I have a Duratrax peak charger and I use Venom 3600 Nimh packs. I was just wondering what difference charging at 4 amps makes vs. charging at 2 amps. I was once told that a battery dis-charges at the same rate it charges so charging at 4 amps would mean more power but less run time. Am I correct?

Racers noticed that if they charged NiMhs at higher and higher charge rates (5amps, 6amps and more), the pack would dump quicker on the track - it would give them more amps. This is fine for a 4 or 5min heat race and batts that were treated this way were tossed after a short while or demoted to practice packs when they quit showing that extra. These were matched abd banalced race quality cells, much more expewnsive than the cells in your pack.

I don't think you'll notice a diff between charging at 2 vs 4 except it will charge a little quicker at 4 amps. Just make sure they're not getting so hot you can't hold them. If they do, try a lower rate, you'll damage them with high temps.

+1 on Dusters post. 4amps would be fine with those packs. Anymore will not gain anything with a pack of that quality or intended use.

For getting the most life from your batteries, a general guide for charging those is 1000mah = 1 amp, 2500mah = 2.5 amps, etc.

So your battery would best be charged at 3.6 amps. If your charger is not capable of that, then 2 or 4 amps would be OK as stated.

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If you charge batt at high amp, you need cooling for the batteries.

Never ever cool NiMh or NiCd packs while charging. They will not peak properly and will end up damaging cells.

You need to be careful and not to exceed critical temperature of each individual cell during charging. Only balanced and quality cells can be charged at 4A. Search here or google for proper NiMH care or ask Venom.

Some reading here: http://www.promatchracing.com/techsupport.php

Sure or not the tamiya team uses team much more battery heatsink with fan for that long ago. it keeps the batt temp optimum during and after charge. that's their secret of winning ..

Yeah, but you are not telling the full story. The 1/2 story that you are telling here is serving no good and even can cost somebody else $$ in replacement cost.

Please get the entire recipe and come back.

Since when then? If's for radio it's not recommended at high amp. it's risky.. for car you just need to amp & the punch. so u need cooling at higher amp charge without that it's risky u may spoil the batt. my frens also had experience his Intellect 4200 explodes. he bought new match pack gets the cooling in so far so good till he changes to lipo.

You say, take any car pack, crank up the charging current and cool it with forced air.

The answer is NO.

People do all kind of thing and you again telling only 1/2 the story at the most. Please do some reading about NiMH, Google is your friend. Why don't you email your pack manufacturer with your theory?

That cooling gadget you got there is probably safe to use to cool down the pack when taken out of car but not during charging.

Lastly I do not wish to argue about this anymore. Besides what I am saying is based upon daily usage experiences in race. It's up to the rest to decide what's best for them afterall. However fact is you are totally WRONG. Pls see the manufacturer link below for more info.

http://www.muchmoreracing.com/store/...oducts_id=1408

The end result is what that matters most. Safety first... next prolong battery life.

There are a lot of stupid products or products used stupidly. The guy asking has only 4 posts and you throw at him some racing voodoo with no further elaboration.

I am 100% sure that if he used it he would shorten life of his entry level (likely a stick) packs.

You only read what the cooling fan manufacturer say but completely ignore what the battery manufacturer say.

I even posted a link to good reading for your convenience, do yourself a favor and read it.

Ok i know i'm gunna catch alot of shite about this but here it goes. one of the classes i race in is a slash spec class and we are only allowed to run 3800 nimh packs. to get the most pop out of our packs we have found that charging at a higher amp gets the peak voltage much higher and gives it more pop. we regular charge at 6.5 amps, and right before we hit the track we will repeak at 8-9 amps. at the last trophy race we were charging at 7 amps and repeaking at 10. we did see a noticable difference once we started to doing this. have you ever seen a bone stock slash drag a bumper down a straight away??? we never did either till we started doing this. but that extra pop only lasts about 4-5 laps untill alittle juice is eatin up then the pack goes back to normal. i remeber back in the day when everyone was using 5000 nimh in the race rigs, the pros used a special device that they would zap their packs with for a few minutes it would slam a ass load of juice in their packs for the start of the race. ( im sure the packs didn't last to long, but if your a pro u probably don't pay for your stuff). when doing any type of charging that is this extreme remember to let the packs cool properly when they get extremely hot. charge at 6.5 cool repeak at 8-9 race cool reapete. now time for the warning. when doing this there is no way of telling you how long the packs will last, yes i have fried a pack in 3 weeks of racing with this type of charging. i also have 2 packs that are almost a year old and are just as good as my new ones. and if you have ever heard or seen a nimh pack "vent" during charging or racing, imagine a m80 go off next to you on a pit table. ( most of us using these methods charge in lipo sacks) discharging is another thing you can use to get the most out of your cells. always cycle your packs when you get them 3-5 times. cycling is charging and discharging the higher you discharge your pack the more pop you will get out of them. and once a month you should atleast cycle your packs to wipe the cells memory clean. also i have many packs so i don't have to charge my packs more than once a day when racing. everything i have just said is for racing if you just want to bash charge your packs at 3.6 amps and just have fun you won't see any difference except your run times maybe shorter and your packs won't last aslong. and you'll b spending more money that you could be spending somewhere else in the hobby. hope this helps.

P.S. i hate when people start pissing contests on here about being right so if you don't agree then post your oppinon and move on. all this info is from my experienc and advice from more seasoned racers.

Good stuff...that is what I call a full recipe with some warnings. Surely, OP is not into racing at this time.