I thought I'd post up an observation I've made when running a zippy and a hyperion 3s lipo. The car I'm running is a brushless converted revo with heavy 7" tires. The car weighs around 12lbs rtr and is geared very low to 30 mph. I'm running a tekin rx8 and the ezrun 4465 2000kv motor. Nothing runs above warm and the the esc rarely gets above one light on the temp gauge.

I purchased a ZIPPY Flightmax 5000mAh 3S1P 25C in the middle of September and I have run it maybe a dozen times. It cost $70 shipped (yes I know you usually buy more than one thing but I was trying HK for the first time). The battery weighs 370 grams and I get almost 9 minutes of runtime. I was getting 6 when it was geared higher.

Disappointed in my runtime I thought to buy a second zippy but it got mishandled in the mail and the HK order never made it to my house. I lost $30 in shipping.

In haste, I bought a Hyperion G3 Vx 6500 Mah 3s 11.1v 35c b/c they have such a good reputation. Since the mah is 30% more than the zippy I expected to get 3-4 more minutes of run time. I also expected the battery to weigh 30% more. The battery cost $130 shipped locally. The battery weighs 540 grams which is 45% more than the zippy. And my runtime more than doubled at 23 minutes. I also had to loosen the slipper more to control the wheelies.

To summarize:
-zippy 5A 25c. $70 shipped ems, 9 mins runtime
-hyperion 6.3A 35c $130 shipped, 23 mins runtime

I'll do more testing b/c I know there will be arguments about the objectiveness of this comparison. But I'm starting to think that the savings isn't all there in the zippy batteries.

Anyone else have an experience like this?

I think you have a defective pack. I'm running a erevo with 2 turnigy 11.1v 3800mah parellel (sp?) equaling 7600mah and I'm getting 30 plus mins of runtime. How many mah are you putting back into the pack when you charge it?

got zippy 4000mah 2s 30C...runtime around 15 min. ...you only have one zippy must just be a bad one......... SO GET ANOTHER ONE .THEN MAKE THIS THREAD AGAIN IF YOU HAVE THE SAME CRAPPY RUNTIME. now go race...

You do bring up a good point. I noticed my hyperion pack I put 95% capacity back in. But my other packs (more than just the zippy) it seems to be only 85%. The next time I charge the zippy I'll pay closer attention and report back.

Are you finding that over time you can't put as much back in? This leads me to believe that the battery can then only deliver less.

Your 7.6A battery is 20% more than my 6.3A so I would expect about 28 mins of runtime. I suspect my brushless converted nitro-revo weighs more than yours and the LST Tires and maximizer wheels are adding more drain. So you batteries sound about right.

I did just read about a guy having much better success w/ Turnigy than Zippy.

Thats pretty classic description of a the way damage impacts a lipo. This was what I thought when I saw your thread. Has it ever gotten hot? What do you see for IR when you charge the pac?

If you're putting 95% of capacity bnack in the Hyperion lipo, what are you running as a low voltage cutoff? Its either an overrated lipo (which isn't bad at all) or you're running to a pretty low lvc. You are supposed to get better life if you only discharge them to 80-85% instead of going to the lvc everytime you run them.

Was the zippy any diff during your 1st few runs? Just curious.

I'm using a tekin rx8 set to 3s lipo so I believe the cut off is just fine. By 95% I mean my charger put nearly 6200 mah back in to the 6500 mah new hyperion battery. But when I charged an older battery (8 months old) it put 2800 mah back in to the 3300 mah battery. I need to drain and charge the zippy again but I'm pretty sure it puts less than 4500 back in it may be even less than 4000.

So are you saying I should increase my lvc? I thought the whole reason for the lvc was to get the maximum life span out of the lipo.

lvc is just there so you dont toast your lipos...But should never be ran down to the cut off time after time. At least that's what I've been told...

That's interesting, so I guess I should increase the lvc slightly. Do you have any info on what sort of percentage mah you put back in your batteries?

I run 5000mah 2S Nuenergy lipos in my Flux and rarely put more than 3600-3800mah back in. I quit running when I 1st notice it starting to slow. I don't wait to hit the lvc. I'm using 3.4v/cell as an lvc (runs as 4S so lvc is 13.6volts). I get 20-25min run time and don't see the need to run a few more minutes and stress my lipos.

I generally see 3600-3800 go back into the lipos on a charge, or about 75%.

The lvc is there to prevent a disaster, nothing more.

If your Hyperion is not underrated (some lipos come way underrated, meaning you can put 6500 into a 5500mah rated pack), then your Tekin must be set at something like 2.7v/cell. I wouldn't run mine down that far.

i love watchin zippy fires