There has been substantial discussion, but not much in the way of published test, on the “Zippy LiFe” batteries offered by Hobby King. Hobby King has been supplying RC hobbyist LiPo batteries for years and recently started offering a LiFe variety. The pack sells for about $46. The price was the primary attraction for trying this battery out, as I am not a big fan of batteries that require specialized balancing charger. But it was possible to buy this battery and a charger for about $108 including shipping, so I thought I would give it a try.
The battery was slightly heaver (+10%) than specified, coming in at 560 grams as opposed to 512 grams, which is about 1.25 pounds. Having had bad experiences with RC LiPo batteries (over specified), I was anxious to put this one on the battery tester and see if it met the 4200mA claimed capacity. I do all my tests at a constant C/2 rate, so 2.1 Amps in this case.
I was very pleasantly surprised to find that after cycling the battery 3 times (discharge to 10.0 volts, then full charge to 14.4 volts at a C/1 rate), that the battery had a true capacity of 4297 mAH, or about 102% of its rated capacity. Additional tests will be performed over time.
Click here for a PDF of the test results: Zippy High Discharge LiFe 30C Series 4200 Battery Test
As you can see from the discharge graph, battery voltage stays very flat, but rapidly falls from 12.0 volts down to the test cut-off at 10.0 volts in about 8 minutes out of the 122 minute total run time. So 7% of the capacity remained after the battery dropped below 12.0 volts. While the specification calls for a test cutoff at 8.00 volts, I terminate my tests at 10.0, and see no reason why someone would take it below 11.0 volts.
Discharge Test @ C/2 Rate for Zippy 4200 mAH LiFe Battery
