Why Are Traxxas Batteries So Expensive? (Pros & Cons)

Do you pay more for Traxxas brand batteries, but are they worth the cost? Most RC fans prefer LiPo batteries to NiMH batteries. LiPo batteries are rechargeable batteries that have taken the electric RC world by storm! They hold a charge better, last longer, are more stable, and overall, just better batteries. Many people like to use them, but when you go to buy a battery, you don’t just want to settle for any LiPo battery. You want the best of the best. 

If you want the best battery for your RC car, then you know that you should buy the Traxxas battery. Some people wonder if they are that much better, and the answer to that is a resounding yes., Not only are they a little better, but they are a lot better than other brands of batteries. So then why are the Traxxas batteries so expensive?

Although the Traxxas battery is more expensive, they have better voltage, rating, capacity, temperature, and balance. They are made of better quality, and when you go to purchase a battery for your RC car, you often get what you pay for. The same thing that makes them so expensive is the same thing that makes them such good batteries.  

If you want to purchase a Traxxas RC car battery, you can find them by clicking here!

What makes the Traxxas batteries better?

There are many things that make the Traxxas batteries stand out. Below we will go over them and show you exactly what makes a Ttraxxas battery special. 

• Rating: The C rating of a battery pack should be the continuous rated discharge of the park. The package should be able to discharge at the C rating with no cell damage continually.
  
• Capacity: The pack should have the ability to discharge at a minimum of 85% of its rated capacity at the maximum C rating to 2.75 v/ cell.
  
• Temperature: The pack should reach a maximum temperature of 160`F while being discharged at its maximum C rating.
  
• Balance: There should be no cell in the pack becoming more than 100mV out of balance from the rest of the cells in the bag while being discharged at the maximum discharge rating.
  
• Discharging graph: The discharging graph for a quality LiPo battery should look like this* at the maximum C rating. 

*The voltage should drop momentary then rise to a constant voltage before falling very fast once the the battery has discharged entirely.

• Average voltage: The average energy of a pack during a maximum C rating discharge should be 3.3 volts at minimum.
  
• Charging: All LiPo batteries should be charged with a 1 C charge rate. If a pack swells at all, it fails. This is checked before during and after a discharge
  
  

Positives of LiPo batteries 

LiPo has many major pros that make them the battery of choice. Below are some of the good things about LiPo batteries. 

• LiPo batteries are light, and they can be made in any size and shape.
  
• The capacity of LiPo batteries is significant, which means they can hold more energy in a small pack.
  
• LiPo’s maintain an excellent, consistent voltage output as they discharge.
  
• LiPo batteries have more discharge rates to power the most demanding electric RC aircraft and vehicles. LiPo’s also have relatively high charge rates, so recharging in an hour or less is possible.
  
• LiPo’s have no memory effect, unlike NiMH.
  
• The above benefits are crucial to any RC model, but for airplanes, helicopters, and quadrotor, they are the reason electric flight has become so popular.
  

For decades electric RC cars and RC boats have been around. Still, it wasn’t until LiPo battery technology arrived on the scene that electric planes, helicopters, and quadrotors began showing up and now surpassing gas, turbine, and even nitro in terms of power to weight ratios. 

Power to weight is vital because more energy is required to get something airborne. Overcoming power gravity uses a lot of energy than when driving on the while and floating on water.

Most LiPo batteries are packed in a flexible plastic pouch called a pouch cell. LiPo’s use this lightweight plastic pouch instead of a metal can, less weight is the result making pouch called LiPo’s the preferred choice in weight-conscious RC aircraft applications.

Problems with LiPo batteries

Here are downsides with LiPo batteries:

• LiPo batteries are expensive. Over the years, the price has come down, but it’s still costly.
  
• When lipo batteries are used in high demand applications like flight, their life span shortens. The harder they are pushed, the shorter their life span.
  
• Issues of safety. The high energy density storage together with the volatile electrolyte used in LiPo’s can burst and catch fire when you fail to handle it the right way.
  
• Fire danger has made LIPOs to be classified as dangerous goods making shipping expensive, or even impossible for all but the smallest capacity LiPos.
  
• Lipo batteries require proper care. Charging, discharging, storage, and temperature all affects the life span.
  

Other information about LiPo batteries. 

• Voltage                

LiPo batteries have a nominal voltage of 3.7 volts per cell. The benefit in this is fewer cells can be used to make up a battery pack. Besides, the LiPo battery pack will have at least two or more cells hooked up in series to provide higher voltages

• Capacity

Capacity indicates how much the battery pack can hold and is mentioned in milliamp hours. It’s a general way of showing the load you can put on your battery for 1 hour, at which time the battery will be fully discharged. If you wish for more flight time, simply add to the capacity of your battery pack. The good thing is you can change the size depending on the flight time, unlike the voltage.

Size and weight restrictions make you stay within a specific battery capacity range. The more capacity a battery back has, the larger and heavier it will be.

• Charge rate

For your battery to have a long life span, lower charge rates of 1C are always better. If you charge your battery at maximum rates, you will shorten battery life.

• Discharge rate

The discharge rate is how fast a battery can be discharged while remaining healthy. Most LiPo battery packs will show the continuous C rating and usually a maximum burst C rating as well. A burst rating shows the battery discharge rate for short bursts of long power.

The higher the C rating, usually the more expensive and even slightly more cumbersome the battery gets. Getting an extremely high discharge rate pack when there is no way you could pull the full amount of power is not required, but it won’t hurt either. You will always want to remember that you can’t go with too low discharge C rating, or you will damage your battery.

Battery charging do’s and don’ts

• Never leave a battery unattended while charging.
  
• Never use a NiMH charger to charge the LiPo battery.
  
• Never charge a battery that has swollen or appears to be damaged.
  
• Turn a low voltage detection on when using LiPo battery in the Traxxas model.
  
• Use a fireproof contain when charging the LiPo battery.
  
• Once you are done running your model, disconnect the battery from the electronic speed control.
  
• Use ID Traxxas batteries and iD chargers for more comfortable and safer charging solutions.
  

Conclusion

As you can see, there are a lot of things that go into making a Traxxas LiPo battery. What makes it so amazing, is the same thing that makes it so popular. Now that you know all the ins and outs of batteries, hopefully you have a better understanding of batteries in general and how they work.