LiFe batteries - anyone use them?

[bigbearillinois]

i was thinking of buying to use in my SuperVee just for cruising not racing.
I thought I would not have to use a LVC in my stock set up.

[NativePaul]

Yes I do, I got a decent deal on a pair of dewalt 36v drill batteries on ebay and took them apart for the 10 2300mah A123 cells in each which I made into 6x 3s packs for boats and 1x 2s pack for my little 10th scale tamiya F201 F1 car. While on a cell for cell or weight for weight basis they cant hold a candle to a LiPo they beat subCs on both counts and while I haven't personally used recent NiMhs or any decent ones for that matter (I was very disappointed with the current delivery of the 1st gen NiMhs and was on LiPos when GP3300s were affordable) from what I have heard the A123s are vastly more durable cells.

For sport running they do seem very good just throw more cells in to compensate for the low voltage and capacity, in your SV27 instead of 4s1p 5000mAh LiPo you could go 5s2p A123 for the same power and just be within spitting distance of the same speed, its the same power but heavier but you can charge them at whatever rate your charger can handle and you don't have to worry about LVC which even if you have a LVC speedo does make it more relaxing, they do get hotter the more you use them at the end of the charge and like anything getting it hot reduces the lifespan but knowing your not going to puff a cell there and then and lose the pack is very nice.

Depending on the rules they can be good for racing too, I dont know what the rules about them are in the states, if they treat them as LiPos and only let you run 2s 10,000mAh in N1, 4s 10,000mAh in P etc then no they wont be competitive, but if they make concessions for them being lower voltage then they can do fine, over here we allow 3s2p A123 for mono1/hydro1/ECO against a 2s 280g LiPo which will be around 5000mah and the last 2 years mono1 was won by A123s at the nationals, mono2/hydro2 allow 5s2p against 4s 560g LiPo but with the weight disadvantage and the same power I haven't noted anyone using A123s in these classes, there are naviga proposals to increase the allowable cell count for mono2/hydro2 to make them more competitive there too.

[bigbearillinois]

Thanks for the info!