Battery Blowout

[Wired361]

I was charging my 7 cell GP3300 and i heard a hissing noise. I turned to look at my batteries and saw what looked like a plume of smoke coming out of a smoke bomb. I flipped an grabbed the truck and unplugged it and ran it outside of my garage and set it down. the battery continued to hiss and smoke. then it stopped and the next battery in series did it. This happend for all 7 batteries, it fried my chassis to the point where the batteries fell down out of the chassis, it is stock. All in all, i have 185 dollars to replace everything including chassis and batteries. Any ideas about why this happened and how i should spend the money?

[Sylvester]

How long were they charging? were they half charged or fully charged or partially, thats crazy, i hope that never happens to me.....

[RC-Monster Mike]

I have a few questions:
What charger were you using?
What connectors are on your batteries?
Are all the solder joints covered?
How long were the batteries charging?


That definately sucks! Were the packs matched? Stick packs? Side by side soldered packs? You could build a new 7 cell pack for around $40 (I sell all the needed supplies for this). This leaves $135 or so for a new chassis. If you are lucky, you may get your hands on a mildy used g-maxx chassis (with an extended option would be nice!). Perhaps a charger would be a wise purchase as well (if this can be deemed the problem).

[Wired361]

I was using a twin peak, they are side x side, they were loosley matched, and they have deans female, and are covered in clear shrink, they were 3/4 charged, and only one blew, out of two

[RC-Monster Mike]

Typically, this is a result of one of two things:
1. Overcharging
2. Short (positive to negative on same battery)

Can you absolutely disqualify one of these? If so, it is likely the other.

That isn't a great charger, by the way.

[Wired361]

Well maybe a short, but at the time that was all i could afford, so i stuck with it, and I wanted a charger that would charge 2 packs at once to save time.

[RC-Monster Mike]

Are you saying that you could disqualify the short? That would make overcharging the likely candidate.

[Wired361]

No i meant that they would have had to short, they only charged for about 20 min. so obercharge would be unlikley and only one blew so...

[RC-Monster Mike]

If a battery had a full charge and then charged for 20 minutes, this could happen. Are any of the connections exposed(Dean's)? Perhaps an exposed connection touched a metal or CF surface and caused a short.

[supermaxx4190]

mabey the charger missed the peak and overcharged? no offence, but those duratrax chargers aren't the greatest.

[Nick]

That sounds awful - never heard this happen to anyone before on NIMHs. Is this common? I hope not. :(

My batteries arn't heatshrinked, and when I carry them about sometimes 1 set of batteries, battery bars touches the other set of batteries, battery bars and sparks. Would this cause any severe problems?

Thanks,
Nick.

[RC-Monster Mike]

I wouldn't say it is common, but it happens. Your battery practices should be addressed or you may face the same trouble!

[Megazone23]

Another recommendation I would add, which I've read other places as well, is that you might want to consider removing the batteries from the chassis when you charge them.

I believe the reasoning went something like this:
A) If something bad happens, the truck isn't at risk, but you've already figured that one out.
B) By charging the batts in an unrestricted place, it allows the heat from charging to dissipate better.
C) How the heck can you run the truck on another set of batts, if it's holding the charging batts? ;)

[Wired361]

if you only have one set, then theres only one problem...MELTDOWN