Hobbyking lipo user going elsewhere!

[martin collins 1]

Over the last ten plus years i have bought my lipos from Hobbyking, Zippy Compacts and Turnigys and have generally been happy with the life and performance, particularly the Zippy`s, but many are up to 10 years old and starting to puff very slightly or not balance up particularly well, one of them is a 6s 3700 which will hit the bank balance if not buying through them. It seems i can only get the ones i want through the Global warehouse or the USA one with the corresponding large shipping cost. I have decided to bite the bullet and buy from within the UK as we need to support the hobby in this country, i already buy all my new kits from UK manufacturers. I have ordered some new 6s packs from George at 4-Max, to get the same pack weight and size i have ordered a pair of his 3300mah 6s packs as opposed to the 3700 Zippy compacts i have been using, the compacts were 25c rated and George`s are 40c rated, i am hoping the C rating will mean i get similar flight times, it will be interesting to check the remaining capacity on the new and old packs after a flight to compare.

[Lima Hotel Foxtrot]

9 hours ago, martin collins 1 said:

I have decided to bite the bullet and buy from within the UK as we need to support the hobby in this country, i already buy all my new kits from UK manufacturers.

So you only decided to support the hobby suppliers in the UK after the price of a few items crept over what you were felt was cheap? 

What was your justification for not buying beforehand?

 

Also a higher C rating (if such a thing is accurate on cheap lipo packs) means the battery will pump out higher currant for longer. The upshot is that you will probably have longer flights with cooler batteries delivering more cycles than your tired old batteries. 

[martin collins 1]

`So you only decided to support the hobby suppliers in the UK after the price of a few items crept over what you were felt was cheap? 

What was your justification for not buying beforehand?`

 

I have always supported my local hobby shop for parts and still do and have bought my new kits from UK producers for the last 5 years (since i started building my own planes), before that i was buying at bring and buys and converting to electric, models were never sourced from HK or similar. Motors and batteries came from Hobbyking because that`s what my flying pals were using AND recommending. The whole covid/China/Brexit thing has left a sour taste and seems like a good time to reset on supply for parts, of course you have never bought anything from one of the global warehouses??

And for your information i can still buy two 3700 6s lipos with postage etc for less than the cost of buying them through George but the gap is a lot closer now so i choose not to buy abroad.

Edited April 19, 2022 by martin collins 1

[Simon Chaddock]

Surely as 99% of LiPo are made in China who you are supporting by buying them in the UK, apart from the model shop, is also the import agent. The LiPo is in a finished state when it leaves China so there is no physical value added to it from the import only the cost of the transport which applies no matter how you buy it.

It all comes down to how you wish to spend your money.  

 

 

[Frank Skilbeck]

Simon, probably but it will also depend on what checks the customer requires to, I've found in the past that I've bought a couple of Lipos and they've been great but then buy another supposedly exactly the same and the performance isn't as good. Sometimes manufacturers will change the spec or substitute something which is a bit cheaper if you don't have the QC checks in place then you'll never know.

 

Many years ago I bought a barge in China and on the way back we visited a lifeboat manufacturer, I commented to the guy showing us around that no PPE and flipflops for the guys laying up the fibreglass wouldn't be allowed in the UK, he said if we ordered from them they'd issue the guys with PPE for our order!

[Mike T]

Further to Simon's point, the only perceivable benefit from UK purchases are QC and warranty support.  With respect to all vendors, I suspect that none actually does any QC - the customer does that and any failures rely on the 'warranty support'...  I suspect most below par packs are chucked or relegated to 'light duties'. 

 

There used to be a vendor in the UK who actually did sell incredibly cheap LiPo's and other electronics - Giant Cod*.  An established UK model chain bought him out, renamed the business and shortly after closed it down.  Such is the attitude of UK shops to competition from outside the MHTF cartel.

 

BTW LHF - I don't know what device you used to post your 'justification' query, but I can pretty much guarantee it was made in China...

 

* a vestige remains, in the form of rclife.co.uk

[Don Fry]

MHTF cartel?

what’s that?

[ken anderson.]

i reckon most of the stuff at our flying field is china origin......a lot of people were happy with hobby king.....cheap prices, reasonable quality and delivered to your house...what more could you want. The LMS didn't have all the stuff we needed, and so like many others HK was the way to go...more so with electric stuff. The transition from buying balsa local to build off a plan was taken over by the "cheap" ARTF market and the LMS couldn't even think of competing with the far east lads.......if HK has had it as far as the UK is concerned i'm sure something/someone will jump in to satisfy our needs........

 

ken anderson...ne..1...HK dept.

[Geoff S]

ARTFs are not quite so cheap now.  I noticed earlier today that an ARTF Mk2 Wot4 (the wooden bare airframe that can be either electrically or glow powered) is now well over £200 (£224 IIRC).  I bought one about 3 years ago from Kings Lynn Models and it was £109 plus postage.  The price has more than doubled.  Fortunately, mine's still going strong.

[Steve Colman]

The lipo batteries from HK are not so cheap now either.

[EarlyBird]

21 minutes ago, Steve Colman said:

The lipo batteries from HK are not so cheap now either.

Prices went up by something like 20% when they were forced to include VAT.

[Cuban8]

57 minutes ago, Steve Colman said:

The lipo batteries from HK are not so cheap now either.

It couldn't last, but at least we've had a good run over the last couple of decades or so. Don't know how things will develop given the substantial rise in the price of lipos, not to mention poor availability compared to only a short while ago. I need to replace a number of older and tired Hobby King packs that have given excellent service over many years and the cost is looking to be nuts, particularly on the larger capacity 6S types. No way am I laying out that sort of cash. Smaller sizes aren't so bad in terms of cost and do seem to be available from a small number of suppliers in the UK, but from  brands that are unfamiliar so a bit of a gamble as to what to expect. The rubbish ones, if  indeed some are not much cop, will soon get around on the grapevine.

IMHO, our hobby got a much needed shot in the arm when practical and affordable electric power for models became available with brushless motors and lipo technology some twenty + years ago, for reasons that we've discussed at length here in the past. If that original  'shot in the arm' starts to lose it's benefits, who knows where an already shrinking hobby will wind up? Even going back to IC is not as it was given the demise of the likes of ASP and SC, not that oily old glow engines will be particularly attractive to many new and younger fliers interested mainly in ready to go foamies.

Edited April 21, 2022 by Cuban8

[Ron Gray]

I started buying batteries from China Hobby Line a couple of years ago and now buy most of mine from them but do wait for their special offers! My last order was for some 5s 3000mAh 70c packs, due to the special offer I ended up with 8 packs for £106 (tbh I thought I was getting 6!).

[Nigel R]

2 hours ago, Cuban8 said:

and the cost is looking to be nuts, particularly on the larger capacity 6S types

 

Larger sizes are starting to attract issues w.r.t. shipping, and those sort of regulations on lipos are only going to go one way.

[Nigel R]

2 hours ago, Ron Gray said:

China Hobby Line

 

There's a website only a mother could love.

[Lima Hotel Foxtrot]

20 hours ago, Mike T said:

BTW LHF - I don't know what device you used to post your 'justification' query, but I can pretty much guarantee it was made in China...

Actually I carved it myself from a block of balsa i grew in the garden using a scalpel I forged from ore I dug up and then covered it in homespun nylon and dope, and harvested berries to create the ink for lettering the keys. 

 

I bought the dope from my local alchemist. 

 

?

[Mike T]

Ah! But what about the chips?  Did you grow your own Maris Pipers? ?

 

@Don Fry - got your message.  Model Hobby Trade Federation.  Equivalent to the Masons.  They may not even exist anymore (I didn't check...)

[Phil Green]

I find myself in the same situation, nearly all my lipos are 10-year-olds from Giant Cod, they mostly still perform but have swelled in some cases 'a lot'  ?

Lately I've been pondering over replacements so will take on whats been said above, ta ?    

Come back Rob Carpenter, all is forgiven...  ?

[GrumpyGnome]

7 hours ago, Nigel R said:

 

Larger sizes are starting to attract issues w.r.t. shipping, and those sort of regulations on lipos are only going to go one way.

 

Smaller ones for indoor use (or UMX type planes) are like rocking horse pooh.  Apart from EFlite ones, that are obviously made of powdered Unicorn horn.......

[Cuban8]

23 hours ago, Ron Gray said:

I started buying batteries from China Hobby Line a couple of years ago and now buy most of mine from them but do wait for their special offers! My last order was for some 5s 3000mAh 70c packs, due to the special offer I ended up with 8 packs for £106 (tbh I thought I was getting 6!).

I forgot that I have a China Hobbies account and had a look at their site last night. At least they have a UK warehouse, but stocks appear to be small and from what I can see, postage from them for a couple of smallish Lipos is still going to be around twelve quid or so (courier, but still seems a bit high given that I have couriers deliver other stuff for half of that). Total cost of buying from them I'd say was a little over 1/2 of the prices charged by a couple of well known UK suppliers of Lipos.

I do fear that the large price increases will start to have a noticeable negative effect on the hobby, in particular for new flyers starting out. Youngsters, in particular, who rely on their parents to finance their purchases, but might have to think twice given the pressure on many household budgets now. Obviously not just batteries, but the whole cost of starting in the hobby from scratch and subsequent purchases as progress is made or to replace crashed models.

Not so long ago, two or three hundred quid could get you going with some basic kit and accessories, club memberships & insurance  etc - maybe twice that figure now?

 

[Graeme White]

Wish I had stocked up on 3s 2200 when they were about half the price. Luckily I only have 1 electric plane, the rest being glow or petrol. It does seem that glow is significantly cheaper startup these days and without getting into a big debate easier for newbies to learn with due to flying times and all round easier to get going.

[Phil Green]

Theres also Graham at rclife.co.uk

[Peter Christy]

Having been disappointed with the lifetimes of nearly all my Lipos (Thunderpower, Turnigy & Zippy) I've now settled on Fullymax - as sold by Overlander as their supersport pro range. I've been getting 2900s that are the same size as other people's 2200s for use in small helicopters, and similarly for larger sized (up to 5000s for the old Schluters). Some of these are now over 3 years old, and showing no sign at all of deteriorating. Compared to my experiences with Zippys and Thunderpower, this is quite something!

 

They are not the cheapest initially, but seem to last extremely well.

 

Just my experience!

 

--

Pete

 

[Piers Bowlan]

That is useful to know Pete ?

[Martin McIntosh]

I suppose that most of mine are Zippy compacts which are mainly OK, but anything with nanotech in the name is utter junk. The best by far from HK are Multistars.

Despite the price, I have recently bought some from 4 Max and they are in an altogether different league.