LiPo's How Long Do Yours Last?

[Tom Foreman]

Was wondering how long peoples batteries are lasting them.

I have about 10 packs that are down on capacity after only 6 months. I do fly a lot so they have done about 50 - 100 cycles. I think they would have lasted longer if I had only used them at a max of 14C, instead of 18C on some models (EDF) they are 5-off 2200 mAh 20C 3s1p and 5-off 2600 mAh 20C 4s1p. Mostly from Electrolite and Duremax. Am still getting OK flight times out of my models, just noticed the charger was putting less back in them. Might start looking at A123's for bigger models, as I can't afford to replace all my batteries every 6 months

 How long are other people getting out of their LiPo's and what C rating are they pushing them to?

Cheers

Tom

[David Ashby - Moderator]

Good question Tom,

Well I agree with you 6-12 months max before they seem to start dropping off although in all honesty my Flightpower packs do seem to live longer than some of the others. I push the average pack to about 60-80% of the C rating as far as I can tell.

Most packs do provide a good 50+ flights, some more, before they start to loose the will to live!   

[Tom Foreman]

Oh well I guess I better get some more packs on order, I read on the FMA Cellpro site, that for maximum life they recommend 70% of rated continuous C rating. So my next packs will have to be either bigger or higher C rating. Its my Twister Jet thats caused all the problems, I upgraded to 600W power and the batteries are coming out red hot, being pushed to 18C

[Frank Skilbeck]

Coming out red hot is probably part of the answer. I haven't measured how many cycles i get out of my cells, but I put a 1400 mah 3s in a plane which normally used a 1800 mah 3s (both 12c I think) and the 1400mah was ruined pretty quick.

I'm running some 1500 mah cells (3s) in my EDF but it's only about 200w and the cells come out warm not hot, I have not noticed any significant deterioration to date but I'm probably only running them at 12C or less.