I found this excerpt on Horizonhobbies website.

Lithium Polymer (LiPo) cells are the newest and most revolutionary cells to come to market. LiPo cells typically maintain a more consistent average voltage over the discharge curve when compared to NiCd or NiMH cells. Add to that the higher nominal voltage of a single LiPo cell (3.7V versus 1.2V for a typically NiCd or NiMH cell), making it possible to have an equivelant or even higher total nominal voltage in a much smaller package. LiPo cells also typically offer very high capacity for their weight, delivering upwards of twice the capacity for sometime ˝ the weight of comparable performance NiMH cells and packs. That’s right, with LiPos you can often achieve higher voltage and power output, with more capacity, in a lighter weight package.

With all of these benefits, why aren’t LiPo packs more widely used? With so much energy packed into such a small space, there are some important safety measures to take when dealing with LiPo cells. A LiPo cell needs to be carefully monitored during charging as overcharging a LiPo cell (to beyond 4.2v), or the charging of a physically damaged or overdischarged cell (discharged to below 3.0v under load) can be a potential fire hazard.


Many LiPo batteries come with safe charging circuitry integrated into it. This circuitry prevents over charging, over discharging, and in some instances helps to balance the pack out. If your pack has a “Charge” lead on it, always charge through that connector.


While some battery chargers can charge either NiCd/NiMH or LiPo cells, chargers that do all three major chemical types are starting to surface. The Dynamite Vision Peak Ultra can charge your LiPo packs along with NiMH and NiCd batteries as well.

If you are going to go the LiPo route, use a charger that can correctly charge them (using a constant current, constant voltage method of charging as LiPo cells can not be “Peak Charged”), such as the Vision Peak Ultra (DYN4053) or the E-flite Celectra 1-3 Cell charger (EFLC3005). Not only must care be taken when charging LiPo cells, but when discharging them as well. You should never over-discharge a LiPo pack to below 3.0v per cell under load, and you must use an ESC programmed to provide the proper low voltage cutoff for your pack (for example, a 9v cut off for a 3 series LiPo pack). Also, you should never dead short a LiPo pack, even if only for an instant, as the large amount of energy stored in the small package can catch fire quite quickly as a result. While these seem like major deterrents to using a LiPo battery, these usage guidelines are quickly becoming well known as they are typically well outlined in the instruction manuals included with most LiPo packs, ESCs and LiPo chargers. However with all of their performance benefits, there is little doubt that lithium polymer battery packs are currently the future of battery technology for electric powered models.