Hello Fellow Yuneec Pilot!
Join our free Yuneec community and remove this annoying banner!
Sign up

New Battery Questions

Joined
Mar 31, 2016
Messages
383
Reaction score
125
Location
Bingo-UpState,NY
My TH batteries are going on two years old now and I was thinking about replacing two of them for this springs flying. I have four batteries all purchased when I got my H in June 2016.

One of them only lasts about 10min when flying in the cold. ( I know the cold shortens the fly time).

My question is where is the best place to get new batteries?
I usually get my gear from B&H and am going to the city next month and was going to get a couple then.

I wonder how long some batteries have been sitting on the shelf and how good they will be ?
I looked and did not see any date codes on the Batteries or the boxes they where shipped in for references.

If new batteries are sent from the factory at about 15 volts, will they still hold that charge if they have been sitting for two years? Batteries run between $99 and $139 from various vendors, with B&H being the cheapest.

THANKS !
 
Thank's for the tip Pat !

Now can anyone answer the second part?

(If I order from B&H or some other vendor, I wonder how long some batteries have been sitting on the shelf and how good they will be ?
If new batteries are sent from the factory at about 15 volts, will they still hold that charge if they have been sitting for two years in some warehouse?)

Thank's again !
 
A twi year old battery is a degraded battery. It may well achieve and maintain peak charged voltage but under use internal resistance, which increases with age, may interfere with current delivery.

There is no way of knowing how old batteries are or how ling they have been sitting on a shelf. Best you can do is track your purchase dates and measure IR when they were new to you.

The average life cycle of a very good lipo is two years and/or 200-400 charge cycles for those that exercise good use practices.

A lipo battery placed on the shelf at any voltage will not maintain that voltage over time. They will self discharge if left alone.
 
I recently purchased 2 UltraX 6300mAH batteries After testing I found that both batteries did NOT provide any more flight time than a Yuneec battery, in fact produced about 20% less flt time in the same flying conditions. Viewing the voltage use on a graph you can see where the voltage drop on the UltraX is much steeper initially and then stays lower through out its cycle..Both batteries produced the same results so I do not think it was just a "weak" battery. I would not buy the UltraX brand again and stick with Yuneec or Powerextra. This has been my experience.
 
However since UltraX are half the price of OEM batteries, two UltraX batteries sequentially, will still produce more flying time than a single Yuneec battery. Personally I have never chased the time fairy... only concerning myself to land before 1st warning, and change to another battery.
 
All about choices. If you don't mind landing early to change batteries go with UltraX. When I need more range/time I know to use the Yuneec battery. However if your mission does not require that then the Ultra's may work. For me it was a test to find out what the UltraX were capable of. Now I know.
 
Over a use period well in excess of a year I’ve found the UltraX batteries to provide pretty much exactly the same amount of flight time as the Yuneec batteries. As Yuneec has previously, and I believe continues, established they mislabel battery capacities I propose the Yuneec and UltraX batteries are the same in capacity and it is unreasonable to expect more flight time from the UltraX because it’s labeled correctly.
 
I recently purchased 2 UltraX 6300mAH batteries After testing I found that both batteries did NOT provide any more flight time than a Yuneec battery, in fact produced about 20% less flt time in the same flying conditions. Viewing the voltage use on a graph you can see where the voltage drop on the UltraX is much steeper initially and then stays lower through out its cycle..Both batteries produced the same results so I do not think it was just a "weak" battery. I would not buy the UltraX brand again and stick with Yuneec or Powerextra. This has been my experience.

I also have 2 of the Ultrax batteries from Gens ace. I only have a couple of cycles on each but I have noticed decreased flight times compared to the OEM battery. The voltage sag on the Ultrax is more vs. the OEM. I suspect this is due the higher internal resistance of the Ultrax packs. The 2 Ultrax packs total resistance measured 36 mΩ and 38 mΩ while the total resistance of the OEM pack is only 16 mΩ.

I can live with decreased flight times considering you can buy 2 Ultrax packs for the price of one OEM pack. I'm a little concerned about the voltage sag though.
 
Most of us pilots have paid out pretty hefty battery tuitions. Most of the aircraft manufactures declare excessive flight time statistics, I think their testing is done using stripped down airframes with no cameras mounted, flying round the park, with no wind and 1 knot ground speed using old fashioned analog stop watches.

Laying all jokes aside. I learned battery love quickly by charging my batteries to capacity, then not using them for days. Or deep discharging them to almost empty before landing. Both harmful to battery health. The technology on lithium ion is still evolving. So maybe someday we'll get an honest spec that delivers. In the meantime you might learn some worthwhile information by doing an internet search on Lithium Ion batteries or Lithium batteries. Lots of good info out there that helps.
 
Wouldn't it be great if they could discover a way to make that heavy battery lighter! While i'm in my wishing mode lets through in more power also. Just imagine being able to fly for a solid 30 minutes! Hey they laughed at the Wright Bros too!
 

New Posts

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
20,955
Messages
241,599
Members
27,284
Latest member
csandoval