It would appear I'm going to take my life in my hands - I am charging up my LiPo batteries today! 
I have the proper charger and fireproof bag, but it advises that I sit there and watch it. Is that really necessary? How long does it normally take to charge one up? And are they adversely affected by the cold weather?
You've got nothing to ein, zwei, drei, vier
OMG ....are you watching it now or are you concentrating on this forum ? As we all know in the airsoft world Lipo batteries are on the list of "extremely dangerous things" where as in the model aeroplane world they've been using them for years. As for charging times ....IVE NO IDEA NOR AM I QUALIFIED TO MAKE AN ASSUMPTION FOR HEAVENS SAKE CONSULT AN EXPERT ? Might be worth going to a model shop and buying a quality charger with an indicator on it .
I haven't started charging it yet! 20 mins? 
Crumbs, I didn't realise they were as quick as that. Cheers, Old 'Un. 
You've got nothing to ein, zwei, drei, vier
Don't know how big the batt is but that's the sort of time a lot of small aircraft batteries take . If you get thermonuclear meltdown don't blame me !"
Hah, too late now - you have offered advice, and if it all goes wrong, I'll see you in court!! 
Thankfully, my charger is an intelligent one which switches off when the battery's done. However, if it's inside that bag, how am I going to know? 
You've got nothing to ein, zwei, drei, vier
Aha the Shroedingers Cat question...or more the Steiners Batt question .
As for court action I'm glad I made my postion quite clear in my first post above 
if its the intelegent type charger (most lipo chargers are)with the three lights on, then you charge till all the lights go out.three lights for 11.1v ,two lights for 7.4v.leave the charger out of bag as it gets hot.my lipo 11.1v 20c batt takes houres to charge but faster chargers like for nicad batts are arround .my charger had the verry best ingrish instructions so i had to ask aforum too.good luck.
armoury
m1a1 Thompson,sten mk2,mp40,stg44,sterling,mk2 bren gun,lee Enfield no4 mk1,Mauser Kar98, Walther ppk,smith and Weston m10 and Mauser m712
Give me a big enough hammer and a place to stand and I could fix the world.
i'll kill a man in a fair fight or if i think he's going to start a fair fight or over a woman or.......
a problem shared is a problem halved ,but an advantage shared is no advantage at all
if a job's not worth doing then its certainly not worth doing well
You got instructions?!?!?
I had to guess!
First one charged very quickly - must have already been nearly full. Is one supposed to decharge 'em, or does it not matter?
You've got nothing to ein, zwei, drei, vier
No idea,
What gun are you putting it in andy ?
They should be stored charged, and not let to discharge beyond a certain point.
What gun are you putting it in andy ?
My new Sten. 
They should be stored charged, and not let to discharge beyond a certain point.
Thanks for the info.
You've got nothing to ein, zwei, drei, vier
Never let them run flat, it kills them. Your local model shop should sell a little alarm type thing that clips onto your charging lead and will beep at you when it considers the battery to be too low on charge. At EAG we've gone over to G36's for rental guns all running on lipos all with the charge indicators on, so hopefully they'll last. The little alarm jobby should be about a fiver.
Thanks, Jimbo. 
You've got nothing to ein, zwei, drei, vier
You can also get the alarms from ebay...
Note also that Lipos will hold their charge indefinitely, unlike NiMH... You'll probably find if you don't use it much it won't need recharging much.
The one thing that really causes lipos to burst into flames is if they are pierced when fully charged... just don't do it! I keep mine permanently in my fireproof bag and in a metal ammo box. And certainly away from anything sharp.
That's the precaution I take and I really love lipos! I run them in all my guns now and I certainly won't be buying another NiMH battery!
In addition to the above...
1: Do NOT discharge them below 3v per cell. It buggers them up.
2: Realise that most Chinese LiPo packs are shite. Buy decent ones.
Some info on buying packs:
C Rate x Capacity (in amp hours) = Discharge Rate in Amps
Thats the important equation. Packs are sold with C rating, Capacity and Voltage printed on them. If they don't have that basic info on them, then the packs are from the bottom end of the market. So why is that equation important? Well, a stock 340fps or so AEG will pull around 16 Amps on average to work at 100% of its design capability - so you need a battery pack that can provide it with what it needs.
OK, some examples:
SOCOM gear 1000 mAh 7.4v 10C pack. This gives 10 (C) x 1 (Amp hour) = 10 (Amps discharge rate)
G&P 7.4V 1000mAh 20C pack. This gives 20 (C) x 1 (Amp hour) = 20 (Amps discharge rate)
Of those two batteries, the SOCOM gear isnt up to the job of allowing the AEG to pull the 16 Amps it needs, but the G&P will, so you wont get the rate of fire on the SOCOM battery that you should do.
Cheap packs are often cheap because they have low C ratings. Check before you buy!
When we were a Kingdom it was run by a King
When we were an Empire it was run by an Empress
Now we're a country we're run by a..........
a good spot for airsoft lipo's is the component shop http://www.component-shop.co.uk/ they are good and reasonably priced,firefox tell lies about the c rating of their batterys be warned.
armoury
m1a1 Thompson,sten mk2,mp40,stg44,sterling,mk2 bren gun,lee Enfield no4 mk1,Mauser Kar98, Walther ppk,smith and Weston m10 and Mauser m712
Give me a big enough hammer and a place to stand and I could fix the world.
i'll kill a man in a fair fight or if i think he's going to start a fair fight or over a woman or.......
a problem shared is a problem halved ,but an advantage shared is no advantage at all
if a job's not worth doing then its certainly not worth doing well
Do these alarms wire in to the pack itself and if so easily?
Yes, they just plug in where the charger goes... A lipo pack has two connectors you see... one for the charger and one to connect to the AEG. This is because the cells in the battery must be charged independently.
You have two sets of wires. One provides the power from the charger to the pack as a whole, the other set (the thinner wires on the 3 or 4 way plug - depending on whether you're using 2 cell 7.4v packs or 3 cell 11.1v packs) are used to balance the cells. It's this connector that you plug a LiPo monitor into.
When we were a Kingdom it was run by a King
When we were an Empire it was run by an Empress
Now we're a country we're run by a..........
Can we sticky this topic? There's a load of useful info here and I'm sure it'd be handy to people who are making the change to lipo's in the future.
