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Radio Shack GP3300 7.2 Volt RC Battery Review
The path to a cheap racing battery?

$24.99 Street Price Each

Everyone and their brother talks about the smoking deal the GP3300 battery pack is from the neighborhood Radio Shack, but I though I would take a first hand look at this touted 3300Mh 7.2 Volt 6-cell pack and purchased two packs and proceeded with the testing.

First off, the pack at Radio Shack is nothing more than the standard GP3300 pack sold by almost every RC manufacturer on the planet (the picture to the right is of the old 3300 cells, the new battery cells are pictured below).  The RS GP3300 is loads better than other "self branded" packs such as my very first battery packs, the PowerMax Pros at about the same price. The GP3300 is also only a hair off from being as good as the "Matched", "Zapped", or "Stabilized" packs priced $10 higher from notable manufacturers.  The bad news is like all the GP3300 stick packs available from pretty much anyone, the GP3300 pack is assembled stick style with thin  accordion metal connectors and a Tamiya connectors.  The good news it that the heart and soul of this pack is driven by the very good quality GP3300 batteries and making this pack into a super pack is not that tough.

For someone buying a new electric RC for the first time, I would highly recommend the GP3300 pack from Radio Shack, it's only $25 for crying out loud and at least $10 cheaper than any other GP3300 pack from anyone else out there and a great pack right out of the package.  So even in it's pitiful stock state, the battery pack is very good by RC standards, because of those GP3300 batteries holding the charge.  Just keep in mind it will take few cycles for the pack to start to hit it's stride.

"I am an advanced R/C'er", you say.  Well this 6-cell pack has even more to offer you.   At the very least the connectors need to be replaced with a low loss connector such as Deans plugs, but why stop there?  Replacing the power cords with Deans Wet Noodle 12 gauge wires allows some of that current to flow even better and gives you a much better pack just with that $4 upgrade.  

The best solution is to tear down the pack and re-build the pack with Deans Probar 3 battery bars to really take advantage of what these cells can truly offer. At face value the cells are worth $30-$35 just by themselves and offer the battery pack re-builder a cheap alternative to a side-by-side pack for well under $8 in Deans connectors, wires, battery bars, and shrink wrap. The cheapest well made side-by-side pack I found was around $50, so for $32 and your time you have a great pack.

How much better will a pack re-build make this 25 buck battery pack?  Well on the Ultra-Pede running the Novak GTB 4.5 I was consistently getting about three to five minutes of run time with my old PowerMax Pro 3000Mh batteries, after a conversion to side-by-side packs my power skyrocketed and my run times nearly doubled to about twelve minutes of normal bashing - seven minutes of running full out. As a result I immediately converted all in house packs to side-by-sides.   I experienced the same situation when testing the GP3300, almost seven minutes on the mark and the pack dumped completely.  After converting the packs to side-by-sides my power again skyrocketed and my runtimes jumped to about fourteen minutes of normal bashing - ten minutes running full out speed runs.  The power was significantly better than any other pack I own with the exception of my IB battery packs. Some research indicated that I was pulling current faster than the battery to battery connectors could handle and therefore the batteries could not recover.  In essence I was only using the capacity of the front 2-4 cells. By upgrading to heavy duty Dean Probars, the current can flow easily from cell to cell and all is good in the land of battery packs.

Conclusion
These packs are a win - win situation for any R/C'er.  If you are just looking for a great pack to plug into for a stock RC this is a outstanding value.  If you are a more experienced R/C'er, a standard battery re-build will net you huge returns that few other batteries at this price will.  With those upgrades is it a path to an outstanding race pack, I think yes (check you ROAR rules on the rebuild).  For a basher or a user with a high current need such as a brushless system, the Radio Shack GP3300 is a no brainer.