Discharging LiPo

[hansmoolman]

How do I discharge my LiPo for storage or after using my crawler? I have a charger for the battery but it doesn't have a discharge function as I have seen on other models? This is the charger that I have: Racers edge 1500 AC charger. And here's the link to the product page:

Racers Edge AC 1-3S 5Amp Lipo/Life-Po Balance Charger with Deans & TRX HC Charge Leads

My fear is that the battery will go up in flames if it is not discharged properly after each use? Is this a valid fear or can they be stored relatively safely if not discharged properly?

Im only asking cause I almost set my shed on fire a few weeks ago when I was being careless with the battery (accidentally let the positive and negative wires touch each other)

[AreCee]

Put a load on it and bring it down to 3.85V/cell for storage use a voltmeter to monitor the pack.

Or if you have a LVC in your ESC and a storage charge function on your charger then just run the battery down and use the storage charge to bring it up.

[OKJeepin]

I have never discharged any of my Lipos, I just charge them fully, and put them up until the next time.
I don't have a discharge / store feature on my Onyx charger either.

[Charlie-III]

NiCD & NiMH really want to be discharged, LiPO does not have the same concerns.
The only time I use the charger discharge function is when I'm reviving older packs and I cycle them (charge, discharge a few times).

I usually store LiPO at full charge, sometimes I run to LVC and store.

[sloppy]

supposed to store around 50-60% charge on lipo's...

[Manning]

The best battery discharger is a crawler. Just drive it around for about 1/3 of the normal run time. Done.

[BubbaEinstein]

Originally Posted by sloppy

supposed to store around 50-60% charge on lipo's...

Just wanted to ditto this...Lipo's should be stored around 55% charge.

[Solitaire]

Whenever one orders LiPo's, they always come shipped at 3.85v (or very close). This is exactly 60% of it's useable voltage range (3.3v-4.2v)

Anything that I'm going to store for any length of time is always reduced to 3.85V, which is also the default storage value in my charger. Anything that I'm using regularly, such as every weekend, I've been leaving fully charged and have not had any negative reactions to this point.

I have no clue as to how long a LiPo can be stored fully charged without an incident and I really don't want to find out.

[tamiya]

LiPOs do not have a linear discharge curve between 4.2 -> 3.3V,
they generally stay above 4.0V for most of their mAh capacity
then drop rapidly during the last 15-20%.

Its fine to store them fully-charged, have got RC packs going on 5yrs still going strong.
When left untouched for 2-3mths & recharged again, they barely take anything to topup.


LiPOs are the same chemistry as in your laptop/iPod/mobile/camera etc
- do you bother "storage" charging those? ;)

however i have been testing the charging circuits in a few consumer devices
and most cutoff at 4.05-4.08V... not 4.20V like our RC chargers

[Meatwad]

If you're planning on storing them for months at a time, then yeah use storage mode or just stop the charge cycle near 3.8 a cell. Otherwise storing them fully charged for a couple weeks or so "may" lessen the amount of usable charge cycles.. but c'mon man they're so cheap nowadays who doesn't replace every year or so