Charging a Warm/Hot battery
- Thread starter slugger
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It's best for them to come to room temp. after use and then let them balance out (meaning put a balancer on and balance the voltage in the cells), and then charge them.
Ots said:
Does this mean to plug the balancer in without the main cable?
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Yes. I balance before and after charging with a separate balancer. It can take a while to balance a pack and I don't want to start charging an out-of-balance pack, which is what happens with a charger that balances.
slugger said:
It depends what charger you have. If you are only using the stock charger then NO - DON'T DO IT.
If you have something like the Powerlab8 then it's internal saftey alogorithms monitor everthing in sight. I use a Powerlab and charge 6 batteries at once at 2C. Because I have 6 batteries this means that the first Lipo I use has rested for over half an hour before it gets a charge but the last one is still warm! I do usually allow 5 minutes cool down to be fare but that's it.
My advice... Hot is not ok to recharge, Warm is, so long as you are using a good quality charger.
The Editor said:
Let them cool down if not you'll ruin the cells and kill the life span of the battery.
I have never heard of balancing a battery before charging. What would be the purpose of having a balanced charger?
I always let my batteries sit for a few hours before charging. Once cooled, I charge 6 at a time at 2c on my Powerlab 6. It takes a little while to do 6, but still faster than doing them one at a time. I am ready for the weekend to begin.
I always let my batteries sit for a few hours before charging. Once cooled, I charge 6 at a time at 2c on my Powerlab 6. It takes a little while to do 6, but still faster than doing them one at a time. I am ready for the weekend to begin.
Ots said:
Since my charger balances as it charges, what would be the definition of an out of balance battery and how would you balance a battery without charging it. Sorry, it just sounds like an unnecessary step with a battery charger that charges and balances at the same time. Even brand new batteries can be off by .01. I don't really consider that as being out of balance.
skipper1 said:
I've been playing with much larger Lipos for 1/8 scale rigs and no one that I know has ever made a statement like that. Normally, prior to chargers getting sufisticated, you would charge and then balance. Now all chargers that I know will balance as you charge and the major part of the balancing usually occurs towards the end of the charge as far as I know. If anything, he may have been using an older charger that didn't have the balance feature or worst he was using a charger not designed for LIPO. Was the Lipo puffed before he started to charge it? For me, once a LIPO puffs. I cut the wires and dunk it into a bucket of salt water for a day or two and then dispose of it like regular trash.
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I think there is a lot of mis-information. The problem with a battery being out of balance and using a charger that does not balance is it is possible to overcharge some of the cells. A "dumb" charger just monitors the voltage of the entire battery, not each cell, so it is possible to overcharge some cells.
Once you have a battery that is out of balance, it is also possible to drain one cell too low which would also cause damage. Since everyone is using a balanced charger, there are no worries. With every charge, it makes sure all the cells are the same voltage when it is done. This occurs near the end of the charge as in the middle of the charge, it does not matter if they are out of balance as long as one cell does not get too high.
Once you have a battery that is out of balance, it is also possible to drain one cell too low which would also cause damage. Since everyone is using a balanced charger, there are no worries. With every charge, it makes sure all the cells are the same voltage when it is done. This occurs near the end of the charge as in the middle of the charge, it does not matter if they are out of balance as long as one cell does not get too high.
Darrell1 said:
Thanks darrell,
I didn't want to be the one to have to explain it all! Lithium batteries a great for outputting high amps from a small battery, the downside is they don't always discharge evenly. The 11.1v phantom battery is made up of 3 smaller 3.7 v lithium cells, 3x3.7=11.1.
EG* When you use the battery, you may run it down to about 3.5, 3.3 3.4. Using a unbalanced ("Dumb") charger, it will look to make the pack 11.1v again, but this will charge the cells to 3.8 3.6 3.7 respectively. The first cell has been overcharged, the second, undercharged and the last is ok. Now if you were to put this battery into use (for flying) you may find a significantly shorter flight time! This will also affect the life of the battery as the overcharged cell is likely to fail.
(*fully charged and discharged V values are probably different, this is just explain to concept)
Car batteries (tho made completely different) are similar in that they are made up of multiple cells in series to the desired voltage. The majority of car batteries that are faulty or not holding charge, actually only have one faulty cell, making the entire Battery useless! Car batteries cannot be balanced charged, but testing the cells with a hydrometer was how people monitored the health of each individual cell in the battery system ( not just car, but forklift, caravan, remote solar set ups, wind generators)
