Anecdotal evidence on battery performance

[goldnhelis]

Partly as a plug to a couple of brands, but mostly to just share my experience... Here's my informal / totally anecdotal battery performance guide.

3 heli types: trex 450 (2 birds one FB one FBL), trex 500 FB and trex 550 FB

Batteries tried on trex 450's:

TP 2200 extreme V2 (yes a pretty old version) TP 2250 (35C I think, it's now dead and gone)
Turnigy 2200
nanotech 45C 2200

General results/impressions:

The TP batteries always ran hot, and definitely lost oomph as the cycles went over 50 or so.
I don't fly TP batteries anymore. Others seem to get much better behavior out of TP, but I never did. They just aren't worth the price to me.

The Turnigy 2200's ran the FB machine quite well. 100+ cycles each. No puffing, run cool. Still seemed good as new (until I started running them on the FBL pro 450).
450 pro just seemed to work them harder. Now I keep them on the 450 FB machine and they are still OK.
3S nanotech 45C's work fine on the 450pro. roughly 75 cycles and going strong. At least for 3S, my nanotech experience has been OK. (but see below)


Batteries tried on trex 500 FB:

Hyperion 2500 25C, Hyperion 2900 35C,
Turnigy 40C 2650, Blue Lipo 40C 2650, Nanotech 2650 45C.

General impressions:

The hyperion batteries were STRONG, until I overheated them (one single time each, riding in a hot vehicle after being flown).
After that, they were on a steep spiral down to their demise. Didn't get 50 cycles out of either one.
I gave up on the hyperion brand. All my other batteries survived those instances...

Blue Lipo ... I actually got pretty good life out of the one version I had of that. Bought it from hobby partz in
in a moment of desperation when there just weren't many 2600 6S batteries in stock anywhere.
Well over 100 cycles, maybe 200. I quit counting in the high 80's well over a year ago and each battery
gets at least 2 flights per week. But, it died this week, 2 cells packed it in essentially at the same time.
The blue turnigy 40C's. Say what you will about turnigy, these batteries really love the 500. I've not had one die of over-use or old age yet. Only die in crashes.
One of them is running strong for more than 3 years now... well over 300 flights. The other 2 I currently have are well over 100,
and still balance quick and true, run cool, no puffing... Just a good match for that machine.
Nanotech 2650 45C. That thing was crap. It puffed in no more than 25 flights and it wasn't getting any worse
treatment than its blue cousins. It never made 60 flights. The nano techs are "light" for their rated Mah, so maybe I should have run the 3300's. I probably won't try...

Batteries on the 550:

Blue lipo 4000 20C! (yeah, I know...), Sky Lipo 5000 40C.
Nanotech 5000 25C Turnigy 5000 40C, Gens Ace 5300 30C
Pulse Ultra 45C Revolectrix 5000 65C

The results:

Believe it or not, that Blue lipo 4000 20C battery has 200 plus flights on it at least. Still seems as good as "used" as I bought it already used!
Now, I only run it about 4 min flight time ( the 5000's get 5 mins to pull 80% out), but that thing is amazing. Must be a fluke... But I'll keep running it...

Sky lipo 5000 40C. I probably got 75-ish flights out of it before I started hitting the LVC before 5 minutes flight time.
Once that happened, demise came very quickly. IR just shot up and it wouldn't deliver power for any length of time.
Nanotech 5000 25C. I bought 2 of them at the same time. One only went 50 flights before major puffing and serious balancing trouble ensued.
Actually they both puffed at the same time more or less. One of them died quickly after that (say at about the 60 flight mark).
The other one is still running. Balances OK flies OK, if not as good as new. But, I never hit the LVC in 5 minutes of as hard a flying as I can give... It's probably going to make 200 cycles.
But, I must say 25C now seems too low for anything but casual flying. So maybe the higher C rated nano's would be better. I probably won't bother though...
Gens Ace 5300. I bought this one back when they were the latest rage. It started off well. But as time went on IR started creeping up, to the point where at about the 100 flight mark, I was hitting LVC in 4:30.
Balancing also became problematic ( like an hour). It lasted better than one of the nano's, but worse than the other.
I was willing to try the new 65C GA's, but hobby partz messed-up and sent me the wrong battery and I never got to try it (If you want to see that tale of woe,see the the hobby partz support forum).
Turnigy 5000 40C. Given my good experience on the 2650's, I got a 5000 to replace the Gens Ace. It started out OK, but now, 60-ish flights in, I can tell it's not going to last.
It might make it another 20 flights or so, but I'm going to have to baby it. I'm hitting the LVC right about 5 min (happened last 2 times), Balancing is starting to get problematic. It's not puffed, just getting a weak cell it seems.
Pulse ultra (green) 45C. I'm at about the 100 flight mark on it. Looking good. Still runs strong.I don't run governed, so headspeed is a good audio indication of voltage drop through the flight. No issue there. Balances fast and true, IR around 10. I like this one...
Black Revolectrix 5000 65C. These are still pretty new, about 40 flights on one and maybe 30 on the other. They run REALLY strong. Can't tell what longevity will be like just yet. But so far their early life has been the best I've seen,
I'd say slightly better than the Pulse Ultra. If they hang in there, they will be my favorite for performance for the price on the 550.


Sorry to be long-winded... Hope it helps somebody out there...

[atkin]

+1.
I'd love to hear updates on this in a few more weeks.

[Bonkievan]

+1. Thanks for taking the time.

I've just recently got the Revo 5000 65c for my 550 also. (See my Revolectrix thread) I've only got 3 flights on it so far but I can already tell the better performance than my semi-comparable Aplus 4500 65c and my Turnigy 5000 40c batts but they're not the same c rating, so can't really compare with those.

I don't run a Gov on the 550 either, but only fly sport, and loss of HS in heavier collective manoeuvres with the Revo batt is negligible and provides strong power throughout my 5.3omin flight.

I have some Revo 3s. 2200 65c also which have brought a few of my park flyer planks back to life too! I only have 4-5 cycles on these but things look very promising with these as well.

I will update my other thread when I have 30ish cycles on the Revos to see if they're still holding up.

[atkin]

Yeah, it sounds like I just need to pay the 40% premium for Revo packs for my 550.

It seems you'll get more than 40% more flights over the Hobbyking 40C Turnigy that are always out of stock. (what I have now, and they are fine at 20 flights)
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...dProduct=14986

Nice comparisons here too:
https://www.helifreak.com/showthread...=421117&page=2

[Bonkievan]

Originally Posted by atkin

Yeah, it sounds like I just need to pay the 40% premium for Revo packs for my 550.

It seems you'll get more than 40% more flights over the Hobbyking 40C Turnigy that are always out of stock. (what I have now, and they are fine at 20 flights)
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...dProduct=14986

Nice comparisons here too:
https://www.helifreak.com/showthread...=421117&page=2

As I said, I only fly sport but have noticed an improvement and as your links suggest, others that fly much, much harder are having good results also. Are they worth 40% more than Turnigy batts for my type of flying? Maybe, definately more power throughout the flight but time will tell. I've had a pretty good run out of my Turnigy batts. No complaints there to be honest.