The Xmod charger (the one I saw incase there are multiple) looks very cheap, looks like its based on an old overnight charger style... hopefuly the electronics inside are very different.

Rayovac Sells the I-C3 as well, but they removed the Rayovac logo and replaced it with Radio Shack... hopefuly the cells and charger are identical and no short cuts were taken...

I still see it being better to buy the I-C3... over any other type right now, for those that have no charger or rechargeable batteries at all etc... you wont have to upgrade later...

For 2 cars...
$29.00 I-C3 Charger
$12.00 for I-C3 AAA for first car
$12.00 for I-C3 AAA for 2nd car
(you only need 1 set per car when they charge in 15 minutes!)
=
$77 +/-
(You will also have 2 or 4 AA cells included with the chargers, a 5 or 10$ value)

if you were to use 2 cars with the xmod charger:
$25.00 ? this about what Xmod charger is?
$25.00 ? for a second Xmod charger!
(Gota have 2 chargers for 2 cars if it takes an hour or so to charge, other wise it would be 2 hours between "races")
$10.00 for spare set for first car
$10.00 for spare set for 2nd car
(you need at least 2or3 sets for each car so you can use one while charging the first)
=
$70.00 about... +/-
(not totaly sure what the Xmod charger comes with in the way of other batteries? I counted at least 1 set above)


My goal is to reach the point of NON STOP use, not having to wait for the cells to charge.. 15, minutes is basicly a 0-wait, since it might take you that long to pee-clean the car-drink a pop, and be ready to run again :).

I of course was ignoring whatever cells are used in the transmitters....

With the IC3's....Before you run out of juice with your first set, your second set has already charged. Just switch them out and continue. Then recharge the first set. and repeat. You really only have the down time of switching the batteries.

I am in no way trying to start an argument, but the Xmod charger comes with 2 sets of batteries which is 8. So I have 4 sets (16) and 2 chargers. In my experience I have never been at a loss for battery power, because I usually race one car at a time. When my sister joins in then we can both run for over an hour straight if we want to. Then it will be 2 hours to charge all 16 with the 2 chargers. The thing is that we rarely pump both sets consecutively so I never am at a loss for batteries.
I was seriously considering getting the rayovacs (I only had 1 Xmod charger at this point) but that 40$ charger and 15$ set of batteries deterred me (that is what i recall I saw at the last trip to best buy). I haven't had any problems with the Xmod charger, at radioshack I even saw guys who use the Xmod charger to juice their digital camera batteries. I look at it and think its just too good of a deal. If you wanted to buy 2 sets of the regular rechargables (which are included with the charger) at radio shack individually it would be 24$. Maybe the charger is crap, only time will tell, and if it breaks on me i'll make sure to tell everyone but as of now it has been working great.

You should still let your car cool off every 15-20 minutes or so.

why so long??

The heat sync is cool to the touch after 2 minutes. I've ran my car for an hour and a half straight, only pausing to change the batteries. No problems.

Ok, thats just what the instructions that came with my stage 2 said... I haven't ran my XMOD too long yet.

Well even if I toast a motor, I'll just go buy another Stage 2 set. It is under $20.00, no big deal. (However I'll probably try to toast the other 3 motors first. ;) )