What Are LiHV Batteries?

liHV batteries also called high voltage lipos have been around for years. With a new chemistry composition matrix, these batteries are allowed to be safely charged to 4.35V, and this is higher than the typical nominal voltage of 4.20V lipos. In the world of RC hobbyists, they might want to find every possible way to change and get their models more powerful or longer running time. However, this article aims at knowing the differences, advantages and disadvantages between the standard lipo batteries and LiHV batteries mainly on RC field(rc car batteries lipo).

Differences:

LiHV batteries are more than just having higher end volt comparing to standard lipo batteries. There are less possibility of a puffing liHV. Besides, LiHV batteries have the same performance as standard lipos when they are charged to 4.2V, but higher capacity when they are charged higher than 4.25V. Further more, they do not have the same internal resistance. LiHV has a lower internal resistance compared with the standard one.

Here below is the discharge graph between the single cell of the standard 2200mah Lipo and LiHV battery.

Pros of using a LiHV battery

Obviously, the higher end voltage may give your RC models more power, and the research done by others shows that the capacity of the LiHV battery are also increased, so there are more capacity available for longer runtime. LiHV batteries are lighter than the standard batteries. Further more, the lower internal resistance of the LiHV battery would make more power through the entire discharge. From the discharge gragh, we can see that the whole curve of the LiHV is relatively higher than the standards.

Cons of using a LiHV battery

The requisition of LiHV battery to gain the additional available capacity is relatively more complex. When you are charging these two kinds of batteries with your charger, you have to charge them to 4.2V, then take the “standards” out, set HV to the charger, then initiate another charge cycle to bring the HV packs to full charge. This extra hassle may prove to be more trouble than it’s worth to gain a few extra seconds with each drive/flight. Besides, you may need to buy a new charger for the LiHV. So I would prefer to buy a higher capacity battery instead of charging it. Exceeding 4.2v/cell limit as damage could be done to your receivers, servos or transmitters. From the discharge graph, the stability of the standard lipo is better than the LiHV battery.
In conclusion, although LiHV batteries are relatively better compared with standard lipo in many ways. But for now, I would use lipo batteries and choose higher capacity batteries instead. But What will the future of the batteries be like? Let’s look into the future of the batteries.