Need a good Lipo Charger

[Rocker]

Anyone recommend a good Lipo charger .I am on my third charger ,two have just given up and and the current one has just shorted out.Bit fed up with spending £50 and getting rip of .I could of spent £150 on a really good charger.The chargers I have brought have all been by a so called reliable make (yes I know it has taken me 3 chargers to realise that the make is not so reliable).So I need a reliable Lipo charge, any suggestions to what make I should buy ???

[Owdlad]

You get what you pay for......spend cheap pay twice.

Without doubt Cell Pro chargers are the best on the market (in my opinion )

[Dickw]

The iCharger range are good. I have had 2 of their 1010 chargers in use for several years and you see quite a few of them at the compettions I attend - reliability is important if you regularly drive 100 miles or more to a competiton.

**LINK**

Scroll down the page past the adaptor boards.

Dick

[MattyB]

Yep, +1 on the iChargers from me - my Dad and I have a 106b each, and they have proved extremely reliable. They also balance extremely accurately and tell you the IR of your batteries which is important if you want to understand how they are performing as they age; a real world C rating (unlike what is written on the battery itself!) can then be calculated using this site. Be warned though, you may not like the results - few packs have a realistic C rating beyond 25!

Edited By MattyB on 06/07/2015 11:17:48

[Geoff S]

I have a Graupner Ultramat 16 which not only charges my modelling batteries but I use for other household battery powered devices. I've had it several years and it's been fine. It'll only deliver just over 3 amps on mains but more when I use it on its 12 DC option from a server power supply which delivers up 47 amps (it says on the label )

For field charging I have a Pro Peak Constellation. I've had it a number of years and it's been reliable so far. I wouldn't recommend it now because it doesn't have a balance feature - they weren't so common when I bought it.

I am hanging my nose over a HiTex H4 charger after seeing one used by a club mate. It'll charge 4 batteries simultaneously which, now I'm flying mostly electric, is something I'd find useful. They're around £180 though, so I may need the financial directors permission before a purchase

Geoff

[MattyB]

Posted by Geoff Sleath on 06/07/2015 11:34:43:

I am hanging my nose over a HiTex H4 charger after seeing one used by a club mate. It'll charge 4 batteries simultaneously which, now I'm flying mostly electric, is something I'd find useful. They're around £180 though, so I may need the financial directors permission before a purchase

Those Hitec chargers do look nice, but remember you can parallel charge batteries of the same cell count with any LiPo charger - it doesn't need to have multiple discrete outputs, you just need a suitable parallel charging board and to ensure the batteries are within 0.1V of each other at the start.

I regularly charge 4x 3S 2600 packs simultaneously with my iCharger at a cumulative 10A, so 2.5A a pack, just under 1C. This is better for the batteries than charging them singly at a faster rate, is very convenient and is significantly cheaper than choosing a multi-port charger of similar wattage. You don't even have to have batteries of the same capacity - as long as they are the same cell count and within 0.1V of each other, they can be parallel charged. Always use a liposack or ammo box for charging though, and use your chargers temp probe if it has one - putting more batteries in close proximity means more energy can be unleashed in an incident.

Edited By MattyB on 06/07/2015 11:49:15

[Wingman]

I use a SkyRC Quattro - AC or DC supply 4 x 10 memories - excellent!

[willhappy]

hi so does the icharger 106B need a power supply to it????? if so what type would be needed?

will

[Willyuk]

I used many chargers and this year decided to spend the money to get a cell pro power lab 6, along with the safe charging board. I do not regret the purchase at all. The charger will cope with anything I need and is simple and reliable. I use it to regularly charge 6 5s 5000mah lipo in parallel. All 6 charged in under 40 mins ( from about 20%).

[Tom Coles]

Is the core UAC 50 any good?

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Jon Laughton]

I use the UAC 50 and find it fine!

[Vecchio Austriaco]

Hyperion 720 I. 20A charging current, 250W, 5A discharge current. 20 battery memory. 7 cells. PC interface.

Have it since 2008, works like on first day. There are new, and even more powerful versions on the market now.

VA

p.S.: I saw 2 used ones on e-bay  - makes it a bit less costly...

Edited By Vecchio Austriaco on 30/08/2015 13:13:00

[willhappy]

Ok so looking at the icharger 106b which looks good but would it be better to get a charger that can charge bigger packs.

will

[John F]

Just out of interest, which chargers did you have before?

[willhappy]

well to be honest i have only an old nicad charger so no lipo batterys as of yet. Looking to join the 21st centruy now.

will

[Ben B]

Icharger 208b does it for me. Before then I had two Imax B6s. One real- went pop. One fake- backlight died but otherwise still going strong. Love icharger.

[onetenor]

Have a look here https://www.banggood.com/search/lipo-charger.html

lots of choices

[willhappy]

hi Ben B

What power unit did you get to power the 208B?

So was looking at the 106B anb thought if i went to a 208B then i could charge bigger packs when i get more into flying, would this be a good thought?

Onetenor

Thanks mate, looks like it could be full of fakes and copys. Do you get much from them ?

[flight1]

A good selection here with the graupner poleron chargers and hitec's here

[Tom Ryall]

In prepping the batteries (2200 and 1300mha 3S Lipos) my Imax B6AC is now saying 'Break Down'. Having trawled this seems an issue and is usually catastrophic.

I'm on a budget so can anyone recommend a charger? I appreciate buy cheap buy twice, but has anyone sourced a reliable B6 AC in the U? I have to be realistic over money but before I commit I thought I'd ask here acknowledging this thread is 9 months old.

Has anyone had an experience of these:

https://www.robotbirds.co.uk/default/chargers-power-supply-leads/chargers/ft680-ac-dc-80watt-charger.html

Thanks in advance.

Edited By Tom Ryall on 27/01/2017 22:43:14

[MattyB]

Can't speak to that charger I'm afraid, but I will say here what I said in a parallel charging thread the other day... There are lots of places you can save money in this hobby now with little or no negative impact, but a Lopo charger is not one of those IMO. One problem and you could have a fire - is it really worth the risk of a cheap clone charger from a no-name supplier on eBay?

Save your cash for a bit and buy a better, higher wattage unit that will last and that you can have high confidence in. The Turnigy Reaktors are based on the iChargers and have a great rep online for a very reasonable price.

[Tom Ryall]

Thank for that Matt - HobbyKing seem to be out of the Turigys at the moment.

Completely happy with your logic and if there was a Reaktor at a sensible price I would spend a little more but I can't go too far on it!

Cheers.

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[willhappy]

Hi all

just come back to rc stuff and still looking for a charger, now i was looking at an Icharger 106B but come accross a turnigy reaktor 250w 10A from hobby king.

Is this a good charger to get and also what would be the best power supply unit to go with it, would it be a turnigy reaktor pro 350w or the 250w.

As you can tell just a bit fazed about lipos and chargers

will