🔋 Balance Charger
A charger that monitors and charges each LiPo cell individually through the balance connector, keeping all cells at the same voltage instead of just charging the pack as one big battery.
Always use the balance port — charging through the main leads only skips this protection.
What it actually does
A balance charger monitors every cell in a lithium pack individually through the small white balance lead, and evens them out as it charges. Cells drift apart from each other over time, and a pack whose cells are at different voltages ages faster and behaves unpredictably. Balancing is what keeps them level.
In practice
Plug in both the main lead and the balance lead every time. A decent charger will show you each cell's voltage — a healthy pack has cells within a few hundredths of a volt of each other. Watching those numbers is the best early warning you have of a pack going bad.
Worth knowing
If one cell is consistently lagging behind the others, the pack is on its way out. Retire it rather than nursing it along.