Thunder Power LiPos

[neillarson]

What kind of experiences have you guys had with TP Batteries?

I have over 40 batteries, a mix of Reedy's, Rhino's, SMC's, TrueRC, GForce, Flightmax, Turnigy and Thunderpower. I only own 2 Thunderpower and both lasted less time than good cheesburger. Actually only got one run out of one, 2 or 3 out of the other. I never charge faster than 1C and always balance. I always full charge store them. I have had a couple turnigys puff but that is it.

When the last TP started showing the error =, I sent them what I think of their batteries. Of course, they answered that they wanted me to pack them up and ship them to them so they could see what was wrong using their RMA system. I personally think it would be throwing bad money after bad money. At $125 a pack, You would expect a little better durability than that.

 

[JeremyH]

Damn, $125 each?!?! What packs are these?

I've always had decent luck wit TP batteries. I've had a few puff on me...but I own quite a few of them so the ratio is low...

 

[neillarson]

3S 5000 MHr 25C Hardpacks.

 

[CreepyCrawl]

I've got G4 3s 850s, G4 3s 2250s which are 45c, as well as a 2s 5000 40c hardcase, and have never had an issue with any of them.

Curious as to what you're using for a charger/balancer set up and what kind of C rating you're charging at.

 

[twistedone]

In Racing
There is no Battery out there that compares to a thunder power they are top notch batteries have used them with no Failures at all
Crawling
I use there 850 mah 3 cell packs and they are awesome also with no failures

also any problems that I have seen with a Thunder power Battery are always taking care of and there customer service is a little slow at times but never lets the consumer down in my area

would ike to say that the problems I have seen were 95% customer caused by not following normal battery rules

 

[neillarson]

So let me reiterate. I have 40 + batteries of 5 or 6 different brands. Cheap to expensive, 850MHr to 6400MHr, 15C to 40C.

I have 2 Thunderpower Chargers that i use exclusively for my LiPos. I charge at 1C and use LiPo Balance mode. In the 3 years I have been using LiPos, I have had 2 complete failures, both the only 2 Thunderpowers I own, both identical as I bought them as a matched set last year to run my eRevo BL on. Hardcase Sport Packs 25C 3S 5000MHr. Both had the EXACT same failure, a "Connection error". I disassembled the first pack that failed and found no broken wires or film. No puffing and no scorching. I obviously stopped using the other as I needed a pair. At the beginning of the winter, I fully balanced charged all of my packs including this one and stored them in my house planning to only use my 2S 5000MHr 25C and 30C hardcase Reedy's for the indoor season. I picked up a Traxxas Stampede 4X4 today and decided to use the TP as it was a 3S. Put it in the truck, nothing. Put it on the charger, "Connection Error". Same as happened to the other pack.

Pretty simple to see a trend here. My chargers are only capable of 5A so, no I didn't over charge them. I am an Electrical Engineer and I am pretty confident in my ability to charge a battery.

I asked the question to see if this is a on-going issue or did I, as I said to the TP rep, just get a bad run of packs with these 2. Either way, for the price I paid, it is pretty bad. I have had a couple Turnigy packs puff, a 4s and a couple 2S, but hell, at the price I paid for them, I expect that. Now I have to decide if it is worth while to pay to send the last pack back and then have to pay to have it repaired or replaced, or should I just write off the experience and stay with the brands that work for me.

 

[JeremyH]

I am an Electrical Engineer and I am pretty confident in my ability to charge a battery.

Haha! I laughed out loud when I read this!

Does it give the same issue if you only charge the pack and not balance? What about wiggling the wires around? Maybe disconnect the deans (or whatever connector) and resolder??

 

[indiana mudcat]

I've bought eight of the 850 packs since May, four haven't blew a cell yet. Of those four good ones the newest is taking an hour to take 800mah at 1.7 amps, which tells me a cell is bad with only three charges.

 

[neillarson]

I actually never have tried to charge without balancing just because it is not good for the packs, but, duh, can't be much worse than not working at all, can it? Thanks for the suggestion. That is why I post these things, a different point of view can't hurt.

These actually have the factory Traxxas as they were for the eRevo. But I believe that the "connection Error" may actually caused by the balancing tap. The one I took apart had no connection issues that I could see and the cells had the correct nominal voltage when read at each cells termination.

Haha! I laughed out loud when I read this!

Does it give the same issue if you only charge the pack and not balance? What about wiggling the wires around? Maybe disconnect the deans (or whatever connector) and resolder??

 

[JeremyH]

Well, depending on the charger, it may give you a different error. My Hyperion charger runs two checks on the battery before it begins charging....one for the battery and one for the balancer. Depending on when the error occurs, I can see what the problem is. I've had some cheapo packs in the past that had bad connections at the deans and the charger would fault at the battery check. New deans and everything was good!

I know that it sucks to deal with problems on something so expensive, but it could be a fairly simple fix. "thumbsup"

 

[THnCS]

Funny that this popped up. I just upgraded to the new Hitex x4 and my first pack I hooked up had a connection error!! I was getting mad as it is a new pack. (Turnigy 1300 4s 30c) They were all checked when I received them and all had good voltage and no bad cells. So Immediately I was blaming the charger, but after trying another pack it worked.

After I hooked up my seperate lipo balancer, it was only reading 3 cells. So one of the balance taps broke off inside the lipo. Needless to say, once I hooked that lipo back to the Hitec without the balance tabs hooked up, it charged fine. Now I just need to fix the balance tap. Hope this helps some. FYI--That Hitec x4 charger is the SH*t