As a Model plane and car buff been using LIPO for years so
PLEASE DO NOT FLATEN to zero volts if you do Bin it because that's it your Li-Po or Li-Fi battery will be DEAD
the cause may be a number of things but best is to put it in a boat or what ever and run it until you see it going slow then wait till its cool
YOU can start- stop charging any Li-Po pack as there not like Nimhs or nicads and do not get hot while charging if they do Switch off and throw out side straight the way
Now the puffing cells . . . well its ok but get ready to bin it as if its in a boat or car this MAY happen and the same apply's if there hot as well
( never ever charge any battery lipo NiCad nimh etc while hot / warm ) always wait till cool
so charging a LiPo its easy make sure you have a LIPO charger and set it to balance charge always the best as this charge's each cell to the correct voltage which is 4.20volt per cell so each cell when charged has 4.20 volt in and set the Amperage as per battery by that I mean if your battery is a 3cell
2200mah then set the charger to 11.1 volt 3cell and the amps to
2.2amp this is known as charging at 1C eg 1800mah charge at 1.8amp2000mah charge at 2.0 amp3000mah charge at 3amp5000mah charge at 5amp This is known as 1c when they say you can charge at 2c then double the charge so a 2000mah can be charged at 2c it can be charged at 4amps BUT only if it says it on the PACK
Check out picture below
It says at bottom 5c fast charge and only 25c ? I will only charge my Li-Po's at 1c no matter what it says on the pack . . why well they last longer my plane set I have had for over a year and still running all because I treat them with respect and never let them go low on voltage they do NOT HAVE A MEMORY effect like nicads or nimhs and best is to part charge using your LIPO charger I store mine with a little in so part charge.
If you did this to nicads or nimhs after 3 months they would be flat and you need to cycle them but a Li-Po or Li-Fe will still have a charge and you DO NOT HAVE TO cycle them . . EVER
WHATS 25cC rating is the power or punch it can handle so if your boat / car / plane has a warm battery then the MOTOR is pulling a few amps and needs a bigger C rating but what does the Crating mean in lay mans terms
Well best way to describe it is a bucket of water ?
Now drill a hole at the top the water spills out and reaches say 3 inch away from the bucket in a small arch this is 20c
Now drill a hole at the middle water spills out and reaches say 8 inch away from the bucket in a large arch this is 30c
Now drill a hole at the bottom water spills out and reaches say 24 inch away from the bucket in a straight line this is 50c
Its down to preassure in the bucket and how much water.
But in the Li-Po case it can give you more power and PUNCH so always get any Li-Po with the biggest C rating as this can handle your needs in this case. . POWER and a cooler Li-Po
So in conclusion if buying any Li-Po or Li-Fe in soft case or hard case ( model car ) get the best you can afford in C rating the Mah is the run time basically so a 2000mah runs for 10 minutes then a 4000mah will run for 20 minutes and a 6000mah will run for 30 minutes and the charge time is in effect the same so 2000mah is around an hour and 6000mah is around say 2hr charge time that's the draw back and the C rating well that's the punch or stamina like a stallion and a pony or enigizer bunny more staying power LOL
Hope that helps
Oh yea one last thing invest in one of these it tells you the state of your indavadual cell in the pack so if you have say a 6cell pack it can see each cells voltage as can be seen on the left of the picture numbered 1 to 6 to indicate the cell in question a led indicate the cell number