Puffed lipo by shorting?

[What's_nitro?]

I don't think it looks puffed at all. It could still be dead, though. I sparked a MA 4s 5000 pack a while ago and 1 cell out of the 4 went dead instantly. The other 3 are still working fine. If you haven't already, get a voltmeter and check the level of the individual cells. I believe, as a general rule, if any 1 cell is more than 0.05 volts higher/lower than the rest then you may have a problem.

[ReV:-O]

Originally Posted by Arct1k

What charger / balancer setup do you have - does it have built in volt meter? Do you use a lipo sack?

What are the voltages on each cell?

i have the hyperion duo charger. i do have a lipo sack but i'm afraid to connect it up to the charger incase it blows up or something!
im pretty sure it definitly is puffed. it is very squidgy (the pics dont really show it up), compared to the other lipo which is not squidgy at all. i'll see if i can hook up the battery just to find out the voltage, but id rather send it back and get a new one if i can. but since i am new to electirc im not really sure what is concidered puffed. because i think it is puffed but i could send it back and they could say its hardly puffed at all and get annoyed. how many more millimeters (approx) is a puffed lipo suppost to increase by? if that makes any sence lol

[Arct1k]

It looks fine - I'd pop in the sack and charge it..

This is what a puff'ed lipo looks like!

[bdebde]

If the cell is squishy and they will replace it; then get the replacement!

[Sammus]

yeah its nothin, ive shorted heaps of my lipos before with no ill effects. Not on purpose of course...except once lol This is why I hate people badmouthing them. Now we have someone who spent a fortune on lipos, afraid to plug them in for fear of blowing up the house.

Seriously dude, as long as you use a recommended charger theyre no more dangerous than any other battery. ive charged and run puffed lipos heaps, the performance is shitty but they dont explode unless you feel the need to stab them with a screwdriver or hook them directly across a car battery or something. And even then they just swell and catch on fire, no mushroom cloud explosions.

[E-Revonut]

At first when I heard of the pottential dangers of Lipos I was scared away. Then I seen some videos on YouTube!!! In order to get anything close to a spectacular explosion or fire you pretty much have to do it intentionally! like plugging the thing into AC or holding a dead short, or direct 12V hook up, but nothing was instantanious that I seen, it all took several minutes. I'm sure that it is frowned upon but I have fallen asleep many times with mine hooked up to the charger. It just shuts down to a trickle charge and the balancer keeps pulling little bits of juice out of it, after 6 hours it was no more charged than normal with no ill effects!

On that note I say get an RC vehicle going first run it a couple times and see what happens. Compare run times with your other pack, or if running in series check and see how balanced everything stays. I wouldn't jump to any conclussions just yet, no need to waste your money shipping and Neu's time disecting it if it turns out to be nothing!

[hootie7159]

I ALSO PUFFED A 4S 5000 CRAPSAMPS PACK PRETTY GOOD BUIT AFTER I COOLED DOWN IT WENT BACK TO NORMAL AND IT WASN'T SQUISHY...SO I CHARGED IT AND BALANCED IT AND IT TOOK BACK 4700MAH AND HAS BEEN THE ONLY RELIABLE CRAPSAMPS PACK I'VE HAD... AND YES I'M STILL RUNNING IT IN MY 8IGHT WITH NO MORE PUFFING

My friend has a nasty puffed maxamps 2s 6000. His dean's plug couldn't be plugged in all the way, so it was backed out a little bit exposing the posts. During a race his wires flopped around and his deans plugs came into contact with a clip that holds his battery hold down on and shorted his battery. Not sure how long but it toasted the clip and his battery is fubar.

[ReV:-O]

if the battery doesnt charge up all the way, like if it only charges to 4700mAh rather than the full 5000mAh, thats not good because i have two of them to run in an e-revo, so I will need them to be both the same.

[Sammus]

Why dont you charge them and find out? Or I guess the first charge you wouldn't be able to tell. You could set your LVC higher than normal (say 3.2 or 3.3v) that should prevent the lower one (if there is one) from over discharging, then you can see if its significantly different voltage to the good one at the end of a run...

[ReV:-O]

the thing is, if i do charge it and something does go wrong, i can never send it back

[ReV:-O]

i dont think my hyperion duo charger is working right. the balancer works fine on the right hand side, but the left one doesnt work at all. i think its something to do with inside the charger, because i've swapped the taps and wires around and the left side still reads nothing.

o yeah and when i was looking at the voltages of the battery (3s), it was like 3.81, 3.81, 3.79. is this good? i decided to balance it anyway, so i hit balance and the fans came on immediately. it balanced it for about 20 seconds, then finished. the voltages for each cell was the same as before. does this sound right? how long should it normally take to balance?

cheers guys

[Arct1k]

.02v is pretty close - I think thats pretty much the tolerance for the balancer...

[jhautz]

That seems pretty well balanced to me. Even a balancer only balances to a certain precision.

[ReV:-O]

cool, well each of the cells look good then. maybe the puffing hasnt affected it. how do you calculate how much mah the pack has using the charger?