Thoughts on Smart LiPo Battery/Charger systems

[JHudson]

Thinking of getting a gensacearespammers d300 or similar charger and using there smart charging tech… I know that charger can be used with most LiPo’s and you just manually input charge voltage, storage charge etc. I was just wondering if many or any in this hobby are starting to go the way of using any of the smart battery/charger systems and what kind of experiences you have had?

And for the money what other chargers are recommended in that $100.00-150.00 price range, mainly looking to charge 2s and 3s LiPo’s and maybe some Nimh’s.

 

[RustyUs]

What battery charger do you recommend?

 

[WickedFog]

What Rusty said

The smart tech is more like dumb tech the way I see it. Charging and caring for LiPo's isn't rocket science. And smart chargers take away the important stuff you need to keep an eye on, and are just meant to simplify charging LiPo's so they can push their proprietary, overpriced batteries on noobs that don't know any better. "Oh look... you can just plug your LiPo in and go bake a cake". Regular LiPo chargers give you more control. Don't fall for the smart LiPo scam.

My advice, buy the Hota D6 Pro and you'll be crappin' in tall cotton. It's the best bang for the buck under $130 - I guarantee it.

 

[JHudson]

What Rusty said

The smart tech is more like dumb tech the way I see it. Charging and caring for LiPo's isn't rocket science. And smart chargers take away the important stuff you need to keep an eye on, and are just meant to simplify charging LiPo's so they can push their proprietary, overpriced batteries on noobs that don't know any better. "Oh look... you can just plug your LiPo in and go bake a cake". Regular LiPo chargers give you more control. Don't fall for the smart LiPo scam.

My advice, buy the Hota D6 Pro and you'll be crappin' in tall cotton. It's the best bang for the buck under $130 - I guarantee it.
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I was goggling and thinking about the Hota D6 pro but came upon a thread where there was talk from a couple posters about having issues with that charger overheating and burning up… I will look for the link but that is why I was thinking of the comparable Imars D300 any thoughts on that charger?

 

[WickedFog]

I was goggling and thinking about the Hota D6 pro but came upon a thread where there was talk from a couple posters about having issues with that charger overheating and burning up… I will look for the link but that is why I was thinking of the comparable Imars D300 any thoughts on that charger?

It has less balance current and will charge slower because of it.

 

[Greywolf74]

I was goggling and thinking about the Hota D6 pro but came upon a thread where there was talk from a couple posters about having issues with that charger overheating and burning up… I will look for the link but that is why I was thinking of the comparable Imars D300 any thoughts on that charger?

Theres several people in this forum with the HOTA D6 Pro and none of them have ever had any issues with it that I'm aware of. The specs on it are a bit better than the D300. Id also say go for the HOTA

 

[JHudson]

Theres several people in this forum with the HOTA D6 Pro and none of them have ever had any issues with it that I'm aware of. The specs on it are a bit better than the D300. Id also say go for the HOTA

Thanks for your input, I’m leaning towards the Hota d6… one of the other issues that I have heard of though is that the fan is very loud or has issues, have you or anyone seen that? Some have suggested firmware upgrades can fix that but I have not seen that confirmed.

 

[Greywolf74]

Thanks for your input, I’m leaning towards the Hota d6… one of the other issues that I have heard of though is that the fan is very loud or has issues, have you or anyone seen that? Some have suggested firmware upgrades can fix that but I have not seen that confirmed.

I know one of the guys on here had a fan that was making some racket, but he just replaced it. He said it was easy to replace. It probably uses fans with cheap sleeve bearings, but I had to replace the fans on both of my iCharger X8's for the same reason, and iChargers are not known for being cheap or crappy. I replaced them with dual ball bearing fans so the fans will likely outlive the chargers now lol.

 

[JHudson]

I’m down to buying either the Hota d6 pro or Imars d300… and see what you are talking about with the d6 having a balance charge rate of 1.6 amps vs. the d300’s 1.2 amps. But on the other side of the coin the d300 has 300 watts of power on AC vs 200 for the Hota. So someone can charge 2 batteries up to 150w each with the d300.

Bottom line does that .4 amp higher balance charge play a bigger part in the overall charge time vs being able to charge 2 batteries with 50 watts more power to both, I know this will come into play more with larger batteries that I want to charge at higher rates.

Not trying to give you a hard time about this, just looking to learn and make a good choice, thanks!

 

[Greywolf74]

I’m down to buying either the Hota d6 pro or Imars d300… and see what you are talking about with the d6 having a balance charge rate of 1.6 amps vs. the d300’s 1.2 amps. But on the other side of the coin the d300 has 300 watts of power on AC vs 200 for the Hota. So someone can charge 2 batteries up to 150w each with the d300.

Bottom line does that .4 amp higher balance charge play a bigger part in the overall charge time vs being able to charge 2 batteries with 50 watts more power to both, I know this will come into play more with larger batteries that I want to charge at higher rates.

Not trying to give you a hard time about this, just looking to learn and make a good choice, thanks!

I answered this in your other thread also but Ill repost it here too for the sake of ease.

The specs are very similar between the 2 chargers, but if I did the math correctly (and I may not have*) the HOTA D6 Pro is still going to edge out the D300 on AC power and will win hands down on the DC side doing 2C charges on 3S lipos assuming the lipos are identical. So the takeaway here is, if you do balance charging, then balance current is more important than raw power output. I mean raw power can make a difference if there's a sufficient amount of difference, but even in this example an extra 100W output the D300 has on AC is not enough to overcome the 400mA balance current advantage of the D600 Pro.



* I say I might not have done the math correctly, and that is because there are certain assumptions that have to be made when trying to do the math. If you just do the math on the known variables and make all unknown variables the same between the two chargers, then what I said above is accurate. At least as accurate as a guess-timate can be.

 

[22SSragtop]

Thinking of getting a gensacearespammers d300 or similar charger and using there smart charging tech… I know that charger can be used with most LiPo’s and you just manually input charge voltage, storage charge etc. I was just wondering if many or any in this hobby are starting to go the way of using any of the smart battery/charger systems and what kind of experiences you have had?

And for the money what other chargers are recommended in that $100.00-150.00 price range, mainly looking to charge 2s and 3s LiPo’s and maybe some Nimh’s.

Have the d300 and 4 of the smart gtech batteries and while pricier than others run time is excellent.