is there a battery tech with zero maitnance like nimh but with more juice (closer to lipo)

[gkatz 58]

i am not a lipo guy. it simply is not for me. I want to buy a battery and forget about its maitanance.

is there anything out there that will provide more juice then the nimh but will not require any sort of maitanance (like nimh) ?
10x

[skom25 1908]

I think there is NiMh and then all LiXx batteries which require mentioned maintenance.

What is wrong with your NiMh?

[FromageTheDog 73]

More juice i.e. more voltage?  Or more runtime?

Modern NiMH can be as high as 5,000 mAh these days -- from established brands -- though they get quite heavy at those capacities...

Otherwise if the LiPo "punch" is what you're after, you can run a 7-cell pack -- though that gets even heavier -- and they can't always be made to fit.

I totally get being gun-shy about LiPo -- most of the time I'll go for the NiMH myself.  But for the racy stuff -- can't beat LiPo.  As long as you remember to set a storage charge, they'll last a long time.

[Kpowell911 2164]

You can either live with NiMHs performance, or put a little more effort into lipo care and enjoy their benefits. Im not saying you dont have to be more careful with lipo, but Im pretty certain the device you used to type this post was powered by a lipo battery so make of that what you will.

 

Either put some effort in, or put up with dated performance 

[SlideWRX 901]

There are LiFe batteries, although the voltages are different - 2S is 6.6, 3s is 9.9v.  The Iron (Fe) absorbs a lot of the heat from a runaway reaction so it is MUCH safer than regular lipo.  I think Tamiya was pushing these for a while, especially in Japan.  Unfortunately not very popular, so seems about 50%, or more expensive than Lipo.

[Jeepy2013 751]

23 hours ago, gkatz said:

i am not a lipo guy. it simply is not for me. I want to buy a battery and forget about its maitanance.

is there anything out there that will provide more juice then the nimh but will not require any sort of maitanance (like nimh) ?
10x

NiMh batteries require a little bit of maintenance too if you want them to last. If you want more power from NiMh, go with a 7 cell.

[Howards 594]

22 hours ago, SlideWRX said:

Unfortunately not very popular, so seems about 50%, or more expensive than Lipo.

It's probably the closest to what the OP wants though. And they do more cycles than Lipo, to the tune of 10x IIRC, making their initial purchase price a little less punishing. 

[ad456 462]

I can definitely understand how @gkatz feels. Since I have moved over to lipo I have thoroughly enjoyed the power that it gives. And thats all.

I run my cars less than ever due to the forward planning and post care that they now require making it virtually impossible to go out with a charged pack at 5 mins notice as I need an hour to charge prior and then have to put the battery back to storage after. For a 45min run on one model I need an hour(ish) to charge before i go and however long after to either charge or discharge back to storage when I get back. Many technologies are replaced with things that are touted as better but have major baggage attached to one stellar selling point.

With my Nimh I could charge it when I liked, leave it and top it off before a run(usually 5 mins and ready) and I didn't get all upset about getting the absolute best from my battery as they did fine enough as I am more into enjoying driving than getting every last piece of performance out of the equipment. Nimh does really need a bit more care than I give them but they can live well without it.  Batteries are like tyres, 100% a consumable item in my eyes.

A 7 cell Nimh is about the best option here that is readily available, LiFe are another option but limited in availability and configuration sadly as they would probably be what I would run if they were more prevalent.

 

[Twinfan 1834]

The Tamiya LiFe only has a 2200mAh capacity I think which isn't great as you can get 6 cell NiMHs with 5000mAh.

7 cell NiMH is great, I have a couple that I run in cars that can take them but again they're a little limited as I think they're only 3300mAh.

[SlideWRX 901]

The Tamiya one is kinda old I think.  Here is a 2s 3800 mAh that is slightly smaller than a typical 6-cell stick pack for $45:

https://www.pulsebattery.com/collections/all-batteries/products/pulse-3800mah-2s-6-6v-25c-receiver-lifepo4-battery-xt60-connector

3800 mAh is good, not great, but for the 2S it is almost half the thickness of a regular stickpack; another 50-80% of volume is there to get to a 'normal' stick pack size, so 5-6000+mAh should be easy on a 2S if someone made it for our form factor.  You could almost stick two on top of each other in some battery trays for 7400 mAh!

 

[Andreas W 2280]

13 hours ago, Twinfan said:

The Tamiya LiFe only has a 2200mAh capacity I think which isn't great as you can get 6 cell NiMHs with 5000mAh.

7 cell NiMH is great, I have a couple that I run in cars that can take them but again they're a little limited as I think they're only 3300mAh.

You get 4000mAh from Vapex and 5000 mAh from Bronto and Gens Ace. I agree that 8,4 NiHm is great. It's almost LiPo punch within the time It's on top. It's a heavy Lumpur, though as mentioned by others.