so just don't expect any wonders from it, and to play it safe, I would stick to 1C. i.e. 5.2A for max. charging amperage. Less than that makes no sense IMO.
,
Also a good quality charger is key to get the best out of your LiPo batteries, both in performance and also battery life. Yours, not even having a storage mode, sounds like you were pointed to something more cheap than good as well, just as with your batteries. Also I personally would not keep batteries sitting fully charged for a whole day, let alone two. I might occasionally charge mine perhaps an hour or two before, but normally only right before use. Same goes for storage: usually I do it before I leave the track for the day or more or less immediately after I get home, same evening at the very latest.

Not trying to scare you, but skimping on both batteries and charger coupled with not really understanding how any of this stuff works (or which letter means what) is a recipe for (possible) disaster. Luckily it happens rarely, but it still does happen, that LiPos that are being treated wrongly go up in flames quite spectacularly, and there's been cases where they took the whole garage or even house with them in the flames. Again no reason to panic, but make sure to use at least decent equipment (no need for top of the line stuff unless you are in high level racing) and most important of all: make sure you learn the basics (about letters like S, C, A, V, mAh) and how this stuff works and what to watch out for.