Originally Posted by
DWill
What I've learned from fly my Heli packs; which are 3-4 times the cost of some of the car packs is this.
If you consistently take more than 80% out of a LiPo pack you'll be buying a new pack sooner rather than later.
Granted large RC heli's are much harder on batteries than our cars are (in general) but you'll have your packs longer and keep some money longer if you follow the 80%. Plus of course charge and store your packs properly.
It's weird to me that the amount of info on our batteries in the RC car world is so sparse. In the Heli hobby how to use and care for your batteries is a big topic.
Maybe it's the size, cost and relative potential danger of the packs Heli use VS the packs we use in cars.
Another thing I've noticed is the parallel charging multiple packs isn't the norm on the car side. I can't tell you how many people at the track come up and ask either what the board I have my batteries plugged into is, or, where I got the charger that can charger that can charge 6 batteries at once.
Parallel charging is less than ideal for most car uses. Leaving packs sitting fully charged degrades performance. Better to charge each as needed.
The 80% guideline is certainly useful, but needs adjusting as packs age and due to different real vs. claimed capacity of various packs. Going by voltage is probably more reliable, keeping the resting voltage above 3.7V per cell is a good target to shoot for.
Everything mentioned has been discussed here in countless threads.