Best Battery?

[echoify]

what do you think the longest lasting battery for the phantom is? i've seen a couple of sellers on ebay selling 2500mah that they say can last up to 18 minutes..i get about 10 minutes in most cases, looking at putting 2 in parallel was wondering what people here have had success with?

 

[Gizmo3000]

Don't bother with parallel batteries,. not with the Phantom, it'd just weigh it down and handle like a pig.
If long flights are needed, perhaps look into mounting a slightly larger battery underneath.
or spend a lot on fancy 2500mah battery that will fit into the Phantom's battery bay,
or learn to make the most of your 10 minute flights, land, swap in a fresh battery and fly again.

Pursuing extra long flight times is a slippery slope.

 

[miskatonic]

I fly with two stock parallel batteries with 9 inch props and a gimbal and get about 12-13 minutes of flight time. The handling is pretty good. I noticed that the parallel set up places less stress on the stock batteries. They are much cooler after a flight than they would be if I just used a single lipo.

If I remove the Tarot gimbal but keep the two stock batteries running parallel gives me about 18 minutes of flight time. I have flown with a single large battery and got about 16 minutes of flight time.

What you will need to do is play around with various load outs and decide which one works best for you.

 

[timholyoake]

To be honest I use the stock battery and it is fine. I also use other 11.1 3cell LiPos which I use in my 450 helis and all work well. I only fly for 4 to 5 mins at a time so as not to over drain the battery and as long as I plan my shots and take a load of batteries with me I have no probs.

It depends on what you want to do.
Any good quality battery will give good reliable service. If you want to fly indefinitely on one charge .. maybe nuclear power should be considered. In order to convert to 2 three or in one case I have seen 4 batteries is a lot of work for little result. The added weight of the mountings and batteries eventually hit the wall of diminishing returns.

Just carry a few good batteries with you and you should be fine.

 

[Metatron]

Best one I've got are Zippy Compact 2200mAh.. They are much lighter than any other (about 160g) so it is probably the best one to buy.