posted on 1/16/2014

This is more of a user experience than a review... meaning I will not go into a huge amount of technical detail and performance tests etc. This is about my latest experience with these Genesis batteries from Banana Hobby ... and that experiance has not been so great. Be it noted that I've used theses batteries before and I still have some 3300 mAh 55c's that are still going strong after over 18 months of use.

These current batch of batteries, after only about 3-4 cycles, showed a slight puffing after a flight (DJI F550 Hexa) even though I am only pulling 71 amps at max throttle (battery rated at 275 amps continuous/550 burst). The 'copter is my photo/video rig and it's not like I have been hot rodding it around.... actually the only time it has seen full throttle is on the amp draw test. Even at take off I'm about 3/4 throttle.

I've meticulously charged them, never exceeding even 1.5 the C rating for a charge (the max my charger does is 2.5 amps anyway) and all the cells are balanced to within .02 per cell.... and most are .01 per cell.

At about the same time I also got a small 3cell 40C 1000mAh battery and after only two used it also puffed. This was only used to power my GoPro camera gimbal. It looks like the current quality of these Genesis packs are not what they were a year ago...

Currently, only after a couple more cycles they are all definitley puffed. No more airtime for these packs!

UPDATE: 2/6/2014 - I just received my replacement batteries (Thank you Banana Hobby) and I will see how the new replacements work out, please stay tuned.

UPDATE: 4/22/2014 - Again after only 6-7 cycles thes batteries are puffing just like they did before. I am currently awaiting a response from Banana Hobby (my second request). At this point I would definitely not recommend these batteries and would stay clear until this problem has been resolved.

UPDATE: 5/2/2014 - After over 2 weeks waiting for a response I finally posted up a complaint on the RC Groups discussion board (Vendor section, Banana Hobby). I got a response within 24 hours. After verifying I was not abusing these batteries they agreed something was amiss with these batteries... two days later I received a full refund.

Bottom Line: Stay clear of these batteries until this issue is resolved!