Batteries are a very complicated piece of machinery and they need to be taken care of to increase their lifespan.

To take care of your battery, put it in storage mode (this is done by your charger) when not in use. It's good practice to charge your batteries directly prior to running your RC. Some chargers will not have the ability to put a battery in storage mode, when in these scenarios, it's best to let your RC vehicle run the battery close to dead, but not completely dead, and then store the battery. You mostly want to avoid storing a battery that has over 50% charge.

It's also good practice to not leave your battery plugged in to anything when not in use. Such as the charger, when the charger completes charging your battery or finishes putting your battery into storage mode, you'll want to unplug it immediately. Same goes with the vehicle, when you're done with your run, you'll want to unplug the battery.

Lithium Polymer or Lithium-Ion Polymer or LIPO batteries are by far the most popular among RC enthusiasts. They come in many shapes and sizes, they can have very different capacities and power outputs. LIPO batteries actually use the same technology as Li-Ion batteries, with a small difference, instead of using a liquid electrolyte, they used a gel electrolyte. This small difference completely changed the performance of the battery and made it more powerful, more reliable, last much longer and handle a lot more abuse.

You may notice some batteries rated "50C" or "150", etc. This is the discharge rating, a higher discharge rating means the battery can deliver more power. Batteries with high discharge ratings typically can deliver a bigger "punch" which is why they are typically found in performance cars.

The mAh rating or milliampere hour rating is how much power the battery can hold, in turn determining how long it lasts before needing a recharge. Batteries with high mAh ratings will run for longer. Most batteries for RC cars are in the 3000mAh to 7000mAh range, although there are smaller and bigger.

You may notice batteries marketed as "3S" or "3-Cell" or "4S", etc. This rating is basically for how many volts the battery can produce. The number is for how many cells are in the battery, each cell is 3.7 volts, making 2S 7.4 volts, 3S 11.1 volts, 4S 14.8 volts, etc. The more cells, the more power the battery can deliver, making whatever vehicle the battery is powering faster.

Some batteries may accompany the "S" rating or the number of cells with the voltage rating.

When upgrading to a higher cell, you always want to make sure your ESC and Motor can handle it. Check your manufacturers instructions or webpage for the ESCs and motors cell rating.

Picking a battery isn't difficult at all. We generally recommend LIPO batteries in just about everything, as you can get one that only has as much power as a NIMH, but with all the durability and reliability of a LIPO. Some manufacturers will even give you recommendations for what batteries to use with which models.

Obviously all vehicles have limits, you typically never want to upgrade to a battery with a higher voltage than the voltage the vehicle was intended to receive. Some vehicles even have restrictions to which type of battery they can operate with.

There are many batteries on the market aside from the original manufacturers, some may serve as a cheaper alternative, and some as an upgrade from the original manufacturers battery. We recommend consulting your local hobby shop or the manufactures website for battery recommendations.