Storing Lipos at full charge warning??

[SMP]

Came across this in the ThunderPower battery charger Manual.

For added reference you should NEVER store LiPo batteries
at full charge for more than few hours at most (and they should be stored at temps of 40-75° F
whenever possible to prevent swelling and/or loss of performance/capacity). Instead you
should use the Storage Mode to automatically charge or discharge them to approximately 50%
capacity (~3.85V per cell), especially if the battery is more than 50% charged and will not be
used in the next few hours.

Have been topping off batteries the night before. Myth? Lawyerspeak? Truth? Somewhere in between?

 

[jforkner]

Wonder why. I've been storing my lips fully charged for years. Haven't seen any adverse effects. Maybe a TP-thing.

Jack

 

[DennyR]

Any batteries that don't get used on a shoot here are always without fail discharged and then charged to a balanced storage level at the end of the day. They are too expensive to abuse. The older batteries that are laying about and used just for testing don't deliver the same performance that the loved and cared for ones do. Once a cell starts to drop off the pack wont balance properly.

 

[kloner]

that is correct. storing them charged makes IR go down alot faster than stored at 3.8 volts. same with temps, fridge is best, produce drawer,,,, room temp is next best, over 90 or under 32 are the worst, then compound it with full charge, i've seen packs puff sitting on a shelf form that.

 

[Himhoe]

I'd say it's more of a safety thing. A fully charged lipo is much more volatile than one that is at half it's capacity. I've been far too anal about battery storage and cycling. I generally will charge my batteries to capacity the night before a shoot and then make sure to fly them all out. Then when I get home I'll charge them with my TP 820CD using storage mode. Once the pack is done I put it on a Hyperion 1420i and just use the balance mode.

 

[kloner]

it's a chemistry thing,,,,,,, nothing about safety as much as what it does to them inside. if storing them fully charged was better, your new packs would all come fully charged. if the manufacturer did that, they'd have to warranty em all.

 

[Bowley]

How stringent should you be with storage charging?
If I know I'm not flying for a good few days or weeks, I set storage charge, but after flying one day, I'll recharge my packs to full if I know I'm going to be using them in the next day or two. Otherwise I have to sit around waiting for them to charge before I can go and fly,, something I cant always do if I want to catch the morning stillness before the winds pick up, as often is the way around here.

 

[Aviator]

Supposedly you should not keep them fully charged for more than an hour without use... So I read somewhere but of course this is not always convenient, especially if you are on a shoot as it can be quite fast paced at times and difficult to find time to charge them up. I tend to keep them charged for a day then if they dont get used I put them into storage voltage

 

[Himhoe]

I'm with aviator. I'll charge my packs up the night before a shoot. I usually use all of them up and have to charge a few onsite but I always will discharge them if I do not have anything for a few days. My new charging station will allow me to charge 4x 6500s in about 15-20 minuets.

 

[DucktileMedia]

I charge ally batteries a few months back for a car chase. I only ended up using 2 of my 8 packs. I keep forgetting to discharge them. Yesterday I did an individual cell check and one is at 3.85 while the others are at 3.92. This was after using the battery to test a small quad out for a few minutes. Not good. I wonder if this is from leaving them charged.

 

[Aviator]

I'm with aviator. I'll charge my packs up the night before a shoot. I usually use all of them up and have to charge a few onsite but I always will discharge them if I do not have anything for a few days. My new charging station will allow me to charge 4x 6500s in about 15-20 minuets.

That sounds like a mega charging station I use the Hyperion Duo 720i What are you using to get those amps in so quickly and safely?

 

[Himhoe]

I'm using a TP 820CD and a Hyperion 1420. The TP does a bulk of the charging. I use the 1420 for finish balancing. I have on order a FMA PL8. I should be able to bring 6 packs up at a time - then finish balancing on the 1420, but that depends on how accurate the PL8 balances. I also plan on keeping a dead deep cycle battery on hand for 40a storage discharging. I just finished up v2.0 of my charging system. Powering this system is two 12v 47a server power supplies that I converted for RC use. The fans you see draw fresh air in on the right and exhaust hot air out the left. The power supplies have an internal fan that draws the air through each supply. There are 2 24v outputs and an auxilliary 12v output for chargers that are not 24v capable. I have consistently drawn 43ish amps from this setup without fail! I'm thinking about doing another case like this with larger power supplies.

View attachment 8407 View attachment 8408​

 

[PaNt]

comeone guys.... The worst thing is to store your packs when theyr are full and to discharge the batteries under 3.7volt per cell..!!!

These two rules are a must for the LIPOS>>!

 

[Aviator]

I'm using a TP 820CD and a Hyperion 1420. The TP does a bulk of the charging. I use the 1420 for finish balancing. I have on order a FMA PL8. I should be able to bring 6 packs up at a time - then finish balancing on the 1420, but that depends on how accurate the PL8 balances. I also plan on keeping a dead deep cycle battery on hand for 40a storage discharging. I just finished up v2.0 of my charging system. Powering this system is two 12v 47a server power supplies that I converted for RC use. The fans you see draw fresh air in on the right and exhaust hot air out the left. The power supplies have an internal fan that draws the air through each supply. There are 2 24v outputs and an auxilliary 12v output for chargers that are not 24v capable. I have consistently drawn 43ish amps from this setup without fail! I'm thinking about doing another case like this with larger power supplies.

View attachment 10921 View attachment 10922​

Looks pretty cool.. Given me ideas of how I can spend more money :nevreness:

 

[Dewster]

I'm so bad... I keep mine charged, but I use them often too. I like being able to fly on moments notice. Sometimes I'll get up in the morning and recharge my packs if I didn't do so the night before. I have 4 (used to have 5 until a crash...) 6000 mah lipo batteries that take 45-60 minutes to recharge (each), so keeping them at a state where I can grab em and fly is important to me.

 

[JG-rn]

comeone guys.... The worst thing is to store your packs when theyr are full and to discharge the batteries under 3.7volt per cell..!!!

These two rules are a must for the LIPOS>>!

3.7 volt? My hyperions say set the cut off voltage to 3.4-3.5v

 

[kloner]

that is under load.... i bet if it's still a perfect pack the normal resting voltage if used at the ratings it is made for are 3.7

 

[JG-rn]

that is under load.... i bet if it's still a perfect pack the normal resting voltage if used at the ratings it is made for are 3.7

Gotcha!

 

[nytram]

I'm using a TP 820CD and a Hyperion 1420. The TP does a bulk of the charging. I use the 1420 for finish balancing. I have on order a FMA PL8. I should be able to bring 6 packs up at a time - then finish balancing on the 1420, but that depends on how accurate the PL8 balances. I also plan on keeping a dead deep cycle battery on hand for 40a storage discharging. I just finished up v2.0 of my charging system. Powering this system is two 12v 47a server power supplies that I converted for RC use. The fans you see draw fresh air in on the right and exhaust hot air out the left. The power supplies have an internal fan that draws the air through each supply. There are 2 24v outputs and an auxilliary 12v output for chargers that are not 24v capable. I have consistently drawn 43ish amps from this setup without fail! I'm thinking about doing another case like this with larger power supplies.

View attachment 10921 View attachment 10922​

What server power supply's are you using? How much did they cost?

 

[SMP]

that is under load.... i bet if it's still a perfect pack the normal resting voltage if used at the ratings it is made for are 3.7

Ahh that makes sense. Patrick (aerialmediapros.com) included a little plug in LED (to the battery balance cables) that shows voltage under load for all 4 cells individually and then for the total pack. Makes it super easy to see actual voltage while hovering! Thx Patrick!