I have been debating on whether to spend the money and move to the lipo's or not now for a while. I really want to but am having a hard time justifying the money without knowing everything there is too the charging.

Everyone at the place I race says that the charger is not nearly as important as it was for the NiMH and NiCd batteries. Since there is no discharging needed and relatively standardized current levels to charge them at, everyone is saying there isnt much difference.

Since I am coming from the old school I know that the charger characteristics (charging, balancing/discharging,monitoring) can provide significantly better results for the NiMH and NiCd. My bottom line question is can I get away with the run of the mill $60 LIPO DC charger and get relatively comperable results to the $160 LIPO DC chargers with all the bells and whistles on them.

Thanks in advance for any help you can contribute.

I have been debating on whether to spend the money and move to the lipo's or not now for a while. I really want to but am having a hard time justifying the money without knowing everything there is too the charging.

Everyone at the place I race says that the charger is not nearly as important as it was for the NiMH and NiCd batteries. Since there is no discharging needed and relatively standardized current levels to charge them at, everyone is saying there isnt much difference.

Since I am coming from the old school I know that the charger characteristics (charging, balancing/discharging,monitoring) can provide significantly better results for the NiMH and NiCd. My bottom line question is can I get away with the run of the mill $60 LIPO DC charger and get relatively comperable results to the $160 LIPO DC chargers with all the bells and whistles on them.

Thanks in advance for any help you can contribute.

Yes any lipo charger will work.

The question of which charger to get is really more dependent on what lipo's are you planning on using. For instance if you are only running a 2-cell 3600 lipo a cheap charger is all you need. But if you are planning on running a 4-cell or bigger lipo, with a really high mah rating (say 10000mah) then a more expensive charger will be what you need, since they will be capable of charging the biggger batteries.

All I want the batteries for is my RC10B4.... so orion 3200/3600/4800 is all I would be connecting up to it.

Duratrax has a new line of chargers coming out and there is a digital one with a power supply for 80 bucks that will do lipo. a123, etc. look at tower hobbies just announced section for the duratrax onyx line of chargers. looks like good stuff if you can wait a month!

I would also suggest getting a balancer the team checkpont charage thru balancer is only about 30 bucks and well worth the money

Anyone have any luck with the "Pro-Peak Prodigy II Digital Charger and Discharger"?... seems like a very nice one... i think it has the same internals as the orion.