Cheap or expensive lipos ?

[curt53]

There is an old saying "Buy cheap, buy twice." now this is something I agree with. I always buy decent quality stuff, not expensive for the sake of it, but I don't buy junk,well not deliberately anyway!
When I got my new heli I bought a good balance charger, Thunder power 610 & a thunder Power 2200mah 25C battery to go with the std Align one giving me 2 battery's to start with. Sensible I thought, quality battery's & charger. Now my old man is the exact opposite when it comes to spending money & I do take the mick out of him for it. Now my question is , How come my Thunder power battery at £48.00 gives me 7 minutes flying time , exactly the same as my dads cheap from Hong Kong 2200mah 25C battery's at £25,00 for 2 !!
Now at 4 times the price I would have expected a little more! can anyone tell me why I spent so much on one battery ?

[Rat]

Life expectancy, and warranty should anything go wrong short term. There is a good argument for buying cheap if it is so cheap you can afford to treat the item as throw away. You will also maybe find, that should you come to push it, your batteries will give more consistent performance. With 7 min flights though, youre maybe not in the stick bangers league quite yet though

[curt53]

thanks for your comments & no I'm not a skilled flyer by any stretch of the amagination, I'm only just getting comfertable with hovering at the moment ,roughly how long should I be getting to a battery ?

[funfreex]

What type of heli are you flying? If its a 450 I would have thought 7 mins just hovering about would be the max. Are you hovering in normal or idle up mode?

[jamiem]

as soon as you start pulling a few more amps out of them i.e. fast circuits etc then the life expectancy on the cheapos will fall dramatically, or as ive known of recently, fail in mid air and nearly write the machine off

[curt53]

Hi, I have a T-rex 450 and hovering in normal mode.
Paul.

[mattydred]

i use the cheap 1's aswell - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2x-25C-11-1v-2...QQcmdZViewItem

they work and charge fine and have plenty of power. i am flying in idle up on a 100% flatline throttle curve and im doing big fast circuits, loops, flips and rolls. i get about 7 - 10 minutes out of each lipo and each 1 has had about 20 charges. ive never had any problems with them at all and have just bought another 2. i have 6 in total. i use them in my rc jet aswell

matty

[LaurenceGough]

I never use cheap, always use the Kong Powers. Buy cheap buy twice. Buy slightly more expensive buy once and get more power and life.

[Tim Procter]

I'm a big believer in buying quality lipos (FlightPower) for obvious reasons and do just that BUT!!!!!

A comment from jamiem some time back on these very forums stating he "tried" some-ones cheap Hong Kong lipo and was very impressed with it.

Like a lamb to slaughter I bought 2 of the very same he tried from eBay for £1.99 each plus £9 postage for my T-Rex 450 and they are still going very strong now.

I believe the more expensive lipos are better but as yet can't fault the cheap crap from Hong Kong.

[163phil]

A friend bought one of those that Matty uses for use in his Belt CP and I've seen with my own eyes it seems to be just as good as the genuine Esky one (probably is the same battery packaged differently!) The build quality is on a par with Maxpoly too.

I'm using Maxpoly, but haven't had them long enough yet to see if they are any better than Esky. I can't tell much difference yet as they haven't had many cycles, but we are both still only hovering and doing gentle circuits (and crashes!!)

I can admit that I foolishly let my Maxpoly discharge to 2.9VPS and have nursed it back to full health, albeit charges a little slower than the other. It would be interesting to try the same with one of these cheapies. Fancy some research Matty?

[Thomas]

I'm a big believer in buying quality lipos (FlightPower)

ROFL, good to see there are still people on here with a sense of humour
.

[Rat]

I have 3 of those mystery lipos second hand - all going strong, whereas the genuine align lipo has now puffed.

[mattydred]

i just had 2 more mystery 11.1v 2200mah 25c lipos delivered this morning. i cant get enough of em. 6 lipos cost me £75 - how many flight power/kong/maxpoly lipos can you buy for that?

this is all i use to charge em aswell - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Esky-7-4v-11-1...QQcmdZViewItem



matty

[mattydred]

A friend bought one of those that Matty uses for use in his Belt CP and I've seen with my own eyes it seems to be just as good as the genuine Esky one (probably is the same battery packaged differently!) The build quality is on a par with Maxpoly too.

I'm using Maxpoly, but haven't had them long enough yet to see if they are any better than Esky. I can't tell much difference yet as they haven't had many cycles, but we are both still only hovering and doing gentle circuits (and crashes!!)

I can admit that I foolishly let my Maxpoly discharge to 2.9VPS and have nursed it back to full health, albeit charges a little slower than the other. It would be interesting to try the same with one of these cheapies. Fancy some research Matty?

i cant do it at the mo cuz i havnt got a charger that tells me what is in the pack and in each cell. i'll try it when i start using my new charger. i need to get a power supply and a ballancer thingy.

the packs seem to get better after every charge. when new i only used them for about 3 - 4 minutes for the first 3 - 4 cycles.

cheers

matty

[Tim Procter]

ROFL, good to see there are still people on here with a sense of humour
.