Save weight?

[vertman]

how important is the battery weight in a Aquacraft revolt 30?

would i be better off buying smaller mah batteries to save weight or just buy a bigger battery for longer run time?

in other words is the weight savings significant to speed/performance or is the diff between the weight of a 2000 mah and 4000 mah battery not that big a deal?

thanks.

[kfxguy]

You can get 5000mah and be plenty fine.

[tlandauer]

2000 mah is too low for boating, regardless if there is any advantages in weight saving.
I prefer no lower than 5000mah. Weight can be your friend in certain conditions of the water. If you are talking about running 4s2p with a total of 10,000 mah, then I would say that the additional of a 4s battery rated at 5000mah might make a difference in racing. In any case, to save a few ounces of weight and go down to 2000mah is NOT a route that I will go.
With only 2000 mah, it is not just run time that will suffer, also the life of the batteries will suffer as well, they will heat up faster and will do a number on your ESC as well. Get batteries with Constant Discharge rate no less than 40C. Some prefer even higher, but around 40C is a good bench mark IMO.

[kfxguy]

2000 mah is too low for boating, regardless if there is any advantages in weight saving.
I prefer no lower than 5000mah. Weight can be your friend in certain conditions of the water. If you are talking about running 4s2p with a total of 10,000 mah, then I would say that the additional of a 4s battery rated at 5000mah might make a difference in racing. In any case, to save a few ounces of weight and go down to 2000mah is NOT a route that I will go.
With only 2000 mah, it is not just run time that will suffer, also the life of the batteries will suffer as well, they will heat up faster and will do a number on your ESC as well. Get batteries with Constant Discharge rate no less than 40C. Some prefer even higher, but around 40C is a good bench mark IMO.

While I agree 110% with the above, you better be careful with the C rating statement because the Internet correctors with jump in...nah..you know what...I don't care what they say, I'll say it again: I always prefer 50c (no less that 40c for sure) or higher. You can get away with less if you have good quality batteries but I'd rather over do it on batteries. There's alot of stuff you can get away with if you know what your doing....but im not going to recommend to someone something that I can get away with if I don't know their experience. So I'd rather recommend something that the average non experienced person will be safe with.

[tlandauer]

Travis, I agree with you 110% as well.
You have in a relative shot time gained so much experience and recognition and it would be actually a surprise to me if you would go anything below 50C rating. I know your recommendation was based on that and therefore I did not have a problem with your statement.
At my level I will not go below 40C, and yes, I realize people get away with even lower ratings, therefore I was more comfortable to use "benchmark" as the key word.

[kfxguy]

Travis, I agree with you 110% as well.
You have in a relative shot time gained so much experience and recognition and it would be actually a surprise to me if you would go anything below 50C rating. I know your recommendation was based on that and therefore I did not have a problem with your statement.
At my level I will not go below 40C, and yes, I realize people get away with even lower ratings, therefore I was more comfortable to use "benchmark" as the key word.

I'm glad that at least someone didn't think I was crazy for saying that! Lol

[Chilli]

The Revolt has plenty of power and the weight of higher capacity packs is actually helpful in keeping your boat right side up in the chop. In addition you well get better run times, less ripple current and your packs will run cooler so if you take good care of them they will last longer.

As for C Ratings, same old story. Higher is better but there is no standard for how the manufactures come up with their numbers. So do your homework and spend a little extra on quality packs. Not the packs with the highest C rating.

[Doug Smock]

The Revolt has plenty of power and the weight of higher capacity packs will not only give you longer run times, they will run cooler and help keep your boat right side up in the chop.

As for C Ratings, same old story. Higher is better but there is no standard for how the manufactures come up with their numbers. So do your homework and spend a little extra on quality packs. Not the packs with the highest C rating.

Exactly, if we all went by C ratings we'd be running MAX AMPS.

[Chilli]

I didn't want to mention names. LOL

[kfxguy]

Exactly, if we all went by C ratings we'd be running MAX AMPS.

Lmao! When I read the above statement I immediately thought of maxx amps and how weak they are. Lmao

[Doug Smock]

I didn't want to mention names. LOL

Then I shouldn't mention that I have some 4+ year old Hyperion 5500 35c cells that are still rockin?
Also running some 5000, 45c cells that will put a spanking on the 6000, 65c cells that were supposed to be the bomb.

[kfxguy]

Then I shouldn't mention that I have some 4+ year old Hyperion 5500 35c cells that are still rockin?
Also running some 5000, 45c cells that will put a spanking on the 6000, 65c cells that were supposed to be the bomb.

I knew nothing about maxx amps when I first ran them. I thought my gps was wrong when they came back in at the slowest speed out of all the batts tested. Not sure what your paying so much money for lmao!

[NativePaul]

I guess I will be "that guy".

2000 mah is too low for boating, regardless if there is any advantages in weight saving.

2000mAh may be too little for the revolt saying that it is too low for boating is a gross overgeneralisation. It is more than ample for a lot of smaller boats, my buddies and I have raced small boats for years on 1500-1800 LiPo and before that 1000-1500 Nimh and 500 NiCd. I am in my 4th year of racing on the same 1800mAh pack and we race for 5-6 minutes, +mill, +in lap, so neither duration or longevity are suffering too badly.

I have been boating on LiPo since 6c labelled (4c actual) cells were the best available, and I still race 2 of my boats competitively on 20c labelled (14c actual) cells. Having said that it is possible to boat on low C cells, I will say that I am totally with you on this one. If you are not limited by rules I would certainly advise people to go for the highest (actual) C rate they can reasonably afford, as the voltage gain outweighs the weight gain thus performance will improve over low C cells in any boat, and the higher C cells tend to be more robust too. If I didn't need light cells to fit racing rules I would switch from my low C cells to high C cells in a heartbeat.

[kfxguy]

I guess I will be "that guy".

2000mAh may be too little for the revolt saying that it is too low for boating is a gross overgeneralisation. It is more than ample for a lot of smaller boats, my buddies and I have raced small boats for years on 1500-1800 LiPo and before that 1000-1500 Nimh and 500 NiCd. I am in my 4th year of racing on the same 1800mAh pack and we race for 5-6 minutes, +mill, +in lap, so neither duration or longevity are suffering too badly.

I have been boating on LiPo since 6c labelled (4c actual) cells were the best available, and I still race 2 of my boats competitively on 20c labelled (14c actual) cells. Having said that it is possible to boat on low C cells, I will say that I am totally with you on this one. If you are not limited by rules I would certainly advise people to go for the highest (actual) C rate they can reasonably afford, as the voltage gain outweighs the weight gain thus performance will improve over low C cells in any boat, and the higher C cells tend to be more robust too. If I didn't need light cells to fit racing rules I would switch from my low C cells to high C cells in a heartbeat.

I was reading this and was about to pitch a fit...but toward the end, you redeemed yourself lol. I think that tlandauer meant was in this size boat. He forgot to put the exclusion list and every little exception.....because I have a blackjack 9 and it has a 450mah 20c battery and it works fine. MOST of the time we are referring in general. ...larger or more "normal" size boats. To be specifically specific (lol) I'll say in the neighborhood of 29" and up is when the battery capacity, c rating etc really come into play. Man I could go on with this all night...and add exceptions and whatnot....but im not going to. Let's just say, (like above stated) buy the highest quality (revolectrix) battery your budget will allow (besides maxx amps) and you should be fine. Now go get some boats wet!

[Doug Smock]

buy the highest quality (revolectrix) battery your budget will allow

How many cycles do you have on those now? LOL