Not always. Yes it's (the charger) trying to balance the cells as close as possible. But a pack with quality/healthy cells shouldn't take that long to balance and peak.

I run Hyperion chargers. They balance while charging. If my packs when charged after a normal race run (static 7.4v normally) don't balance before hitting 8.4v there's something wrong with the pack (weak cell). Regardless of brand.

Most likely because the 6500mah packs had lower IR. That's my educated guess and not from experience. The extra 700mah of capacity does you no good if the IR is higher.

Packs and charger are both pretty new. Like I said only 8 cycles, always balanced and never below 8.4 v. Cell. 6 amps is plenty to bring the pack to 8.4 before it begins dropping the charge rate to about .3 /.2 to balance. Only at this point is where I think it takes too long. I monitor the individual cells bouncing from 4.19 to 4.21 but both will balance at 4.2 evenly. It appears the cells mAy be a bit volatile at this point so it confuses the charger. Is there a break in period? Also the charger will vary it's charge to accomidate the volatile behavior of the voltages

I think charging at 6 amps is plenty. What appears to be taking a long time is at the second stage of the charge cycle which drops the charge rate well below 2 amps. it trickles at 0-.4 amps to find that balance, this part is taking longer than i'm used to. Then again i've never played with a 6500 mah battery before. I have two more on the way and will see how those behave.

Again, I've been monitoring these batteries closely. and the charger is brand new

SMC batteries are now available at CRPplus.com,,,great batteries at a great price

Not really sure whats going on, but these 6500 mah batteries will not peak. something is not right with them. oh well.

Have you attempted to contact Danny at SMC?

less than 1c charge rate is plenty?

Yes, he actually got back to me within minutes. He said that some chargers will take longer to peak or not peak at all depending on the calibration settings and the resistance of the cells. He says it's very common with cheap chinese chargers and said to just pull the packs off the charger when both cells read 4.2 volts and the charge rate is well below 1 amp.

My question to you everyone is, What chargers are you guys using and do the packs peak in a timely manner everytime? I thought maybe the size of the packs i'm using (6500 mah) may be the reason why.

peaking can take a while

I use this one, works great and it will charge at up to 12 amps.
http://www.amain.com/rc-cars/protek-...k-8510/p260576

Interesting that I came on here to read some peoples thoughts and one of the first was this. I have actually moved away from SMC for this, and other, reasons. No other battery I own takes as long to balance. Furthermore, 1 of my 6500's had a balance wire break off after 2 runs. the 4600mah 4s shorties seemed puffed when i got them but I was told they were just tightly packed.... the case split at the seam not long after buying them. 1 of my 6500's has a cell that looses charge over time (put in storage for maybe a month and the cell was at 1.5v)

I have also noticed that it seems 1-2 cells on each pack has a higher IR (30 vs 4-6 for the other cells), which makes me think that is the reason for the slow balance times. I know when I first got them they balanced fine for about 5 times. once I had used them maybe 20 times each and I gave up on them. I now use Protec and intellect and haven't had an issue. I still get the SMC's out for practice (as we don't have permanent power at the track, so taking as many batteries as possible is always best). the SMC's have nowhere near the punch of the others and they don't last anywhere near as long. all my batteries will now be around the same use (but maybe 6mths difference in age). All in all I have been extremely disappointed.

In answer to your question, I use a Junsi 308 at home and a skyrc 2 x 400w at the track

am I correct in saying SMC had 4600 shortys, and then the latest one is 4400?

why with the lesser capacity?

I thought the same thing but he did say 4s packs. Are you looking at 2s packs?

That is correct, he no longer has the 4600mah Now it is 4400mah and that is what I run myself.