a beginners guide to maintaining cells?

[losichris]

im fairly new to racing and im in middle of purchacing new equipment after an absense of 5 years from racing.

i need some advise on keeping new and used cells in good condition and what i will need to buy to make this possible ie.charger,discharger,equilizer etc....

thanx alot and advise is great!

[jim76]

everyone has their own routines, but the bog standard advise is;

for GP cells
charge at 4-5 amps. Run. Discharge and equalise to 0.9v

for IB cells
discharge and equalise to 0.9v, then charge at 6 amps ready for your run. do not re-peak. store with a few hundred mA of charge in them until next use. then equalise before charge agin.

a decent charger like the Pulsar is good, put the discharge rate on this is only 10A. i discharge on my CDC at 20A.
a decent equaliser is also a good idea. i have a novak but i think there are cheaper alternatives available these days.

i'm sure others will post any variations they follow.

[losichris]

thanx jim, much apreciated!!

gives me a few ideas i can try , its just a case of trial and error i guess :confused:

[Col]

I have a few sets of GP3700 that I abuse the hell out of! Bought second hand from super Dan G, they were well looked after till I bought them!
Seriously though, GP may be the past, but they're the future as well. Charge at 5amps, re-peak if you wanna and discharge at whatever you like amps and around 1v per cell when you get round to it - thats what I do:)

p.s. I'm gonna need some more batterys soon, Dan! Got any for sale?;)