What C rate are people charging at these days?

[dk10438]

Been out of the hobby for a few years but now my interest is piqued again. Just built a Limitless and running on 6S and looking for a Kraton now. I used to charge my short course trucks at 2-3c but it seems like most people are charging at 1-1.5c?

I'm using a Revolectrix PowerLab 6 with a 1200W power supply and a parallel board. What's the general consensus now when using cheaper batteries like CHNL, Zee, or Turnigy's?

 

[N.Mango]

Been out of the hobby for a few years but now my interest is piqued again. Just built a Limitless and running on 6S and looking for a Kraton now. I used to charge my short course trucks at 2-3c but it seems like most people are charging at 1-1.5c?

I'm using a Revolectrix PowerLab 6 with a 1200W power supply and a parallel board. What's the general consensus now when using cheaper batteries like CHNL, Zee, or Turnigy's?

Yep...1c is the sure thing.
When in doubt...1C
It's just all around better for your batteries.
my .02

 

[Revomikey]

I charge everything at 10a, that's about 2c for most of my packs. Don't care what the packs say, never had an issue

 

[Diem Turner]

Been out of the hobby for a few years but now my interest is piqued again. Just built a Limitless and running on 6S and looking for a Kraton now. I used to charge my short course trucks at 2-3c but it seems like most people are charging at 1-1.5c?

I'm using a Revolectrix PowerLab 6 with a 1200W power supply and a parallel board. What's the general consensus now when using cheaper batteries like CHNL, Zee, or Turnigy's?

Personally, I charge everything at 1C because I know it's a good balance between speed while being gentle enough on the cells but that's not to say you can't or shouldn't charge them at higher rates. Even lower cost lipos such as the CNHL G+ line are advertised with a max charge rate of 5C. What it boils down to is, in how big of a rush are you to get out there? A 1C charge rate is sufficient to charge any of my batteries from storage to full in about 20 minutes (which is plenty fast enough for my liking), including a set of G-Ace 15000mAh bricks. I've never sat there thinking, "Hurry up!!" and I just use the time to work through a checklist of things I like to go over every time before I take my car out. It is worth noting, however, that the higher the rate you charge your lipos at, the less mAh you'll be able to pump into them and it will shorten the overall lifespan of the battery. By how much? Difficult to say, I've never seen any quantitative analysis of cell degradation in relation to charging rate. To my knowledge, typical lipos will degrade to 80% of their initial power/performance within 300-500 charging cycles (I believe these figures are based on a 1C charge rate but I'm not 100% on that so take it with a pinch of salt).

Best practice would be to monitor and keep a journal of the internal resistance (IR) of the cells in your packs as these will be a decent indicator of cell degradation over time. There are some things to look out for when measuring IR, particularly that the conditions and variables specific to IR measurements are kept as homogenous as humanly possible so that the readings you get are meaningful as simple things as a few degrees temperature difference can skew values by a few mΩ. But as long as you keep the conditions under which you take measurements as close to identical as you can, you'll have data that you can track to keep a closer eye on battery condition.

To your second question, CNHL makes great batteries at a reasonable price. Unless you're trying to squeeze every last bit out of a high performance setup for speed running or drag racing, the extra money you're paying for premium lipos such as SMC or Onyx is a waste of money imho but I've seen speed runners get excellent results with CNHL G+ lipos that rival batteries at twice the cost. Unless, of course, you have money to burn and just want to have the best because they exist, I'm the last person who'd try to talk you out of it.

My take. As always, YMMV

 

[PeighDay]

A 1C charge rate is sufficient to charge any of my batteries from storage to full in about 20 minutes (which is plenty fast enough for my liking), including a set of G-Ace 15000mAh bricks. I've never sat there thinking, "Hurry up!!" and I just use the time to work through a checklist of things I like to go over every time before I take my car out.

Maybe I am reading this wrong but it only takes you 20 min to charge a 15000mAh brick from storage mode to fully charged at 1c charging in 20 min?

If that’s the case I need a new charger.

 

[Diem Turner]

Maybe I am reading this wrong but it only takes you 20 min to charge a 15000mAh brick from storage mode to fully charged at 1c charging in 20 min?

If that’s the case I need a new charger.

No, you read that correctly. 1C on a 15000mAh battery is a 15A charge rate. I might be mistaken, but I think it stands to reason that different capacity batteries should charge in roughly the same amount of time at a 1C charge rate as the ratio of input amps to capacity is linear at 1:1. Yes, there is some minor variation but I'd say it's all within a +/-5% margin. If this is a misunderstanding on my part, someone please correct me. It does however match my observations across all of my batteries ranging from 600-15000mAh.

 

[PeighDay]

No, you read that correctly. 1C on a 15000mAh battery is a 15A charge rate. I might be mistaken, but I think it stands to reason that different capacity batteries should charge in roughly the same amount of time at a 1C charge rate as the ratio of input amps to capacity is linear at 1:1. Yes, there is some minor variation but I'd say it's all within a +/-5% margin. If this is a misunderstanding on my part, someone please correct me. It does however match my observations across all of my batteries ranging from 600-15000mAh.

What charger are you using if you don’t mind me asking. I charge a 6s 5000mah battery from storage to fully charged and it takes me roughly 80min at 2c.

 

[Diem Turner]

What charger are you using if you don’t mind me asking. I charge a 6s 5000mah battery from storage to fully charged and it takes me roughly 80min at 2c.

You can ask me anything Perhaps the difference is due to yours being a 6S? But at a 2C charge rate I would expect it to be done a lot faster than that but I don't have any 6S packs for comparison. I'm just spit balling here, because all of my batteries (with the exception of a few smaller 2S packs but those are more for auxiliary duties and not for primary power but those also charge in roughly 15-20 minutes) are either 3S or 4S. Although...the largest 4S I have are 11000mAh and they charge in roughly the same amount of time at a 1C rate of 11A.

I'm using an ISDT P20 powered by an ISDT 600W PSU.

 

[PeighDay]

You can ask me anything Perhaps the difference is due to yours being a 6S? But at a 2C charge rate I would expect it to be done a lot faster than that but I don't have any 6S packs for comparison. I'm just spit balling here, because all of my batteries (with the exception of a few smaller 2S packs but those are more for auxiliary duties and not for primary power but those also charge in roughly 15-20 minutes) are either 3S or 4S. Although...the largest 4S I have are 11000mAh and they charge in roughly the same amount of time at a 1C rate of 11A.

I'm using an ISDT P20 powered by an ISDT 600W PSU.

Thank you for that info. This is the charger I am currently using. I guess it time to step my game up. Appreciate all the input.

Direct link to manufacture

 

[Diem Turner]

Anytime brother, always happy to share my experiences

 

[PeighDay]

I got some research to do on battery charging. Balance boards, PSU etc. more stuff to learn

 

[Diem Turner]

I got some research to do on battery charging. Balance boards, PSU etc. more stuff to learn

FWIW, I don't use balance boards, I just use balance lead extensions and cut the circled plastic lip off so I can plug in any size lipo from 2-6S. I don't plan on getting any 8S packs anytime soon, so this is more than I need for the time being. I could just plug them directly into the side of the charger but I find this a bit cumbersome as the balance leads on the batteries are typically pretty short and this affords me a bit of slack to work with.

 

[PeighDay]

FWIW, I don't use balance boards, I just use balance lead extensions and cut the circled plastic lip off so I can plug in any size lipo from 2-6S. I don't plan on getting any 8S packs anytime soon, so this is more than I need for the time being. I could just plug them directly into the side of the charger but I find this a bit cumbersome as the balance leads on the batteries are typically pretty short and this affords me a bit of slack to work with.

Thank you again. So basically I need good charger and a PSU for it. Something over 400w should be sufficient?

Looks like some do AC/DC as well.

Here goes more money

No wonder my batteries were taking forever to charge. Sometimes hour’s even with my 4s 6500mah batteries. I figured it was jus the price to pay to charge batteries.

I would sit in my garage late into the night waiting for all my batteries to charge for a bashing session the next day.

 

[Diem Turner]

Thank you again. So basically I need good charger and a PSU for it. Something over 400w should be sufficient?

Looks like some do AC/DC as well.

Here goes more money

Anytime.

I wouldn't go so far as to tell you that you need them. That's obviously your call. I'm just reporting on what I'm using and my experiences with it.

But to your question, yes. Something over 400W should be sufficient. When I'm charging my big bricks at 15A it's drawing about 180W, so 2x200W would be of comparable power.

Yeah, there are AC/DC versions. I like having the PSU and charging module separately so that I have the option of a more compact portable setup that I can run off a battery out in the field, but that's just a personal preference.

 

[DLK83]

What charger are you using if you don’t mind me asking. I charge a 6s 5000mah battery from storage to fully charged and it takes me roughly 80min at 2c.

I have a Protek 610 quad, a pretty good charger as far as plug ins go, takes me 45ish minutes to charge a Powerhobby 5000mah 6s from storage to full, 6s batteries are just time consuming on almost any charger.. if you want speed, go with a power supply set up. And fwiw, I charge everything at 2c or higher. High C charge/discharge does cut down the life span on batteries, but it also decreases internal resistance, which equals faster/higher discharge rates of the battery while in use, which for me, is a fair trade-off. Batteries don't last forever, and I'd rather get 95% out of one through 80 cycles, vs 80% of the batteries available performance through 100 cycles, but I'm weird like that

 

[Project_Revenant]

I charge all this from storage to full in 48ish mins at 1C. The rate at which the charger can balance is also key, but it’s something else you will pay for money wise. Also having old damaged cells that aren’t balanced easily will greatly retard the overall time of balance charging.

 

[BashingBrian]

I'm a 1c type of guy currently running ISDT 600w PS with a T6 Lite, will be buying the P20 soon @Diem Turner (thanks for the recommendation earlier this year)

 

[Diem Turner]

I'm a 1c type of guy currently running ISDT 600w PS with a T6 Lite, will be buying the P20 soon @Diem Turner (thanks for the recommendation earlier this year)

Hell yeah brother, I think you'll dig it

 

[arrmadillo]

I charge 1-2C depending on what side of bed I get up.

 

[Diem Turner]

I charge 1-2C depending on what side of bed I get up.

So you have one charger on each side of the bed? I like the way you work