3 years charging these lipo battries and no problem. 8-16-2013 my luck ran out.
I was charging a 3 cell 2200 mah lipo while I worked at the computer.
It caught FIRE near me. Got it out the door just in time.
It burns HOT and long.
I was charging a 3 cell 2200 mah lipo while I worked at the computer.
It caught FIRE near me. Got it out the door just in time.
It burns HOT and long.
Could have burned the place down to the ground.
Be CAREFUL.....PLEASE !
Be CAREFUL.....PLEASE !
Earl
It Caught FIRE near me. Got it out the door just in time. It burns HOT and long.
Be CAREFULL.....
Be CAREFULL.....
Comments
No. There is never any pure lithium in lipos. That's why they are lithium *ion*.
Wait, wait... two batteries blew up on you today? Was the second one already ballooning as caused by your charger, or was it triggered entirely by you punching a hole in the packaging? Because depending on how things went, you might want to look real hard at your charger.
It's worth noting that breaching a lipo, especially a hot one, is going to be like dropping metallic sodium into water. Any oxygen on the pure lithium in those packs will cause a rapid reduction reaction. Best case, you ruin the battery by causing the contacts to corrode to nothing. (Peel open an Energizer A123 battery and watch the metallic lithium oxidize in front of your eyes.) Worst case, you have another fireball. Also, since the gas that fills your battery is Hydrogen, I'll let you figure out why a hot pack overloading and bursting will make a nice boom. :)
Moral of the story: Lipoly's are like guns. They're always going to be dangerous, but they're especially dangerous if you don't understand how and why they work.
Yea, I went 3 years and no problems. Then today ,not one, but two batteries smoked, caught fire and exploded. (the explosion wasn't too violent tho). From now on if a battery is swelled up I am going to discard it. A fire at the house or worse, in the apartment building would NOT be good. I think even though I lost 2 batteries today, I consider myself VERY lucky. I am going out an buying a couple of lottery tickets !
Earl
@Pablo: That might be a bad idea, could result in both fire and glass shrapnel?
@Pablo: That might be a bad idea, could result in both fire and glass shrapnel?
@Chuck-- I would be interested too at what charge settings you were using.
Changing at high Cs is begging for a fire to happen. We always balance at 2A or less on a 5C charge, 3S capable capable battery. 0.7A on a 2C capable battery... I've had hypertechs balloon 1/4" each side and still ran them for 3 months with maybe 16 flights... problem is either they lose power within 90secs or it browns out the APM/ESCs
I must be one of the lucky ones....
Been using LiPo's since they came out, and balance chargers didn't exist, or wasn't considered to be necessary !
I've bent them into banana shape in crashes, poked holes in the crashed ones with a pitchfork, shot "end of life" ones with a pellet gun after charging them one final time, and the most I ever managed was to get them to be a mediocre handwarmer..
I know, lots of evidence out there that they might go bang, but in all the years, of all the pilots around me, not a single incident.
Well, one, but we are convinced he stuck his car battery charger on the Lipo....
Only caused a small fire, that was easily put out, by the Fire Brigade !
Must be the laid back attitude, and good wine here, that makes the Lipo's go "Ok, I'll get a little bit warm...)
Right, be serious, if you follow the instructions, and use a relatively quality charger, and use the battery in its design range, years of use.
I have LiPo's that have done in excess of 500 cycles, not perfect anymore, but still perfectly usable.
And if you are going to twist my arm, my preferred chargers are the iChargers, from Jonzi.
Then, I also have some Imax chargers, genuine and copies, and some NoNames from HobbyCity, and before a big weekend, ALL of them get used to charge 20 plus batteries.
House is still standing.........
Be very careful playing with batteries Earl I have seen one let go on another persons aircraft, in flight and it was impressive. Every time I am up high or at the limit of my eyesight I can't help thinking what would happen if it went bang like wot I saw before.
Again....DAMN.....I know why....
DO NOT try to SAVE a swollen battery by sticking it with a pin to let the gas out. It WILL get HOT and catch FIRE.
Look.......
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