monkeyracer
I wanna be Dave
First, to start off, I am in no way shape or form affiliated with Blue LiPo or Hobbypartz.com at all. I am just another hobbyist that decided to try out an inexpensive alternative to the LiPos that are on the market today. Hobbypartz.com is an advertiser on this site, so they help to support this site. I actually found out about them through this site and their ad banner.
Here's my little review of these batteries:
I ordered some batteries from hobbypartz.com on 1/20 (wed night). They shipped 1/21 (thurs), and I got them today (mon). If I ordered them tues, or early wednesday though, I might have had them before the weekend... Either way, still way quicker, and less expensive than HK.
For those that don't know, hobbypartz.com is owned by the same company that runs nitrorcx.com, xheli.com, and nitroplanes.com, however they offer $4.95 flat rate shipping on anything ordered through HP. They are placing themselves as a competitor to HK in the US in a few different products.
I ordered up 2x 2200mAh 3S 11.1V 25C Batteries which ended up at $38.85 shipped to my door (for 2 batteries). Comparable Hobby King Turnigy Batteries would have been $42.10 total for the International (Registered) Air Mail service, (6 to 39 days in transit.)
I couldn't find a better deal anywhere else on a comparable battery including eBay.
These were packaged decently; each battery was wrapped in bubble wrap, and then in an ESD safe bag. After that though, they were left to roam and bounce around in the box all the way from California on over the Rocky Mountains to my door. They arrived safe, but they could have maybe shipped them in a smaller box, with maybe a little filler paper or something to keep them from bouncing around.
The box shipping label showed $7.80, (but they could have fit these in a $4.95 flat rate USPS priority box) so they are definitely losing a little profit from shipping. I plan to order some more soon before they raise the prices to compensate. (They may not do that, but you never know.)
Some guys on other forums say the website specs are a little off from actual specs...
Dimensions on the website say 24.384mm x 35mm x 103mm. Actual dimensions are 24.5mm x 35.2mm x 99.1mm; so pretty dang close to actual dimensions. These are actually shorter than what is listed, so they probably included the wire in the 103mm measurement.
The website says weight is 152g, but actual weight with the connector is 187g, and without the connector is 180g (Cut as close to the connector as I could.) To compare, the comparable Turnigy is listed as 188g, where as the FlightPower is listed as 173g, not sure of actual specs on those batteries though.
The other specs listed seemed to be for a different battery:
Of course it's nominal voltage is 11.1v, not 11.4v, and the capacity on the label is 2200mAh, making the max continuous current 55A, and max burst 110A. So maybe the 152g and other specs were supposed to be for a different battery, the 2000mAh verson maybe?
Either way the website should be close to accurate, so hopefully they update their site soon. To HP's defense, they just picked up the Blue LiPo line, and recently listed about 100 new batteries, so making sure each and every one is accurate might take a bit before they get to update the specs.
As far as voltage, it's spot on:
3.85 / 3.85 / 3.85 / 11.56 for battery one... perfect balance
3.86 / 3.86 / 3.86 / 11.59 for battery two... again, perfect balance.
This one has a 12ga wire, and is about 90mm or so in length before the connector. It's also got a JST-XH balance connector, sometimes called "Align" and works perfect for my B6-ish charger. Adapters should be easy to find, of course, and they work with the blinky balancers as well.
They also come with 4mm bullet connectors, which are useless for me. On my vehicles everything is Deans, so the bullets were the first to go. (Definitely make sure you clip the wires one at a time; don't short out the battery accidentally when you clip the connector off...)
The labels and warning sheets are nice, clear, and easy to read in plain english (no crazy engrish here.) Although there are a few of the "do nots" that most of us will have to do. ('Do no discharge LiPo'... well then what do we use these for? I know it means not to use a charger's discharge function, but there are "storage" functions on most "smart" lipo chargers that are perfectly safe for these...)
The shrink wrap is well done. Some other "chinese" lipos I've had have had shrink wrap that looked like it was done by a retarded monkey. The Blue LiPo's shrink wrap is centered and cut well, and look like they should be exactly that way. I may end up "waterproofing" the battery soon anyways with new tape and shrink wrap, but I'm reluctant to lose the unique translucent blue shrink wrap.
Overall, so far, the outward quality seems to be excellent. They are balanced perfectly, and got to me way quicker than HK, and for way less than the TP or Other lipos. Only downside was the weight was more than advertised by a significant amount, but for me, it's going in a hefty Scale Truck, so weight is not as big a deal as it is for plane/heli guys. For us Crawlers, the weight can actually help with weight distribution.
I plan on emailing HP about this thread to see if maybe they will update their specs on their batteries to be closer to the true weight with a connector though.
Once I get them swapped to deans, and charged up, I'll be able to test them in the truck, and will post a follow up review, as well as some pictures in the next few days.
I haven't been able to confirm if these are safe to charge at 2C like the comparable Flightmax cells (which these are likely the same cells, just rebranded) so for the first charge, I am only going to do 1C. Having 2C would be nice though for comp days being able to charge up in 30 mins or less.
Overall I give this battery a 9.5 out of 10 so far. The .5 was subtracted because I had to clip off a useless connector, and the specs were slightly wrong on the website. Minor things, sure, but they detract from giving a perfect 10. The price is definitely a huge reason to consider this line of batteries, but we'll see if my rating stays that high after a couple uses...
Please feel free to post your comments and experiences with the Blue LiPo brand batteries. These seem to be a good, inexpensive alternative to some of the other batteries on the market. But with the "you get what you pay for" saying, do these actually apply to that? Or are they just a great deal?
Here's my little review of these batteries:
I ordered some batteries from hobbypartz.com on 1/20 (wed night). They shipped 1/21 (thurs), and I got them today (mon). If I ordered them tues, or early wednesday though, I might have had them before the weekend... Either way, still way quicker, and less expensive than HK.
For those that don't know, hobbypartz.com is owned by the same company that runs nitrorcx.com, xheli.com, and nitroplanes.com, however they offer $4.95 flat rate shipping on anything ordered through HP. They are placing themselves as a competitor to HK in the US in a few different products.
I ordered up 2x 2200mAh 3S 11.1V 25C Batteries which ended up at $38.85 shipped to my door (for 2 batteries). Comparable Hobby King Turnigy Batteries would have been $42.10 total for the International (Registered) Air Mail service, (6 to 39 days in transit.)
I couldn't find a better deal anywhere else on a comparable battery including eBay.
These were packaged decently; each battery was wrapped in bubble wrap, and then in an ESD safe bag. After that though, they were left to roam and bounce around in the box all the way from California on over the Rocky Mountains to my door. They arrived safe, but they could have maybe shipped them in a smaller box, with maybe a little filler paper or something to keep them from bouncing around.
The box shipping label showed $7.80, (but they could have fit these in a $4.95 flat rate USPS priority box) so they are definitely losing a little profit from shipping. I plan to order some more soon before they raise the prices to compensate. (They may not do that, but you never know.)
Some guys on other forums say the website specs are a little off from actual specs...
Dimensions on the website say 24.384mm x 35mm x 103mm. Actual dimensions are 24.5mm x 35.2mm x 99.1mm; so pretty dang close to actual dimensions. These are actually shorter than what is listed, so they probably included the wire in the 103mm measurement.
The website says weight is 152g, but actual weight with the connector is 187g, and without the connector is 180g (Cut as close to the connector as I could.) To compare, the comparable Turnigy is listed as 188g, where as the FlightPower is listed as 173g, not sure of actual specs on those batteries though.
The other specs listed seemed to be for a different battery:
hobbypartz said:
Of course it's nominal voltage is 11.1v, not 11.4v, and the capacity on the label is 2200mAh, making the max continuous current 55A, and max burst 110A. So maybe the 152g and other specs were supposed to be for a different battery, the 2000mAh verson maybe?
Either way the website should be close to accurate, so hopefully they update their site soon. To HP's defense, they just picked up the Blue LiPo line, and recently listed about 100 new batteries, so making sure each and every one is accurate might take a bit before they get to update the specs.
As far as voltage, it's spot on:
3.85 / 3.85 / 3.85 / 11.56 for battery one... perfect balance
3.86 / 3.86 / 3.86 / 11.59 for battery two... again, perfect balance.
This one has a 12ga wire, and is about 90mm or so in length before the connector. It's also got a JST-XH balance connector, sometimes called "Align" and works perfect for my B6-ish charger. Adapters should be easy to find, of course, and they work with the blinky balancers as well.
They also come with 4mm bullet connectors, which are useless for me. On my vehicles everything is Deans, so the bullets were the first to go. (Definitely make sure you clip the wires one at a time; don't short out the battery accidentally when you clip the connector off...)
The labels and warning sheets are nice, clear, and easy to read in plain english (no crazy engrish here.) Although there are a few of the "do nots" that most of us will have to do. ('Do no discharge LiPo'... well then what do we use these for? I know it means not to use a charger's discharge function, but there are "storage" functions on most "smart" lipo chargers that are perfectly safe for these...)
The shrink wrap is well done. Some other "chinese" lipos I've had have had shrink wrap that looked like it was done by a retarded monkey. The Blue LiPo's shrink wrap is centered and cut well, and look like they should be exactly that way. I may end up "waterproofing" the battery soon anyways with new tape and shrink wrap, but I'm reluctant to lose the unique translucent blue shrink wrap.
Overall, so far, the outward quality seems to be excellent. They are balanced perfectly, and got to me way quicker than HK, and for way less than the TP or Other lipos. Only downside was the weight was more than advertised by a significant amount, but for me, it's going in a hefty Scale Truck, so weight is not as big a deal as it is for plane/heli guys. For us Crawlers, the weight can actually help with weight distribution.
I plan on emailing HP about this thread to see if maybe they will update their specs on their batteries to be closer to the true weight with a connector though.
Once I get them swapped to deans, and charged up, I'll be able to test them in the truck, and will post a follow up review, as well as some pictures in the next few days.
I haven't been able to confirm if these are safe to charge at 2C like the comparable Flightmax cells (which these are likely the same cells, just rebranded) so for the first charge, I am only going to do 1C. Having 2C would be nice though for comp days being able to charge up in 30 mins or less.
Overall I give this battery a 9.5 out of 10 so far. The .5 was subtracted because I had to clip off a useless connector, and the specs were slightly wrong on the website. Minor things, sure, but they detract from giving a perfect 10. The price is definitely a huge reason to consider this line of batteries, but we'll see if my rating stays that high after a couple uses...
Please feel free to post your comments and experiences with the Blue LiPo brand batteries. These seem to be a good, inexpensive alternative to some of the other batteries on the market. But with the "you get what you pay for" saying, do these actually apply to that? Or are they just a great deal?
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