WARNING: Cheap ebay Lipos

[Dillzio]

My batteries finally arrived today!
cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280372014470&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

Not too impressed, I must say!

One of them was unbalanced when I got it. 3.1v, 3.8v, 3.8v.

I charged it on my balance charger, and even after that the balance wasn't that great, but I thought i'd at least give the battery a cycle to break in.

I went to discharge it with a 12 volt light bulb, and it was loaded at 4.2 amps. I left it discharging for 15mins, so it should have drawn about 1050mah. The battery was rated to 1500mah and 20C discharge.

15 minutes later I come in, and one of the cells is bulging and the battery is hot to the touch. I tested it, and two cells were at 0.8v, and another cell was at 3.8v. It appears that one of the cells was a dud, and wasn't discharging.

I tested the other battery in the same way and it passed with flying colors, all three cells read 3.8v after 15 minutes. I guess that one of the batteries was just a dud.

Luckily, postage was free on the item, so I should be able to get a full refund without one of those stupid "you don't get refunded the postage" deals. I've just contacted the seller asking for a 50% refund, so hopefully he'll oblige.

I've told them that i'm unable to send the damaged battery back, because it could be explosive, and mailing it would be a violation of federal and international law. It would be interesting to see what paypal's policy is on that, as you usually have to return the goods to the seller to get a refund.

I also had one of these arrive today:
cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330346990504&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT
Excellent buy!

[duck9191]

completly discharge the battery and soak it in salt water i believe it is, then it will be novolitle.

[Dillzio]

Thanks for the tip duck91, am doing so now.

Regarding cheap ebay lipos...

------ N E V E R A G A I N ! ! ! ! ------

If anyone wants cheap lipos, best place to get them is direct from hong kong through somewhere like hobbyking. Make sure it's name brand, like Rhino, Zippy, Turningy, but I don't think hobbyking stock any of the crap brands. If you DO get something off ebay, again, make sure it's name brand!

[duck9191]

actually now looking at your link to the batteries, i have 4 of them laying around lol, mine were all really good performers though. i guess it shows how "great" there QC is.