6s Lipo Pack - bad cell question
 

I have a Turnigy 5000mah 6s I use in my electric Losi Aftershock. After a run last night, the battery itself was up to 134 degrees and the outer cells puffed out.

I let it cool down and after about an hour, the pack was back down to normal size. This morning, I hooked it up to my Accucel-6 charger to set the cells to storage. The charger only identified 5 cells, so I decided to not try to charge anything. I checked for loose wires and bad solder but found nothing.

My question is, is there a good way to identify which cell is bad and remove it, or should I just chuck the whole lipo pack?

If you have a volt meter check individual cell voltage first, I've had many balance tabs go bad. My only real complaint w/HC packs, shizzy balance tabs and wires.

If the one cell is def showing no signs of life carefully remove the shrink wrap and tape and inspect the board, sometimes with excessive heat the little "circut breaker" of solder may melt and cause this problem.

Worst case scenaro you can remove the dead cell reconfigure the balance and + & -main wires and install a 5s balance tab.

I don't know that charger but my cheap charger sometimes checks the battery and says it is 1 cell less than it really is. That's because it is checking the overall voltage of the pack. If you check the cells with a voltmeter as Bondo said and they all have voltage, give it a slow charge (without balance) to get the voltage high enough for the charger to recognise 6s. Then put it on balance charge.

If one cell is dead or dangeroursly low then don't do this.