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How Do You Make Your RC Battery Last Longer?

If you have ever owned an RC car before then you know the major issue with them is the fact that their battery never seems to last long enough. Owning an RC car is so much fun and there is so much that you can do with them. Not only do they make great gifts, but they will keep you and your friends busy playing with them for a long time to come. 

Driving your RC car around or even racing them with your friends is so much fun! As with everything fun though, it must come to an end. Normally your fun will come to an end when your battery dies for your RC car. 

If you have ever gotten the same RC car for Christmas as someone else and you went out to race you’ve probably noticed that one of your RC cars died faster than the other. This probably led you to wonder if one of the RC cars was defective or if there was a way to make your battery last longer. 

There are actually four ways to make your battery last longer on your RC car. They are by:

  • Easing into the throttle and not going hard on the power every time. 
  • Replacing your brush bushings with bearings. 
  • Making your RC car weigh less
  • Taking care of your battery. (Don’t immediately charge it; let it cool down first.)

If you do all of the above mentioned things, you will notice that your battery will last longer during every use as well as have a longer life span. 

If you want to purchase a new battery for your RC car, you can find it by clicking here

How long does an RC battery last between charges?

If you have ever owned an RC car, there is no denying that time flies when you are having fun. You know this because once you start to use your RC car, it seems like the battery dies after only a couple minutes. Although some batteries do not last very long, most RC car batteries will last an average of 20-30 minutes between every single charge. 

If you own an RC car though that has a 1000 mAH battery, and it lasts about 20 minutes and you are able to replace it with a 2000 mAH battery, your RC battery will then last almost twice as long. This is something that a lot of people look for as buying a bigger battery is the easy solution to the problem. The downside with trying to do this is the fact that most RC cars do not have the room to hold a bigger battery, and replacing it with a bigger one becomes more of a hassle than it’s worth. 

How can you tell if an RC battery is bad?

If you have a battery powered RC car and you think your battery might be bad, you may be right. It is not normally hard to tell if your RC battery has gone bad either. The easiest way to look at your RC car battery to tell if it has gone bad is to take it out and see if it has swelled at all since you purchased the car. If the battery of your RC car is swollen, it should immediately be thrown away and replaced. 

Some people will actually try and use a battery that is swollen and say that it is not that bad. Because they have tried this, some people have even ended up burning their RC car as the battery exploded in the middle of a race. This is why it is best to always throw away any battery that is swollen and not in its original shape.  

How long will my RC car battery last before it needs replaced?

If you just got a brand new RC car, and your car has a NiMH battery in it, you are probably wondering if you should replace it now, or how long it will take to go bad. Just like a car battery, it all depends upon how much it is used. The average lifespan of a NiMH battery though is between two and three years. This obviously does not take into account if you increase the battery life of your RC car by following what we have mentioned above. 

The thing with NiMH batteries is the fact that the more you use and charge these batteries, the longer they will actually last. If you do not use your battery that often, and it is stored in a cool dry place between uses, you will normally get between 500 and 1,000 charges out of every battery. If you use the battery and continue to charge it and use it over and over again, you can get far more than 1,000 charges out of its life. 

Should I use NiMH or LiPo?

This question will normally be one that every single person has when they go to purchase a battery for their RC car, This is because it is such an important question as this determines how powerful your RC car is. A LiPo battery actually has more voltage, which will give your RC car more power as well as make it last longer than a NiMH battery. This alone is normally the reason that people prefer to buy a LiPo battery instead of a NiMH battery. 

Another reason people prefer to purchase a LiPo battery is because they not only have more power, but they last almost twice as many years as a NiMH battery. 

On top of those reasons, if you are looking to make your RC car faster and make your battery last longer, then you will want to purchase a LiPo battery. This is because LiPo batteries are significantly lighter and can hold more power than a NiMH battery. 

Everyone is looking for the best battery to make their RC car run better and faster, and with the invention of LiPo batteries, everyone’s dream came true. 

Conclusion

Everyone wants their RC car battery to last longer. There are so many people that are always looking for the next best thing to make their RC battery last longer. Now that you have read this article you can see that there are many different things that you can do in order to make your RC car battery last longer. Although not every single thing that you do will make a giant impact, each one will help your battery last a little longer as well as make your RC car a little lighter. 

The lighter the RC car though, the less weight the battery has to propel and the less the battery has to work. This is how making your RC car weigh less can help you lengthen the battery life of your RC car. 

If you happen to have a NiMH battery and you want to increase the battery life of your RC car, the easiest thing to do is to simply change out the NiMH battery for a LiPo battery. These not only have more power, and will make your RC car go faster, but they have a bigger capacity than a NiMH battery. 

No matter if you have a NiMH or a LiPo battery, you will always want to make sure before every race that your RC car battery has not gone bad, or is beginning to go bad as this could cause major problems during a race.