Charging lipos... balancing required?

[foxkilo]

Noob question time again...

Some battery chargers like the Triton that I currently own, do not have balancing port for charging lipos.

Now I just charge 2S lipo thru the red, black outputs of the charger... no problems here, and even tried with 3S lipo.

I have heard some say that cell balancing is not really necessary for 2S lipos, but becomes necessary for 3S and above... is this true? In the long term? If so, how can chargers like the Triton - no balance ports - advertise itself as suitable for charging lipos?

[LittleGiant]

Noob question time again...

Some battery chargers like the Triton that I currently own, do not have balancing port for charging lipos.

Now I just charge 2S lipo thru the red, black outputs of the charger... no problems here, and even tried with 3S lipo.

I have heard some say that cell balancing is not really necessary for 2S lipos, but becomes necessary for 3S and above... is this true? In the long term? If so, how can chargers like the Triton - no balance ports - advertise itself as suitable for charging lipos?

I know one guy who dun do balancing for his 6s lipos. But he keeps the voltage from 3.8V to 4.2V. By doing this, the lipo's life can be prolonged as the cells are not stressed out too much. When lipo cells are subjected to stress, the weaker ones will heat up more and lose more capacity and gets out of balance more.

Whether balancing is required or not depends on how use your lipos and their build quality. Lousy lipo cells certainly require balancing as they will most certainly go out of balance as u use them.

[jansonfinn]

Whether balancing is required or not depends on how use your lipos and their build quality. Lousy lipo cells certainly require balancing as they will most certainly go out of balance as u use them.

All my lipos are lousy then

[LittleGiant]

All my lipos are lousy then

ok ok let me rephrase Cells that have been pushed too hard. Because no 2 cells are exactly the same.

[HotDogBun]

I use 2s/3s/6s lipos and I never balance charge them. To date they all serve me well. No bloating no unbalanced cells. The highest and lowest voltage from each cell is at most 0.03V apart.
The lipos I used are 3E, ZippyR, Rhino and Align.

There were only few instances where I discharged my 3E 3s and ZippyR 3s below 3.68V per cell, they end up having huge differences somtime like 3.65V/3.54V/3.5V.

What I did was to charge them through dean connector till the lowest was at least 3.73V, and then I used a balancer to discharge them till they are equal in voltage around 3.72V, before I place them to charge again via dean.
They end up fully charge with cells balanced. No after effects, cells held well and they don't get unbalanced cause I don't overdischarge them

[foxkilo]

Ok, thanks for all the useful info posted here...

[helirulz]

Noob question time again...

Some battery chargers like the Triton that I currently own, do not have balancing port for charging lipos.

Now I just charge 2S lipo thru the red, black outputs of the charger... no problems here, and even tried with 3S lipo.

I have heard some say that cell balancing is not really necessary for 2S lipos, but becomes necessary for 3S and above... is this true? In the long term? If so, how can chargers like the Triton - no balance ports - advertise itself as suitable for charging lipos?

Just get yourself an external balancer since you already have a charger.
Some of the few i know of are the Hyperion LBA10NET, TP 205/210 and a few models from Tahmazo.

External balancers are a cheaper option than buying a new balance charger.

I wouldn't say balance charging is necessary every flight. On the other hand, I believe that owning a balance charger/external balancer is a MUST. Its saves you a lot of trouble especially those times when you overdischarge a pack.
If you didn't have a balancer, you'd have to strip the pack open and charge each cell manually to balance them which is a pain in the ass.

Anyway once you've gotten yourself an external balancer..might as well balance-charge your packs everytime you charge. There's no added hassle and safety features on these balancers only make charging safer