Best Budget priced Battery Chargers
 

I'm starting to get back into the RC hobby after 10-15 year hiatus. I know that I'm going to need a charger and some LIPO battery packs.

What are some of the better quality, and performing battery chargers for entry level. I feel this is a piece of equipment that I can always upgrade if I get really serious into this hobby.

I'm looking for a charger and at least 2 battery packs for $100 or less. What are your suggestions. I am planning on building a VTA spec car from a TA TC4.

Thanks

I can say that so far my new foray into SMC brand lipo batteries has been good. I have also heard that Promatch Lipo is a good bargain. Gens Ace and Turnigy also have a loyal following for value lipos.

With Chargers, you can find a lot of choices for about $50, but they only just barely do 1C and can take forever to charge a battery. You will be OK with one, but will be better off with something that can do at least 10Amp... You can dial a high power charger down, but you can not put the others into any kind of warp speed.

Get the duratrax onyx 245 its capable of charging two packs at once and is right under $100 and comes with all the connectors necessary.

SMC is a great battery for a great price. Hobbyking stuff is cheap but takes forever to come.

dual chargers that charge at more then 5 amp are going to need a power supply I think

I had that thunder charger, but I had the fancy ac680 one. Never had problems, and it was built very well. I might pick up another, since I will need a cheap charger for charging up some packs on the go.

I am gonna tell you from first hand experience don't cheap out on the charger, you will be buying again if you are driving a lot. I currently have a 10a duo charger and 12v power supply, I bought is used in the classifieds for around $100.00. As far a batteries go there is a difference I recently bought SMC batteries and like them, they are value priced and work well. I have bought 1 very expensive name brand battery and it takes forever to charge and never has balanced properly.

Awesome dual charger. I have one, but I have one dislike. It does not have a storage mode for LiPo's.

I use this charger.


http://traxxas.com/products/parts/ch...hargerplus6amp

It available for about 100 bucks. It works very well. Easy to use. Compact. Has a storage and balance mode. Can bring nimh batteries back to life with the cycle feature. I've used it and it does work. Has a built in power supply. Is ac/dc which is a big plus to me. You can get an adapter to charge two batteries at a time. I think this is a very good charger for the money with lots of options.

…and everybody knows it is just a hitec x1, with a different case, and a jacked up drive...

It's not a Hitec. It's a SkyRC/chinese made charger.
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s..._DC_w_PSU.html

and that…is just a clone of the hitec x1.

SkyRC is OEM for Hitec, Traxxas, HobbyKing and others. You pay extra for label.

you are right.

i would look into the duratrax onyx 240 ac/dc charger too, it does to batteries at once.

Well it works and has a lifetime warranty and from what I hear, traxxas has good customer service. So now what?

So which chargers are genuine with it's own R&D?