Purschased 4 lipo batteries probably about three yrs ago have done absolutly nothing with them, way too busy at work no time to run boat any chance that might still b good for next season?
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Purschased 4 lipo batteries probably about three yrs ago have done absolutly nothing with them, way too busy at work no time to run boat any chance that might still b good for next season?
Check the individual cell voltages. Hopefully everything is still over 3.4V or so and within a few hundredths of one another in the same pack. If you don't have any dangerously low cells, I would cycle each pack by doing a full balance charge and then discharge to storage voltage. Check the internal resistance on each cell while charging, assuming your charger does this, looking for any outliers.
You have to put it on a charger and balance charge it to see if each cell will still hold a charge and not only hold a charge but a full charge and the cells all balance, meaning each have voltages that are almost identical.. .example a 3S battery cell 1: 3.974 cell 2: 3.972 cell 3: 3.95. If you have an IR, internal resistance, function on your charger you can find out what the IR are for each cell. If all the cells are in the low single digits and they balance well then they are still good. Then you can also cycle them a few times to get them going if you have a cycle function on your charger. I have 5yr old lipos that are still good.
Well said.
How old might a battery be from date of manufacture to date of purchase from the retailer? Would "fresh" cells give any performance advantage?
There is no real way of knowing, if you want fresh cells all you can do is pay the premium to buy the latest tech, then you know the cells cant be any older than that tech.
Cells degrade both over cycles, and over time whether cycled or not, the degradation is in the form of increased IR and reduced capacity.