LiFe PO4 Packs

Hello Phil, I've been using LiFePO4 batteries for about two years without any "incidents". Like you, I couldn't get to find out just what the true capacity of the battery was after charging. Last year I changed my old charger for an IMAX 6, this gave encouraging numbers while charging, and has lots of facilities for maintaining all sorts of battery types. I was using Eneloop NiMH 2000 mAh four cell packs, I found that I kept getting the occasional "Brown Out" when using Spektrum receivers, strangely never had the same problem with either Orange or LemonRX receivers. All the glitching stopped when I changed over to LiFePO4 packs. The only problem I've had so far was caused by inadvertently leaving a couple of models switched on for about a week. The batteries couldn't be charged as the smart circuitry of the charger wouldn't allow a charge to start due to the low voltage. The other worrying thing was that the battery packs had puffed up. I put both batteries in a safe place outside and left them for a week. Nothing had changed re the puffing so I tried to revive the packs by setting the charger to the NiMH mode and charging gently at 100 mA rate. Once the battery voltage had gone over 2.5V/Cell, I switched over to the standard LiFePO4 program on the charger, both packs accepted a charge, but because they were still puffed, I stored them outside. After a week or so, I cycled both packs three times, the nominal capacity of the packs was 1100mAh, the final capacities shown on the charger were 1039mAh for one and 1065mAh for the other. Strangely, the puffing is decreasing with time, and now both packs are more or less back to their original shape. I expect that charging a pack using the wrong program is not to be recommended, but it was done in a safe area and was constantly supervised, very boring but was a good excuse to drink tea and eat chocolate digestives. Both packs have been tested under load, neither has failed, they re-charged with no problems and are still fully charged after a couple of weeks.

Hi Brian. I have used a similar method to get a few Lipos going again. I charged them on i306B at Pb settings for about 5 mins outside too! Then placed them on normal balance charge and they came up again. They have lost some of their umpf a bit maybe but still useable.

I have switched to LiFe on some of my models so the packs can be left in safely and for onboard charging. However, I have found that a LiPo with the same capacity and in conjunction with a regulator (set at 6.0v) uses less milliamps than a LiFe set up or appears to be.

Virtually all my models run either on Life (directly wired) or Lipo where I have used HV servos. This cuts out the need for regulators.