Simple, reliable charger

[gutrageous]

Hello all,

Looking for a simple, reliable charger for 4S Lipos to race 1/8 offroad. I've raced RC but it's been a long time (think late 80s through early 2000's) so I haven't used Lipos before. I understand the basics of Lipo care from doing a bit of reading but when I start to look for a charger, it gets a bit complicated and it seems all of the chargers are trying to be "everything to everybody".

So, any recommendations for the simplest Lipo charger for 4S packs to charge, discharge, and storage mode? Nothing more. I don't need one to charge multiple packs. I don't need one to also charge NiMh packs or do other fancy things. Simple is better, BUT I do want competition quality and reliability.

Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks,
Gutrageous

 

[Billl DeLong]

iCharger X6 is probably the most popular charger at the track in my area, more info here:

• Which charger is the best?

 

[Nicochau]

I use the icharger duo 308 and it is amazing. Well worth it. Like many serious chargers it is DC only and requires an external power supply.

A few notes to the OP, for 4s, with packs in the 5000mah to 6700mah range, you ‘ll need at least a theoretical 80 to 120W to charge at 1 x C (5 to 6.7A at ~16.8V).
Most chargers don’t deliver to their promise, so from the math above you should conclude that you need 150 to 200W in order to be comfortable and durable.

I also believe IR (internal resistance) meter is also a must, but you can get that independently.

 

[nub]

The HTRC T240 Duo would be a more budget AC/DC option to look at. With AC it's only 75W per channel but if only using one channel you can shift available power to one channel up to 120W. With the typical AC/DC or AC only chargers I would look to a dedicated discharger like the SkyRC BD250. What might take a couple hours at 1 or 2 amps can be done in 10 minutes or so with one of these.