Originally Posted by
Razathorn
Seems to me that it would always be preferable to have better single cells in series than to have cells in parallel at all.
Exactly thatīs right. But as it was said before, sometimes there is no other choice for a manufacturer for using cells in parallel. As long as these are high quality cells with little variance (or selected) this seems not to be a big problem but from my view there should be no more than 2 cells paralleled. I know there are several Lipos out there using 3 or more cells paralleled and this is what I wonīt buy. Any serious manufacturer will print the configuration at the specsheet so you will know.
Dave is also right cells in parallel will balance each other. This isnīt just for Lipos but for batteries in general. But this also is a reason why you shouldnīt parallel batteries with different or unknown charging state. If there is a big difference there will be high current flow between these what could mean even destroying them if the difference is big enough.