LiPo chargers ?

[kmachala]

Just getting into the electric end of this sport with my sons. Any suggestions on what to look for in a battery charger and from experience, which ones have/have not worked well. There seems to be quite a selection available out there.
All of our boats will be on new Turnigy LiPo's, so charging NiMH is not needed.

[Chilli]

Don't skimp on a cheapo charger. One of the best made are Hyperions. With the Hyperion Duos you can charge two batteries individually or together in sync mode. Know the wattage output of the charger your buying. Many cheap charges and most AC/DC chargers have low wattage outputs (50 or less). Thats find if your only charging 2S packs but you'll want at least 75 watts to be able to charge a 4S 5000 pack in an hour or less. If you go with a Hyperion, keep an eye on the swap shop or on ebay. Some times you can find a nice deal.

[G-UNIT]

i run a hyperion ac/dc and it works just fine, although I can only charge one batt at a time, and I like the options it offers like the storage mode, It can charge up to
6 amps and it also balances while it charges, but you still want to balance after charging. I got it at MAX AMPS. and I think I paid ony 140.00 for it.
so check it out and see what you think,

[Chilli]

Unless my math is wrong, the only 5000 mAh pack the 0606I could charge at 6 amps is a 2S. The 0606I is a great charger though. I just picked up a new one for my son on ebay for $109 shipped. I want to make sure Ken is aware if he starts aquiring a bunch of 4S packs or going 2P, it's going to take a while to charge them. Many cheap charger advertisements tout being 6S capable but you have to dig through the specs to find the wattage ouput.

[kmachala]

Good information to start out with - thank you all. Looks like I better start reading up on the care and feeding of LiPo batteries. All this talk about balancing and storage modes is Greek to me. You have to remember that up until now all I had to do was dump in the nitro, light it off and toss my Miss Elam in the water.
And these horror stories about FE boats catching fire...that can't be good, but I'm willing to listen and thoroughly enjoy reading these posts.

[BHChieftain]

Hyperion Duo.... before you know it, your boat collection will grow and you WILL NOT regret spending the extra money on a charger that can charge 2 lipos at a time... I should also add that if you run 2 packs in series, this charger can balance them together.

See the "battery" forum for more info on how to charge safely.


Chief

[JimClark]

I would also check out the chargers on FMA Driect

http://www.revolectrix.com/4sgold_description_tab.htm

[G-UNIT]

On my charger I ran my
3s 5000mah down pretty far like the LVC kicked in and it took about 70 min to charge them, I was kind of worried that they took 5100 mah and 5050 mah when fully charged, this tell me that I ran this piss out of them, but they took the charge just fine and did not puff or anything so I hope I;m in the the clear on my next run.