Chargers - My current experience

[kdecesari]

There are three chargers on my bench. I'm not sure what to think about how they are each performing as I've been in the hobby for about a year.
I started out with a couple SCX24's, but moved beyond the USB charger almost immediately in favor of a Tenergy charger. It is capable of 1s-6s and looks identical to others with four buttons, a digital display, balance socket and banana plug outputs that the user attaches the required adapter too. I have a few of those adapters at this point.
I didn't have any complaints, but now have questions about how this thing is really performing.

The other chargers are Spektrum branded. One is an S150 that came with a 2s G2 5000 mAh battery in a bundle when I bought a Vorteks last July. Today I received an S2200 and have plugged a couple batteries into it already. One of them is the 2s G2 5000 mAh battery that recently fails to take a charge using the S150 charger. That didn't change with the S2200. It's not puffy and looks good - lightly used.

I have always used the Spektrum batteries with the S150 charger and the Tenergy charger with Gens Ace or Helios packs (both 3s). Both of the Gens Ace and Helios packs have served me well. However, today when I put those packs that I believe to have been storage charged,they both needed to be discharged to storage level more than just a little bit. This is my observation watching them drop mAh using the new S220 charger.

What am I experiencing? Is it anything worth being concerned about? Is it just a difference between chargers that I can ignore?

Thanks for your feedback.

 

[nino]

Numbers, my good man, numbers. "More than just a little bit" isn't precise enough to have a discussion

But to be honest, I wouldn't really trust any of the chargers you have.

 

[kdecesari]

Numbers, my good man, numbers. "More than just a little bit" isn't precise enough to have a discussion
V
But to be honest, I wouldn't really trust any of the chargers you hAVE

which direction should I turn to?

 

[nino]

From personal experience SkyRC. But I'm sure others will chime in with their recommendations.

 

[Warby]

I have a SkyRC T200 which is a dual balance charger. The fan has become a bit noisy but it's kept in a dusty shed so thats to be expected. I don't vast experience with other chargers but this one has been good. SkyRC make many different chargers. The T200 is probably one of their mid range chargers.

Edit: this does not help or answer your questions, sorry.

 

[tudordewolf]

There are three chargers on my bench. I'm not sure what to think about how they are each performing as I've been in the hobby for about a year.
I started out with a couple SCX24's, but moved beyond the USB charger almost immediately in favor of a Tenergy charger. It is capable of 1s-6s and looks identical to others with four buttons, a digital display, balance socket and banana plug outputs that the user attaches the required adapter too. I have a few of those adapters at this point.
I didn't have any complaints, but now have questions about how this thing is really performing.

The other chargers are Spektrum branded. One is an S150 that came with a 2s G2 5000 mAh battery in a bundle when I bought a Vorteks last July. Today I received an S2200 and have plugged a couple batteries into it already. One of them is the 2s G2 5000 mAh battery that recently fails to take a charge using the S150 charger. That didn't change with the S2200. It's not puffy and looks good - lightly used.

I have always used the Spektrum batteries with the S150 charger and the Tenergy charger with Gens Ace or Helios packs (both 3s). Both of the Gens Ace and Helios packs have served me well. However, today when I put those packs that I believe to have been storage charged,they both needed to be discharged to storage level more than just a little bit. This is my observation watching them drop mAh using the new S220 charger.

What am I experiencing? Is it anything worth being concerned about? Is it just a difference between chargers that I can ignore?

Thanks for your feedback.

They might have different thresholds for storage charge - one charger might be draining to 3.85V, the other to 3.75V. You could get a voltage checker that displays the individual cell voltages and verify for yourself what they're "resting" at.

 

[RustyUs]

Read the manual for the S2200 charger. One LiPo cell could be below (3v?) the charger's threshold; not let you charge, and give you a error message. Depending on how low the voltage is on that one cell, I'd probably try to bring that LiPo cell's voltage up above 3v, and try to balance the pack like normal. There are different methods to get one cell's voltage up enough for the charger to see that the pack is hunky-dory.

 

[bill_delong]

I have some things to consider here when selecting a charger:

• Which charger is the best?

 

[DavidB1126]

I use the SkyRC T200 as said above. It's a great charger. Reads IRs (standalone), does AC/DC so you can use a power supply if you want too. I have all 2s batteries. I usually charge all of my packs at 10A. (Besides mini ones for mini b, those I charge at 2A) It has XT60 as the main input, which is nice and most chargers are using XT60 and 4mm Bullet now)
I had been using the charger for a year now and served be well with no issues.

Said above, the fan was a bit noisy. I dont seem to have that problem as I keep the charger clean and not in a dusty area.

Some other chargers that are a good charger:
Hota D6 Pro
SkyRC T1000 / HiTec RDX2 1000 (same charger basically)
HiTec X2
Also seen some other chargers out there like the Hota S6 which seems nice.
The new gensacearespammers D300 is nice too. You can charge their newest G Tech Smart batteries with them.

@bill_delong link is helpful.

As for that problem you are having. You can't charge the Spektrum batteries with the either of the spektrum chargers you have? 1. Weird. 2. Maybe cell voltage is unbalanced, or extremely low or high. For the storage charge issue, you said it discharges a bit more for storage than the other charger? Maybe the actual storage voltage setting in the charger is set lower to charge/discharge too then the other chargers? Or Spektrum thinks it's it's best to go down to that voltage that it did. What voltage did it charge/discharge too in storage charge? If anywhere between 3.7 and 3.9 volts per cell, it should be alright.

 

[HPIguy]

If you run a lot, and multiple rigs, a good power supply and stand-alone charger with a balance board is the only way to go. My setup will charge six 3s packs at once. Saves a ton of time charging/balancing.

 

[Greywolf74]

Do yourself a favor and spend the money on a 24V DC power supply and a good iCharger. Any of the iChargers are good. Revolectrics are also good and if you're on a budget Id suggest a HOTA D6Pro. Just my

 

[DavidB1126]

Do yourself a favor and spend the money on a 24V DC power supply and a good iCharger. Any of the iChargers are good. Revolectrics are also good and if you're on a budget Id suggest a HOTA D6Pro. Just my

Yes. I was going to put iChargers in my list, but not sure how OPs budget is. With me getting more into racing, been looking getting one, and having my guy make a power supply for me. I won't do this until my T200 goes down on me. So that can be next year, or next couple years.
Reminder. Any Spektrum batteries you have cannot be charged on any chargers listed, unless they have an external balance lead.

 

[bill_delong]

I believe Spektrum and Traxxas have both been coming up with proprietary designs which move away from industry standard JXT balance harnesses. I predict they are going to isolate themselves from the market and lose business from it.

I would not recommend anything offered from either of these 2 brands period.

 

[DavidB1126]

I believe Spektrum and Traxxas have both been coming up with proprietary designs which move away from industry standard JXT balance harnesses. I predict they are going to isolate themselves from the market and lose business from it.

I would not recommend anything offered from either of these 2 brands period.

Yea. All the Traxxas lipos don't have balance plugs. If you still want the smart tech, I would check out the new gensacearespammers chargers and batteries with G Tech. They have a normal battery connector like XT60 or whatever you choose with it, but the actual smart tech is all in the balance plug. Its a normal balance plug, with an additional pin for the smart tech to use with gensacearespammers chargers. And, you can use the batteries with any other charger and any other car which is nice.

 

[bill_delong]

I'm not a fan of Gens-Ace either, they burned me once with lost leader sales tactics, offered me a "free demo" battery and after weeks of going back and forth, they required me to create an account on their system to get my mailing address and then they wanted to charge me for shipping which was roughly the same price of the battery! Next thing you know I start getting spammed every day for other bogus offers. I un-subscribed from their mailing list and they continued to spam me. I would eventually have to block them and to this day I keep having to block them as they periodically change their outbound email address making them one of the most evil spammers in the industry.

I used to be a Gens-Ace customer for many years until they started pulling these stunts, now they will never see a dime of my money again

 

[HPIguy]

Yep, I'm an iCharger guy, love my setup.

And I despise anything that is proprietary from any company.

 

[DavidB1126]

Wow.

I seen some people run the Redline batteries. Were you one to test them? If so were they a ok or good battery? I seen some reviews bad, some good, some great. I had been looking at their D300 charger which is the most newest charger. Might just go all out with a iCharger, with power supply, as most locals are running those. My uncle has a 308 duo. Most people are running the 406 duo.

 

[bill_delong]

Wow.

I seen some people run the Redline batteries. Were you one to test them? If so were they a ok or good battery? I seen some reviews bad, some good, some great. I had been looking at their D300 charger which is the most newest charger. Might just go all out with a iCharger, with power supply, as most locals are running those. My uncle has a 308 duo. Most people are running the 406 duo.

No, I have not purchased a Redline because my incident happened before they were introduced to market. I can share the experiences I have seen first hand of many racers in my area who run the Redline batteries. Here's the gist, if you're a sponsored driver, the discount is low enough that when you get a bad pack it's no big deal, but of the drivers who are not sponsored, it's hit and miss on whether they get warranty support.

Never seen/heard of a Redline that was DOA which is essentially what their warranty covers. I have seen MANY Redline's fail within a handful of uses and once saw one fail on the very first use! This is a gray area because their warranty doesn't cover "abuse" and here lies the problem. Most of the drivers in my area running Redline packs are racing with TEKNO and I believe they have a design flaw in their battery tray design which allows too much flex which can damage the internal solder tabs which are failing. If you add foam padding and orient the terminals toward the rear of the chassis, then it's far less likely to damage the internal solder tabs. Because I've seen this problem happen across many brands of batteries, it's hard to point fingers at Redline.

Fact remains that I see Redline batteries fail prematurely, but it's everyone's personal opinion on whether they choose to blame the battery design or the battery tray design.

I personally run Zeee Premiums in my HB Racing E819RS and I've never experienced a single internal solder tab issue with this combination

The price I'm paying for street price Zeee batteries is comparable to what sponsored drivers are paying for Redline's and both brands of batteries are offering comparable IR readings and comparable lap times between drivers of equal skill.

*** UPDATE ***
There is no brand of charger on the market today that is better than iCharger, I don't know of a single world ranked pro driver who doesn't use an iCharger over the long haul. I have seen some pros get a freebie charger that they will promote for a short period of time, but everyone I've seen goes back to iCharger eventually.

 

[kdecesari]

Numbers, my good man, numbers. "More than just a little bit" isn't precise enough to have a discussion

But to be honest, I wouldn't really trust any of the chargers you have.

My bad. I have been storage charging to 3.7V/cell. With the new charger, it indicates they were at 3.9-4.1.
Thanks for taking time to reply.

I use the SkyRC T200 as said above. It's a great charger. Reads IRs (standalone), does AC/DC so you can use a power supply if you want too. I have all 2s batteries. I usually charge all of my packs at 10A. (Besides mini ones for mini b, those I charge at 2A) It has XT60 as the main input, which is nice and most chargers are using XT60 and 4mm Bullet now)
I had been using the charger for a year now and served be well with no issues.

Said above, the fan was a bit noisy. I dont seem to have that problem as I keep the charger clean and not in a dusty area.

Some other chargers that are a good charger:
Hota D6 Pro
SkyRC T1000 / HiTec RDX2 1000 (same charger basically)
HiTec X2
Also seen some other chargers out there like the Hota S6 which seems nice.
The new gensacearespammers D300 is nice too. You can charge their newest G Tech Smart batteries with them.

@bill_delong link is helpful.

As for that problem you are having. You can't charge the Spektrum batteries with the either of the spektrum chargers you have? 1. Weird. 2. Maybe cell voltage is unbalanced, or extremely low or high. For the storage charge issue, you said it discharges a bit more for storage than the other charger? Maybe the actual storage voltage setting in the charger is set lower to charge/discharge too then the other chargers? Or Spektrum thinks it's it's best to go down to that voltage that it did. What voltage did it charge/discharge too in storage charge? If anywhere between 3.7 and 3.9 volts per cell, it should be alright.

I am only experiencing an issue charging one 2S G2 5000 mAh battery & that battery won't charge on either Spektrum charger. I already initiated a warranty claim with Horizon Hobby over the weekend. I have not heard back since I provided them with all the info they requested, so we'll see how that goes.

The spektrum batteries I have are charged up at 5 amps. I have been letting them go to storage charge on their own at 72 hours. That strategy seems to be working for me thus far. Now that I've got the S2200 I will storage charge them just like I do with the others I have from other brands (gensacearespammers, Helios).

 

[DavidB1126]

My Maclan batteries that I got used are still going strong. IRs are ok. They are the Graphene V3 6100 packs. So gensacearespammers is a no go it looks like. What about ProTek? Reedy Zappers? Maclan V4s? I saw some other brands like Fantom and LRP. I even saw Spektrum makes shorty packs. Not sure how well those will do. I can always stay with Maclan. The 6400 V4 pack is 100 dollars for 1! It's just an insane price for me. Maybe a lower mah? I mean, lower mah will be less weight which is a plus. I minus would be less run time. My uncle runs 4700 SMC packs which are long discontinued. Should be able to get through a race with a lower capacity battery. Also seen some brands have LCG packs. Are those LCG packs worth it? 1 brand I forget was Trinity.