S and c ratings

I know there are plenty threads out there on this but they were all super confusing. What are battery s and c ratings, what do they represent, and how do they effect performance…

S means “Series” it is an indication of how many series cells are in your battery. in short it means how many volts your battery will have. 1S = 3.7V 2S = 7.4V 3S = 11.1V 6S = 22.2V 12S = 44.4V

C is the current discharge rate where the C number is multiplied by the Amp hour rating to give peak discharge current.

so for a 5000mAh pack 20C = 100A also worth noting that for a 10,000mAh pack rated 10C its still 100A

I have seen a lot of people saying “don’t get that pack its only 10C” but the pack is rated to 16000mAh so its actually better than the 30C 5000mA pack they have.

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Never use C ratings on li-ion cells. It does not apply.

Typically you’ll see something like 10S 3P this means 10 cells in series (typically each cell is 4.2V when charged, 3.6-3.7V when discharged) and 3 packs in parallel which means 30 cells total, the 10S tells you like lowGuido said the voltage. The P (in 10S3P) indicates number of 10S packs in parallel in general the amp-hour (Ah) rating is, but it depends on exactly what kind of cells are used what that Ah they will have per individual cell. You’ll also see 18650 which is a form factor for LiIon cells (cylinder shaped, believe 18mm diameter and 650mm length) but exact chemistry effects how much juice/amp hours (Ah) they store and on the other side Lithium Polymer batteries.