Airsoft Battery Guide

Voltage:
Pretty simple. The more voltage(ie 7.4v pack) the higher rate of fire

Capacity:
The capacity(ie Mah) will give you more runtime. This is like your fuel tank. The more Mah, the longer you can shoot people

Neither of these will effect your accuracy or FPS.

Battery Chemistries:
There are a few Chemistries that the electric hobbyist uses. The most common is Ni-Mh, or Nickel Metal Hydride. Li-Po, or Lithium Polymer is big in RC applications, and is beginning to take off in the airsoft community also. A lot of stock guns come with low quality Ni-Mh, or Ni-Cad batteries. Ni-Cad’s, or Nickel Metal Cadmium batteries are an older technology, and have become inferior to Ni-Mh, and Li-Po packs. There are also a lot of various forms of the Li-ion chemistry.

For airsoft, Ni-Mh is the best bet. Very powerful if you buy the right cells, and affordable. I know that there is a larger demand for Li-Po packs also, but your only real gain besides rate of fire, is some weight loss. Li-po’s are much more needy, and have less configuration options. Also, in most cases, you don’t get as much capacity for certain packs. Li-po is a great performing chemistry, but would not be my first choice. They require more to be happy. Such as some typr of low voltage detection, to keep the cells from dropping below 3v each. And a special charger/balancer.

Ni-Mh batteries are 1.2 v per cell
Ni-Cad batteries are 1.2v per cell
Li-Po batteries are 3.7v per cell
Li-Ion type cells vary from 3.3-3.7v, depending on the specific chemistry.

Battery Quality/Performance:
One thing I fight with a lot, is informing people that not all batteries, are living up to what their label says. There are a lot of batteries that come out of really cheap Chinese factories, and are of a very low quality. Generally, these are stock batteries that the gun comes with, or are no-named looking cells. This is bad for 2 reasons. 1: Low quality cells will have a short cycle life. Which means you will get a lot less charges from them. 2: they do not deliver enough power. And even though airsoft guns aren’t a high current drawing applications, the cells cant be bottom of the barrel either.

Now when it comes to good cells, there are 2 different types basically. 1 being a low drain cell, and the other being a high drain cell. The difference, is that the low drain cell is meant for low current applications such as cordless phones, RC transmitter packs, and so on. While being able to offer a good capacity, and offer plenty of cycles before they need to be replaced. High drain cells can handle way more current, and take a much larger beating. These are most used in high performance RC applications. Airsoft, although, not a really high current application, rides between low drain cell, and high drain cell needs. So naturally, you guys need high drain cells.

Right now there are plenty of decent brands on the market, but the only 3 I recommend at the moment, that have proven in my 8 years of experience, to be good, are anything from GP, IB, or Elite. Elite seems to be the most wanted cell in the airsoft world.

Plugs:
All of these guns come with the crappy little white plastic plugs. Weather it be the “Large” or “Small” type, both aren’t worth a damn. There is only 1 easy option. Deans Ultra. There are a few other good plugs out there, but Deans is the most widely used, and has proven it’s quality for years.

Why, might you ask, does it matter what plug to use. Well, the reason is, that the pins inside the stock plugs, are made from a really thin tin, that over a very short period of time, begin to wear out, and cause a faulty connection. This will cause the gun to not fire at times, and the battery to false peak on a charger. Plus, the plugs are crimped, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but Deans are a solder style, which is much better.

When you go to a better connecting plug, you reduce your resistance dramatically, and free up some power that you didn’t have before. I have showed people many times, how my gun with the same batteries, at the same voltage, has more power just from having a Deans plug. And they cant believe that a little plug will restrict so much power.

Chargers/Charging:
First and fore-most, wall wart, or trickle chargers are worthless. I cant tell you how many times I have a guy spend a lot of money on some batteries, just to skimp on the charger. You cant have a good battery, without a good charger. Good doesn’t mean you have to spend a bunch of money, but you wont get a good one for 20 bucks. Generally, most of the good chargers cost around 50 bucks, and higher. You’re going to want something that has a variable charge rate(amp’s) and is a peak detection charger. Those are the minimum. If you’re getting a Li-Po pack, then you want something with a variable current setting, in at least .5 amp increments, and has a balancer built in. Most of today’s chargers do all of this, in 1 package. There are so many chargers out on the market today, you cant hardly go wrong as long as they do what I mentioned above.

You want to set your charger to the appropriate cell amount, chemistry, and charge current. Charging at 1C and below is the safest bet for any pack.Example: 1C of a 1500 mah pack is 1.5 amps on a charge. So for a 1500mah pack, anything at or under 1.5 amps is safe. Another easy way to find the C, is to take the first 2 digits of the Mah( if it is a 1500 mah, take the 15) and put your point between them. That will be 1C.

Some chargers may have a Mv setting. This is your delta peak. You want that to be between 3-5mv per cell. This is for Nimh packs. But the majority of the newer chargers out there, do this for you.

If you’re charging a Li-Po pack, and the charger has a balancer, or you have an external one, you use that every time you charge. In fact, I tell ALL my customers to ALWAYS use a balancer. We don’t warranty packs that we charged without one. It is un-safe to charge without one. You charge Li-pos at 1C also. Charge all Li-Po’s, away from anything flammable, in the event they catch fire, so they don’t catch anything else on fire.

I hope this is helpful. Feel free to ask me any questions you may have…