Just wondering if I was using a 4 cell 4350 14.8v and change to a 5 cell 4350 18.5V what would I gain beside size and weight?

Dennis pretty uch hit it on the head.  I flew with slightly oversized (mah) then I really needed.  I got them during the winter last year and wanted to be sure they were big enough to experiment with.  I did a fair amount of experimentation with prop sizes and such.  A typical flight was about 2300mah vs a 3400mah pack.

How about the Volt difference?

More volts requires fewer amps for given power.  Fewer amps means less heat.  (& vice versa)

As Alan Hahn has so eloquently pointed out so many times, assuming we can find the right match of motor kv and cell capacity, it really does not matter how we slice & dice the cell count.  The wattage must be met and can be met in many different ways...

Hi Larry,

For our CLPA purposes we need to move up from a 14.8V battery to an 18.5 battery when our planes start to get over 65 oz. and over 650 sq in and/or really thick wings. This is the normal way to get the added power needed for a larger mission. (we do this all the time in ERC)

More Volts = More power .... as others have wisely said: "IF the motor/ESC is designed to take it and with the correct KV/prop for the mission".


My P-47 looks like it will be around 69+/- oz (scale stuff added ;-) with a 680 sq in medium thick wing and lots of  big fuselage drag. I never considered using less than an 18.5V battery to power the Plentenberg Orbit 25. This is the same power system used by Paul Walker. Bob also used 18.5V in his T-Rex after finding out that 14.8V was not giving enough power to fly a good pattern.

I use an 8S,  29.6V battery in my 2 meter size Yak-54 at 9 lbs. This works well. :-)

Our medium size (25 lb) IMAC ERC planes use 44.4V 10,000 mAh batteries. (4 batteries to get this)

YOUR NEW PLANE:

If that beautiful new take-apart plane of yours is going to be more than 60 oz. you may want to go with a 5S 18.5V battery. ..... I like Dave and Paul's philosophy: "more power helps a lot!" ;-)

Thunder power just reduced most of their battery prices by 25%, they make great batteries and now they are a very good value. ..... But I have switched to the excellent Hyperion batteries. They are perfect for CLPA. They have 4 times the duty cycle of other batteries, they use a new type of construction and high quality materials that allow a safe 5C charge rate using a balancer during charge (I'm not brave enough to use 5C but I do use 3C and get full Charge in <20 min. :-). These Hyperion batteries only cost $128 for a 5S and only $103 for the 4S. They are also the perfect shape for our use. .... I would still use them even if they cost more than the TP batteries.

Regards,