Are lipos worth it

[Lozart]

Fact it only takes 15 to 20 minutes to charge Lipo's is a selling point.
 

*not a fact.

Depends on capacity, level of remaining charge and charging rate. While LiPos can be "fast charged", it is NOT the recommended method. Charging rate should ideally match the mAh value of the battery - 1400mAh charge at 1.4A, 3000mAh charge at 3A. Fast charging is likely to shorten the life of the battery.

 

[Cannonfodder]

Fact it only takes 15 to 20 minutes to charge Lipo's is a selling point.

See the post above

Bad idea doing that because the gas given off is hydrogen fluoride, phosphoryl fluoride and CO2.

That's lithium ion batteries

 

[Adolf Hamster]

*not a fact.

Depends on capacity, level of remaining charge and charging rate. While LiPos can be "fast charged", it is NOT the recommended method. Charging rate should ideally match the mAh value of the battery - 1400mAh charge at 1.4A, 3000mAh charge at 3A. Fast charging is likely to shorten the life of the battery.

Always did wonder why people cared about charging rates, sure other hobbies like rc you  have a good reason to care about charging fast but in airsoft just buy enough batteries to last a days pewing and be organised enough to charge the night before.

Plus i'd wager the lions share of sites wont have plugs for general use and even those that do will have stiff competition.

Op- in addition to a good charger, a tool that i've found invaluable for lipo usage is a cell checker, can be used to troubleshoot if you've got a balance issue, a dead cell, or simply a quick test to see if its charged.

 

[Leo Greer]

Op- in addition to a good charger, a tool that i've found invaluable for lipo usage is a cell checker, can be used to troubleshoot if you've got a balance issue, a dead cell, or simply a quick test to see if its charged.

It’s also great to be able to estimate how efficient your replica is.

 

[Adolf Hamster]

It’s also great to be able to estimate how efficient your replica is.

i'm a tad old school, i prefer to use an earcrometer for measuring how laboured a gun is

 

[Leo Greer]

i'm a tad old school, i prefer to use an earcrometer for measuring how laboured a gun is

Nothing wrong with that either. ?

 

[AirSniper]

See the post above

That's lithium ion batteries

Mine take 20 minutes to charge, you telling me I am wrong... Even on the Airsoft sites they will charge batteries for people and guess what, they say, come back in 20 minutes.

 

[Leo Greer]

Mine take 20 minutes to charge, you telling me I am wrong... Even on the Airsoft sites they will charge batteries for people and guess what, they say, come back in 20 minutes.

No said you couldn’t charge your LiPos that fast. They said it was a bad idea to do so.

 

[EDcase]

Bad idea doing that because the gas given off is hydrogen fluoride, phosphoryl fluoride and CO2.

The gas is toxic...

Oh don't worry, I didn't hang around to breath it in ?

Mine take 20 minutes to charge, you telling me I am wrong... Even on the Airsoft sites they will charge batteries for people and guess what, they say, come back in 20 minutes.

Charging at a lower rate does help preserve the life of the battery.

This is the rule I follow:

From an FPV website...

"The safest way to charge a lipo battery and the one that puts the least amount of strain on your battery is to charge at a rate of "1C" or 1 times capacity.  A 1C charge rate means that the current will charge the entire battery in 1 hour ( assuming you are starting with a fully discharged battery around 3.2v ).  For example, if you had a 1000mAh lipo, to charge at 1C you would set your charger for 1 Amp.  If you had a 500mAh battery, you would set your charger to 0.5 Amps.  If you have a 1500mAh battery, you would set the charger to 1.5 Amps."

 

[Lozart]

That's lithium ion batteries

Totally depends on the chemistry. The main difference between "traditional" Li-Ion cells and Li-poly cells is that the dielectric in Li-Ion is liquid where the dielectric in LiPo is a dry or gel type polymer (which is more stable and less prone to thermal runaway). They can both have varying chemistry depending on application.

Mine take 20 minutes to charge, you telling me I am wrong... Even on the Airsoft sites they will charge batteries for people and guess what, they say, come back in 20 minutes.

It's all down to the chemistry and physics of battery charge. If your battery for example is 1000mAh capacity and you charge from flat at a rate of 1C (ie 1x battery capacity in Amps - in this case 1 Amp) then it will take about an hour. If you charge the same battery at 3C (3 Amps) then yes, it will take around 20 minutes. The point we have tried to help you understand is that not ALL LiPos charge "in 20 minutes" because it depends on a) their max capacity, b) how flat it is and c) what rate you charge them at.

 

[Cannonfodder]

Totally depends on the chemistry. The main difference between "traditional" Li-Ion cells and Li-poly cells is that the dielectric in Li-Ion is liquid where the dielectric in LiPo is a dry or gel type polymer (which is more stable and less prone to thermal runaway). They can both have varying chemistry depending on application.

Fair enough, everything I could find about that referred to li-ion batteries 

Mine take 20 minutes to charge, you telling me I am wrong... Even on the Airsoft sites they will charge batteries for people and guess what, they say, come back in 20 minutes

As others have posted, fast charging li-po batteries isn't a good idea if you want them to last. Guess what, site owners don't really give a shit if your battery gets knackered

 

[Tactical Pith Helmet]

From an FPV website...

"The safest way to charge a lipo battery and the one that puts the least amount of strain on your battery is to charge at a rate of "1C" or 1 times capacity.  A 1C charge rate means that the current will charge the entire battery in 1 hour ( assuming you are starting with a fully discharged battery around 3.2v ).  For example, if you had a 1000mAh lipo, to charge at 1C you would set your charger for 1 Amp.  If you had a 500mAh battery, you would set your charger to 0.5 Amps.  If you have a 1500mAh battery, you would set the charger to 1.5 Amps."

What I always do.  I've 7 year old batteries that work 100% fine still.  

In former times, one would wire a small bulb inline with the lead acid car/bike battery as it charged to create a basic trickle charger.   

 

[Lozart]

Fair enough, everything I could find about that referred to li-ion batteries 

Remember that Li-poly batteries are still Lithium Ion technology.  

 

[Egon_247]

A few years ago I worked for ocado at cfc4, erith.

It's all robots running around doing the shopping thing. 

Unfortunately, cfc3 had an issue where one bot caught light then went back to doing the shopping, Merrily setting fire to the place. By the time someone spotted it, it was too late. When the fire brigade turned up they asked what was in there...

"Only 400 robots carrying 20kg lipo batteries each"

"Oh, ok. We'll put out the rest of the building then...."

??????????

 

[AirSniper]

It's all down to the chemistry and physics of battery charge. If your battery for example is 1000mAh capacity and you charge from flat at a rate of 1C (ie 1x battery capacity in Amps - in this case 1 Amp) then it will take about an hour. If you charge the same battery at 3C (3 Amps) then yes, it will take around 20 minutes. The point we have tried to help you understand is that not ALL LiPos charge "in 20 minutes" because it depends on a) their max capacity, b) how flat it is and c) what rate you charge them at.

Flat is 3.7v any lower you risk damaging the cell, I have seen people run theirs down to 2.9v and wonder why the cell is stuffed.

I have had a cell overcharge which I wonder why it didn't go chernobyl, when I measured the voltage it was 4.6v. Took that out of service right away.

There is only a narrow 0.5v charge range on these things. So a C20 should take very little time to charge.

The Nuprol charger I use is the 18W or 4.29 amp charger, from flat (3.7v) they take 20 minutes (average)

 

[Rogerborg]

3.7V is nominal voltage for a lipo cell.

Flat, minimum voltage is down to the specific cell. Farnell, for example specify measuring the capacity of one of their cells by discharging it down to 2.75V.  That said, given the dross that gets fobbed off on us (have you ever bought an airsoft battery with a data sheet?) I do actually agree with not letting airsoft cells get anywhere near that low.  I run 1.2Ah - 1.4Ah and always swap at lunch.

Significantly, they recommend charging at just 0.2C, with a maximum of 1C. That's where I agree with them - I charge 2S and 3S lipo at at 0.5C, in an explosion containment pie dish.

Of course, I say all that, but I also sling 18650 / 16340 li-ion cells into cheap USB chargers that are charging at some voltage and current.

 

[Colin Allen]

Flat is 3.7v any lower you risk damaging the cell, I have seen people run theirs down to 2.9v and wonder why the cell is stuffed.

I have had a cell overcharge which I wonder why it didn't go chernobyl, when I measured the voltage it was 4.6v. Took that out of service right away.

There is only a narrow 0.5v charge range on these things. So a C20 should take very little time to charge.

The Nuprol charger I use is the 18W or 4.29 amp charger, from flat (3.7v) they take 20 minutes (average)

What is the the capacity of the battery (mAh) and what amperage are you charging at?  Charging at 1C or less will massively improve the life of batteries.

 

[Lozart]

Nuprol charger I use

That explains a lot.

 

[Deersofter]

See the post above

That's lithium ion batteries

I’m pretty sure lipo stands for lithium ion polymer outer or at least something along that line 

 

[Cannonfodder]

I’m pretty sure lipo stands for lithium ion polymer outer or at least something along that line 

Hence my reply to Lozart's post 2 weeks ago