Thread: swollen lipo battery, what to do?

How-To: Safe lipo preparation for disposal - TJinTech

I have a little bit of experience with these. I have shot them, poked fencing wire through them and over charged them to get them to vent fire.


I am hugely surprised these are sold in Australia. To me they are no safer than all those mini-segways what have been blamed for so many house fires after Christmas last year. What is even worse about these it they are kept in hot cars.


All mine are stored and charged in a concrete bessa block with a concrete lid.


They will spontaneously combust with little external interference.


Only 6 weeks ago I moved from Darwin to Perth. On the way down we stopped at the Threeway's Service station for fuel. I had my dog in the trailer and my missus got him out every stop to take him for a walk as she did while I was fuelling the car.


I had all my lipo batteries, in fire proof bags in a metal box in my caged box trailer. While I was fuelling the Disco, my young bloke asked why there was smoke coming from the trailer. I immediately knew what it was and lucky that my wife was walking out dog and the cage was already unlocked and open. By the time I threw the metal box out of the trailer, it was already blowing hot gasses out at a great rate. I kicked the box open as the service station attendant was running out of the store. (Funny now, not then) I kicked the fire proof bag that had the reacting lipo in it away from the servo but then realised I had kicked it over the filler hole. I kicked it again and the lipos came out. Within seconds one caught alight and vented flames about 2 feet high. It only lasted less than 10 seconds but it was blowing out ignited gas with force.


Once it was all over no one was too worried. I picked up the mess I made, finished fuelling the Disco and went on our way.


From my experience, all lipos start welling from the time you start using them. The hard part is how long do you keep them before they are too dangerous. Most of mine are used in foam planed that cost less than $200 all up but then some are used in my Quad copter, Heli and drones that each are worth more than $2000 each.


I would never leave them unattended in my vehicle. When I travel, they either in the trailer for long trips or on the seat beside me for short trips to go for a fly. The idea of having them on the seat beside me is I could through it out the window quickly if needed.


As far as I am aware, running them flat renders them a little safer from catching fire but running them flat also kills them for use. They needed to be stored in a semi charged state and never kept in a low charge state.


Best advise I think is they will only "go off" once. Clipping the terminals together should draw enough to create enough heat to set it off. Do it once, don't breath the smoke then when it's cool, throw it in the bin.


Happy Days

Originally Posted by pop058

How-To: Safe lipo preparation for disposal - TJinTech

Interesting he had one swell near the end of discharge doing the slow light bulb way.


Do it the fast way and be prepared for the worst I say. Watch some youtube videos and you'll see it's not something you want happening inside your house but a concrete bessa block is ample protection outside. Oh and don't do it on your driveway as it would leave a black mess.


Happy Days

ive turned the led on the unit on so it slowly drains.

the battery has been kept in my Peugeot which a friend has been borrowing. i suspect its been plugged in the whole time and trickle charging.

Lipo-suction?

Wow, that's quite scary!
Especially as they're marketed to keep in the car.
I know where I'll be putting mine now.

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[ame]https://youtu.be/QjkW3KUz5uo[/ame]

Interesting. I will make sure i dont attack the lithium batteries in my head torch and my jump start pack with a claw hammer...

Cheers