Originally Posted by Duster_360

No, not saying that at all. There is no RC industry accepted standard for establishing a lipos C Rating. Period, its a fact. Its basically up to the manufacturer to decide what his lipo C ratings are going to be. Some use rigorous testing, some use less rigorous testing. This is what I meant by company A's 30C may be no better than company B's 25C rating. This is why performance based feedback is helpful in deciding what to purchase.

There are quality differences in lipo cells. Some cells hold higher voltage at a given amp dioscharge than others. Some of this is quality (cost) related and some of it is not. Some of the extra cost is for assembly - premium lipos are made with matched cells - they are matched not only for voltage, but internal resistance as well. Some manufacturers do nothing but wire cells together and package. I run some lipos from Neuenergy - I can discharge 80% of the pack capacity and when I put it on the charger, the cells are almost identical, usually not more than .002v (2mv) out of balance. Lesser quality or unmatched cells, I've seen guys say they were 90mv difference in voltage. Cell imbalance during discharging can cause probs and you can damage a cell at the extreme.

I've been using some of mine for 3yrs. You should be able to get hundreds of cycles if treated with care and maintained (balanced). Lipos are getting better and better as far as life is concerned. My first ones started fading after 100cycles.