Lipo Charging Question
 

Hello All,
The charger I have has a 5.0A max charge capacity/range. I recently purchased some 5600mah lipo batteries, not realizing the max charge capacity of my charger.

What will happen if I attempt to charge a 5600mah battery at 5.0a? Will it only charge it to 5000mah, or could I damage the packs?

Thank you for your input.

You should be fine. It will just take a little longer to charge.

Like stated above, nothing will happen it will just take longer to charge them...who knows, it may better for the battery charging slower :)

Excellent, I appreciate your responses.

Some chargers have a capacity limit setting as a safety feature. If the setting won't go high enough that could prevent a full charge, worst case you might need to restart the charger to finish.

Of course it's best not to run a lipo all the way down, if the 80% capacity recommendation is followed the capacity limit probably won't come into play.

does the quality of the charger affect battery performance? would I benefit from buying a multi-hundred dollar charger or would chargers offered from hobbyking be sufficient?

Back in the days there are all these fuzzy logic trickle charge mumbo jumbo for NIMH, does the same apply with lipos?

Also, do we need to discharge lipo batteries or could we just charge the battery after run?

not really. but remember you get what you pay for! Traxxas 2933 EZ-Peak Plus is a great charger for the price! 6 amp for around $85

YES!

Just get the ICharger and be done!

Thanks for the reply.

Upon further research, the Turnigy Reaktor 300W is basically an iCharger 206B. Both of these chargers are made by Junis but the Turnigy is half the price. I think I found my charger.

Most chargers have a LiPo storage charge mode. If a pack gets partially used or doesn't get used at all, and I don't plan on using the pack for awhile... I stick it on "storage charge" and the charger discharges/charges the pack to 3.8 volts per cell.