Give me ideas on 3 cell battery chargers?

Hello ALL;
I'm very new to the R C flying community, and have purchased 90 - 95% of my items here at Flite Test.
Question for ALL / ANY - Looking for the best bang for the buck, as I am Medically Retiredand have a small monthly disability income.
Now that that picture is painted; I am looking to purchase a 3 cell balance LI-PO battery charger.
Feel free to let me know what brand and model you have, and why you like it!

Many thanks in advance...


Jim = stainless45
 

cranialrectosis

Faster than a speeding face plant!
Mentor
There are lots of chargers but the one you buy will impact everything you charge for everything you fly. I say that because 3 cell is a very narrow parameter. If you fly or hope to fly a multi-rotor, you want something that can handle 4S. If you fly planes, you want something that can handle 1S, 2S or 3S and maybe 4S, 5S or even 6S.

I use the Turnigy Accucel 6.

It covers everything I want to fly but it requires a power supply like this one.

My charging kit is old (2012) so there may be better options out there. Hold out for additional input from the forums.

But seriously, 3S is very narrow and limiting. For this and your radio you want to think about the future to help keep costs low and performance high.
 

sprzout

Knower of useless information
Mentor
I'm going to throw out my charger, just to be a little different from the rest:

http://hitecrcd.com/products/chargers/acdc-chargers/rdx1-acdc-battery-chargerdischarger-/product

This is the Hitec RDX1. AC/DC charger, made in Poway, CA; it will charge just about any kind of battery you need, from a 1S all the way up to a 6S battery. It comes stock with banana connectors to connect up to an XT60 style plug, but you also get a set of unsoldered banana connectors that you can make your own plug - Deans, EC3, even JST if you so need.

The charger will charge NiCad/NiMH batteries, anywhere from 1-15 cell, LiPo/LiHV/LiFe/LiIon from 1S-6S, and even lead batteries from 2-20V.

It's also got a 2.1A USB charging port on the front that you can utilize to charge little 1S batteries with the USB chargers, and those can be done at the same time as another battery's being charged.

The form factor is SMALL, as well; it will fit into a .50 Cal Ammo box (I carry my LiPos to the field in the box, along with the charger, cables, and balance board so I can charge either from my car or from the solar panels our field uses), and it works GREAT.

The price is killer, too - $60 for the RDX1, and if you want the RDX1 Pro (which is 100W charging as opposed to 60W for the standard charger), it's $15 more, but gives you pre-built cables for Deans connectors and XT60, AND gives you the connectors to connect to a DC power source (I had to solder up my own, which cost me about $8 for the wire, alligator clips, and XT60 connector).

I know I sound like a salesperson, but I REALLY, REALLY like this charger for the price. My RDX cost about $5 more than the Tenergy charger that my dad bought, but after seeing the design and that mine came with a USB port to charge up his phone at the field, my dad said, "Had I known about this one, I would've bought it over mine!" (some of that was also the questionable instruction manual he got with his Tenergy charger; you could tell it was written in another language and translated to English, which doesn't exactly make it easy to understand how to use it).

I know a LOT of people like the ISDTs, and I see them heavily advertised in ModelAviation magazine, but I gotta be honest, for the cost, quality, reliability, warranty, etc., I'm hard pressed not to go HiTec. Well, that, and they're local to me - Poway's about 1/2 an hour away from where I live, and we have a few factory sponsored heli pilots at our field, so I might be a LITTLE prejudiced. LOL But still, I think they're a great buy for the price.