Scary Lipo Fire - Thought I might be moving into Lincs basement.

[Gee]

It's cool to get everyone paranioid again about lipo bombs. Is is a nice reminder for everyone that guns kill. I just wanted to tell anyone that missed the obvious. All oif this could of been avoided had I connected my batteries and charged them through the balancer like I do with all my other lipos. Lazy to not fix the taps or frustrated with them doesn't matter.


sidebar "Picture baseball coach Lou Pinella come out of the dug out to bitch to the ump... Thier faces about and inch from each other, close enough that both mens eyes are going cross eyed, Lou yeling at the top of his lungs. "Could those sob's come up with some g* damn different f*ing taps so we need some more g* dam adapters cluttering up the f*ing clubhouse. Every f*ing time we order a g*dam new lipo the PIA balance tap is different then the last f*ing lipo order from the same whore house!". ...then he start kicking dirt on the plate amd umpire. sidebar end

This was user error and not a freak accident or the lipos just exploding. I mentioned in the original post. I told myself I needed to get the balance taps fixed for a reason. One of the lipos felt a little larger but wasn't puffed. That's what made me thing of needing to balance them. This isn't an equipent issue either. The chargers worked great since I got it a couple years ago. Charges everything I can thow at it. It doesn't have a built in balancer but not many did back then that could charge up to 8s lipos, with an included ac power supply 10amp charge rate, more battery profiles that I have been able to use, and customer support that repsonds in the same hour you sent the email to them. Looking back it was a dumb question, but I needed to know. The LBA balancer works in three different mode which is convienet vs being included in the charger. Has stand alone, charger through charger or a high drain rate cable with the ability to network additional balancers. Has all the important safety featureso of the built in charger but this one you can take with you go on a milk run to the store. If more poeple would of research the battery chargers back then instead of just jumping on the band wagon and buying the chager with a cool name "ICE" , the stock I lost in MRC would be making somebody money right now.

Using the same example every woodshop teacher uses as he points his stub for and index finger at you and the one good eye peering right at you when it's not slowly wandering to the left. "Those G* damn, Jorgensen! Those safetly glasses aren't going to save your ass son when they are laying on the work bench and not on your head where they should be! No get with the program young man!?

or how about this one for the females.

I got a brand new red/ with black interior, 1976 Ford pinto, AT, PB, & PS, AF/FM Cass and have been driving it backwards (old school suicide bomber) for 250,000 miles all over the great USA. Never once did I check the oil or asked what the Checkered Engine light was all about. No wonder I am broken down now in the middle of the desert, heat stroke setting in, dehydrated, and losing my will to live. Only thing keeping me going is I keep hearing one of the buzzard ask it they really have to wait til I die?

ONLY YOU CAN PREVENT LIPO FIRES!

whats more safer than lipos are LiFePO4 or A123. they don't catch on fire. maxamps sells them.

[lutach]

Originally Posted by jperezo311

whats more safer than lipos are LiFePO4 or A123. they don't catch on fire. maxamps sells them.

Yes, buy MA stuff folks, they are GREAT.

[sikeston34m]

Originally Posted by lutach

Yes, buy MA stuff folks, they are GREAT.

[lincpimp]

Originally Posted by lutach

Yes, buy MA stuff folks, they are GREAT.

As soon as I win the lottery...

As for the question, lipo works great if you know what you are doing. LiFe is a bit safter and resistant to fuzzups, and should have a longer lifespan. Down side is that it lacks some voltage, and not every charger (most of the new ones do) will charge it.

I still like lipo, but for 25 bucks each I cannot go wrong with a 4500 30c 2s pack that can handle 5c charge... And can aparently be charged with a auto battery charger!

[rawfuls]

Originally Posted by Bondonutz

I myself use a GI Ammo box that I cut one wall out of and replaced w/1/4" plexiglass for a viewing window for packs as they charge. It's bomb proof for the most part, if anyone I interested I made it for under $15.00 and can post pics.

Yeah! Pictures!
lol, what kind of glue did you use?

[Gee]

Originally Posted by lutach

Clay flower pots, ceramic containers are good, but what's bad is the smoke. If your back room got filled with the smoke, there will be a high chance of many metal things getting corroded. Forgot to ask, did you inhale the smoke?

Lutach is there anything I can do or should do help prevent the corrosion. Is it the chemistry of the lipos that cause this or would any smoke damage do it? Thanks.

[lutach]

Originally Posted by Gee

Lutach is there anything I can do or should do help prevent the corrosion. Is it the chemistry of the lipos that cause this or would any smoke damage do it? Thanks.

Not much you can do, but check things over to make sure nothing has started to corrode yet. I don't know how it works out, but it's crazy science fiction stuff. For example, I've thrown away 4 buckets due to the metal handle corrosion. I did a few experiments with 2 awful lipos and other were just old, but still packet some energy as I didn't discharge them. I put a good show for my little brothers though. The first bucket was a mystery, but after the second one I knew exactly what caused it. There might be stuff that stops metal from corrosion, I think I saw something in Home Depot.

[hoober]

Why did the battery catch on fire?

Am I the only one interested in "why" ?
Perhaps Gee knows already and mentioned a user error. I can see no errors unless the packs were not a same state of charge or severly out of balance.

[93firebird]

Ok, now all you lipo gurus can explain to me how to properly dispose of a few cells. I had a 4s loose a cell. So I disassembled it and made a 2s out of two of the cells. now I want to get rid of the other two, remember one is bad. So what should I do with it?

Oh and yeah this is my centenial post!!!!! wooo hoooo

[hoober]

If they are equal they can be discharged with a bulb or load. If they are not equal then they should be done 1 at a time. I generally discharge and plug the leads together and just leave them in my fire pit overnite.

[redshift]

Originally Posted by hoober

Why did the battery catch on fire?

Am I the only one interested in "why" ?
Perhaps Gee knows already and mentioned a user error. I can see no errors unless the packs were not a same state of charge or severly out of balance.

You gotta read the first post at least

"Had a pair of 3s lipos go up in huge flames while charging in the back room. I Put a pair of 3s 5000mah Turnigy charging as 6s 5000mah @ 5amp on the charger. I've been lazy and haven't fixed the balancing taps on either so it had been a while since they were balanced. I told myself the night before that I need to get the balancer working on those. I must not have listened cuz I still hooked them up to the charger without balancing them."

[Gee]

The more I think about it. I do have a pretty large Life Insurance policy that could of motived someone to sneak in and tamper with things.

[hoober]

I guess I assumed they were put in series , if they were in parallel then it is understandable. Other than that there's no errors (other than the two possibilities I mentioned)

[hoober]

These questions may help.

How long did the charger run before the hissing sound?
What was the state of charge of each pack?
What was the balance status of each pack?