i typed up a long post but somehow the forum would like me to logon once more, and it messed up

i have 3 SMC 2S 6500mah 60c factory spec, two have been used about 60 times, and one has been hibernating in the fridge until yesterday

i do onroad touringcar 17.5 and 2wd buggy 17.5 and sct mod (the offroad in indoors) the onroad is outdoors at norcal hobbies

offroad they have been great, more punch, longer runtimes than my usual go to battery the gens ace 2S 5000mah 50C

onroad is where the difference lies ! it easy to see how much punch and top speed a particular battery has, its also the hardest on the battery as they always come out warmer than in the offroad cars.

my LVC in all cars are at 7.2V, even in the SCT mod

so now they have about 60 cycles on them (minus the one in hibernation in the fridge)

i took out the unused SMC pack to see what difference there might be and if i should run that pack instead of the used packs, and WOW the difference was amazing, so much punch, and topspeed was improved, i could hear the motor whine going higher than the two other packs

compared to my turnigy's 2S 6Ah 65-130C, and gens ace 2s 5Ah 50C the SMC is superior...the turnigys and GA are slow in comparison....but what i wasnt anticipating was how much better the hibernating was, beating all of my batteries...by quite a bit, some told me it looked like i had dropped at 13.5 in my car (its 17.5)...i was keepig up with a nitro car (those wedge shaped super fast ones) except on the straight where he was miles ahead, in the twisted parts, i was right there...AWESOME!

this leads me to the question, are the packs with 60 charges already done for ? seems kind of early to me... i have religiously never stored them full, but always at 3.85v, lvc is at 7.2v i only charge them at the track, and i cool them off as fast as possible with fans as they come out warm from the car (only onroad...offroad cars they come out luke warm or less), so im wondering if im doing something wrong or thats just the life of high performance packs these days

my GA seems a little slower then when they where new but the difference is not as big as with the smc cells....smc still beats my GA packs any day though...the turnigy have long since puffed so much i threw them out.

i got to try maxamps 6.5Ah 150C, and an orange pack with 100C rating and 6Ah(i forgot the name, and it was slightly puffed, owner just got it a few week before)...i liked my used SMC's better...and i let the drivers of the other packs try my cells too, one said it was about the same, the other said it was slightly better...so for 40 bucks they are a steal !

just ordered the race spec 7.2Ah 70C i hope they will be here tommorow in time for the last onroad point race on sunday ;-)...otherwise i still have the new 6.5Ah pack just in case

second question, is there a special way to break in lipo's to ensure max performance and life ?