Discharging lipos after running them

[Griffdog69]

I recently started discharging the lipo batteries after I’m done running them. Is this a good practice for the cells of the battery? I’m not sure if that’s good or bad but I thought I would ask this question. Any thoughts, concerns, recommendations???

 

[DavidB1126]

I store charge mine. Same thing as discharging but it charges up or discharges (depending on battery voltage) to 3.8v/cell.

 

[majin]

whats the point fo discharging them? are you storing them? I'm new and in no way being a smartass bro, I'm trying to learn. i use my batteries every few days, i run em till i get the warning beep, swap em out and charge em all one after another till all fully charged for the next run, then i check em with my tester before i run them and usually they are all still at 99% if ones a little lower ill throw it on charger for a few to top it off. i would be salty if i had to set aside 3 hours to charge all the batteries i bring cause i discharged them last run. so i was wondering if youd explain to my dumbness what the point of discharging? maybe ill start too


edit ima go google what discharging m,eans to get a better understanding.

I'm a dumb. so you're done with the batteries as in they wont charge? what would make a battery need discharging? i havent reached this point of the hobby yet as I'm still on my first 5 lipos and 1 nimh for the redcat. and am confused as to why and when i will need to dispose of a battery?

 

[HunterRc]

whats the point fo discharging them? are you storing them? I'm new and in no way being a smartass bro, I'm trying to learn. i use my batteries every few days, i run em till i get the warning beep, swap em out and charge em all one after another till all fully charged for the next run, then i check em with my tester before i run them and usually they are all still at 99% if ones a little lower ill throw it on charger for a few to top it off. i would be salty if i had to set aside 3 hours to charge all the batteries i bring cause i discharged them last run. so i was wondering if youd explain to my dumbness what the point of discharging? maybe ill start too


edit ima go google what discharging m,eans to get a better understanding.

I'm a dumb. so you're done with the batteries as in they wont charge? what would make a battery need discharging? i havent reached this point of the hobby yet as I'm still on my first 5 lipos and 1 nimh for the redcat. and am confused as to why and when i will need to dispose of a battery?

So if your done with the battery always put them back to 3.8volts per cell. its ok to fully charge them as long you are going to use them within the next 2 days. NEVER let lipos sit fully discharged. I always put mine back to 3.8v once I'm done running for the day.

 

[WickedFog]

I recently started discharging the lipo batteries after I’m done running them. Is this a good practice for the cells of the battery? I’m not sure if that’s good or bad but I thought I would ask this question. Any thoughts, concerns, recommendations???

Discharge them to what voltage?

Never discharge a LiPo below 3.0v/cell. If you do, you are destroying your LiPo. Plus it's dangerous to leave them lying around that way.

Always storage charge your LiPo's to 3.7v-3.8v per cell when done running them.

Your ESC in your RC will (or should) have a low voltage cuttoff (LVC). It should be set to cutoff your ESC once your battery hits a certain voltage, typically between 3.0v-3.8v per cell or so. I keep mine at 3.6v on ESC's that allow me to adjust the LVC.

i prefer 3.6v because ESC's don't read individual cell voltages. And I don't trust their accuracy anyway. So if one cell drains lower, I am still safe, even though the cells should drain fairly close to each other, it's just my OCD prefers to have a safe buffer, because like I said - less than 3.0v is bad mmmk?

 

[bill_delong]

There's no "danger" leaving a LiPo fully charged provided you store it in a cool dry place, however if you charge a battery at 72°F and then put it in extreme heat like 90°F+ then the voltage will increase which can damage the cells.

If you want to extend the life of the battery, then you can place it on storage mode which is the ideal voltage for the cells all the time, and then only put charge/discharge on the cells when you need to use it.

Minimizing the amount of time the cells are away from storage voltage (3.85V/cell) in addition to keeping in a cool dry place will offer the longest lifespan:
https://batteryuniversity.com/article/bu-808-how-to-prolong-lithium-based-batteries

 

[tntpoof]

I have always stored my Lipos at . 3.7 to 3.85 volts a cell. I use a numbers of dischargers some home made others modified from Nixx days. Leaving a lipo fully charged is a dangerous thing to do.It leads to swelling and can cause a fire

 

[tudordewolf]

I have always stored my Lipos at . 3.7 to 3.85 volts a cell. I use a numbers of dischargers some home made others modified from Nixx days. Leaving a lipo fully charged is a dangerous thing to do.It leads to swelling and can cause a fire

View attachment 184828

I dig the 4-cell battery on the right, what's that run?

 

[tntpoof]

Thats a A123 battery I keep those in my glove boxes in all my cars will jump start a dead battery and very safe the just have weird voltages that we really can run in rc but a few of my Larger quads and airplanes do ..they are 3.6 volts fully charged..There was the main factories in cities near by .before the swindled 2.3 Billion dollars from Gov. I went into a estate auction and purchased 24 dozen..a Giant 10$ sold most online a $2.150 profit

 

[LibertyMKiii]

Lithium-ion batteries can stay at full charge (These are batteries like your laptop and phones)
LiPos for your RC car are different. If not using them in the next day you should store them at storage voltage. That number seems to be between 3.8-3.87 depending who you ask.

Cool dry place is a common theme for any battery.

Keeping your battery fully charged or fully discharged is considered "dangerous" These batteries can burn your house down if mistreated for too long. At a minimum you are making that LiPos life span shorter.

If you disagree... do some reading from anyone knowledgeable about this hobby and LiPos.

 

[tntpoof]

Someone needs to do some reading