Noob Question: Lipo charge/discharge

[crazyerick]

Hi,

Please for give the noob question. Do I need to discharge before charge? For example after a flight I would discharge lipo. My swallow advance charger takes it down to about 9.2v (3 cell). After that I would charge it.

I have always been warned about overcharging lipos so I was under the impressions this was the correct thing to do, but someone recently told me "never discharge unless you have to".

Advise please?

Kind Regards,
Erick

[DebianDog]

Well flying it is the discharge part.

Make sure you charge with a balancer ;)

[crazyerick]

So if I fly and it discharges to 10.8v, I cant simply recharge? That would save some time :D

[DebianDog]

Yes you fly it - then charge it. There is no discharging other than the flying part.

The only time you "need" to discharge is when you are going to store your lipolys for an extended period of time. Even then, I discharge them by flying them! I just fly for 1/2 the time I usually fly them to get the packs around a 50% charge.

[Probedude]

Yep, what Dan said.

Lipos don't suffer from 'memory effect' and don't need to be discharged before recharging. Doing so only consumes cycle life from your battery.

Make sure the battery cools down though before charging.
Dave

[crazyerick]

Thanks for the advice! :hug:

Much appreaciated!

Cheers,
Erick

[Pinecone]

DO NOT DISCHARGE LIPOS other than normal flying.

If you discahrge a lipo too low, you ruin it.