# Balancing batteries



## DSmith (Oct 11, 2009)

How important is this. We were having a discussion at the local track last night and some people say they do it every charge, others say they rarely do it and some say they never do it?


----------



## JJohnston (Apr 26, 2009)

depends on what cell batteries and how far you are discharging them. 
We mostly run 2 cell and no one runs them completely dead or even near lipo cut off so they never come out of balance. I went most of the summer with out balance charging any of my 2 cells. I checked the voltage and they were all still with in .002 volts. If your a guy that constantly runs the packs to 3.0 volts per cell I would balance it every couple charges.


----------



## DSmith (Oct 11, 2009)

JJohnston said:


> depends on what cell batteries and how far you are discharging them.
> We mostly run 2 cell and no one runs them completely dead or even near lipo cut off so they never come out of balance. I went most of the summer with out balance charging any of my 2 cells. I checked the voltage and they were all still with in .002 volts. If your a guy that constantly runs the packs to 3.0 volts per cell I would balance it every couple charges.


myself I run 2 cell batteries, but never come near running them dead. I just do it every few charges, it was just a discussion at our track after the races last night.


----------



## sbrady#0 (Nov 18, 2007)

I charge my cells with the balancer every time only so I dont have to unplug it from the car and I think balancing your battery every time is like matching cells after every race


----------



## JJohnston (Apr 26, 2009)

DSmith you will be fine, I think what sbardy#0 is trying to say is by balance charging them everytime the pack will get the exact voltage into each cell and have a little more mah. He is correct, in my case we run 13.5 Truck class with 5000 mah Lipos. Last race we My Son and I used 700-800 mah from a 5000 mah packs. The cells voltage was the same and I only charges the packs every 2 races  Lipos do not lose there punch until they fall below 3.0 volts per cell. (The danger zone). If you are running a really hot motor and a aggressive driver than you should be balancing them more often because the cells are running closer to 3.0v.


----------



## DSmith (Oct 11, 2009)

Thanks for the replies.


----------



## Zerodefect (Jul 28, 2009)

I balence charge any time I can and its practical. 

Regular charging seems to go a little faster and my balence leads are much shorter than my charge leads so If I leave the battery in the car on race day I just regular charge it.

When I get home and pull the batteries I balence charge. You can go 10 runs before balencing usually. 

If a battery has a hard run, or was discharged alot I go straight to balence charging.


----------



## shintastrife (Apr 26, 2009)

i balence every time i charged the battery. not matter how hard or soft i run race day or just in the yard playing around. i all so slow charge my lipos by 2 amps less then what most ppl here go for 5000mah lipos seems to last longer as well with the way i run.


----------



## Al Schwarze (Nov 27, 2007)

From what I have been told and from what I have read.. Balancing every time you charge is not necessary. But you should balance them once in a while just to keep them as close as possible. If getting every bit of performance out of your pack is important to you, Then balance every time you charge. I balance every time I charge..


----------

