Well, our oval season is down till February. What is the concensus
of the senate to keep lipos over the winter?

I've heard charging to 75% and keep in a cool place.

What do you guys suggest?

Bill in CA

I've got SMCs and Danny at SMC recommends more like 30% charge for long term storage. There's a thread on RCTech about their LiPo packs. Actually, from what I have read there recently, it almost sounds like it is better to cycle them once a month (or more frequently). MaxAmps recommends once-a-month cycling.

Take it out of your car, put it in your battery case until you run again... Cycle 2-3 times before you race it and your good to go

Ya'll dont race year around in Sunny California?

Thanks for the storage advice

Nope - taking the holidays off from racing.

Wrenching during the football games!

Heyyy a duck rider!!!:thumbsup:

Hey BILL

Good to see you on HobbyTalk!

You did a great job Sunday...you should take a drive on Saturday and come down to the VELO -- You've got an L3 already, and you can see what THAT is all about.

The FIRST Sunday of February will be here before we know it -- if I don't see you before, had a nice Christmas.

Ya'll dont race year around in Sunny California?

Yeah we've got racing 12 months a year, but I'm taking a month off from the races I'm putting on to regroup for '09

We'll have about 10 Local club races here on the central coast, along with 10 traveling Points series races and 2 special events in '09 (Plus what ever the other local tracks will be hosting)

Bill that is a good ?

when it starts to snow we just go race on carpet here. I think it would be wise to keep one charged .

When I cycle my batteries what voltage do I take them down to before I recharge. I have 2s lipo's. Using a GFX and an Ice charger.

Guys, there are a few places on the NET with "How to Charge" a lipo in COLD weather.

LIPOs don't like to be cold, and don't like to be charged COLD.

Some series and events prohibit HEATING a LIPO, but many manufactures recommend it if they are below certain temperatures, and they say charging a COLD lipo may cause damage. Research this with YOUR battery company and see what they suggest.

Joe

First off - Thanks for putting on the racing on the central coast.

Without your efforts - things would be dead here with two local shops
going out of business in the past 3 months.

I fly RC Helis, the batteries for a Trex 600 are $250 per pack.
I've lost packs by letting them rest at 100% charge - so that's
not a good mode

There's as much differing suggestions on storage as there are
tire choices - I'm going to let mine rest @ 60% charge and store in the cool
garage till February of 09.

Here is what I have figured out so far about Lipos and storage charge with our packs. I'm not sure if our competitors packs react like ours so I can't comment on there packs. So this info should be used on SMC packs as I have tested it.

My tips are for the racer who want to try and keep his numbers as good as possible.

If you race frequently I would discharge the pack at the end of the race day at 35 amps on a GFX down to 6 volts. The reason why I reccomend 35 amps is because the higher them discharge amps the faster the pack will drop at the end. So a pack discharged at 35 amps will not be completely empty. That amount of charge will last for a good period of time as the goal is to not let the cells drop below 3 volts. Typically a pack will be in the 6.40-6.70 range after a 35 amp discharge. I have let some packs sit for 2 months like this and the cells were still above 3 volts. To be safe I would reccomend checking the voltage every month. Write down the voltage when you stored the pack and 1 month later measure it. If it didn't drop or only dropped .03-.06 you can leave it alone for another month and so on.

For those who aren't looking for the best numbers and just want to store the packs for a long time wihtout having to check them every month I reccomend putting 30% storage charge. This is what we put when we ship out the packs. This should last for a long period of time. I don't have the exact time but it will be more than 6 months. After 6 months it's a good idea to look at the pack/cells voltage.

I think allot of the info about Lipos is from awhile ago and as technology changes I think the Lipos might not respond as well or different to what use to work.

About how many seconds of charge is this Danny to reach 30%.