Hello my question may be stupid but i don't want to kill my lipo. the fastest way to charge a lipo is by having a high W charger. But does the lipo has a limit?
For ex if i want to charge a 6s 5000mha battery the fastest way possible can i use a 300W charger ? or 500 ? or it will damage the lipo ? 

Thank you.

The lipo does have a limit, generally 1C is what most people charge at. Some batteries say you can charge at greater rates but most won't advise going beyond 2c, personally I stay at 1c. 1c for your 5000mah example would be 5 amps. A 1300mah would be 1.3

Otherwise to get an idea of wattage it's volts x amps = watts
At 6s that would max out to 25.2 volts x 5 amps = 126 watts
Not saying a charge cycle will hit that high as a balance charger will throttle down the rate as it starts to approach peak voltage of 4.2v per cell.

But you can see in your example of a 6s 5000mah battery that a 50watt or 100watt chaeger won't be able to fully hit 1c charge rate for a battery of that size. Using a lower wattage charger will have less chance to harm anything but you'll be waiting longer for a charge cycle.

(15-Jun-2021, 11:48 AM)sevro Wrote: The lipo does have a limit, generally 1C is what most people charge at. Some batteries say you can charge at greater rates but most won't advise going beyond 2c, personally I stay at 1c. 1c for your 5000mah example would be 5 amps. A 1300mah would be 1.3

Otherwise to get an idea of wattage it's volts x amps = watts
At 6s that would max out to 25.2 volts x 5 amps = 126 watts
Not saying a charge cycle will hit that high as a balance charger will throttle down the rate as it starts to approach peak voltage of 4.2v per cell.

But you can see in your example of a 6s 5000mah battery that a 50watt or 100watt chaeger won't be able to fully hit 1c charge rate for a battery of that size. Using a lower wattage charger will have less chance to harm anything but you'll be waiting longer for a charge cycle.

Thank you for your fast response .So if i want to charge a 6s 18000mha battery the perfect  wattage is : 25.2 x 18 = 453 W ? without hurting the lipo .

I think there are some misunderstanding here guys. The wattage on the charger being high is not going to hurt the batteries. If the power output of the charger is low, you can't go more than certain current setting, but being a high output power charge doesn't mean that it will always ouput that power. You can buy a 1000W charger and always use it delivering 50W. The only reason to look at the power output of the charger is price and making sure that you have enough power for what you want to charge.

And to add one more info, besides the output power, check the max output current of the charger. Once again, it's a limit, it doesn't mean also that it will always deliver that current. It will not be able to deliver more than that current.

(15-Jun-2021, 11:55 AM)Pierre Wrote: Thank you for your fast response .So if i want to charge a 6s 18000mha battery the perfect  wattage is : 25.2 x 18 = 453 W ? without hurting the lipo .

No, I was saying that it's recommended to charge at 1c which would be 1.8 amps for 1800mah. The concept isn't to max out the charger, it's that the charger needs to provide enough current for your intended use. So a 50 watt charger would be "enough" for charging the 1800mah battery at 1.8 amps, it wouldn't be enough to charge the 5000nah battery at 5amps.

(15-Jun-2021, 12:19 PM)Maiden Flight Wrote: I think there are some misunderstanding here guys. The wattage on the charger being high is not going to hurt the batteries. If the power output of the charger is low, you can't go more than certain current setting, but being a high output power charge doesn't mean that it will always ouput that power. You can buy a 1000W charger and always use it delivering 50W. The only reason to look at the power output of the charger is price and making sure that you have enough power for what you want to charge.

So i can charge a 18000mha 6s lipo at 1000W without damaging it ? And it will take a short amount of time or i am completely wrong ?

Second questions : If my lipo needs 87 W to be charged and i have a 80 W charger will it work ?

And second question if my lipo needs 87W to be charged and i have a 80W charger will it still work ?

(15-Jun-2021, 02:08 PM)Pierre Wrote: So i can charge a 18000mha 6s lipo at 1000W without damaging it ? And it will take a short amount of time or i am completely wrong ?

Second questions : If my lipo needs 87 W to be charged and i have a 80 W charger will it work ?

You need to stop using wattage. Use C-rate or Amp.

To answer your question, you can damage your 18000mah pack if you charge at 1000W. Because 18000mah 6S at 1C is only 453 W. 1000W will be over 2C.

What Maiden is trying to say is, just because you buy a charger with more capacity, it doesn't mean it charges at that maximum capacity. You set the charge rate on the charger. So for 18000mah, 1C is 18A charge rate.

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(15-Jun-2021, 12:58 PM)sevro Wrote: No, I was saying that it's recommended to charge at 1c which would be 1.8 amps for 1800mah. The concept isn't to max out the charger, it's that the charger needs to provide enough current for your intended use. So a 50 watt charger would be "enough" for charging the 1800mah battery at 1.8 amps, it wouldn't be enough to charge the 5000nah battery at 5amps.

You missed a zero. OP is asking 18000mah and not 1800mah.

(15-Jun-2021, 02:12 PM)Pierre Wrote: And second question if my lipo needs 87W to be charged and i have a 80W charger will it still work ?

It will still work. You just have to wait a little longer to fully charge.

Rule of thumb. You can alway safely charge at a slower rate than 1C. Charging more than 1C can potentially damage your lipos.

(15-Jun-2021, 04:16 PM)voodoo614 Wrote: It will still work. You just have to wait a little longer to fully charge.

Rule of thumb. You can alway safely charge at a slower rate than 1C. Charging more than 1C can potentially damage your lipos.

ok Thank you

(15-Jun-2021, 04:11 PM)voodoo614 Wrote: You need to stop using wattage. Use C-rate or Amp.

To answer your question, you can damage your 18000mah pack if you charge at 1000W. Because 18000mah 6S at 1C is only 453 W. 1000W will be over 2C.

What Maiden is trying to say is, just because you buy a charger with more capacity, it doesn't mean it charges at that maximum capacity. You set the charge rate on the charger. So for 18000mah, 1C is 18A charge rate.

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You missed a zero. OP is asking 18000mah and not 1800mah.

So to calculate the charging time i need to put these values in the online calculator  : 18000mah for the capacity and 18000ma for the charge rate current right ? I get always 1.2 h so logically any 1c charging will take 1.2h ? And so for a 18000mah lipo i need a charger that can at least produce 453 W and then i tell it that the charging rate is 18 A and the capacity is 18000mah ? Thank you

Pierre, take this example:
Lipo battery 1300mah 4S 16,8V fully charged.
Your charging current @1C, that is the typical recommended rate, will be 1,3 amps and it will take you exactly 1hour if the battery is empty. The minimum power needed for the charger is at least near 1,3A x 16,8V, so around 22watts. If you have a charger that can handle 10A and 500W you have a lot of margin to charge at 1C but you'll still use 22W if you don't want to charge at more than 1C and risk damaging the battery or put it on fire. Like voodoo said, we don't use wattage because in fact those 22W are not so linear. You have some wasted energy, ineficiency and so on. Use that to figure out what charger you need. If you go with lower specs and have less power you will have to go below 1C and of course you will spend more than 1hour charging the same empty battery.

(15-Jun-2021, 05:51 PM)Maiden Flight Wrote: Pierre, take this example:
Lipo battery 1300mah 4S 16,8V fully charged.
Your charging current @1C, that is the typical recommended rate, will be 1,3 amps and it will take you exactly 1hour if the battery is empty. The minimum power needed for the charger is at least near 1,3A x 16,8V, so around 22watts. If you have a charger that can handle 10A and 500W you have a lot of margin to charge at 1C but you'll still use 22W if you don't want to charge at more than 1C and risk damaging the battery or put it on fire. Like voodoo said, we don't use wattage because in fact those 22W are not so linear. You have some wasted energy, ineficiency and so on. Use that to figure out what charger you need. If you go with lower specs and have less power you will have to go below 1C and of course you will spend more than 1hour charging the same empty battery.

Oh ok i see, Thx