Chargers

Firstly, you must use a charger specifically designed for Nickel Metal Hydride cells - not doing so will likely cause damage, and cells damaged in this manner are not covered by our warranty. We recommend buying the best charger you can afford, in order to protect your battery investment. We have used, and recommend the LRP Pulsar series, the Competition Electronics series, Duratrax 'Ice" or the Eagle CDC series of chargers.We do not recommend chargers that have Auto delta Peak settings

Charging

We recommend charging your cells at between 5 and 6 amps, with a 3mv delta peak cutoff per cell (i.e. 18mv for a 6 cell pack). Charging at 6 amps will result in higher output voltage, while a charging at 5 amps will result in better runtime. Considering this, we recommend a 6 amp charge rate for stock racing, and 5 amp charge rate for modified racing.

For the ultimate performance from your cells, try and make your cells finish charging as close to your race time as possible. If your battery peaked more than 5 minutes before your race start, you may wish to re-peak your battery with a delta peak setting of 1mv, just to bring it back to optimal levels.

Do not charge your batteries well in advance or racing (eg. the night before) and just "repeak" at the track. This is not good for the cells, and will hurt their performance in the medium-long term.

Do not put your cells on a fan while they are charging! This will result in less performance on discharge, and possible overcharging of the pack.

Discharging

After your race, if you plan on reusing your cells the same day, discharge to 0.90v per cell (5.4v for a 6 cell pack), and cool it down (preferrably on a fan) for an hour or more before recharging. Discharge at a high rate such as 20 or 30 amps if possible.

We  recommend equalising your cells to exactly 0.90v per cell on an equalising before every charge. Purchase yourself an equaliser that cuts off each cell individually at 0.90v. Novak makes a good unit, as does Integy and Eagle Racing. These units are not cheap, but they will make sure your battery is in the best possible condition for your race day.

Storage

At the end of your race day, discharge your pack down to 0.90v per cell (5.4v for the pack), and when it has cooled down, put around 500mah back into the pack and store like that. The newer low-IR cells (specifically the IB4200WC and IB4200SHV) have a tendancy to self-discharge due to the extremely low internal resistance, which can damage the cell if it is allowed to discharge too far. By storing some energy in the pack, you can counteract this, while not affecting the ongoing performance of your pack.

Reuse

Only use your cells a maximum of 3 - preferrably only 2 - times per day - and you must let them completely cool before recharging them, or you will harm them. Remember also that just because a cell is cool on the outside, this does not mean that it's necessarily cool on the inside! Let your cells rest for at least an hour at room temperature after use before recharging them again - preferrably sitting on a cooling fan.

To get the best out of your pack, discharge to 0.9v per cell (5.4v for the pack), equalise, let it cool, then charge. It is possible to repeak the cell without discharging following your previous race, but this does not result in the optimum performance of your batteries.

Stick Packs

Stick packs should only be charged at 5amps, and delta peak should be set as low as possible on your charger to avoid problems.

Obviously stick packs can't be eqalised - but you should still discharge to 5.4volts and store until your next use. As per assembled cells, put around 500mah back into the packs before storage.