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im sure talking about new nimh bats will piss off some people but thats tuff get over it.. im not doing lipo anytime soon and i my never do lipo. with that said i want to get 1 or 2 new nimh packs under $30 and i want to know whats good.. i was thinking about venom packs with the multi plug but the last venom pack i got many years ago sucked. is venom packs any good now and if yes is that multi plug any good?? i was also thinking of getting a duratrax 3000 pack for $20 anyone have any luck with duratrax bats??

venom still aint worth a damn, cells are junk and those connectors are terrible. since they came out ive had to swap out quite a few sets for people at the track.


great nimh packs however they are a little on the expensive side
http://www.promatchracing.com/products.php?cat=6

Get the cheapest ones you can, NiMh deteriorate faster than you would believe unless your running them every week religiously. Dynamite has Nicad packs that aren't bad and cheap too-

SRTracer121 wrote:venom still aint worth a damn, cells are junk and those connectors are terrible. since they came out ive had to swap out quite a few sets for people at the track.


great nimh packs however they are a little on the expensive side
http://www.promatchracing.com/products.php?cat=6

thanks i had a feeling they were junk.. the other onesare too much besides i want stick packs so i can use in my tamiyas

We are all different.

The problem with Nimh these days is that they are junk. I mean junk as in the quality of the cells. Since there is no big players & matchers around buying these cells the demand is so low the quality has gone. Back in the day Nimh would give the li po battery a run for it's money ( well maybe not quite) BUT they were way better then the crap on the market from China now.

The advantage of Li Po's is just huge & i know you don't want to here it but you are really hurting your r/c cars performance & your hip. I'm still running my 4 yr old Tamiya style Li Po in my Tamiya's.

Hope you find good cells

Charlie don't surf wrote:Get the cheapest ones you can, NiMh deteriorate faster than you would believe unless your running them every week religiously. Dynamite has Nicad packs that aren't bad and cheap too-

i dont think tower hobbies sells Dynamite.. i try to buy mostly from them..since i hear venom still sucks im thinking of going the cheap route and doing the duratrax 3000 for $20 .. i just hope they are better then my almost 10 year old 3300 race packs..

Hopmeuprc on ebay has them, very cheap and "local" to me-

I'm just curious about this, for a "sport" running battery. How long is an 1800mAH battery going to last. I know motor, gearing, and driving style will affect. I mean will an old brushed 14-16t run 4-5 minutes on that? Would a stock run 7? How about a brushless setup(sport brushless- not racing) say 10.5 or13.5...

Obviously if I'm going to do ANY racing, that car HAS to have a lipo... right?

Mad Racer wrote: The advantage of Li Po's is just huge & i know you don't want to here it but you are really hurting your r/c cars performance & your hip. I'm still running my 4 yr old Tamiya style Li Po in my Tamiya's.

Especially since you can now buy 5000 MAh Lipo's for around 20 dollars each...

losiXXXman wrote:I'm just curious about this, for a "sport" running battery. How long is an 1800mAH battery going to last. I know motor, gearing, and driving style will affect. I mean will an old brushed 14-16t run 4-5 minutes on that? Would a stock run 7? How about a brushless setup(sport brushless- not racing) say 10.5 or13.5...

Obviously if I'm going to do ANY racing, that car HAS to have a lipo... right?

1800 is nicad (best pack for$10)you get a good 5 min run time on brushed motors .17t brushed is the fastest brushed motor id use.. 19t and 27t race spec motors are my fav.. i really would like to see how the axial 20t motor holds up.. that motor looks perfect for a basher.. if you want to race look at the classes.. some places have a class that you can only use 1 kind of cheap bat to race

EvolutionRevolution wrote:

Mad Racer wrote: The advantage of Li Po's is just huge & i know you don't want to here it but you are really hurting your r/c cars performance & your hip. I'm still running my 4 yr old Tamiya style Li Po in my Tamiya's.

Especially since you can now buy 5000 MAh Lipo's for around 20 dollars each...

i know lipos are cheap and have alot more power. i live in a studio apartment and have my rc bats in the same room i sleep in.. ive had friends have fire/smoke issues with lipos.. ive never had that with nimh.. unless they stop making nimh or lipos become very safe i will stick with nimh

the duratrax nimh's are ok. we run them in our spec legends class and they seem to be holding up well.
we'll see how they are after a summer in storage when winter rolls around and we start racing indoors on carpet again.

the venom's...well it's aready been said, but i'll add that anything that carry's the venom name is worth staying away from.

kaiser wrote:the duratrax nimh's are ok. we run them in our spec legends class and they seem to be holding up well.
we'll see how they are after a summer in storage when winter rolls around and we start racing indoors on carpet again.

the venom's...well it's aready been said, but i'll add that anything that carry's the venom name is worth staying away from.

thanks for the info i will try the duratrax 3000 pack. before this post i was thinking of giving the venom packs a shot and buying 1 ,but now that i posted this and a few people saying to stay away from venom i will just go with duratrax

if it's the safety issue you are worried about just observe the cautions that are standard. Use a lipo bag, or even better, use a Lipo bag inside of a metal box/pot, etc. Don't charge in a vehicle and use the right charger type. buy a hard pack lipo to prevent accidental punctures of the cells. And just be sure not to short the cells for any length of time.

if you live in an apt, put them in a vented metal box on top of a brick or other stone. if they even caught fire(highly unlikely if you've done the above), all you'll get is a bunch of smoke. Don't laugh, but you can charge them near the stove, which is designed to make fire and should have adequate ventilation

a few friends and I have flown a bunch of soft pack for quite awhile, and even with them getting puffed, sliced with a propellor, wires frayed and beaten, BENT, and countless crashes, there was never even a much as a puff of smoke.

the important part is to charge them correctly.

on a related Nimh crap story, I picked up a RTR RC18 late model for my son to drive around the neighborhood around thanksgiving. We used it 5 or 6 times initially, then with the winter and spring being rainy and otherwise, picked it up a month ago. after 'fully charging' the factory nimh pack, the car just moves like it had a discharged nicd in it. so that pack is basically crap. I tried to cycle it a few times, and maybe it will be OK, but I highly doubt it.

ive had 1 accidental lipo fire in almost 3 years and it was because i accidentally charged the pack as a nimh. lipos have gotten much safer the last few years.

ive tried more than a few times to kill junk 2nd hand packs and cant do it. shoot um with bb's, stab them. they just dont go up. only time they are dangerous is when they have puffed badly after a over discharge/extreme load or again when charged incorrectly (very difficult with these newer chargers) and you then decide to puncture them.

there is no reason not to go lipo anymore. they can be had for cheap, charge up faster and last as long or longer than a comparable nimh, and the load carrying ability, punch, weight, and rpms are all far far better than even a good nimh.