what is the truth about this charger and charging lipos is it true i cant not charge lipos with this charger? and if i cant why cant i ? i have read some places that they say not to charge lipo battery with it but when you look on mrc's website it says it can charge up to 3s lipo so now im confused any help would be great

no comments? any help

Orion early on warned everybody to not use the MRC chargers with their LiPo packs.

The problem had something to do with the quality of the MRC internal volt metering.

I believe it was with earlier models.. but Orion has never taken the warning away.....

Several folks at my local track use them without a problem.. I am not one of them.

Personally, MRC has never really been a "quality" company in my nearly 2 decades of being in this hobby. I wouldn't buy a charger from them....


Jerome

The truth is, MRC released (a long time ago) The 969. It claimed to charge nimh, nicd, and lipo.

Well, the charging algorithym for lipo with the 969 was unnacceptable, it was not the CC/CV method used by all chargers today. The charge was based off your estimate of how much mah was left in the battery. Well, when people had flamethrowers on table tops, they complained obviously.

There was a recall for the 969's, and they were exchanged for 977's, ones that ARE indeed lipo safe.

Orion decided to put a disclaimer on thier packs saying not to use with MRC brand. This applies only to the 969 charger.

I've owned a 977, and the newest 989 (Nine Eight Nine) charger, and they have charged my lipo's very reliebly every time. The only bad thing about MRC was the 969 charger.

Cheers!

I also own a 977 pro. and I charge my lipos with no problem. I also have a 969 that has the upgraded 977 software. It also charges lipo's fine. the one in question is the original 969 pro.

I had no issues with my 977. Although I'm not sure if they are now on par with something like a Hyperion.

thank you guys for all the repsonses. this is the info i was looking for i currently have the 977 and i was lookingt at going lipo but didnt want to go buy a new charger right now i had asked else where and people were saying the 977 is the worst thing to charge lipos. and that was one of the reasons i bought it becuase i currently run nihm but wanted to be able to get lipos and this says its lipo compatiable. i am looking at getting a hyperion soon since im converting my 8t to brushless and ill be running 4's & 5's but for the time being i hope my 977 holds up any more info would be great thanks again guys.

I've owned both a 969 & 977 and used them to charge both lithium ion and lithium polymer batteries. In fact, I bought the 969 back before lithiums became popular because it was one of the few chargers that could charge lithium packs. My friends and I found that as long as you monitored everything correctly and used the correct charge settings, there were no problems at all. However, if you want to be safe, I would suggest investing in a higher quality charger. I've also owned an ICE, Triton, Triton 2, & Hyperion EOS0610i Duo chargers. I would suggest spending the extra for one of these. The Hyperion EOS0610i (solo charger w/ built-in power supply) looked pretty good for the money as well as the new Venom Pro Charger (this one is cool because the charger and power supply are so compact).

i asked mrc direct and this is what they said


If you follow the lipo instructions in the manual and you use a balancer then you should not have a problem with the 977 and your 2 cell lipo. Keep in mind that the maximum charge rate for lipos on the 977 is 2.5, it will take a little longer to charge the battery but it is safe. Lower charge rates are always better for the battery, no matter what kind they are.

John

That's kind of funny they said that.. the balancer has it's own built in volt meter... Sort of an evasive answer.


Jerome

Ive decided to get one of these, I have 2 960 chargers but they get very hot
and shut down everytime I charge at 4.5 amps, and they make weird noises.
I plan on upgrading my packs to the 4000-5000 elite cells too, so having the ability to charge 5 amps on this charger without shuting down will be great.
I guess whenever I go Lipo I'll get a 30 dollar balancer too.

i love mine but i was wonderin if anyone knew why it only charges my lipo to 8.19 volts instead of the full 8.4 volts.

I think the volt meter on the charger is off cause mine does the same thing 8.19 volts fully charged but if i hook it to a ice charger it will say 8.40

MRC has a pretty cheesy voltage detection CKT. Consider yourself lucky. My 977 was a .5vdc the other way. It would charge my 3s lipo to 13.2 volts. I'd rather under charge rather than over charge. I've seen this alot with MRC chargers.

OK my lhs just ordered me one today so I'll know in a few days how good the charger is. Cant wait to try it out.