Do you have to balance charge lipos ?

[raymondkerr]

New to lipos and just picked up 2 packs of 4200 intellect saddle pack lipos for my b44. I use the muchmore silent chargers and charge at 1c (4.2amp)

I have been looking at the muchmore balance add on for my chargers

http://www.muchmoreracing.com/store/...oducts_id=2964

but do I really need to balance charge ? Will I get any more performance out of the packs ? if I don't balance, will I damage the batteries?

Any advice for a lipo newbie would be most welcome.

Thanks
Raymond

[scotoap]

Hi Raymond the advice I got was, not nescessary every time but does keep them at peak performance as they come new already balanced and do not usually go out of balance like nihm or nicad cells that often.
You will probably get much better info from the Professional on here though, hope this helped

[AmiSMB]

I always balance charge my Lipo cells as then you can also keep an eye on the individual cells and it makes sure that you get maximum life out of the pack. If you run the cells to the Low Voltage Cutoff on the speed controller you may find that a cell could have gone lower than you would have liked but without a balancer you would not know that this has happened. Sometimes the pack under discharge one cell will drop voltage faster than the other and again if this is not balance charged then the voltage difference is never made back up and will lead to a shorter lifespan. I know many would say just balance every now and again but I look for long life and want to know what my cells are upto. When I ran NiMh I used a Spintec I.C.C and Trinity DPD so that I could keep my cells in the best condition posible.

[mikeyscott]

I balance charge the day before I go racing and then know they are all spot on. I have 5 packs of LIPOs, but if I need to re-charge a pack at the track I charge it at normal rate due to it being quicker.

I always balance charge otherwise and again it's to keep the batteries in good condition as these things aren't cheap.

[RichB]

I'm with AmiSMB, there seems no reason not to use a balancer all the time (if you've got one), it makes sure the cells have equal voltages at full charge, and makes it most likely they will stay close in voltage when discharged.
Balance charging shouldnt be any slower, all they should do is make tiny adjustments to the charge state of one of the cells if its voltage gets slightly above the other.
There are many options, e.g. I use tis one:

http://www.microtechracing.com//prod...at=DISCHARGERS

[Also (while I'm here), I don't quite understand why people would rather take a case-load of (expensive) LiPo's to a meet, rather than alternate a couple of packs, and charge them up inbetween heats - is it a hangover from NiMH usage where battery management was a lot more involved? When I was using NiCd's, and you used a whole pack charge per heat, everyone was charging inbetween heats.]

[Marvin]

Balance charging can take slightly longer, (it does balance throughout, but the cellls tend to change a lot during charging, so effectively) it starts just before the end of a charge. This can then overrun, but if you have balanced your cells constantly, and they are of good quality, then balancing shouldn't take any longer than a normal charge.

If you balance your cells when charging, you know that each cell is at 4.2V. As the cells discharge, providing they are good quality and properly matched, they should drop at an even voltage. When the LiPo hits the low voltage cut-off, both cells should be at, say 3.1V each, however, if they have not been balanced, there is the possibility that when it hits the low voltage cut-off, that the total is still 6.2V, but one cell is at 2.8V and the other is at 3.4V. There is potential there for a ruined cell.

It is definately worth balancing at least on every other charge, but you may as well do it every charge.