Lipo's Wowzers!!!!!

[PINKY]

Man this lipo stuff is absolute madness!!! I left for a year and come to all this craziness,But all I've seen is bad news from these things,I've seen three crazy fire's from'em,Rv's whole truggy up in flames today madness!!!! I for sure want no part of them!

[cheesecake]

lol lipos dont just explode its user error 99 percent of the time. rv has had it happen multiple times he has to be doing something wrong. nimh are more dangerouse then lipos when they explode so ill keep taking my chances with lipos

[rocco79]

I dont know Eli... Receiver pack lipo's has been the culprit to many fires. Even seasoned guys. On the other hand ive charged nimh packs at like 6v when in a jam and they keep coming back for more. Well, when i raced!

[PINKY]

I ran elcetric forever,before I got into gas I have never seen a fire from Nimh or even Nicd as bad as those lipos,Rv's truck was toast only thing salvageable was the wheels and tires that's is I had some of my nimh batts go south and never as bad as torchin a whole car,just a little damage to the chassis....

[Ponch]

PICS!!! I wanna see!

[thenewguy821]

As long as you pay attention to the discharge rate, charge rate, and voltage cutoff of the LiPo's you should be safe. Most accidents happen when people buy a cheaper battery, with a low discharge rate, and hook it up to something with a high draw. This puts too much strain on the LiPo's, causing the fires.

Another big problem with LiPo's, is over-draining them. This is the most common cause of fires in vehicles. People go for the LiPo's to save weight and get a little more power to their servos, but have no way of monitoring the voltage. With some of the higher end servos, their amp draw is too strong for some of the lower end (cheaper) LiPo's. They now have external Low Voltage cutoffs/Regulator that will help prevent this.

The only other problem with LiPo's is charging at the wrong rate. If you hook up a LiPo to charge at twice it's rated charge speed, they can and will explode.

[PINKY]

No one got any pics of it but it was wild a bucket of sand and an fire ext had to be used....

[cheesecake]

rv is doing something wrong.... he has done it more then once

[stratcat]

As long as you pay attention to the discharge rate, charge rate, and voltage cutoff of the LiPo's you should be safe. Most accidents happen when people buy a cheaper battery, with a low discharge rate, and hook it up to something with a high draw. This puts too much strain on the LiPo's, causing the fires.

Another big problem with LiPo's, is over-draining them. This is the most common cause of fires in vehicles. People go for the LiPo's to save weight and get a little more power to their servos, but have no way of monitoring the voltage. With some of the higher end servos, their amp draw is too strong for some of the lower end (cheaper) LiPo's. They now have external Low Voltage cutoffs/Regulator that will help prevent this.

The only other problem with LiPo's is charging at the wrong rate. If you hook up a LiPo to charge at twice it's rated charge speed, they can and will explode.

the Newguy is right... I've been doing lipos for about 2 yrs now, never had a problem, but I always pay attention... don't leave them unattended... make sure you balance your cells, and pay attention to your esc cutoff voltages and charge rates and you will be fine!

they are pretty scarey when they do blow up, my buddy blew a two cell up in his back yard (it had been squashed by the helicopter falling on it so it was junk)....

[Evil3]

I ran elcetric forever,before I got into gas I have never seen a fire from Nimh or even Nicd as bad as those lipos

I have seen a ni-mh on fire before (one of my batteries at that time), but never as bad a li-po fire.

[Mr. Tune]

Lipo's seem like a lot of work compared to old school nimh batteries. What's the benefit to them? Are they really worth the hassle?

[thenewguy821]

Lipo's seem like a lot of work compared to old school nimh batteries. What's the benefit to them? Are they really worth the hassle?

For similar Mah capacities, there is a considerable savings in weight. There are some High Mah LiPo's that are about the same weight as NiMh batteries.

A good LiPo can support a higher amp draw, which results in more power being supplied to the Motor.

A 2 cell LiPo is 7.4 volts as opposed to a NiMh being 7.2 volts. If a motor gives 5000 RPM per volt, that .2 difference in voltage is 1000 more RPM's from a fully charged battery. Along the same lines, a 3 cell LiPo is generally about the same weight as a standard 6 cell NiMh, but gives 11.1 volts as opposed to 7.2 volts.

For racing, if you put 2 equal drivers side by side, one with LiPo's and one with NiMh, the driver with the LiPo's would have a slight advantage.

[stratcat]

Tune,

yes, very worth the hassle...

I've got more use out of the lipos that I have and not had any problems (one is getting kind of weak, flight time is down to 10 minutes from the normal 13) but other than that, I've used them for two years, the first year on and off, but last year I flew every day and cycled each pack at least once daily (most days it was twice) from april to November when I put them up, and they are still good..

I don't think my normal batteries have lasted that long...

and I've borrowed my buddies lipos that are about the same age, and they still work great!

I think once you get past the initial cost and being scared, they are a great deal!