Battery for ready to go.
 

I’m gonna leave a car over at my son’s house so that every time I’m there if we want to play, we can.

I’m not sure it’s a good idea leaving a Lipo fully charged sitting in the car, but I’m not sure what would happen if if I just left it in storage mode and then used it. The other option I guess would be NIMH on a trickle charger.

any thoughts?

Leaving it in storage mode and then using it should work fine, you just won't get full runtime.

Leaving a LiPo fully charged over a longer time should never be done. For that, storage mode is a must. Your run time from storage will be quite limited, though (unless you really run these cells down to 3.0V - which I'd personally never do). Best practice is always to charge right before you run the car.

Oh and make sure you always at least disconnect the LiPo from the car if you leave it in.

I think this is the way to go unless I get a NIMH battery

any idea what the runtime would be for a 5200 MAH battery put in storage?

No way for us to tell. We don't know what you intend to run on that battery and how low you are willing to drive its voltage. Heavy car, hot motor, etc. under heavy use: only a couple of minutes. However, something light with a slow motor might run quite a while.
I usually stop my runs with my batteries not much below storage voltage, so they never go even near the lower voltage limit. If you intend to squeeze them close to that limit (which i would not advise, but hey, it's your money and your batteries), you'll get more run time out of it - at the risk of your batteries' longevity.

Leaving a LiPo fully charged is perfectly fine provided you store the battery at the same temperature it was charged.

The only danger exists if you were to charge the battery at 72°F and then stored it in a hot space above 100°F then the increase in temperature will cause the voltage to spike and then damage can occur.

Keep in mind that a LiPo stored at 100% charge at room temp will lose 20% capacity over 1 year so plan to replace this battery once a year if you do this:
https://batteryuniversity.com/articl...ased-batteries

If you want the battery to last, then place it in storage mode and only charge it immediately before each use.

Another option is to bring a fresh battery with you when you plam to use the car and never store any batteries with the car.

Thanks for the great information!

The batteries only cost me about 16 bucks each so I’m not particularly worried about them. I mean, I’m not gonna abuse them on purpose but if they die, I’m not gonna lose any sleep either.

The cars I’m talking about using them in are the new Kyosho Fazer mk2 rtr. On another note if you haven’t seen one of those bodies in real life, you owe it to yourself to check one out.

This is not accurate. Even if you keep them cool, storing a fully charged lipo will cause it to degrade. Maintaining the temperature just reduces the risk of spontaneous explosion but does not eliminate it.

Don't expect too much from a $16 battery.

SMC is a decent brand

But is that specific battery a decent product? At that price I'd be very sceptical.

From SMC website:

Quote:

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Our new HCL-EC 50C packs are made with a blend of LCO/NMC in the cathode which lowers the cost of the pack at the expense of some power. These are intended to compete with the lower priced packs being offered on Amazon but if you compare the weight you will see our packs are heavier which means they will have better performance

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I’m putting these in Kyosho Fazer MK 2 that are going to do circles in the driveway and go up and down the street every once in a while. Mostly what I need from the battery to sit there and not burst into flames. I don’t care if they’re the best performing because it literally doesn’t matter.

just leave the batteries in storange mode and get a fast 30+amp charger. At these rates your good after 5 mins of charging.

How often do you visit your kid? I agree with Riceball. Keep your battery ins storage mode and throw a cheap charger in the trunk.