How many cycles charge on an icharger before it breaks?

[mvly]

I know a lot of people are interested in battery cycles, but what about the charger life cycles?

I have a icharger 1010b+ Lipo charger. Anyone have any issues with them? i.e. breaking down after so many cycles? I run mines at max i.e. 300W charging every charge every day. It stays at 300W for about 2 hours before it it dials back when it finishes balancing all the cells.

Any numbers? My chargers are at around 200 cycles now, pretty much the same as my batteries.

 

[amigafan2003]

They are tested for 50000 cycles.

More likely they'll die from age related component degradation rather than excessive cycles.

 

[scoot]

....it it dials back when it finishes balancing all the cells..

That is normal for the balance charging cycle. As to your question, you might get a better idea from the RC Group forum where these are used extensively.

 

[liveforphysics]

They generally seem to fail not from flaws in the circuit, but from things like heatsink bolts loosening from heat cycles, or caps breaking off the board from vibration or cold solder joints, or just cold solder joints in other parts etc.

I would imagine if you wanted one to last a very long time, and you're skilled at electronics work, pulling it apart and touching all the heavy leaded components solder joints with a hot iron to ensure they are properly flowed, torquing all fasteners correctly with a high-temp loctite, and adding a dab of silicone to mechanically secure various components that stand up off the board would go a long way towards ensuring a long life.

 

[grindz145]

I have around 100 cycles on mind (remember it's like a 6-12 hour cycle on my bike too and I beat the shit of it throwing it in a backpack all the time. I can't same I'm disappointed with it. **knocks on wood**

Hey where's this come from

 

[DAND214]

My 206b lasted almost a year. not that many cycles and it just quit.

Lucky it has a 1 year warranty from EPBUDDY. No quetions asked just send old one back and had a new one in a week.

Want it to last a long time? Don't use it, it will last for ever!
Dan

 

[neptronix]

I only use mine for balancing now, but i put about 70 cycles on it early on.
I've used it for all sorts of various things too.

Always babied it by running it significantly under the watt limit.

 

[ZOMGVTEK]

The only thing I ever really use mine for anymore is cycling LiPo. I blew it up instantly when I first got it from over voltage, but Junsi was key in pointing out the parts to replace in that case and it was back up and running a few days later. Having that kind of support from someone that KNOWS the charger well enough to easily diagnose it over the internet is great. He even said he would fix it if I sent it in.

I should note, that it's a bit disappointing how theres next to no overhead in the ratings. The input voltage was exceeded by about 0.5V and the charger blew. It makes me assume the engineers weren't terribly conservative when they wrote the specs. Dialing down the power a bit might not be a bad idea. I do have about 20-30 days of near 24/7 discharging at full rated power on it without event after the initial failure.

Keep the charger clean and cool, with input voltage always well within range, and hardware secure. It should last a very long time.

 

[GrayKard]

My 306b is still running great. I use it at the 30amps almost every charge cycle and I bulk balance charge 6 bricks at a time. I have well over 300 charge cycles on it too.

Gary