Lipo Charger burned out?

[R/Cat]

Hey guys, I had a question about my new lipo battery and charger. So I've been charging 2S Lipos with an Imax B6AC charger for quite a few years without a problem. However, I recently tried charging my new 6S, 22.2v, 5,000 mah lipo battery with it taking all necessary precautions and after about 20 minutes I checked on the charger and it was off, as in no lit screen, nothing and it will not light up or come on since then. The charger is suppose to handle Lipo packs from 1-6 cells.

It was quite warm to the touch during charging but the 6S battery remained cool inside its lipo bag each time I checked it. The battery seems charged as I have tested it but did I permanently damage my charger and, if so, can you recommend a new lipo charger that can handle 6S 22.2 volts? Your help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Mike

[RC10th]

Imax b6ac should be able to charge 6s no problem. More then likely the power supply burned out. Try hooking the charger up to 12v to see if it still works. If so you could replace the power supply inside (looks like a laptop power supply inside) but you'd likely be better off just to chuck it and buy a new charger.

[R/Cat]

Imax b6ac should be able to charge 6s no problem. More then likely the power supply burned out. Try hooking the charger up to 12v to see if it still works. If so you could replace the power supply inside (looks like a laptop power supply inside) but you'd likely be better off just to chuck it and buy a new charger.

Ok, thanks. I'm surprised the power supply inside would burn out so randomly as I have not used the charger much over the last 5-6 years that I've had it. I guess that's why they're so inexpensive which is why I'll probably take your advice and just buy another one.

[RC10th]

Try hooking it up to 12v to see if it still works.

[Lonestar]

that's the issue with most AC/DC chargers - the inner converter design usually has cut corners to cut costs. And when it toasts, you have to replace the whole thing

There are plenty of good choices out there. I was using 6S for a couple of years and what I found out was that with that many cells in parallel, one needs fast balancing - ie large balancing currents, closer to 0.5A than the standard 0.1A. I went for a couple of ichargers (206 and 208), with external power suppliers. I only have great things to say about them. They don't come cheap but they do a LOT of stuff, and they do it WELL.