What is your battery charger of choice?

[TzuTzu77]

What do you guys use for charging? I just ordered a Corally Eclips 2100 duo.

To be honest the main reason I got this particular model was that it has a discharge power of 5A one one channel and 2A on the other, most other chargers only discharge with 1A, at least at this price point.

This is important for me, because I often end up not using all the batteries I charge and it was frustrating to wait 1-2 hours for my old charger to bring them to storage voltage.

Do you have other methods of discharging batteries for storage?

 

[L3 RC]

I’ve been very happy with my Ultra Power UP120AC. Can charge 2 batteries at the same time at 12a each! Great with 2c charge rate batteries.

 

[cordell12]

Another one here with the Ultra Power UP120AC. Picked it up on Amazon for about $125 and its been a solid charger for me so far. The only complaint I have is the discharge rate is sloooow as molasses! I would be a happy camper if this thing would discharge in a couple hours. The last fully charged 4s I discharged took nearly all day long and into the night. Ive seen discharges on ebay for $30 but am leery of connecting my $100 batteries to a $30 discharger.

 

[antigacho]

I only have a small IMAX B6
it is enough for me for now
I just have 2 lipo batteries
ZIPPY Compact 6200mAh 4s 40c Lipo Pack
HRB 22.2V 6S 6000mAh 50C RC (on the way)

 

[Chevys10zr2003]

I have a Hitec X2 700 and Hitec X4 AC Plus. I got the X4 first before I got into 4s, 6s and 8s rigs and now I mostly use the X2. I like that I can parallel charge up to 30 amps from each channel.

 

[Creeper]

If you can get a hold of any of the turnigy Reaktor units, either the duel or quad ideally, you will be very happy! be aware however you will need a power supply to run these units. I have the quad and and can charge 4 6s batteries at 20amps per charger if i wanted to....

 

[Rafio]

Creeper, what do you think about this model ?

https://hobbyking.com/fr_fr/turnigy-4x6s-lithium-polymer-battery-pack-charger.html?wrh_pdp=1

 

[cordell12]

Are we actually charging batteries at 20 or 30 amps? It is my understanding that charging a 4s over 6 amps will harm the battery in the long run. If I've been misinformed what amperage can a 4s be charged at without doing any unnecessary damage to the battery. It take 1.5 hours to charge my 4s's up, would love to be able to decrease that time if I can. My charger will charge up to 12 amps on each channel.

 

[TzuTzu77]

It depends on the battery spec, most manufacturers should mention that. I never charged above 1c so gar, but I've seen people do it. I've also heard racers going far above 1c, apparently it reduces battery lifespan a bit but it helps keep the internal resistance low.

 

[cordell12]

My current 4s batteries are 6400mah and have a charge rate of 2c, so technically I could charge 12 amps. Actually I could charge at 12.8 amps if my charger would go that high, but still choose 6 amps. hmmm, looking at the math I should probably bump that up to 6.4 amps to not go below 1c.

 

[TzuTzu77]

Below 1c shouldn't be a problem either, I charged my 6000mah packs at 5A just because it was the max one of my chargers could do.

 

[Chevys10zr2003]

Are we actually charging batteries at 20 or 30 amps? It is my understanding that charging a 4s over 6 amps will harm the battery in the long run. If I've been misinformed what amperage can a 4s be charged at without doing any unnecessary damage to the battery. It take 1.5 hours to charge my 4s's up, would love to be able to decrease that time if I can. My charger will charge up to 12 amps on each channel.

I am charging at 30 amps a lot of times. But like I said above, I parallel charge so I am charging 6 batteries off of each channel, so it works out to be 5 amps per battery.

 

[KevBar40]

My wife got me a venom pro duo. It’s basic but I haven’t needed anything more powerful

 

[TzuTzu77]

My wife got me a venom pro duo. It’s basic but I haven’t needed anything more powerful

It has all the basic functions most charghers have. I like the form factor, I wanted to get one also, the only drawback was the discharging/storage charging power, 1 amp takes forever.

 

[cordell12]

It has all the basic functions most charghers have. I like the form factor, I wanted to get one also, the only drawback was the discharging/storage charging power, 1 amp takes forever.

I think that is just a part of discharging. Mine discharges at 5 amps and will take all day and into the night to discharge a fully charged 4s 6500mah battery. I seen a discharger on eBay, but keeping hoping to a see honest review from the RC community before purchasing. I've also seen threads where people have built dischargers out of hallogen lightbulbs.

link to my charger http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/rc-...11634999-ultra-power-up120ac-duo-charger.html

 

[Chevys10zr2003]

I think that is just a part of discharging. Mine discharges at 5 amps and will take all day and into the night to discharge a fully charged 4s 6500mah battery. I seen a discharger on eBay, but keeping hoping to a see honest review from the RC community before purchasing. I've also seen threads where people have built dischargers out of hallogen lightbulbs.

link to my charger http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/rc-...11634999-ultra-power-up120ac-duo-charger.html

Yeah the discharge rate on the charger is 10 watts per channel, so with a 4s battery you are discharging at roughly .6 amps. Can you provide a link to the discharger on ebay that you are referring to? Maybe somebody here has experience with it.

 

[nulli]

If you need a solder iron too then I'd recommend the 2-ch SkyRC D200. For 6S 5Ah or smaller.

 

[TzuTzu77]

Discharging has been a big issue for me, and I couldnvt find any reviews about the chargers I was interested in going in depth about this.
I even considered at some points putting my car on a stand and letting it run to discharge batteries. I'll come woth some feedback once my charger is here, hopefully tomorrow.

 

[cordell12]

Yeah the discharge rate on the charger is 10 watts per channel, so with a 4s battery you are discharging at roughly .6 amps. Can you provide a link to the discharger on ebay that you are referring to? Maybe somebody here has experience with it.

Here it is, not a bad price if it works and is even a little faster than what I have now. It looks like it uses the Hallogen bulbs, but safer than making one, at least for me it would be. I would think there would be some protection built into it.

https://m.ebay.com/itm/AOKoda-CellM...-Set-with-Lipo-Battery-Balancer-/122978747076

 

[Chevys10zr2003]

Here it is, not a bad price if it works and is even a little faster than what I have now. It looks like it uses the Hallogen bulbs, but safer than making one, at least for me it would be. I would think there would be some protection built into it.

https://m.ebay.com/itm/AOKoda-CellM...-Set-with-Lipo-Battery-Balancer-/122978747076

A little faster than what you have now LOL. It would be 15 times faster. That one doesn't look bad at all and it looks like it keeps it balanced while it discharges. I would imagine there would be protection built into it as well.

I was looking at the ones below but the thing I don't like about them is that they only discharge. They do not do a balance discharge. So I would need to discharge and then most likely do a balance storage charge.

https://www.amainhobbies.com/isdt-f...YtoMsyO5hff0JZYnKD2xeov8vU1ky9ExoCKxoQAvD_BwE

https://www.amainhobbies.com/gforce-gd200-30-amp-lipo-battery-discharger-gfc0270/p717457