balancer a need?

[70bee]

Is it a absolute need to have a battery balancer?

[dodgey]

Not a need - just a long term way of looking after your lipos.

I have several 4s 8000Mah packs, several 2100/2150 3s packs, some 1050 3s packs and a 3s4p 7800 pack. I've retrofitted balance leads on most of them (2 weeks ago) and they all, after a couple of years on and off use checked as balanced, or , for one pack, very slightly imbalanced. So not balancing them didn't damage them, they are just fine.

BUT - by balancing your packs you are keeping an "eye" on them and avoiding overcharging cells.

Somemthing not to panic about, but a good thing to adopt as you can afford it, or it is convenient.

I do think the battery manufacturers are rubbing their hands in glee though :-) - I bought a Flightpower balancer for £36 UKP and to be honest - it is a few quid in parts and components at the most. They are not rocket science, they simply monitor cell voltage and stop charging too full cells, or drain from full cells to let the others catch up/level off. I purchased of someone who seemed to be a senior/MD/owner of Flightpower as Sandown expo and he looked well suntanned and very comfortable :lol:

[WillJames]

Actually, it really depends on your chargers. Some chargers will kill a unbalanced pack very quickly depending on how they detect peak. Also if you don't balance you could be missing out on getting the best performance out of your packs as they can false peak when not very closely balanced. Not balancing can definitely shorten the life of the packs.

[dodgey]

Guess I've been OK with my Triton. I notice it stepps the charging amps all the way down to 0.1 towards the end - this must have kept my packs in balance. My Atro 109 does a similar thing - but instead of reducing the amperage, it pulses the charge on and off.

[WillJames]

The Triton does not keep the packs in balance, what is does is not charge as aggressively as some of the more expensive chargers. (les mah's into them per charge) IMHO, that is probably why not balancing your packs has been OK. I have never used the 109, so I don't know anything about them. All lipo chargers I have used will charge at the rate you set, then as the pack becomes charged, it will step down the voltage slowly until peak is detected. On your 3 cell packs, that is 12.6 volts. Balancing your packs should help your Triton detect peak later and put a few more usuable mah's in your packs that you can use when flying without damaging them. It is never goign to match the peak performance you can get from the more expensive and sophistocated chargers. But how much charger do you need for charging TREX packs, the Triton is probably fine and all you need.

To hopefully better explain this point, on the big packs we run on the Ion-X, with the Schulze charger, they work great. Using the new TP-1010 charger with balancer, the packs are noticably hotter performance wise than just balancing them and charging them on the Schulze. Where the 1010 has trouble is when the packs are just off a flight and heavily discharged. There are tradeoffs to all chargers and charging methods. For me, the price the balancers cost is a drop in the bucket compared to keeping my LiPo's producing the best power they can, and lasting as long as they can. I would bet my balancers have been paid for many times over already. On the heavier machines, the difference between what a great charger can put into the packs and what you get out of the packs when flying and what a mediocre charger can do is noticable. On the TREX, I am not sure it is worth throwing a lot of $$ at upgrading your chargers.

[Gary JP4]

It sure does ease my mind to have a balancer or at least charge proctor like Poly Quest uses. I have some batteries that I don't have adapters for yet so I have to charge directly through the Deans connector. They make me a little more uptight.

[Trooper Sam]

I'm a big fan of the Hyperion LBA6 balancer. It's the only way I charge my batteries, a mix of Prolites, old Apex 12Cs, and my new Hyperion Litestorms.

Whenever Tower gets them back in, look at the Great Planes Equinox. It's the exact same unit as the Hyperion, and Tower sells it for $10 cheaper.

[Gary JP4]

Thanks I got 1 LBA6 and may get another one.