Since LiPo battery packs have been used in RC vehicles, performance levels have jumped up significantly. LiPo batteries have a lot of advantages such as being light weight, having high power output, high charge rates, low internal resistance and more. However, there are some disadvantages too. In particular LiPo batteries only perform their best for a short period of time relatively speaking.
How do LiPo Batteries Age?
Age of Battery Pack
LiPo batteries age for a number of reasons. One of the most obvious reasons a LiPo battery will age is due to time. Typically you can expect a LiPo battery to perform its best for the first year of use. The battery has an average lifespan of about 3 years. At the end of the 3 year mark, it doesn’t mean that the LiPo is completely useless, but it does mean that the performance of the battery is not going to be the same as when it was new.
Cycle Count
Another reason a LiPo battery pack ages is due to cycle count. The more times you charge and discharge a battery pack, the more wear that battery will experience. A cycle is considered a cycle when ever you are discharging and charging the battery. It doesn’t matter if you are only charging the battery pack 20% from 80% charged. Expect your high performance LiPo battery pack to provide about 500 cycles on average. After this point, performance drops off.
Battery Maintenance and Care
Here are a bunch of points that can help you avoid aging your battery quicker.
Maximum Discharge or Run Time
Using 100% of the packs capacity will significantly degrade the lifespan. What you want to do instead is time your run so that you end up with at least 20% of the batteries capacity remaining. Doing so will allow you to reach maximum lifespan of the battery pack.
Maximum Discharge Rate
Your batteries will get very hot if you plan to discharge the packs at the exact specification they are rated at. For example drawing 100A from a battery that can support a 100A load. What you must do instead is give yourself at least a minimum 50% headroom to a recommended 100%. This would be a battery that can support a minimum 150A or 200A recommended. Moving up to a pack that can support additional load will decrease the temperatures and increase lifespan.
Storing a LiPo Battery
When there is no plan to use your LiPo batteries for than 10 days, it is recommended to store them correctly. Not placing your batteries in to storage mode will significantly impact the lifespan of the packs.
The recommended storage voltage for a LiPo battery pack is 3.80 to 3.85 volts. This voltage is a resting voltage. Battery capacity will be approximately 40-45% at the correct storage voltage. Many chargers on the market are able to automatically bring the LiPo batteries to this storage voltage. If not, you will have to do this manually.
Leaving your battery pack at 100% charged is one of the worst things you can do to the battery when you are not using it. At the same time leaving the battery near empty is also far less than ideal. Be certain to leave your battery pack at the storage voltage specification to maximize your LiPo battery lifespan.
Operating Temperatures
Temperature in any electronic component is important. Operating a LiPo battery pack outside 140F or 60C will decrease the lifespan. Make certain to stay under these specifications for maximum reliability.
Summary and Conclusion
The 3 main issues we can face for battery packs aging is:
- Age of Battery pack in years. Typical lifespan of a High Performance LiPo battery is 3 years.
- Cycle Counts. LiPo Batteries have an average cycle count of about 500.
- Battery Pack Maintenance and Care
There’s not much that we can do about the age of the LiPo. Try to maximize the total amount of RC vehicles that you can use with that particular LiPo battery and only buy the pack when you plan to run the vehicle.
As for cycle counts, again not much at all that we can do here. We don’t want to let the LiPo just sit around unused. Throw them in your RC and don’t worry about cycle counts.
The most important item here is maintenance and care for your packs. Make certain that you are following the proper guidelines to maximize the life of your battery.