Me and 3 fellow racers have had our smc batteries 'poof' and was wondering if anyone else been having problems with them. I had a 5200 40cmax and a 4500 28c sport max, both with less than 50 cycles on them. I bought them back in November, always well kept and properly taken care of. I have a old 4000 28c in the fake red carbon case that has had a couple hundred cycles on it and it has more punch and no 'poofing' like the other batteries. The other guys I mentioned have had the same problems with their 5200 ad 4500 batteries as well. I noticed SMC took their thread down, didnt know if they were ragged on for poor quality or what. Real bummer when you got over 200 bucks in batteries down the drain......

There have been a few threads with people flaming on them.
I ahve one of their batteries and it has been great. There are a few people pretty vocal against them, but I think maybe a few of those are just on the bandwagon.
A lot of the problems are from mis-use.

^^^ +1 Or simply not following SMC's instructions for care of their lipos.

1) don't store the batteries fully charged over 12 hours
2) if storing for an extended period discharge to 6.6v for the pack
3) charge the batteries up right before you race
4) cycle the batteries once a month

If the above doesn't work and your packs still puff, buy new packs.

SMC is starting to get a negative reputation. Many racers have seen their packs "puff."

My advise is simple, buy thunderpower. They might have the occassional issue, but overall they seem to be better quality.

I wish SMC apologists would stop blaming the racers. I have seen many a local racer with both smc and thunderpower packs (same racer,) and guess which packs have puffed? The racers are obviously taking care of the batteries the same way. If the issue is that smc batteries need "special" instructions, what's the point? Buy thunderpower and be done with it.

+1

how low are the batteries being run to.
what are they being charged at.
how are they being stored.
not saying that you are not doing what you are supposed to be doing but call Brian and let him know what happened

If I had your money I wouldn't be on here complaining about my batteries and would already bought new ones.

My batteries are being ran down to no more than half, charges at 4.5-5 amps respectivily, and they were ran almost every weekend since nov. they never went more than 3 weeks between runs. I do not know brian or have his number. Just thought it was funny that when i started complaining about these batteries that 3 other pp had the same problems with the same exact batteries. I have lipos almost 2 years old, including smc's, that haven't did this prematurly.

i had some 4700 40C's lose a bunch of voltage and capacity but not puff. and have a 5200 50C that won't balance (sometimes). still producing the highest average discharge and lowest IR of all my packs though. a close 2nd are tp 5200 50C.

Well then, good thing you don't have my money. I guess no one should say anything bad about a product. We should just keep buying and hope for the best. Where are the thunderpower haters?

I have had 2 smc batteries. The first was replaced under warranty.
The second which is less than a year old has "puffed" about 3 mm in a hard roar case.
SMC is going to discount a replacement battery for me.
If its not a really "big" discount, then I too with go with Thunderpower.
I have had other batteries puff, but that was after 18 months, not 6-8 months.
I have a Maxamps I got the same time as the SMC and it is still working great, no puffing at all.
At time point I would recommend going with batteries from Thunder power or Maxamps.

I don't know what's up with SMC these days, but I've seen a lot of their LiPo puff and swell up out of their case. Even the guys who are taking good care of their SMCs are having this problem. SMC needs to really get down to the problem, or they're loose even more of their followers.

you are holding it wrong

Just had my SMC 4900Mah 50C 1 cell puff and a fellow carpet racer's also puffed. It seems like their higher C rated batteries are puffing because I had some of their older 1 cells with no problems. I guess there is a reason my hobby shop no longer sells their higher C rated batteries.
idbdoug