Lipo Balance Charge

[MarkLeeds]

How long should it take to balance charge a lipo after roughly 1 run. I have a reactor 500 charger and usually takes about an hour before the charger clicks off being fully charged. It starts off charging at 5 amps then drops off to about 0.5 amps till its fully charged which usually takes al least an hour, just wondering if that is normal, when i connect the lipo to start off there isn't much of a difference between the cells voltage so seems strange.

I plan on running a 2wd and 4wd car shortly and if it's normal to take this long to charge I will need another charger also.

Thanks

[blue_pinky]

Hi, it can take a while if the lipo's aren't very balanced to begin with, longer than an hour not uncommon then. Do you have more than 1 pack, if so do they all do that?

If not you might have a pack that's not in great condition, if they all do that then the charger might just be slow.

I used to use a charger that took a long time to balance charge, but have since changed charger and the one I have now is faster than the old one. They do all vary a bit depending on how the balancing is controlled, but as an indication, the charger I use now can do a full balance charge at 5A in about 35-40 mins which fits between rounds at our club nights.

To be honest though, as long as the charger has dropped off to the low amp charging rate then the pack is essentially charged anyway and just balancing by then, so taking them off early is no problem if timing is an issue. If your keen to keep things fully balanced over time, just make sure you get a full balanced charge in them when you have more time.

Lipo's pretty much all last well beyond the 5 mins for a timed race so dumping is very unlikely anyway!

[MarkLeeds]

Thanks, the lipos I have are no more than a couple of months old and all do the same, but not every time some time they charge in 20-30 minutes.

They seem to take the same time wether closely balanced or not, just have to knock them off early or get another charger

Not really concerned about dumping just don't want to damage lipo if I kelp knocking it off charge.

[blue_pinky]

I wouldn't be worried by the sounds of it. As long as they get a full balance regularly (which it sounds like they do) you'll still be getting the best from them, even if your track side charging isn't fully balancing each time.

My charger (etronix powerpal) seems to fully balance quicker than some other chargers, but I often wonder if that is because the balancing isn't perhaps as accurate or well controlled as the slower ones?

Typically lipo's are fine and only fail if they are inherently bad in the first place, or are mistreated. Charging without balancing isn't mistreating them. You might just see a tiny reduction in punch if they get a long way out, but that about it as far as I know!