Breaking in LiPos Necessary?

[kwe]

I'm probably going to get LiPos soon and I was wandering if it is helpful to break in new LiPos by putting them through a few charge-discharge cycles on my charger before running them. Is it helpful and good for the batteries? If you think I should put them through a few cycles, should I charge/discharge them at 1C or lower like .5C?

The help is appreciated, thanks guys!

[pavmentsurfer]

According to Tom at SPC, all your doing is wasting useable battery cycles. I have never cycled lipos before but when I bought my new 50c spcs i planned to run them in a brushless boat so I thought it would be a good idea to cycle them a few times forst. Tom said don't bother. And he knows what he's talking about and I trust him.

[BEN_]

It would be a good idea to balance charge them and check each cell's voltage after the first few runs.

This will tell you if you got a bad pack right away so you can exchange it before warranties or return policies expire.

[iamsuperbleeder]

yeah like mentioned, I don't think it's necessary. but, I have noticed that after about 7 or 8 cycles of a brand new battery, the charge and balance times seem to come down from how long they took when they were brand new

[BEN_]

Forgot to mention that sometimes a pack needs to be balanced on its first charge because the cells were not matched up when they were assembled.

This may not be as much of an issue with higher quality brands of batteries but if you are buying the cheap stuff beware.

[kwe]

Yeah... I'll be going with the cheap stuff and I will ALWAYS balance charge.

Thanks for the help.

[ksb51rl]

Always ask your battery manufacturer this question.