Sloooowwww charging.

[Andy7]

I';ve got a nice Turnigy 5000maH 3S battery on my quad that gives all the punch I need and am charging it with an iMAX B6 charger which is all fine and dandy.

The PSU that I';m using is a fairly pathetic wall-wart and it can only deliver about 0.5-0.7a during charge before the underpower alarm goes off on the charger.

This means that it takes most of the day to charge my battery.

Now, I don';t get flying as much as I like, so I';m perfectly happy with the time it takes and my battery performance seems fine and nothing even gets warm during charging.

So... my question. Is it BETTER for the battery to charge it really slowly, worse or no different.

I';m considering getting a better PSU but there';s not really much to justify it - and if it';s better for the battery as it is them I';ll carry on as I am.

[Hands0n]

Generally, the advice is to not charge a LiPo above 1C, that is, not above its overall capacity rate.  So a 5000mAh is safe to charge at up to 5amps.  That will take roughly an hour to charge if your charger is capable of putting out 5amps, which I believe the B6 is, depending on the main supply to it. 

But, if you';re okay with a slower charge then what you';re doing will in no way stress the LiPo itself.  It is no "better" than charging at 1C, and certainly no worse. 

LiPo suffer being charged at too high a current, getting hot, being drained below their minimum limit of 3.2v per cell.  That kind of stuff.

[Friskle]

It is better to charge slower, personally my 5000mah ones, i tend to still only charge at 1.8A even though i could charge them at 5A, all my 2200`s i charge at 1.5A.

[Andy7]

Thanks chaps - those were the kind of answers I was hoping for.

The only pain is having to keep resetting the charger after the 2hr timeout. 

[Hands0n]

You can change the B6 timeout value - I';m not sure what the maximum is, however.   You';re going to tell me its 2 hours, aren';t you

[Andy7]

LOL.
Actually, I';d be inclined to leave it at 2hrs. I';m a bit nervous about leaving a battery charging for longer than that even if (or maybe ESPECIALLY as) it IS on the desk next to me.

[Tim2100]

Is there recommended settings to charge the battery by?

[Hands0n]

Probably the best (kindest) way to charge a LiPo is to use Balanced Charge at the same rate as the capacity of the battery.

That is; for a 2500mAh 3S charge it on Balanced Charge at 2500mAh rate.   Otherwise known as charging it at 1C (one times capacity).  It will take roughly an hour to charge.

[guest325]

It will take roughly an hour to charge.

If it does someone has been over discharging their batteries,  35-40 mins is about right!

[Hands0n]

If it does someone has been over discharging their batteries,  35-40 mins is about right!

I did say "roughly" ... the Mrs is always pulling me up for my wide generalisations ... ::)

[barneyg]

My batteries always take longer than an hour to charge ... more like 90 mins ... the charger doesn';t charge at 1C all the time ... it ramps up quite quickly but as the cells approach full it ramps down and then there is the balance aspect where it discharges the cells that are a little fuller the last 30 mins are usually at 0.1A.

[kilby]

Sometimes takes over an hour sometimes to balance charge my 3000 mAh batteries sometimes.

Sometimes it acts a bit thick for some reason

[Panther]

If you balance charge it can take up to 90 minutes as the charge rate reduces as the voltage in the battery increases. I never have a discharged battery that has charged in less than an hour unless I don';t use balance mode.
I have the Imax B6 and a 7 Amp power supply.