Lipo safety
 

What do people charge their Lipos in? Or do most of you feel they are safe just on a bare surface.

I'm going to get Lipos soon and although I know how to use them and take care of them, I can never get it out of my head what would happen if they were faulty or I make a stupid mistake. :013:

Whats the most common cause for Lipo related fires or damage?

over charging from what i've read. you should only charge them at 1c unless you get the flm packs. i don't know that much about flm packs though. just keep them balanced and don't charge them with to many amps. also make sure you pick packs that can deliver enough amps for your application. if your setup is really hungry for amps and they over discharge they could start puffing or worse.

from all the recent incidents having to do with li-po i would stick to the next best 2 thins emoli cells and the sub c. The quench for more punch and runtime doesn't tempt me.

Mike, what incidents are you referring to?? I'm unaware of any.

Somebody buy mine! lol. Check the General Discussion forum for details.

There are a ton of "incidents" involving lipos and fire. Some even non-rc related like cell phones and computers catching fire. Recently a UPS plane had to abort a flight due to a fire suspected to be lipo ignited.

It is still a rather rare occurence but it deserves some consideration. There are certain rules that should be followed to greatly reduce the risk of an "incident".

For example...
Monitor charging... don't put a lipo on the charger and go to bed or leave the house.
Monitor lipos for a while if you ever damage them in a crash etc...
Store them where they won't durn down the house IF they were to catch fire.

Just like having a smoke alarm in the house... odds are you will never need it but we all have them anyway.

Speaking of that, I have an extra smoke alarm near where I keep mine.

And general stuff like using proper lipo chargers, not over-discharging them, checking at least occasionally that the cells are balanced, strap them in good so they don't get damaged,....etc etc

With proper care they are alot safer than they used to be. I think the chargers as well as the batteries and knowledge has helped.

I think you hit it right on the head CHC. Knowledge is the key!!!

All of my Lipos that I am currently using (four packs) are charged on the wood workbench, right next to a computer. I work on my cars while the batteries are charging right next to me, so if anything were to happen I could do something about it right away. However, I feel quite confident in my charging practice.

how can you over charge them? doesnt the charger detect that the battery is full kinda like Nimh charging?

The charger accually charges by volts as well as feel. It won't charge past 12.6 volts for a 3s pack. If you charge a 2s pack on 3s voltage that is bad.

But if a battery is out of balance, then one cell can be charged to a higher voltage than the other cell(s). If the imbalance is large enough, then overcharging could become a problem.

Is this:
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXFWW2&P=ML

A good charger? If I got a 3s could I link them to make a 6s and charge as a 6s using a Y adapter style thing?

I cleaned out and sealed up my fireplace as my charging/storage station, and knock on wood I have yet to have a significant incident. I check the batteries often during charging for any warmth (lipos don't warm up as they charge), and look for any signs of puffiness. From videos I've seen, it seems the pack will puff quite a bit before exploding in flame, so as long as you monitor the cells and make sure you have the correct settings all should be fine.

I did have one TP 6000mah 2s2p pack swell up me after a hard run in my Emaxx once. It scared me but it was only slightly puffed and nothing ever happened to it. I don't use it anymore though, and my new batteries are 20c and barely get warm when running, and are way better built with better protection than the old TP ones. I got PolyRC ones now.

That puffy packs sounds like a good experiment.
I would take it out in the yard away from flammible stuff.
Hook the charger to it and see what It would take to make it go up in flames.
That is just me though. :D