Which Lipo charger should I get?

[Verdigo]

Hi guys. I am relatively a beginner to this RC plane stuff and I was wondering what type of lipo charger I should get. I am planning on my first plane being the tiny trainor and even though that might not require a powerful battery charger, I want a charger that is safe, future proof, and under $50. I am probably not going to go too crazy in the future with big planes and 6 cell batteries. Can someone please give me some options? Right now I am leaning towards some chargers by SkyRC (I will link some links below) but those are only about 50-60 watts and I was wondering if that was enough?


https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MZ1ZZ7Z/?tag=lstir-20
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00L5YBJI2/?tag=lstir-20

 

[whackflyer]

Hi guys. I am relatively a beginner to this RC plane stuff and I was wondering what type of lipo charger I should get. I am planning on my first plane being the tiny trainor and even though that might not require a powerful battery charger, I want a charger that is safe, future proof, and under $50. I am probably not going to go too crazy in the future with big planes and 6 cell batteries. Can someone please give me some options? Right now I am leaning towards some chargers by SkyRC (I will link some links below) but those are only about 50-60 watts and I was wondering if that was enough?


https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MZ1ZZ7Z/?tag=lstir-20
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00L5YBJI2/?tag=lstir-20

Those will work fine. I have a 50w Turnigy Accucell as my main charger and it charges all of my batteries fine. 4s at around 3 amps is as hard as I've charged anything and it handles it fine.

 

[sprzout]

Hi guys. I am relatively a beginner to this RC plane stuff and I was wondering what type of lipo charger I should get. I am planning on my first plane being the tiny trainor and even though that might not require a powerful battery charger, I want a charger that is safe, future proof, and under $50. I am probably not going to go too crazy in the future with big planes and 6 cell batteries. Can someone please give me some options? Right now I am leaning towards some chargers by SkyRC (I will link some links below) but those are only about 50-60 watts and I was wondering if that was enough?


https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MZ1ZZ7Z/?tag=lstir-20
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00L5YBJI2/?tag=lstir-20

You're pretty much at your limit due to your budget. The chargers will charge your batteries, but they're gonna do it slowly. That's because of the low wattage. That will be a pain if you want to charge 4s and higher - in some cases, it might take hours to charge one battery. Want something that will charge a bit faster? You'll need a higher output charger, which will cost you.

Here's some battery and charger info that our club's president emeritus did for a ground school a few weeks ago. Some of the info pertains to our club specifically, but there's a lot of good info here:

 

[Verdigo]

You're pretty much at your limit due to your budget. The chargers will charge your batteries, but they're gonna do it slowly. That's because of the low wattage. That will be a pain if you want to charge 4s and higher - in some cases, it might take hours to charge one battery. Want something that will charge a bit faster? You'll need a higher output charger, which will cost you.

Here's some battery and charger info that our club's president emeritus did for a ground school a few weeks ago. Some of the info pertains to our club specifically, but there's a lot of good info here:

Will I be able to use a parallel board with one of those chargers or are they too weak?

 

[Verdigo]

Also can anyone recommend me a charger that I can use a parallel board with so I can charge multiple batteries at once.

 

[sprzout]

Will I be able to use a parallel board with one of those chargers or are they too weak?

You can try to use a parallel board, but it ain't gonna charge anywhere near as fast as you'll want it to. As you add batteries on, that is spreading out the wattage to those batteries, so it's gonna slow it all down.

If you want a charger that you can use a parallel board with to charge multiple batteries at once, you're looking at doubling your budget. Again, I'd recommend watching the video link I sent; we talk about parallel charging and its dangers, as well as some recommendations for charging multiple batteries at once.

 

[Verdigo]

You can try to use a parallel board, but it ain't gonna charge anywhere near as fast as you'll want it to. As you add batteries on, that is spreading out the wattage to those batteries, so it's gonna slow it all down.

If you want a charger that you can use a parallel board with to charge multiple batteries at once, you're looking at doubling your budget. Again, I'd recommend watching the video link I sent; we talk about parallel charging and its dangers, as well as some recommendations for charging multiple batteries at once.

Yeah the chargers that will charge multiple batteries suggested in video are very expensive. If I use the regular 50watt SkyRC charger and I use a parallel board (I don't really mind if they charge a bit slowly since I am a beginner and won't fly for more than 20-30 minutes at a time), how will I know when my batteries on the parallel board are full?

 

[sprzout]

Yeah the chargers that will charge multiple batteries suggested in video are very expensive. If I use the regular 50watt SkyRC charger and I use a parallel board (I don't really mind if they charge a bit slowly since I am a beginner and won't fly for more than 20-30 minutes at a time), how will I know when my batteries on the parallel board are full?

Oh, we're talking about it taking HOURS to charge if you're parallel charging multiple 3S or 4S batteries on a 50W charger. This is the breaks for buying a cheap, low watt charger. Seriously, a 50W charger, charging one 3S battery, can take an hour to balance charge that 3S battery, depending on how low the charge is, unless you don't balance charge and you decide to charge at greater than 1C charge (which is NOT recommended - that's a great way to start a fire).

You'd be better off charging them individually off of the charger than to try and use a parallel charging board. In addition, the charges MUST be close to each other on the batteries. I wouldn't try and charge a battery that's got its cells at 3.81 on a parallel board with another battery that's got its cells at 3.87. That's just asking for a possible overcharge, which can be dangerous and cause fires and explosions. If you're not familiar with charging batteries on parallel and you're brand new to charging lipo batteries, it is NOT recommended to jump into charging via parallel for the first few times. This is a "Danger, Will Robinson, DANGER!" moment.

As for knowing when the batteries are charged, the lowest charge, when it reaches 4.2v per cell (on the lowest cell), will cause the charger to shut off. So, if one battery is at a higher charge than the other, you run that risk of overcharging the battery that's higher, again, leading to potential fire/explosion.

 

[whackflyer]

Oh, we're talking about it taking HOURS to charge if you're parallel charging multiple 3S or 4S batteries on a 50W charger. This is the breaks for buying a cheap, low watt charger. Seriously, a 50W charger, charging one 3S battery, can take an hour to balance charge that 3S battery, depending on how low the charge is, unless you don't balance charge and you decide to charge at greater than 1C charge (which is NOT recommended - that's a great way to start a fire).

You'd be better off charging them individually off of the charger than to try and use a parallel charging board. In addition, the charges MUST be close to each other on the batteries. I wouldn't try and charge a battery that's got its cells at 3.81 on a parallel board with another battery that's got its cells at 3.87. That's just asking for a possible overcharge, which can be dangerous and cause fires and explosions. If you're not familiar with charging batteries on parallel and you're brand new to charging lipo batteries, it is NOT recommended to jump into charging via parallel for the first few times. This is a "Danger, Will Robinson, DANGER!" moment.

As for knowing when the batteries are charged, the lowest charge, when it reaches 4.2v per cell (on the lowest cell), will cause the charger to shut off. So, if one battery is at a higher charge than the other, you run that risk of overcharging the battery that's higher, again, leading to potential fire/explosion.

A 50W charger should be as fast as a bigger charger for any park flier battery by itself not? I can see where it would take a long time to charge multiple 3s 2200s or larger batteries at once. As far as para boards, I used to use one for my mini batteries. I'd first check voltage on every one and charge only the ones that were close in voltage. I'd put them all on the board and wait 10 or 15 minutes for the voltages to balance out. Never had issues with that but it was probably actually slower then charging one at a time, but I didn't have to switch batteries every few minutes.

 

[Aviador]

Hi guys. I am relatively a beginner to this RC plane stuff and I was wondering what type of lipo charger I should get. I am planning on my first plane being the tiny trainor and even though that might not require a powerful battery charger, I want a charger that is safe, future proof, and under $50. I am probably not going to go too crazy in the future with big planes and 6 cell batteries. Can someone please give me some options? Right now I am leaning towards some chargers by SkyRC (I will link some links below) but those are only about 50-60 watts and I was wondering if that was enough?


https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MZ1ZZ7Z/?tag=lstir-20
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00L5YBJI2/?tag=lstir-20

I am fairly new to this too and I have the older version of the first one you linked, (it doesn’t have a built in ac/dc converter) and I’m really happy with it. It may not be super fast but it’s good enough for me. I’ve never used a parallel board as of yet..

 

[Scrivner]

I got into a RC a few weeks ago and on the advice of several forum members I got the SkyRC charger that you linked to. It has been fine for me so far. It does take between 40 minutes to an hour to charge my 3s 850maH battery (running the charger at 0.8A).

 

[jack10525]

Get the 1st one. It has the power adapter built into it. I have the 2nd one listed. The 2nd one is fine too. I've used it for at least 4 years now. Just has a separate power adapter.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MZ1ZZ7Z/?tag=lstir-20

 

[Merv]

I'm a big fan of the iMax. I started with the built in power supply. With 1 or 2 they worked very well. As I bought more, because I wanted to charge more batteries, all of the power cords became a bit much. I switched to ones with out a power supply & bought a single, larger, 12V power supply. Now I run all of my chargers from this one power supply.

 

[Scrivner]

@Verdigo, one thing I forgot to mention. The SkyRC iMax does not come with a XT-30 adaptor. It has an XT-60. The batteries I ordered for my Tiny Trainer had an XT-30 plug so I had to order an XT-30 to XT-60 adapter:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XDTJJLV/?tag=lstir-20

 

[TheFlyingBrit]

I don't know how much they retail for where you are but worth checking out

 

[TheFlyingBrit]

@Verdigo, one thing I forgot to mention. The SkyRC iMax does not come with a XT-30 adaptor. It has an XT-60. The batteries I ordered for my Tiny Trainer had an XT-30 plug so I had to order an XT-30 to XT-60 adapter:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XDTJJLV/?tag=lstir-20

I just made an XT60 to XT30 converter just a bit of basic soldering really, cost - just a couple of connectors (which I already had in my spares box) and short lengths of wire.