E-flite batteries

[shovelracer]

Anyone know how many flights you should get out of the 9.6v 650mah batteries that come with the blade cp? I bought a used heli from ebay that came with 4 batteries. The heli is great and came hopped up already. Much easier to fly than my old rotofly. Anyways of the 4 batteries, 1 is dead and cant lift the heli. The other 3 are all good. They were getting about 5-6 minutes of flight when I recieved them. after I cycled them a few time I was getting about 10-13 minutes out of each. the next cycle after these very long flights the batteries only went for 3-4 minutes. All charging times have been correct. The only thing I can figure is that the batteries didnt cool down enough before their next charge. I normally will only charge them once a day, but I charged them twice this day. I have not charged them since. They have been cycled maybe 15-20 times each since I've had them. I dont know how old they were when I recieved them. I'm running a 9 tooth pinion on the main and duals on the rear with heat sinks, everything else is stock. Is it time for new batteries? Oh and I dont see the point in spending 80 bucks for 1 Li-Po battery so that option is out. Thanks for any advice.

[Daz(DJLFlapper)]

Hi,

Have you thougt about Li/Po

Just kiding,
I would have thought that the batteries would have been good for as long as they were looked after. the fact that I don't know what charger you used is making it hard to give an answer to this one.
I have got some battery packs given to me that other people have used only a few times. they are rubbish.
The reasons are varied, they used the wall charger and the packs tend to get too hot on those this can damage the packs they then have been left for months without charge allowing them to drop too low in voltage. for these cells if they get below 0.9v, again they can get damaged.

Cycling them can also damage them if they are cycled at a discharge current that is too aggressive. battery care is one of the most important things to master especially with electric helis.
the fact that your flight times dropped off so much after you cycled the packs could indicate that all was not as it should have been.

[shovelracer]

I guess that makes sense. I'm new to helis and the only chargers I have for the batteries is the wall charger that came with them. I make sure they are looked after and monitored while charging. I have been dealing with RC trucks for about 15 years, but have always used good chargers and proper technics with the packs. Most have been good to me. I refreshed the same heli packs and 2 where average and one still go real hot during charging and didnt last 5 minutes. I'm not doing anything other than what the instructions call for. So I guess some of the packs are on there way out. Thanks for the help.