34 replies to this topic

[CrashnBurn]

I see a lot of people here use the Nano-Tech Batteries. How do they compare with Thunder Power, Hyperion etc... other then the much lower price and are they consistent from one to the next.

Edited by CrashnBurn, 09 August 2012 - 08:34 PM.

[AlPackin]

I only have experience with the 2S and 3S 850mAh nano-tech and I like them just fine. I have 5 or 6 of each and have charged them a LOT of times with no problem or change in performance. I have no experience with the others.

[Gravity Thief]

I'm currently using Turnigy Nano-Tech 3S 5000mah 65-130C batteries on my setup. Work very well.
Probably just as good as Thunder Power, if not better, especially when you factor in cost.

Here's a cool vid to check out:

[CrashnBurn]

Thanks for the reply.

The phrase "You pay for what you get" comes to mind when the cost of the nano-techs are half if not more than what other brands are.

[eyesonsky]

I also use nano-tech 3S 2200 without problems.
Zippy compact are as good.

[eFinger]

I use nano-tech 3300. Puffed one last week after an accident in a carpark, hit the cement roof and went crashing onto the cement floor (the 4 props was slightly annoying, the 2 arms was an unfortunate surprise the next day, the puffed battery was just plain shitty) Maybe a better battery might not have puffed but for a little over $20 I'm not too upset about it.

[Gravity Thief]

Thanks for the reply.

The phrase "You pay for what you get" comes to mind when the cost of the nano-techs are half if not more than what other brands are.

Think cost/performance wise, nano-tech are really good.
I'm very happy with mine !

[ddavus]

Have been running two 2200mAh, 3s for several months. One developed a high resistnace cell in 5 flights. It continues to run, but flight time is very limited. The other battery continues to run without any problems. I may buy another?

[carbo]

I have only 1 3S 2200 mAh nano-tech. Voltage drops quicker under load than with my standard Turnigy lipos, there is some swelling after flights and internal resistance has risen from 4/4/5 mOhm/cell to 6/6/7 after 6 flights.

[SeismicCWave]

I see a lot of people here use the Nano-Tech Batteries. How do they compare with Thunder Power, Hyperion etc... other then the much lower price and are they consistent from one to the next.

Thunder Power has the highest energy density. They are also the most expensive. Hyperions are not very good. They are not very durable. Nano Tech and Zippy's are some of the better value battery packs.

[xtrmtrk]

Seismic, you sound like you have some experience here. Do you have any test results you could point us to?

[dankers]

Thanks for the reply.

The phrase "You pay for what you get" comes to mind when the cost of the nano-techs are half if not more than what other brands are.

The phrase "You pay for what you get" is a marketing trick, it works really well on people that are ill informed about any details except price. The more knowledge you have the more it does not work and often things are plain funny.

Hobbyking lie about the Nano-techs themselves but they do that a lot for many things they sell, however batteries is one of the biggest bullshit parts of RC, the reality is there are only a few factories making RC LiPos and many places source the exact same parts from the same place. If there is one part of RC where you pay for the label it's Lipos.

None of the common RC brands have their own factory, many lie about it which is a shame but all use OEMs. Back in the day 90% of the high end brands used Enerland cells, ThunderPower, PolyQuest, and Hyperions all did but to read the claims, you would think there was some big competition going on, not that they were selling the exact same parts with a different sticker. When ThunderPower changed from Enerland Cells to Chinese Cells, they were still ThunderPower but they were a totally different product from a different company in a different country, it's branding.

I used to be up to date with batteries and their sources, it was fun detective work. Over the last few years I have lost track though.

Even the Nano-techs are just a sticker and a brand, there is no guarantee at all they come from the same factory as the others in the range, there were claims that the factory that made the Rhino cells actually became the Nano-Tech line, Rhino's are great batteries, so why not change the sticker, add "nano" in there and make more money off them? True? No idea but I could well believe it.

Batteries like LiPo are well known chemistry, there is a great deal of research going on at the University level in to Lithum based cells but I guarantee you if people start claiming "new formula" or other shit to produce magic, they are lying to you. If you are paying attention to LiPos you will see that the higher discharge packs are also getting to be far less energy dense; they are much heavier than the earlier 12C lipos for the same capacity. One easy way to do this is to use larger interconnects and larger cathodes to handle larger current, these both add weight. The higher discharge / charge current capabilities also degrades the pack faster. There are trade offs between weight and performance, chemistry and the laws of physics still apply, alas there is no magic to keep the weight the same and increase discharge rate, you are going to have to pay for it in weight on the same chemistry. There are many types of Lithium battery chemistry however, the RC hobby only uses two types of chemistry right now, Lithium Polymer and Li-FePO_4.

Out of everything in RC, batteries are the last thing you should judge by the price and the shady marketing, the best way is to research and see what other people think that use them are without an agenda. The other dirty LiPo secret is you are only going to get 70 flights off a Lipo anyway before it loses 20% to 40% of it's performance, some are less than this.

The downside about learning about batteries, if you realize how much utter bullshit and lies there are in it on the RC side, however it's also understandable as all you are ever buying is a bunch of claims and a sticker; it's not something you can take apart and look at so it's not going to change. The worse indicator however is price, often it just means the company spends more on marketing with sponsored pilots and large ads in magazines and on popular websites. Additionally a 35C 2000mAh pack from one brand could be a totally different battery and OEM from the same brand's 35C 1800mAh, this happens.

[dankers]

Seismic, you sound like you have some experience here. Do you have any test results you could point us to?

On RCGroups there is a whole forum dedicated to batteries and chargers, there was at one point a dedicated bunch of guys that used to run batteries through real tests and produce the data, they also used to have fun tracking down where each cell was manufactured. It used to be a place where all the batteries vendors stayed well away from as they would get called on their BS very quickly.

[Gravity Thief]

Some very good info pointed out in the above posts !

[carbo]

Be careful, I am getting a virus warning for the wanmabattery site.

[BayAreaCrasher]

Good points Dave. I saw the video about how batteries are manufactured and I find it truly hard to believe that there would be a ton of separate factories going through that process. Seems like an expensive undertaking.

Which batteries do you fly Dankers?

[dankers]

I saw the video about how batteries are manufactured and I find it truly hard to believe that there would be a ton of separate factories going through that process. Seems like an expensive undertaking.

When I looked at it, there were 6 factories that made RC LiPo batteries in the world, 4 of them in China (so a good price) and one of them sucked (ThunderSKy). So there were basically 3 factories that all the vendors used, this might have changed but it will not have changed drastically.

Which batteries do you fly Dankers?

I have several different types, most mine are all old now and for models I never really fly much, they need changing really. I look at Hobbyking these days as the price is the best, but I also do it knowing that it is somewhat of a gamble and I don't believe the hype.

It's a great question as the last two packs I bought were this and this as I wanted to see if I could save some weight as I did not need the discharge. The 25C are shit, not even close. The 45C are fine, but even at a 1C discharge a 2000mAh pack (1C discharge is how capacity is measured), however no big deal.

The battery I have most of (I have 8) is this it's for a T-Rex 500 which I have two models of and also I use them in a 12S config on a Raptor 50E, they are actually 3300mAh packs and also handle 90 amps easily and they are a good weight. They out perform this which is close to double the price, heavier and I did have two of those, both of them swelled when on the Raptor 50E.

[CrashnBurn]

It is like TV manufacturers, there are few companies that make the screen matrix and everybody puts their name on it. If you have an established brand name the more $$ they charge even though that company may only own the naming rights.

Edited by CrashnBurn, 11 August 2012 - 12:38 AM.

[dezent]

On my helis i need lots of C to discharge a 6S 5000mah in 4.5 minutes,
on my quad i do not need this at all, i use Zippy 3000 & 4000mah 20-25C
and lipos are not even warm after a flight. (1.6kg, Gaui 500x, Tiger MT2216-10 900kv)

I have a hard time figuring out why anyone would need 80C rated lipo for a quad
if its not for charging very quickly, a 20C 3000mah lipo does not have less power
than a 100C 3000mah lipo if you stay within the 3S 3000mah 20C.

[HelliYea]

My experiences with packs from flying helis (harder on packs than quads) is

Rhinos - great packs. Mine have had more than 250 cycles with IR for all cells under 10 and still well matched cells
Turnigy - also very good
Zippy - not so great - higher IR with the same use as the Turnigys and the cells no longer match IR
Nano Tech - worst of the bunch - puffy, high, mismatched IR
Thunder Power - best of the bunch (and most expensive) - well matched IR which stays low

Most important is to treat packs well - adhere to the 80% rule, store packs at the storage charge level (never fully charged or discharged) and you will get longer life charging at 1C, even if the packs allow higher charge rates

I now use TP packs for a heli, but have purchased 40C Turnigys for my quads.