I'm a noob when it comes to lipos, and just recently i had a 2 s 5000mah suddenly take almost double the normal time to balance. Actually i shut it off after 2 hours, normally takes about an hour. Anyway a week later i was going through charging lipos for a trip to the track and this same lipo wouldnt charge at all due to low voltage. I checked the cells and one was at 4.19v and the other was only .86v. I tried the nimh charging trick, then charged that cell alone (took pack apart) and it took a while but eventually hit 4.2v. Voltage on the other cell remains 4.19v, but the bad cell wont hold a charge, and I assume that is why the balance takes so long.

Why is balance charging not a good idea for every charge?