Battery Storage

One thing I learned is to keep your batteries cool.
So I found an old insulated lunch box to transport my batteries in.
It's been a very useful $1.50 tote to keep the sun off of my batteries.

Nice idea, really depends which kind of cells you are running, nicd/nimh don't like to much about 120F or they start creating internal resistance, but if we creep over to polymer batteries they can handle closer to 140F before they become unstable.

I got a couple really cheap Lipo bags from Hobby king. They look to be made decently for the price, and there are video's on youtube of people detonating lipos inside them to test the fire stopping power of the bags. They seem to work great, I like to keep the bags out of the sun for safety purposes.

Always play it safe with Lipo's. They can burn down a car or house easily.

One of the challenges that I have with my LiPo's is the short balance lead.
My charger has the female connectors built in. So the battery must be within an inch or two from the charger. Does anyone know wher I can get a balance lead extension? With an extension I'd be able to use a charging bag.

Ok I know this may sound counterintuative to what you have read or heard, but lipos are SAFE, I have gone to many races and had to physically show people that it takes ALOT of punishment to burn a lipo, Heck I even at one PRO series race here in Medford showed all 47 people at the track that a swelled lipo can be repaired!  There is almost NO need for all this fear of lipos.  I would not be so concerned with lipos burning your car or house down, the effort it takes to set a lipo on fire is so great that you have to be an idiot to not know that something bad may happen.  There's a fair amount of people around here that can tell you all about my "main winning" swelled and smoking lipo, I swelled it during the last qualifier and melted one of the solder tabs, repaired the tab and deswelled the cell (trade secret on how to deswell a lipo )  and went on to grab first place in the main and first place for the season in short course 2wd.

I don't know, I have read some sad stories on RC forums about people burning their house down due to charging them incorrectly.

All you have to do in order to start a nasty chemical fire is over charge them, drain them to low, or puncture them; Besides that they are totally safe. 

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__4134__Lithium_Polymer_Charge_Pack_18x22cm_Sack.html $2.00 buys a bag that will contain the fire if it ever happens. $2.73 for the jumbo bag. That is cheap insurance.

Yes, the 2s extension is exactly what I need.
Now, I just need to keep looking for someone who has them in stock.
Thanks.

Thanks for the lead.
I was about to place my order until I discovered it costs $3.95 to ship a $4.49 item.
I'll keep looking.

I don't know, I have read some sad stories on RC forums about people burning their house down due to charging them incorrectly.

All you have to do in order to start a nasty chemical fire is over charge them, drain them to low, or puncture them; Besides that they are totally safe. 

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__4134__Lithium_Polymer_Charge_Pack_18x22cm_Sack.html $2.00 buys a bag that will contain the fire if it ever happens. $2.73 for the jumbo bag. That is cheap insurance.


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What you say here is not completely true, and is the reason many are so scared of lipo's in general.  First draining a lipo to low will NOT cause any kind of fire, it will merely harm the polymer so that it cannot hold as much capacitance.  Second, puncturing a lipo will not cause a leak either as Lipo's have NO LIQUID CONTENT, these are not ACID type batteries, puncturing a lipo can cause cell deterioration in a VERY overcharged cell and cause a fire, in a standard cell sitting on a shelf with a maintenance charge, it will do next to nothing.  (if you want I have a lipo we can test)  Third and really the only way you can set a lipo on fire, you must over-charge the cell to a ridiculous level!, then at the very point the lipo swells puncture it through the cell plates to cause a spark, then and only then it will catch fire, not really explode but a good fire.  Do some research and you will find that most of the horror stories are from complete idiots, using very cutrate cheap lipos very early in the game.  Lipo's cannot leak, they are a dry cell technology, second, the reasons lipo's swell is because they are Sealed, lipos are a NON vented battery unlike nimh,nicd,agm,pb etc.  I hope this helps a bit, and like I have said before I am willing to show anyone these truths in theory and in real life examples.

I found the 2s balance extension that I was looking for frpm Quantum RC on the East coast.
Only .99 cents plus S&H of course.

Call me paranoid or call me concerned. I don't have or use a safety bag, but I do my charging on a metal rollaway with my charger sitting next to the battery. I will feel better when the battery is a few more inches away from my charger. That way IF something was to go bad I wouldn't fry the charger too.

Lipo being over charged:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixIOEPnsgbI&NR=1[/youtube]
That can burn down a house or car.

Lipo puncture:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmwbzlMYYxo[/youtube]
a good crash can cause a puncture, might lose your RC car. Not a big deal, but still a good fire that can't be put out with water.

I assume this is a puncture due to the big jumping going on
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=773yPtIsl-0&feature=related[/youtube]


Charging at too high of a rate
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCWdnjLqVWw&feature=related[/youtube]

Lipo fire in flight: a 5000mah battery only charged to 1000mah, possibly an over discharge?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD0-2CaRDJk&feature=related[/youtube]

Claiming lipo's are not dangerous seems dumb to me.  Punctures do cause fires and claiming that a puncture won't is a bold statement given the hundreds of lipo puncture fire videos all over the internet. Yes, it needs to be a puncture through at least 2 cells. If the hit comes to the side of the pack it is completely possible and has happened. I never said anything about them leaking, I understand exactly how they are made and what they are composed of.

Over charging and charging at too high of a rate is the the big issue. If you charge a 7.4v battery at 14.6v, your probably going to have a chemical fire on your hands. This is not that hard to do. I know i have both types and have to constantly change the settings on my chargers. These fires can burn down houses and put lives at stake.

It looks like 3 of the 5 videos were people intentionally destroying their LiPo batteries.  The German guy jumping his buggy looked like a failure and the airplane.  Videos don't tell the whole story because you don't know if they had the LiPo protection engaged in the ESC or how they were mounted in the vehicle that there could have been exposure to a puncture.

That is exactly what it looks like to me, plus the other video were they may have been unintentional the lipos did NOT catch fire, merely popped the lymar bag that the polymer is cased in.  Look at the video dates and tags, again what you have just shown proves that you almost always have to intentionally start a lipo fire.  I still hold my offer open to destroy a few more lipos in the hopes that people can be educated that they are not that dangerous.

You guys are funny. Yes they are intentionally puncturing the lipos. Its just a demonstration showing that they have the potential to cause a nasty fire.

And if the car and plane running don't have lipo cut offs that would mean that they are over discharging the Lipo's. This means that over discharging caused the fire and not an impact. Either way punctures and over discharges are not the big threat if the lipo does go up in flames. The big threat is when charging them, this usually happens in the hood of a car or in a garage. People leave them unattended and forget they are charging.

The only point I am trying to make is that they can catch fire. Especially if they are over charged, or charged at too high of a rate. Haven't found videos of this but who sets up a camera and records their batteries charging every time they charge, or at all? Do some searching though, there are plenty showing rc cars burning up at a track.

I will take your challenge. If they are so harmless, lets put the charger and battery in your house and charge a 2s 3000mah battery on 4s 5000mah (something that could definitely happen accidentally) We will start charging and go pick up some lunch and come back in half an hour and see what happened.

I am not trying to pick an argument here, I just don't want someone new to RC to read what your saying and not read up on how to care for and charge Lipo's because they think they are harmless. If you use them properly and charge them properly they are totally safe.






This one took a home in 2010. The link to the thread is below.
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1201051


http://www.esfrs.org/blackmuseum/polymerBatteryPack.shtml <-- another good article that goes with the pic above.


http://www.tomsha.com/RC/RC-fire.html<-- This one has a full description of how he was charging a 1500mah pack on 1300mah and burnt his garage in 20 min. He left it charging unattended with no lipo sack. If he had used a lipo sack his garage would have had some smoke damage instead of being burnt.

How many more examples do you want? Lets just play it safe with Lipo's eh? I know they are getting better and the fires aren't that common, but they happen.

I will first answer your response in the blue above.  Any decent charger will NOT charge a lipo battery on a higher cell setting, even the cheap $70 chargers wont do it now.  They will only charge at packs rating, you can however set them on another setting and overcharge them, but this is the users fault, not the battery.

My second response that I highlighted in red, this is what I'm trying to STOP everyone from doing.  When you come on here or anywhere else and immediately put videos and things up of how they are dangerous.  It all boils down to a perception, when you put up all the negative first the perception is that there bad.  I to want to educate people on battery safety, but do so using knowledge and safety, not horror films.

In closing have you even looked up to see what can happen to an overcharge nimh cell?  Same thing, here is a video for you. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rILOAuVwIVI[/youtube]

I do not know your age, but I do remember the days of when everyone said nimh cells were dangerous and could burn your house down.  This is the fear that I do not wan't people to have to overcome when it comes to lipo's.

I also have full faith in my lipos. There is a lot of old info and myths that float around on the internet. I have used lipos for years now with pretty much no problems. I have done all the "accidental" things one could possibly do with them also. Ive ran them dead completely, overcharged, punctured , submerged, shot at, and just plain abused. I have had1  fire to date with lipos. I was lazy when changing the battery on my scaler and didn't secure the battery right. The fresh pack shifted against the spur gear and it ate into the side and caught my spur and tranny case on fire a little. We just threw a little sand on it and all was good after the smoke cloud died down. On the other hand I have had a 2/3a ni-mh pack malfunction while charging and explode into the side of a metal tool box and ruining it. My thought is we are dealing with contained power and should use common sense while doing so. Regardless of battery type bad things can happen when you use something incorrectly. Besides we all feel safe enough to have lipos right by our face in our cell phones

Here you go:

You're looking at a Venom Li-Power 11.1 volt 5000 mAh 20C LiPo battery that I just found among my parts.  I have no idea how it got this way but I no longer trust it.  So if anyone is interested you can have it.

Other than the damaged corner you see in the photos it is in great condition.  It has a Traxxas battery connector.

I will give ya $10 for it, even if the last two cells are damaged it can be converted to a 2S 5000 lipo