Review: Blue LiPo Brand batteries (from hobbypartz.com)

[monkeyracer]

First, to start off, I am in no way shape or form affiliated with Blue LiPo or Hobbypartz.com at all. I am just another hobbyist that decided to try out an inexpensive alternative to the LiPos that are on the market today. Hobbypartz.com is an advertiser on this site, so they help to support this site. I actually found out about them through this site and their ad banner.

Here's my little review of these batteries:

I ordered some batteries from hobbypartz.com on 1/20 (wed night). They shipped 1/21 (thurs), and I got them today (mon). If I ordered them tues, or early wednesday though, I might have had them before the weekend... Either way, still way quicker, and less expensive than HK.

For those that don't know, hobbypartz.com is owned by the same company that runs nitrorcx.com, xheli.com, and nitroplanes.com, however they offer $4.95 flat rate shipping on anything ordered through HP. They are placing themselves as a competitor to HK in the US in a few different products.



I ordered up 2x 2200mAh 3S 11.1V 25C Batteries which ended up at $38.85 shipped to my door (for 2 batteries). Comparable Hobby King Turnigy Batteries would have been $42.10 total for the International (Registered) Air Mail service, (6 to 39 days in transit.)
I couldn't find a better deal anywhere else on a comparable battery including eBay.

These were packaged decently; each battery was wrapped in bubble wrap, and then in an ESD safe bag. After that though, they were left to roam and bounce around in the box all the way from California on over the Rocky Mountains to my door. They arrived safe, but they could have maybe shipped them in a smaller box, with maybe a little filler paper or something to keep them from bouncing around.

The box shipping label showed $7.80, (but they could have fit these in a $4.95 flat rate USPS priority box) so they are definitely losing a little profit from shipping. I plan to order some more soon before they raise the prices to compensate. (They may not do that, but you never know.)

Some guys on other forums say the website specs are a little off from actual specs...

Dimensions on the website say 24.384mm x 35mm x 103mm. Actual dimensions are 24.5mm x 35.2mm x 99.1mm; so pretty dang close to actual dimensions. These are actually shorter than what is listed, so they probably included the wire in the 103mm measurement.

The website says weight is 152g, but actual weight with the connector is 187g, and without the connector is 180g (Cut as close to the connector as I could.) To compare, the comparable Turnigy is listed as 188g, where as the FlightPower is listed as 173g, not sure of actual specs on those batteries though.

The other specs listed seemed to be for a different battery:

Originally Posted by hobbypartz

Specifications:

Voltage: 11.4V
Cells: 3-Cell
Capacity: 2000mAh
Max Continuous Discharge: 25C
Max Burst Discharge: 50C
Max Continuous Current: 50A
Max Burst Current: 100A
Weight:152g
Dimensions: 24.384 x 35 x 103mm(0.96x 1.38x4.05 inch)

Of course it's nominal voltage is 11.1v, not 11.4v, and the capacity on the label is 2200mAh, making the max continuous current 55A, and max burst 110A. So maybe the 152g and other specs were supposed to be for a different battery, the 2000mAh verson maybe?
Either way the website should be close to accurate, so hopefully they update their site soon. To HP's defense, they just picked up the Blue LiPo line, and recently listed about 100 new batteries, so making sure each and every one is accurate might take a bit before they get to update the specs.

As far as voltage, it's spot on:
3.85 / 3.85 / 3.85 / 11.56 for battery one... perfect balance
3.86 / 3.86 / 3.86 / 11.59 for battery two... again, perfect balance.

This one has a 12ga wire, and is about 90mm or so in length before the connector. It's also got a JST-XH balance connector, sometimes called "Align" and works perfect for my B6-ish charger. Adapters should be easy to find, of course, and they work with the blinky balancers as well.

They also come with 4mm bullet connectors, which are useless for me. On my vehicles everything is Deans, so the bullets were the first to go. (Definitely make sure you clip the wires one at a time; don't short out the battery accidentally when you clip the connector off...)

The labels and warning sheets are nice, clear, and easy to read in plain english (no crazy engrish here.) Although there are a few of the "do nots" that most of us will have to do. ('Do no discharge LiPo'... well then what do we use these for? I know it means not to use a charger's discharge function, but there are "storage" functions on most "smart" lipo chargers that are perfectly safe for these...)

The shrink wrap is well done. Some other "chinese" lipos I've had have had shrink wrap that looked like it was done by a retarded monkey. The Blue LiPo's shrink wrap is centered and cut well, and look like they should be exactly that way. I may end up "waterproofing" the battery soon anyways with new tape and shrink wrap, but I'm reluctant to lose the unique translucent blue shrink wrap.

Overall, so far, the outward quality seems to be excellent. They are balanced perfectly, and got to me way quicker than HK, and for way less than the TP or Other lipos. Only downside was the weight was more than advertised by a significant amount, but for me, it's going in a hefty Scale Truck, so weight is not as big a deal as it is for plane/heli guys. For us Crawlers, the weight can actually help with weight distribution.
I plan on emailing HP about this thread to see if maybe they will update their specs on their batteries to be closer to the true weight with a connector though.

Once I get them swapped to deans, and charged up, I'll be able to test them in the truck, and will post a follow up review, as well as some pictures in the next few days.

I haven't been able to confirm if these are safe to charge at 2C like the comparable Flightmax cells (which these are likely the same cells, just rebranded) so for the first charge, I am only going to do 1C. Having 2C would be nice though for comp days being able to charge up in 30 mins or less.

Overall I give this battery a 9.5 out of 10 so far. The .5 was subtracted because I had to clip off a useless connector, and the specs were slightly wrong on the website. Minor things, sure, but they detract from giving a perfect 10. The price is definitely a huge reason to consider this line of batteries, but we'll see if my rating stays that high after a couple uses...

Please feel free to post your comments and experiences with the Blue LiPo brand batteries. These seem to be a good, inexpensive alternative to some of the other batteries on the market. But with the "you get what you pay for" saying, do these actually apply to that? Or are they just a great deal?

[Sharkey]

great review, im interested to know how well they perform. i notice they have 2200mah packs in 20c and 30c as well. 20c 2200, which should be plenty for a crawler, is only $13. if these work out well, i think ill be ordering a few 2200 3s packs, its just what im looking for

[monkeyracer]

For the crawler, I was planning on ordering the 25C 1300mAh 3S batteries, which are only $10.70 each when they re-stock them. They should fit in most crawler set-ups. The 2200s are almost twice as large, but some rigs can fit the bigger batteries.

So far, from other reviews I've seen on the batteries, they seem to perform well, but this is in planes and helis. Haven't seen to many reviews in land based vehicles.

My truck has a Titan 21T E-Maxx motor on a Sidewinder ESC, and is fairly hefty. Hopefully that will be a good test vehicle to see what it can and can't do.

[monkeyracer]

Small follow up...

I had about an extra 10 minutes tonight to put the batteries in my Trail Rig to try it out, and ...

Titan 21T emaxx motor + 2X 2200 mAh 25C 3S + sidewinder = Awesome.

These are pretty damn cool. I tried a ThunderPower 3S 2200mAh 25C battery at a comp a short while ago, and these have WAY more punch. It makes this rig a whole other animal.

Granted I have both batteries installed with a parallel adapter. So effectively it's a 4400mAh 25C battery (yes that's 110A continuous, 220A max burst) again...

I'll try to get a good test tomorrow with just one battery installed. And see how it does.

[Raguvian]

Nice review... I was about to kick myself for buying from HK and paying $27 for shipping and having to wait about 2 months (looks like it, anyways) because they are out of stock on one of the items I ordered, but in the end, hobbypartz doesn't have the battery I was looking for (2s 2200 mah 25C packs) and the prices would've come out to be the same anyways, after shipping. I got my batteries for $10 a piece!

Let us know how the Blue lipos hold up though... if they ever have the batteries I need I'd much rather order from them than HK and wait forever to receive my stuff.

[slashbasher]

My wife ordered 4 of the blue lipos from hobbypartz.com for me for christmasand only 3 out of the 4 worked. I wasn't able to return it because the thirty day return period had expired since they were a xmas gift by the time I opened the gift and got around to using them it was to late. So check them out as soon as you get them and make sure they are all good. I think they are great batteries and a great bargain. I just got a bad one. That can happen with any product or companies product. All in all I am very pleased with these batteries and I will be ordering more as soon as they are back in stock.

[monkeyracer]

Thanks for your input on these. Definitely nice to hear from more people about their experience with these.

Keeping these in stock seems to be the issue now, but with how good of a deal they are, that makes sense.

[JSN]

I picked up 6 of the 25c 1300's for a few of my planes and crawlers... have about 10 cycles on them so far with no issues at all... plenty punch in the air and on the ground

[Trevenator]

I picked up 4 of the 1300ma 3s 25c packs. two for a friend and two for me. These packs have performed flawless in the axial crawlers that we are running.

[monkeyracer]

Performance update:

Ran the packs until my slipper clutch started acting up (didn't hit the LVC on the SW...) and decided to charge them up.

I used 1.5C (3.3A) to charge, and the batteries stayed nice and cool, not even warm at all. I'll try 2C on the next charge...

When they were done, here's the results of the charge:

Battery 1
12.6V (4.2V, 4.2V, 4.2V)
50 minutes, 10 seconds
2428 mAh

Battery 2
12.6V (4.2V, 4.2V, 4.2V)
49 minutes, 57 seconds
2443 mAh

Notice that these 2200mah batteries took 2400+ mAh in charge, and I didn't even hit the LVC, meaning there's even more capacity in there.

These have punch all the way down to where I started charging it. Some batteries only have punch for the first half of their capacity, then start to taper off. These seemed to hold on to it the whole time.

I'm definitely in love with these batteries. The performance seems to hold up, they're inexpensive, and you don't have to wait for delivery from the other side of the planet.

[smm_cbf]

They only thing is, is that when you order in-stock and they go out-of-stock, they don't let you know...no email, no phone call. Thats the only thing that made me mad...now I'm stuck ordering from hobbyking and waiting a life time to get them in the mail

[GSRswapandslow]

those batteries are 100% identical to the HK ones....same exact cells, same wire, same heat shrink, same connector. the label is the ONLY difference. that's deff not a bad thing, though. i ran 12 of the HK ones and never had a SINGLE failure from my 2s, 3s, 4s, or 5s! great lipo's for the money from either store.

[monkeyracer]

Originally Posted by smm_cbf

They only thing is, is that when you order in-stock and they go out-of-stock, they don't let you know...no email, no phone call. Thats the only thing that made me mad...now I'm stuck ordering from hobbyking and waiting a life time to get them in the mail

I hate to hear that. I've made a few orders from hp, and they've always been good to me. The site should be better linked to inventory so it wouldn't have allowed that to happen.

Originally Posted by GSRswapandslow

those batteries are 100% identical to the HK ones....same exact cells, same wire, same heat shrink, same connector. the label is the ONLY difference. that's deff not a bad thing, though. i ran 12 of the HK ones and never had a SINGLE failure from my 2s, 3s, 4s, or 5s! great lipo's for the money from either store.

on another forum, it was suggested that these were the same as zippy flightmax cells, even down to the gold band around them. Either way, lipos have come a long way from a couple years ago!

[Benzbuildr]

Thanks monkey racer for the write up and follow up I'll definitely will be checkin these batt's out, I love my Turnigy batt, but it took two weeks to get here, then I had to go to the post office to pick them up on my signature

[shelljeep]

Thanks for the review.
Just ordered a pair of the 2650mAh 3S 11.1 40C packs. Hope they were still actually in stock.

[shelljeep]

Originally Posted by smm_cbf

They only thing is, is that when you order in-stock and they go out-of-stock, they don't let you know...no email, no phone call. Thats the only thing that made me mad...now I'm stuck ordering from hobbyking and waiting a life time to get them in the mail

They may have adressed this. I have recieved continual updates on order and shipping status since I placed my order for some 3s on Sunday.

[Teddy_G]

Hi Everyone,

My name is Teddy and I am a representative of HobbyPartz.com. The Blue LiPo batteries will be back in stock at the end of this month, February. In the past, our system was outdated and we did not have proper notifications. However, now we have customer representatives that specialize in contacting customers when they have placed an order and a problem occurs such as the product going out of stock. We also have an email newsletter to update you on the latest products, sales, and news. If you would like to join this email listing, please email me at raidentech@live.com. Thank you for all your support and we will continue to strive to be the best for your hobby needs.

Regards,

Teddy

Please become our fan on facebook to support us and get the latest updates: www.facebook.com/hobbypartz

[shelljeep]

Hey Teddy, I'm totally pleased with the 3s Blues I got a few weeks ago. Ordered some small 4s Blues, which are in transit right now. Have been kept informed via email updates of the process. You guys are doing well.
I'm not sure, but you might want to contact a mod about whether or not you need to purchase a certain membership in order to promote your products here. I see you guys already have banner ads. Just a friendly tip in case you are headed for drama.
I appreciate you being available to discuss things.