Review – DuraTrax Piranha AC/DC Digital Peak Charger

Oct 262006

Best bang for the bucks
Words and photos: Sylvain Lafrance
October 2006

Introduction

No matter you run nitro or electric cars or trucks, you’ll need a charger. A good and affordable charger is the Piranha AC/DC Digital Peak (DTXP4005) from Duratrax. For a street price of 50$US, this charge will take care of all your NiCd and NiMH battery packs and humppacks.

Using the charger is really easy, just take few seconds to enter your battery information into one of the 10 memories and you are ready to charge your pack. A Tamiya style connector is included with the charger. If you are like me and use Deans Plugs, you’ll have to built your own plug to use the charger. It’s not big deal and it will only take 15 minutes. When building your new cable, keep one wire shorter than the other. This will prevent short-circuit in the case that the cable disconnect from the charger. I learn this tip when my wife disconnected a humppack from the charger instead from the humppack’s connector. The result was a brand new melted humppack and wires smoking in the grass in front of my house… But it’s another story…

duratrax_pirhana

Most of the time I charge my humppacks and mini’s packs between 1A and 1.5A rate. When the charger stops, the packs are warm but not excessively hot. Same thing with my 3300 NiMH packs at 3A or 5A rate (DC only). Charge after charge, all my packs offered me the same power and runtime. In 2 years, I never had any false peak detection or any overheating packs and the charger still working perfectly.

Features

Easy to navigate LED display
10 model memory
Peak Charge Rate: 0.1- 5.0 A (3.0 A with AC power source)
Charge rate increments: 100mA
1 to 8 cells
Input Voltage: 110V AC, 11-15V DC
Fast charge termination: zero delta peak (3 – 20mV/Cell)

Conclusion

If you are serious about electric racing or you want a high-end charger, the Duratrax Piranha AC/DC Digital Peak Charger may not be your best choice, you better go with something “hotter” like the Duratrax Ice charger. But if you are like me, and you are looking for a small, reliable and affordable charger for your humppacks, mini’s packs, bigger 7.2v packs or as a first charger for you RTR, this charger is one of the best choice on the market.

For more information, visit www.duratrax.com

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