LiPo Comparison Thread (LiPo and NiMH AAs)

[RetroThutmose]

This is a very cool thread, I am on vacation on my phone so can't dig into the data like I want to but very cool. Can you include if the battery is a hardcase or soft in the data? All the classes I race require a hard case iirc.

 

[WutUp Clegg]

Well, I had to replace yet another breaker on my 100A discharger. Thats about 4 of them that have failed on me so far. Last time I had to replace one I bought a little higher quality breakers, at least I hope theyre better quality, they were more expensive. Since I had to take it apart and the original breakers have a track record of not being reliable, I went ahead and replaced the bad breaker and the one remaining old crappy breaker. Now that I have her working again with these new breakers, I'm praying that I dont have any more failures, at least for awhile

View attachment 196426View attachment 196427

I have been in high end car audio since the late 90's. I have installed many of these. Just about every one of them are made in China by the same company. Other companies will just put their own name on it. The only brand I found to be pretty good is Eaton Bussman. They are made in Mexico and last quite a bit longer. The downfall is, they cost about 3 times as much.

 

[Greywolf74]

This is a very cool thread, I am on vacation on my phone so can't dig into the data like I want to but very cool. Can you include if the battery is a hardcase or soft in the data? All the classes I race require a hard case iirc.

Youd have to go through the pics on my Google drive in order to see if they were hard case or not. I dont even have a lot of these batteries anymore. I may look at including that info somewhere along the line.

I have been in high end car audio since the late 90's. I have installed many of these. Just about every one of them are made in China by the same company. Other companies will just put their own name on it. The only brand I found to be pretty good is Eaton Bussman. They are made in Mexico and last quite a bit longer. The downfall is, they cost about 3 times as much.

Good to know if these ever fail me.

 

[Greywolf74]

Just added a new pair of lipos to the spreadsheet.

Reedy Wolfpack (Gen2) 5400mAh 35C:

Black Rockoo 5300mAh 60C:

The long and the short of it is, theyre both over priced junk. Both of these Lipos are right around $50. The Black Rockoo is actually a bit better than the Reedy pack for the money but not worth it in the end.

The top LiPos on the list have not changed.

 

[Greywolf74]

Just a side note before I start talking about the latest pair of LiPos I've tested, I went back and named all the LiPo photos with their proper names on my Google Drive just in case anyone cares lol.

So today I've finally tested a pair of high-end Trinity batteries. Let's just say, some very interesting results. (Spread Sheet has been updated)
Trinity 5200mAh 50C Vs. Trinity Ultra LCG 5900mAh 135C

The Trinity 5200mAh 50C LiPo:
So out of the two this was by far the best performer! I'm sure it had something to do with the fact that even though this LiPo was labeled 5200mAh, it actually tested out at 6681mAh! Out of the 71 LiPos I've tested, this is the only one to ever test crazy high compared to the stated capacity. It also tested at a respectable 25 true C rating. That being said, for a $95 battery, It shouldn't be number 16 on the list in terms of performance. Much like the Max Amps LiPos, there are better batteries out there for waaaaay less.

Trinity Ultra LCG 5900mAh 135C:
Unlike its HCG cousin, this battery was a turd coming in at number 46 on the list. Also unlike its cousin, its mAh rating wasn't even close to 5900. More like 5156mAh. I'm not going to go into too much detail here other than to comment on the rather high IRs (unlike the other pack) and by the end of the testing the IRs between cells has become pretty unbalanced. On the last IR test after all the discharges, Cell 1 was at 2.73mOhm while cell 2 was at 6.02mOhm. Why is this battery $101.99???

Heres a quick shot from the side so you can see how much thinner the Ultra LCG is compared to the regular pack.

 

[WutUp Clegg]

Just a side note before I start talking about the latest pair of LiPos I've tested, I went back and named all the LiPo photos with their proper names on my Google Drive just in case anyone cares lol.

So today I've finally tested a pair of high-end Trinity batteries. Let's just say, some very interesting results. (Spread Sheet has been updated)
Trinity 5200mAh 50C Vs. Trinity Ultra LCG 5900mAh 135C

The Trinity 5200mAh 50C LiPo:
So out of the two this was by far the best performer! I'm sure it had something to do with the fact that even though this LiPo was labeled 5200mAh, it actually tested out at 6681mAh! Out of the 71 LiPos I've tested, this is the only one to ever test crazy high compared to the stated capacity. It also tested at a respectable 25 true C rating. That being said, for a $95 battery, It shouldn't be number 16 on the list in terms of performance. Much like the Max Amps LiPos, there are better batteries out there for waaaaay less.
View attachment 222467

Trinity Ultra LCG 5900mAh 135C:
Unlike its HCG cousin, this battery was a turd coming in at number 46 on the list. Also unlike its cousin, its mAh rating wasn't even close to 5900. More like 5156mAh. I'm not going to go into too much detail here other than to comment on the rather high IRs (unlike the other pack) and by the end of the testing the IRs between cells has become pretty unbalanced. On the last IR test after all the discharges, Cell 1 was at 2.73mOhm while cell 2 was at 6.02mOhm. Why is this battery $101.99???
View attachment 222468


Heres a quick shot from the side so you can see how much thinner the Ultra LCG is compared to the regular pack.
View attachment 222469

what tool are you using to test the batteries?

 

[WickedFog]

what tool are you using to test the batteries?

It's listed in the very first post of this thread.

 

[Greywolf74]

what tool are you using to test the batteries?

LINK

 

[RetroThutmose]

The Trinity 5200mAh 50C LiPo:
So out of the two this was by far the best performer! I'm sure it had something to do with the fact that even though this LiPo was labeled 5200mAh, it actually tested out at 6681mAh! Out of the 71 LiPos I've tested, this is the only one to ever test crazy high compared to the stated capacity. It also tested at a respectable 25 true C rating. That being said, for a $95 battery, It shouldn't be number 16 on the list in terms of performance. Much like the Max Amps LiPos, there are better batteries out there for waaaaay less.
View attachment 222467

do you do any spec racing? this battery would have won me a race last night. I had the fastest car by far but my cheapo zee battery went flat 2 min into a 5 min main because it's likely nowhere near it's stated 5200 mah rating. Spec racing is pretty ridiculous because it's meant to be a lower cost of entry, but all at does is make people scour the web for something like this. They are willing to pay a lot for any advantage.

 

[RetroThutmose]

This cheap zee dropped off after lap 20

After lap 35 it was so weak.

 

[RustyUs]

do you do any spec racing? this battery would have won me a race last night. I had the fastest car by far but my cheapo zee battery went flat 2 min into a 5 min main because it's likely nowhere near it's stated 5200 mah rating. Spec racing is pretty ridiculous because it's meant to be a lower cost of entry, but all at does is make people scour the web for something like this. They are willing to pay a lot for any advantage.

Doing borderline questionable antics to outdo your competition... Club racing stock/spec classes are money pits when you get that "racing blood" in you. How did we get there? Top tier batteries have long been the easiest things to get your hands on for those best placebo 'guaranteed' A main 1/10th sec. gains. Oh, to go back to the days of handout motors and limits on batteries.

 

[DavidB1126]

zee

If you want budget racing packs CNHL and SMC is the way. Zeees have terrible voltage sag from my experience.

 

[RetroThutmose]

Doing borderline questionable antics to outdo your competition... Club racing stock/spec classes are money pits when you get that "racing blood" in you. How did we get there? Top tier batteries have long been the easiest things to get your hands on for those best placebo 'guaranteed' A main 1/10th sec. gains. Oh, to go back to the days of handout motors and limits on batteries.

Batteries are so annoying because all of the specs on the box don't seem to mean anything. I did some testing with some other batteries and found some in the $40-50 price range that perform well. We did a 100 lap race and while the battery fell off it was happening after lap 50 or 60, which is more than enough for a 5/6 min main. I agree about motors too. Annoying that you have to get a "tuned" motor to have any hope of competing.

 

[Greywolf74]

Batteries are so annoying because all of the specs on the box don't seem to mean anything. I did some testing with some other batteries and found some in the $40-50 price range that perform well. We did a 100 lap race and while the battery fell off it was happening after lap 50 or 60, which is more than enough for a 5/6 min main. I agree about motors too. Annoying that you have to get a "tuned" motor to have any hope of competing.

I do not race. I'm just an electronics nerd. If you want the batteries with the least voltage sag for the best price look at the "VUL" spreadsheet. It ranks all of the batteries I've tested in terms of least voltage sag under load to worst voltage sag under load. Prices were at time of purchase though so take the pricing on my spreadsheet with a grain of salt.

 

[AZMaxxMan]

Just read through the entire thread, great work! It's been a 20 year jump since I was into batts at the same level as you. And light years away from NiCd & NiMH!

In going through all of my old EMaxx and Mini Z stuff over the past week, I knew what condition my Ballistic Batteries NiMH batts from Patrick Kivin were going to be in. And $700-900 worth of them were dead as dead can get.

But surprisingly, I brought standard, off the shelf double AA and triple AAA NiCds back to full life. Not a whole lot of money invested in them, it was more out of stubbornness in curiosity to see if they could be fully revived.

Since I'm only sticking with the mini Zs and will need AA and triple AAA's for them, I'm going to stick with NiCd and NiMH so I can use my Novak Millennium chargers.

again, very nice work and extremely interesting to me!

 

[Greywolf74]

Just read through the entire thread, great work! It's been a 20 year jump since I was into batts at the same level as you. And light years away from NiCd & NiMH!

In going through all of my old EMaxx and Mini Z stuff over the past week, I knew what condition my Ballistic Batteries NiMH batts from Patrick Kivin were going to be in. And $700-900 worth of them were dead as dead can get.

But surprisingly, I brought standard, off the shelf double AA and triple AAA NiCds back to full life. Not a whole lot of money invested in them, it was more out of stubbornness in curiosity to see if they could be fully revived.

Since I'm only sticking with the mini Zs and will need AA and triple AAA's for them, I'm going to stick with NiCd and NiMH so I can use my Novak Millennium chargers.

again, very nice work and extremely interesting to me!

Ahhhhh, so you're one of the 3 people here interested in batteries!

I enjoy geeking out on batts, but I've been so busy lately I barely have time anymore to run testing. I just finished up my last pair of battery tests 2 weeks ago, and I still haven't posted the results here. Maybe this weekend.

Thanks for the kind words.

 

[AZMaxxMan]

Ahhhhh, so you're one of the 3 people here interested in batteries!

I enjoy geeking out on batts, but I've been so busy lately I barely have time anymore to run testing. I just finished up my last pair of battery tests 2 weeks ago, and I still haven't posted the results here. Maybe this weekend.

Thanks for the kind words.

Keep up the good work! I will send people here who may not even be RC peeps, just so they can educate themselves. For a long time over in the Android world I educated people on keeping their phone batts in good shape. I am still rocking a 2015 Nexus 6 every day for a blood glucose monitoring app and it's on the original batt. So 10 yrs old and it measures at 92% capacity even today. Taking care of batts is a good investment of time.

And if you race, it makes the difference like normally aspirated vs turbo with nitrous oxide. I used to help Patrick at Ballistic Batteries build packs and also condition them when he was traveling. The racers who bought from him swore by his batts.

 

[CertifiedMike]

Ahhhhh, so you're one of the 3 people here interested in batteries!

I enjoy geeking out on batts, but I've been so busy lately I barely have time anymore to run testing. I just finished up my last pair of battery tests 2 weeks ago, and I still haven't posted the results here. Maybe this weekend.

Thanks for the kind words.

Batteries are quickly shifting towards the top of my shopping list too.
Just because I don't feel smart enough or have much experience to offer by posting doesn't mean I'm not interested.
This particular post was recommended to me before I even 're-joined' rctalk.com by some ppl on FB.
You don't see it but other ppl do!

Thanks for doing all this stuff!

 

[TeknoJ]

I like batteries, and I will also thank you for this thread @Greywolf74

 

[Greywolf74]

Keep up the good work! I will send people here who may not even be RC peeps, just so they can educate themselves. For a long time over in the Android world I educated people on keeping their phone batts in good shape. I am still rocking a 2015 Nexus 6 every day for a blood glucose monitoring app and it's on the original batt. So 10 yrs old and it measures at 92% capacity even today. Taking care of batts is a good investment of time.

And if you race, it makes the difference like normally aspirated vs turbo with nitrous oxide. I used to help Patrick at Ballistic Batteries build packs and also condition them when he was traveling. The racers who bought from him swore by his batts.

What pointers can you give us to maintain our cell phone batteries? I don't usually have too many issues, but it never hurts to take care of better.

Batteries are quickly shifting towards the top of my shopping list too.
Just because I don't feel smart enough or have much experience to offer by posting doesn't mean I'm not interested.

I was just making a joke cuz not many people geek out about batteries.

This particular post was recommended to me before I even 're-joined' rctalk.com by some ppl on FB.

You don't see it but other ppl do!

Thanks for doing all this stuff!

I like batteries, and I will also thank you for this thread @Greywolf74

Thanks guys. I appreciate it.