Please verify that I'm not killing my LiPo batteries

[Skadar]

I'm new to R/C ground vehicles and LiPo batteries. I have the following:

Thunder T-610 charger
2 x Gens Ace 2-cell 7.4V 30C 5300 mAh batteries

I've put each battery through about 4 cycles each with no issues. However, I was just charging one of the batteries when I noticed that even though I believe my T-610 charger is on the right settings (7.4V 5.0amp 2 cells balance), I noticed that the "End Voltage" on the display was predicting 8.4V. At the end of charging, the battery reads 8.4V, and the individual cells 4.2V each.

Is that correct? Shouldn't the battery be charging to 7.4V and not 8.4V? I don't really get what's going on.

Thanks for any help.

 

[bikerpyro]

yes a 7.4 lipo will charge to 8.4. There is no issue with that. just watch your charge rate, not all packs should be charged at 5.0 amp

 

[j-bird]

If you're not at a comp or Gtg set it at 1 or 2 amp and slow charge it (trickle charge &balance) it'll help make ur packs last longer so I've heard and I've been running my same 5 packs for almost 2 yrs now ... Balancing and keeping them properly balanced in between runs is critical


J-bird

 

[Trubble]

Nope, you're fine, 8.4 is right where you wanna be.

 

[SMR 510RR]

7.4 is nominal pack voltage

8.4 is peak voltage

and 6.0 is the lowest safe voltage

Check out the stickies at the top of the electronics section, should have all the info you need about lipos (and everything else) in there.

 

[Charlie-III]

watch your charge rate, not all packs should be charged at 5.0 amp

Since it's a 5300mah pack, a "1C" charge rate (which is considered pretty safe for just about ANY LiPO) would be 5.3A, thus a 5A charge is fine.8)8)

All the other posts basically are correct, a 2S LiPO will charge to a higher voltage than the "listed nominal voltage", so you are fine.;-)

 

[Skadar]

Awesome. Thanks so much for the help.

I'll read through the stickies. There is a lot to learn!

 

[GMtech1]

Thanks for this info, I'm getting ready to charge my Lipo's for the first time this weekend and probably would have had this same question.