Lipo fire last night.
 

I was trying to charge one of my 5S 4000 lipo's which had been damaged previously from something.
I thought it was all good though...........little did I know.

While it was charging on the loungeroom floor, I was watching TV & heard a crackling noise & when I looked at it it was puffed up like a balloon. I grabbed it & threw it out on the verandah where it got hotter & hotter till it caught fire & threw a flame out up to approx 5-6 feet.

Unfortunately I missed recording the fire & also missed the action with pics.

Here's the end result.:whistle:

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1.../Lastnight.jpg

Dude that sucks. What brand was it. Mah?

Ouch mozzy. Looks like a charred book.

do you know what damaged it...a lipo fire is like the scariest thing to me, because during the winter I charge mine inside the house...I need an ammo case.

It was a Zippy.

I think I damaged it making it draw too many amps one day when I fried my Quark.

The other 4 Zippy's I have are perfect.

This one actually had a hole in one cell, I'm assuming the hole was a vent & the pack was damaged that way. I tried charging it on a balancer & it wouldn't work, so, I charged it without the balancer.

Word of advice, always use a balancer or balancing charger & if it won't charge it, don't make it or you may lose more than just a pack! :lol:

I'll be buying another one. This hasn't deterred me from getting Zippy as it was my fault not the battery's.

It looks like the dead bird stuck in the grill of my truck

Ouch... If you knew there was a hole in the cell why did you charge it? You probably could have sent the pack to james and had him remove the damaged cell.

Well, even though it had a hole in it, I'd charged it once before & it accepted the charge, soooooooo, naturally, I tried again with an unfortunate result.:tongue::lol:

It worked when it had a hole in the cell?!
:surprised: :surprised: :surprised:

Close call. Good thing you were watching it or close by when it happened.

I can imagine...
"Holy shit! My lipos like a balloon!!"

HA, I was killing some cells the other day in the yard. I hooked up a cell to a 12v car battery with jumper cables. It got big and puffy, then popped and let out quite a bit of smoke, but no fire...

Always charge with a balancer, I have had quite a few times when an out of balance pack overvolts on one cell during charging and the balancer interrupts the charge. I also do not really monitor my packs while they charge, so the balancer makes me feel a bit better.

Man, it's a good thing you were around to catch it in the act! :yes:

I :lol::rofl: at that one!!! I don't even have a truck, nor have I ever had a bird in the grill of my car, but as soon as I read that, the little bell went off in my head- "Hey, he's right!". :mdr:

Yeah, funny about the hole in the cell. It still worked so it was good to me. hehehe, I guess not!

Definitely glad that I'm not one to panic when things go wrong. Saw the pack 3 times it's original size, walked over, unplugged it, picked it up by the lead, took three steps to the front door & tossed it out onto the tiled verandah. Laa dee daahhh, all good.

Then the fireworks show followed. :lol:

Reminds me of when I had to extra FlightPower cells and I had no use for them.:lol:

i had a zippy 4000mah pack that i broke open one of the cells in a crash and it never caught fire or did anything at all. i was surprised when that happened and now that pack is a 3s pack lol.

Wow. 18"x18" stone tile and a Mini webber grill lid is how I charge. After seeing that I do not feel as crazy.

Had you not thrown it outside (where it probably burst open when it landed) you may not have had the fireworks show! :mdr:

But the fireworks was the fun part! :lol:

I think he's trying to say that you would have missed the fun part, and that you did the right thing by throwing the lipo into the veranda.

^ Exactly. Seeing as it was soo puffed up already when he saw it, if he had kept in inside it wouldn't have caught on fire. If it was going to spontaneously combust it would have done so long before he went to it. I seriously doubt it was sheer coincidental luck in timing that it only caught AFTER he threw it outside. It probably became damaged when it landed. And yes, the fireworks are fun and you would have missed them!!!

I'll say, it was great!

Shame I didn't have a camera handy to record the action.

Maybe next time, but, I'll make sure it's not my battery!

where did you grab the lipo when you threw it out? was it hott?

He got it by the leads....

Yeah, it was hot enough to make the heat shrink, shrink more & the floor was warm where it was laying.

would a temp sensor on the charger help at all? or would it still puff up and catch fire once charging began? (debating about the point of buying the temp sensor for my hyperion.)

Not really as the pack was already damaged & I still charged it, but, the balancer wouldn't accept it, so I bypassed it & just used the charger by itself.

The balancer is your safety net. It detects problems with the cells.

I was using a charger at work yesterday, the Swallow 3, & it has a full detection system integrated into the charger for lipo's. You can see voltage in the individual cells, etc. I'm definitely getting one, plus, it can charge up to 6S 6000 which is good enough for me.

this is why i still use Nimh

Get with the times & stop being a chicken. NiMi's are out dated, under powered & heavy. At least get A123's, they're very safe.

Lipo's are only as bad as the USER, hence why mine caught fire. I was the blame, NOT the battery.

I'll happily admit I made a mistake.

I've been using lipo's for over 18mths without a problem till I decided to push the envelope with a 5S.

My 5000 has also dropped a cell, but, I have a mate that knows a guy (hehehe) that can dismantle the pack remove the dud cell & make it into a 4S & my other mate has already put his hand up to buy it.

Now I have to buy another 4000 & a 5000.

I had a NiMh blow a cell and melt half a MLST. In total 4 MiNh cells in various packs have blown up on me .They do not like brushless systems. I know there are a others. The last one was a SPC pack. I figured I might as well have lipos.