I was charging my 6 cell 3300's last night, and I noticed right before they were done charging, it said battery voltage was at 9.3V (ICE charger).

Is this safe?
Are my batteries crap?

I've also noticed that after cycling my batteries, sometimes the capacity is above 3300MAH. Other times, it's below. If the voltage is below 3300MAH, are they getting slower? Thanks! :thumbsup:

peak voltage is a good way to keep track of the IR of youe packs. A new pack may peak @ 9.0 volts and anter time it will begin to rise ie. 9.1,9.2,9.3. The rise in peak voltage means the IR in the cells or just cell is going up, this is just from normal useage. You can try zapping and remaching cells but it helps vary little. All it really does is let you find the cells that aren't as bad and put them into packs. The MAH reading could be caused by you charging a not fully discharged pack. If the same pack next time takes longer to charge it could have had more juice left in it before charge. I wouldn't think it was you charger or battery false peaking since that normaly happens in the first part of the charge not towards the end.

Well when I cycle my batteries, it discharges to .9v/cell and then recharges.

uberdub, when i cycle my packs, i first make sure their all discharde to atleast .9 per cell with a novak smart tray. then charge and discharge to 3.60 per pack.

Sometimes the peak voltage and MAH rates are related to way packs are stored or what is done before charging or how often they are used. If you store packs with a charge put back into them but don't equalize (discharge) the cells before charging you get lower MA rates and inconsistant peak voltages. Also if cells have not been used for 3-4 weeks they may not charge at normal rates. If cells are decent-good, follow a routine of properly discharging the cells (individually) before charging you should see more consistant results cycle to cycle.

There is some changes between 6month to a year and a half of use, with 3years of good use - however for some types of racing the decline may be too much for pack to be used as a good race pack. Plus it depends on if you are racing competitively or just using the battery to bash if you want to do the extra steps to get consistant results. Then if packs are sticks you can't use an equalizing tray, you'll need a pack equalizer, discharge resistor or a single lightbulb as a means to balance the individual cell voltage.

uberdub, how and/or what are you using to cyce your batterie with?

I race competively. I bought these batteries back in May, but used them a handful of times until last week. I charged them before I put them in storage for about 6 months. The batteries are stick pack (Megavolt 7.2 V Ni-MH), and I use a Duratrax ICE charger. The company told me to charge at 4v (which I did for the first time this week). Once, I had charged at 5-6v and it sounded like the insides of the battery were bubbling?? But when I put it down to 4v, everything seemed to be ok. They ran GREAT even with that "bubbling" charge (I was able to out run a 12T double & keep up with a 10T motor with my SS5800). I hope this helps explain everything. If you need more info, let me know. I'm going to try to pick up a battery temp sensor for the ICE so I can keep more record of the temps (this past charge, the Megavolt was almost too hot to squeeze and hold in my hand. Probably 120-130F).

These are not race packs. The cells aren't matched so getting good numbers is hard to do plus you can't equalize the cells in that configuration. I usually don't store batteries fully charged. If I plan on not racing for a while I will discharge them and not equalize them. Then I will cycle them at least monthly by first equalizing them then charge at 6 amps charge rate then discharge at 30amps and put away until next month.