Balancer or Not when charging???

[LiPo Power]

Here is my question:
Do I need to charge my LiPo batteries with balancer every time?
This is what I do all the time but recently I noticed that charging time with balancing is way longer than just straight charging. Check the picture. Way too long!
I need them for tomorrow morning and still have few to go. Should I just charge them straight and balance them when I have more time?
Thanks
Robert

[Steven Vaccaro]

165 minutes? Thats a long time. You could probably cut it short. The last 5-10% of my charge always takes the longest.

[LiPo Power]

Yeah, that is long.... I will wait to see when it will stop this time. That is strange is it not?
Robert

[LiPo Power]

Do you allways charge with balancing no matter what?

165 minutes? Thats a long time. You could probably cut it short. The last 5-10% of my charge always takes the longest.

[LiPo Power]

No Steve it is over 200 minutes untill full...

[line6]

No you don't have to balance every time. what kind of pack is that it looks to be a 2s but what Mah and are you charging it at 1C.

[Doby]

Balancing EVERY time is not rerquired,,,it is preferred though. Remember, there is no balancer working when we discharge them while running our boats (at a substantially higher current rate as well)

[Hydromaniac]

I always use my balncers while charging and have yet to puff any lipos , Just my choice but I'd rather be safe, my Charger / balancers give an indication if something is going wrong with the cells ahead of time before a problem happens if used while charging.

[BakedMopar]

A lot of times the charger is not charging (or trickle charging) and the balancer is trying to balance out the cells. I've only had experience with Turnigy and Zippy batteries. When their new they balance out fairly quick. After a few runs they take a long time to balance. With the exception of my last Zippy packs. They were way out of balance for the first dozen cycles. Now they seem to be closer but still not quite there yet. What I do now is charge them to 90% (with balancer). Then throw them on a external balancer to balance out. When they are balanced I finish them off. I know it sound complicated but it frees up the charger to get other packs charged up so they don't sit at too low of a voltage.

Hope that made sense cause I feel confused.

[line6]

A lot of times the charger is not charging (or trickle charging) and the balancer is trying to balance out the cells. I've only had experience with Turnigy and Zippy batteries. When their new they balance out fairly quick. After a few runs they take a long time to balance. With the exception of my last Zippy packs. They were way out of balance for the first dozen cycles. Now they seem to be closer but still not quite there yet. What I do now is charge them to 90% (with balancer). Then throw them on a external balancer to balance out. When they are balanced I finish them off. I know it sound complicated but it frees up the charger to get other packs charged up so they don't sit at too low of a voltage.

Hope that made sense cause I feel confused.

I know what u are saying. I have one or two older more abused packs that just take forever to finish.

[LiPo Power]

7.4, 5000mAh, 20-25C, charging at 5 at amps.....

No you don't have to balance every time. what kind of pack is that it looks to be a 2s but what Mah and are you charging it at 1C.

[line6]

Might be something with the pack? Do you have more of that same kind of pack do they take that long. That is realy taking a long time to charge just a 2s pack. Like i said a have some that take much longer than others. They work fine on a low amp draw like a stock SV.

[Rumdog]

Your charger is set to balance mode and not lipo charge correct? If so, it will charge at much less amps than in lipo charge mode.

[LiPo Power]

...so it should be better to use equinox external balancer in interface mode and charger in normal lipo charging to get it right fast, normal time....

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXMGS7&P=ML

[egneg]

I always use a balancer when charging. What charger are you using - I had a Triton that took a long time but since I started using a Hyperion Duo it is 30 minutes or less.