I recently purchased a Ten_T (nitro) that comes with a 2-cell LiPo for the electronics. The Losi guy at my local shop tells me that the included charger is junk and that I should buy a charger that will match the battery. And yes the battery comes with the matching/balancing connector mini-clip thingy.

If I am going to "invest" in a LiPo matching/peak charger I want one that will be good if I decide to get a LiPo powered electric car down the road.

I will use it mostly at home or at the track with a regular DC outlet. It seems most of these come with banana clips, but I would prefer one that comes ready to plug into the wall.

So can anyone point me in the right direction? Do I need to buy a separate charger and power supply? What would people recommend as the best "bang-for-the-buck" solution? Also would it be risky to go the pre-owned route?

Thanks in advance!

You want an AC/DC or "Dual Power" charger - it will run on AC at home and the alligator clips will let you run it on DC at the track. There are a bunch of good ones available. Hobbypartz has two that are good, inexpensive chargers, good for getting a start in lipo - Here's one -

http://www.hobbypartz.com/skychb6chdup.html

The other is the Thunder AC-6,

http://www.hobbypartz.com/thac6smbachw.html


Both are balancing chargers and will handle just about all batt chemistries.

I like the AC-6 from Hobbypartz.com
It has AC/DC operation so you can use it anywhere. It has an adjustable charge rate so you can charge faster and of course a built in balancer. It does have a 50 watt max rate, which you will only see if charging large packs for 1/8th scale use, and even then it will still charge perfect, just not as fast. But for normal 2s or 3s packs it will charge about as fast as you want.

So what would I want if I wanted something that could handle 1/8 scale batteries? I think my next rc car might be a 1/8 scale electric buggy.

Or are the ones you guys mentioned good enough?

Hyperion EOS 0606i Li/NiMH/A123 AC/DC Balancing Charger (6S/6A/50W)

At "allerc".

$130... both AC/DC. Plenty of capability for what your doing now and what might be ahead in the coming months.

$100... for the DC model... of course you'll have to provide the power supply.

They will charge a 4S, but you'll see the charging current limited by the charger to stay under its output power limit. A 4S (minimum 1/8th lipo) is 16.8v and 50watts would limit charge current to 50/16.8 ~= 3amps (2.98a actually).

Its just a matter of power. Heres a more powerful one from hobbypartz. But its a DC only and would need a power supply. With 200watts, it would not be limited even at 6S -

http://www.hobbypartz.com/h610-hotpower-charger.html

There's an AC/DC charger - Dynamite Passport Ultra is 100watts and wouldn't be limuted at 4S, but would be at 5S slightly (4.8amps), but its a $130 buck charger. Generally as power increase, you find DC only chargers.

http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products...ProdID=DYN4064