Originally Posted by
gigaplex
Balance current is irrelevant if your cells are closely matched. It only matters if the charger detects a voltage mismatch.
Balance current is key, it will significantly improve charge times for a degrading pack that would otherwise need to be replaced far too soon with a charger with a poor balance current rating.
I once had a low quality charger that didn't provide any balance current rating and my battery took close to 45 min to charge at 10A and a buddy at the track put the battery on his iCharger to test the IR for me and showed how the IR was a little high but not bad and he charged it in 15 min at 10A and that's when I was convinced that balance current was the most important thing that mattered. I bought an iCharger the next day and never looked back at any of the budget chargers ever again