motor batteries

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rcsoar4fun - 28 Jul 2003 02:46 GMT

I have a GP wildcat on the way and I need to purchase some batteries. I
need 2 6 or 7 cell packs. I would like to get 2 sets (4 total) at a
resonable price. Obviously I am not expecting record performance, but
decent performance and durabilty are important. I have looked at the cheap
ones on Tower's site, like the Duratrax and Trinity packs. I also found
these on ebay: http://www.batteryspace.com/product.asp?0=255&1=275&3=249

Are any of the cheap batteries better than others? If not I guess go with
the bigger mah rating?

thanks-
Kristopher

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EEWK - 28 Jul 2003 05:05 GMT

batteries are just containers for chemical reactions. Mah is the amount of
energy a battery can put out, but you need to pay attention to the rate it
produces a charge at, the Voltage. if comparing 7.2 volts to 7.2 volts, a
battery pack that has 1500 Mah is worse than 1900 Mah, the more amp hours,
the more capacity for power.

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rcsoar4fun - 28 Jul 2003 05:33 GMT

True, but "cheap" batteries are notorious for the actual capacity being a
lot less than rated capacity, hence my question.

Kristopher

> batteries are just containers for chemical reactions. Mah is the amount of
> energy a battery can put out, but you need to pay attention to the rate it
> produces a charge at, the Voltage. if comparing 7.2 volts to 7.2 volts, a
> battery pack that has 1500 Mah is worse than 1900 Mah, the more amp hours,
> the more capacity for power.

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Rob - 28 Jul 2003 13:08 GMT

I've been buying receiver packs from onlybatteries.com on Ebay.
They've been very good with the exception of shipping time from Canada
(UPS's weirdness - not the vendor). There's too many variables in
motor batteries to list 'em all here, but in general, if comparing
apples to apples, the more you spend, the better quality you'll get.
Personally, I buy the cheapest I can find and take that into account
if something fails.

Minor attaboy for Tower - I bought 2 Hydrimax receiver packs in
separate purchases last year. They both failed. I gave Tower a
'heads up' letter, with copies of my orders, just in case they started
getting irate letters from pilots with brand new heaps of balsa
littering the airfields, and they sent me 2 new packs! Huh.....

The race-car guys are using NiMH packs now, but I don't know how well
they hold up in the high-load environment of a boat...

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drobie - 28 Aug 2003 19:40 GMT

I race regularly and now run only GP 3300 Nimh's. I don't think those batts
you pointed to are any kind of a bargain. ("The bitterness of low quality
remains, long after the sweetness of low price has departed.")

I get mine from http://www.battlepack.com $4.50 a cell. His pack price
comes to $32.40, but they are going to be infinitely better than the $23
garbage your link pointed too. Higher voltage and much more run time.

You can pay more and get high voltage matched cells, but the word is that GP
is regularly shipping full cases of 1.15-1.16 cells measured when discharged
at 30 amps. Those are numbers that people were, (and still are) paying $10
a cell for.

You said you were a novice so some of this may be greek to you. Feel free
to ask some more via email.

Doug

> I have a GP wildcat on the way and I need to purchase some batteries. I
> need 2 6 or 7 cell packs. I would like to get 2 sets (4 total) at a
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
> thanks-
> Kristopher

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Model Forum / Radio Controlled / Water Models / August 2003

motor batteries