It's my understanding that if one is not going to be discharging a lipo within a few days (3 or less) that it should be put into a storage charge. Not doing so damages the battery. Can anyone here confirm this for me?

That is correct, but I would go even further. Storing a lipo fully charged for any length of time increases IR which reduces performance, speeds up capacity loss, and can cause swelling.

Temperature changes while charged are particularly bad.

I used to charge some packs the night before heading to the track. Since starting to only charge right before use pack performance and life has improved significantly.

Better charging capability > lots of packs charged up ahead of time.

Yes, another reason why I also keep fully charged NiMH for week night use.
I don't have much time to charge during week days but still want to drive my cars around for maybe an hour after supper.

Thanks. I ask because I purchased 3 lipos from an RCTech member, they arrived at over 4.10 per cell (3 total 2s batteries) and they have a slight bulge. I'm not terribly concerned about the bulge but I'm more worried that they're not going to last as long as they should. Member said they weren't puffed at all when they got shipped (which I believe) but as I was inspecting them I noticed a slight bulge in the center of them (much worse on 1).

The price was right, they weren't terribly expensive so I'm not super worried but I would think that putting them into storage charge would be more common knowledge..

I'm curious what geographical area they were shipped from and to, what were the general temperatures during shipment? I'm thinking temp changes in transit could have easily contributed to the swelling.

From either Georgia or North Dakota (can't remember) to SF Bay Area CA. It took quite some time for them to get here so I can only assume they were shipped ground. I just balanced the last one that wasn't balancing right......4.16/4.20. Took 83 minutes.

Assuming you are just referring to power packs, but there are other LiPo batteries, like NMC cells that are not as sensitive to the storage charge requirements. If you are into electric airplanes or RC airplanes in general, there are a lot of different packs available for rx use.

Good point Dave. Also, compare dates.Date of purchase as compared to received date and take in consideration that they may have been charged and stored before that date. Seems that everything turned out okay? You'd think an rctech reader would know better.