Is my charger OVERCHARGING my LiPo?

[shorza]

My charge usually charges fine, but occasionally has a 25.22V reading for my 6s lipo before I get scared and turn it off.
This is on 'Balance' charge, so is it just balancing the low cells or is there a fault with my charger? and why doesn't it turn itself off when the cells all reach 4.20V?

 

[shorza]

Now it's gone up to 22.23V.
I'm going to turn it off now.

 

[gensem]

Now it's gone up to 22.23V.
I'm going to turn it off now.

4.2 fully charged cells is 25.2v for a 6s pack... thats right for RC lipos... you might as well try to set i to 4.10v per cell to have a greater battery life.

 

[shorza]

So I don't need to worry about the extra 0.02V it's at and climbing?

 

[gensem]

Im far from being a Lipo expert but I dont think you are going to have trouble...
anyway if you can set the charger to do 24,6v(4.1v per cell) instead of 25.2v that would be better.

 

[shorza]

Cheers

 

[itchynackers]

With my turnigy charger, if I start with a 7 amp charge rate, it will charge to 4.10v/cell. If I start with a 4 amp rate, it will charge to 4.12V/cell. This is because the charger circuitry is set to stop charging when the current hits C/10, or 7/10 amps, or 4/10 amps, etc...

 

[neptronix]

Some cells on cheaper chargers can go up quite a bit past their max while the charge is happening. These chargers don't stop pumping amps into the battery when the balancing discharger starts.

That's normal - for the charger.
If you can set the voltage to 4.15 or 4.10v/cell ( aka 'lilo' setting ), that will be better for the batteries overall.

 

[Ypedal]

It is best to keep the cells at or below 4.20v but nothing bad happens even if they go slightly over.. I have taken turnigy cells to 5v plus and no drama

 

[thewmatusmoloki]

I'm no expert either but just an observation from watching mine.
When in balance mode, if you watch the individual cell voltage, one might be at , say 4.17v and another has gone up
to 4.22v the charger then reads 0.0a , as yours does in the pic and its seems to go into discharger mode for the one high cell, after that
it goes back to charging the lower cell at 0.1 amp.

It alarmed me at first, but when i left it on for as long as it took to finish, all the cells ended up at 4.19v

 

[Hillhater]

.. I have taken turnigy cells to 5v plus and no drama

Really ! .. I thought that was "firestarter" territory !

 

[wesnewell]

My charge usually charges fine, but occasionally has a 25.22V reading for my 6s lipo before I get scared and turn it off.

That's the charge voltage while charging. Don't worry about it. Charging my 10s packs to 95% the charge voltage goes over 42V, but when it stops charging the pack voltage is always under 42V. And fwiw, I don't have a cheap charger. Hyperion 1420i.

 

[theRealFury]

You also have to take into account voltage drop over the cables and connectors between your lipo pack and your charger. The charger doesnt really care about the exact input voltage to the batteries when the balance leads are connected because it varies the input voltage and current as needed but monitors the single cell voltages. my charger (charger 106b+) set to charge my 6S2P pack at 8 amps with a termination cell voltage of 4.15 (24.9v for pack voltage) regularly goes over 25v input at the end of the charge but the cells never go over 4.15v per cell.

Actually thinking about it technically, if the voltage the charger input into your lipo pack was set at exactly the HVC limit of your cells ( such as 4.15x6 = 24.9) then the charger would be unable to send current to the battery to balance the cells, the charger would need to raise the input voltage slightly in order for any current to flow. so dont sweat it guys

 

[shorza]

Thanks for all the replies.
This is the most helpful forum ever.

 

[Ypedal]

Part 1 of 4.. you might find interesting.

[youtube]hg_8sVXxIsw[/youtube]

Part 2 :

[youtube]o5QHEO6wFm0[/youtube]

Part 3 :
[youtube]yPIzD0PhHdU[/youtube]

Part 4 :
[youtube]5F3hWc0x1B8[/youtube]