Why isn’t my LiPo battery charging?

Why isn’t my lipo battery charging?

 

There’s really kinda only 2 reasons. Firstly, check your charger and connections. Make sure all the settings are right, and all the connections on the battery and charger are in good working order. If the connectors are damaged or corroded and the charging circuit can’t be completed – no chargy.

The second, and much more common reason for a lipo battery not charging is that it has been run down too low. 

The most common ways batteries become over-discharged is as follows:

- 1 - The battery is left flat and unused for a while. 

- 2 - The low voltage cutoff isn’t switched on, or isn’t set properly on the ESC. This one isn’t as common, as manufacturers tend to have very safe cutoff points to save your batteries.

- What happens more, - number 3 - is the low voltage cutoff works, but then the car gets switched off then on again to bypass the low voltage cut off.

- 4 - It’s also very possible that the car can be left switched on after a run. This is a very easy mistake to make, especially on vehicles with no cooling fans to annoy you into switching it off.

- 5 – the most common: The battery is left plugged into the car – especially if your car has a push-button power switch. The electronics still have a tiny amount of current running through them, and over enough time, its enough to flatten your battery. 

 

For electrical safety reasons, most chargers will throw an error code or simply not work if the individual cell voltage is below about 3. To check, you can use your smart charger’s battery meter function. Below about 2.8v, they may display as 0.00. But, if you scroll over to the next screen, you’ll be able to see total pack voltage. If it’s below 3 volts per cell, (so 6v for 2s, 9v for 3s, 12v for 4s), that’s why your charger doesn’t want to charge your battery – it doesn’t think it’s safe to do so.

If your charger doesn’t have a battery meter function, use a voltmeter to get the same info.

If you don’t have, or have access to a multimeter, get in touch with your local hobby shop. 

Some higher-end smart chargers have a lipo restore function, and for some batteries that aren’t too far gone, like a 2s lipo pack sitting at 5.9 volts, this may be a way to bring them back. However, there’s no guarantees, and some batteries may be toast forever, or have significantly lowered performance even after being successfully restored through the specific charger function. Lipo batteries that have been over discharged to the point of puffing up are a real safety risk, and should be disposed of safely and immediately.

The best way to fix all this though? Don’t run your battery too flat in the first place. Respect Low Voltage Cutoff, switch your car off and unplug the battery after each run, and keep your battery at least storage charged.

Hope this helped, cheers, bye!