Is it necessary to balance your lipos every time? Or can you just do a normal charge on them? I'm assuming balancing takes longer. Is it okay while at the track to just charge them to cut down on down time?

How long does it normally take to just charge a lipo(ex: 7.4 5000mah) On average.

For balancing I'm averaging around 65 min.

If you have a decent charger, it will not take any longer to balance charge than to just charge. The only way the charger can 'see' individual lipo cell voltages is with the balancer connected. If there is a potentail prob, then the charger will react sooner and prevent it from becoming a real prob. Without the balancer connected, the charger see only total voltage and it may be too late by the time the charger reacts based on total voltage to prevent a real prob from occuring.


I always balance charge, its the safest way.

That's pretty much what I thought.

Thanks

If your charging at 1C, pretty standard and the safest for new lipo users, charge time is about 45min. to an hour, maybe a little longer. At a 1C charge rate battery capacity doesn't affect charge time. A 1000mah pack charging at 1 amp (1C) is going to take the same amount of time as a 5000mah pack charging at 5 amps (also 1C).

1C = mah/1000 ~ 5000mah / 1000 = 5 amps, 6500mah / 1000 = 6.5 amps

I personally balance charge everytime I charge, but I have spoken to a few team drivers who say they balance once every 40-50 cycles. Then again, most of them get free batteries.

If you know you have good quality lipos, and you take care of them, regularly check voltages, etc, one can get by without regular balance charging.

Really no reason not to though, the same good lipos won’t take any longer to charge since no real balancing is going on. Plus not all lipos are of the same quality, higher cell counts are more problematic, lipos change as they age and are cycled, etc.

Routine balance charging with a good charger will prevent serious mistakes, like selecting the wrong cell count or the wrong battery type. And is much safer as the lipos age and degrade.

Not balance charging reminds me of one of the old Dana Carvey lines: Wouldn’t be prudent.


On a side note, do not just balance a discharged lipo. That's different than balance charging.

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