Charging:

For best performance please charge these 2/3a cells at 0.5 - 1.5 amps. Delta cutoff (if you can adjust it) should be set to 7mv per cell, if you can't set it that accurately then 40mv on a 6 cell, and 50mv on a 7 cell works fine also. Higher charge rates than these may only give a temporary performance gain and will shorten the overall life of the pack. For best results you should use a charger specifically designed to charge Ni-MH cells. WATCH THE PACKS CLOSELY WHILE CHARGING THE FIRST 3-5 CHARGES!!!! We have seen instances where some chargers "miss" the peak on new packs and literally burn the insulation off of the cells. This is NOT something we can be held responsible for! Charging one of our packs at 1amp will take approximately 1 hour to fully charge, if the battery stops charging after 10 minutes on the first charge, this is called a false peak, so you can either run the car on the battery (won't last very long) or you can simply hit the start button on your charger again.

Special cells (KAN 1050, GP1100, IB1200): These cells are developed specifically for racing and so can handle higher loads. You can charge these cells at up to 2.0amps rate, however this does sacrifice cell life to gain more punch. I don't recommend this for the average hobbiest, its much better for the batteries to keep charge rates under 1.5amps.

Do not dead short NIMH cells!

When discharging Ni-MH packs wait until the day before you are going to use them. Discharge them using a 2 amp (1 #1157 automotive light bulb) for stock motors or 4 amps (2 #1157 automotive light bulbs) for modified motors using a discharge cutoff device (0.9 volts per cell - 5.4volts on a 6 cell pack - 6.3volts on a 7 cell pack).

Some charge should be left in NI-MH cells if you don't plan on using them for more than 1 week. The longer you wait between uses the more charge you should leave in them. I recommend leaving at least a 10% charge in them. If you plan on not using them for a month or more, I would fully charge them before storing them. After long term storage, the day before you plan on using the pack(s) discharge them as recommended above. Expect some temporary decrease in performance after long periods of inactivity. After the cells are run a few times the performance should be restored.

What charger should I get?

This is a tough question, it really is different for everybody. Hardcore racers won't even ask, and they usually look at the most expensive and assume that it is automatically the best. This is 95% of the time NOT the case. I myself prefer to use Airplane chargers, because they have more features and generally are a better value for the amount you are paying.

My recommendation for chargers are in the following order:

1) Duratrax Piranha Digital AC/DC - ~$50 and has most of the features of chargers that cost 3x as much! This is a great charger for both micro vehicle packs, receiver packs, and most 1/10th scale packs. Competition level for micro vehicles, however its max charge rate of 5 amps is not as high as most 1/10th scale competitive racers charge there GP3300 packs at, which is 6 amps. However dont let this steer you away, bang for the buck this is the best charger available.

2) Superbrain 959 - ~$50, great charger for the money but I wouldn't use it for anything other than micro vehicle packs and receiver packs, it has a reputation to false peak a lot even on packs that are run often. Given the choice, I would never recommend this over the Duratrax unit above, but it will work fine for most beginners.

3) Great Planes Triton - ~$130. Can charge up to 24 cells at a time, can charge lithium batteries and lead acid batteries also (yes, even a full size car battery can be *peak* charged using this charger - I've done it to my mustang more than once, it works great!). This is my personal charger, and I would recommend it to anyone. Note - this also requires an AC power supply - I built my own similar to this one for less than $10.

4) Superbrain 969 - ~$100, Great charger, still *new* so I haven't heard much about it, but from what I have heard and seen it works great, can charge 2 packs at a time, or charge one pack and discharge another. Includes a built in AC adapter.