RCCrawler Forums

Itch · 01-22-2008, 07:54 PM

Tonight I thought I would take the e-savage for a spin, little did I know fate had other plans. I charged up my Duratrax 4200mah nimh packs tonight like I always do on my Accu-cycle elite charger. Mind you I JUST got these packs, literally less than 10 runs on these batteries. When the charger was done, nothing out of the ordinary on the charge cycle, final voltage, and mah put into the battery. I plugged everything in and flipped on the ESC switch and......POOF! smoke and flames!

After pulling apart the body and figuring out that it was all from the batteries, I quickly pulled the batteries out of the truck. I then took these pictures. The only damage to both packs was in the exact same spot, on the battery bar at the end of the pack.

BTW, when I was done I plugged in the stock e-savage batteries to make sure that the damage wasn't cause by the ESC. Everything worked fine as I took it for a spin around the garage.

I will be emailing Duratrax to see if I will get a response, if any.

Unholy · 01-22-2008, 08:00 PM

Did you by chance solder the Deans on backwards?

EDIT: Nevermind... I read it wrong and didn't catch you had run them before.

ClodMaxx · 01-22-2008, 08:15 PM

sounds like both packs have one or more bad cells. it's pretty common for unmatched ni-mh stick packs, even though it seems like a very strange coincidence that both would go at the same time. i had 2 packs (bought together) go due to bad cells - and these were very expensive packs. but, they were unmatched stick IB4200 packs. i did all the right things to take care of them too - didn't over discharge, charged at a 1C rate on a Ice charger, etc.

i'm sure duratrax gets this a lot - hopefully they'll take care of you.

Itch · 01-23-2008, 08:46 AM

Update:

I got a hold of someone in the customer service department. They were apologetic about the situation and are mailing me out 2 new battery packs. I guess I will try and salvage the good cells out of the old packs and make some custom batteries.

I have to give them credit, I didn't have to fight them at all about sending me new packs. I basically said I wanted to make them aware of the situation, and their response was "we will send you new packs". So +1 for their customer service.

BTW I know it was not crawler related, just wanted to share my experiences with everyone.

kurt · 01-23-2008, 08:49 AM

i had a maxamps battery pack burn up on me like that. the final cause was wear on the drivetrain causing excessive current draw but it was scary nonetheless. Outer Plastic melted and the battery pack was blistering hot. i threw it away immediately.This was on an rc18b

01-22-2008, 07:54 PM	#1
Itch Newbie Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Indianapolis Posts: 41	Puff goes the magic....Smoke?! Tonight I thought I would take the e-savage for a spin, little did I know fate had other plans. I charged up my Duratrax 4200mah nimh packs tonight like I always do on my Accu-cycle elite charger. Mind you I JUST got these packs, literally less than 10 runs on these batteries. When the charger was done, nothing out of the ordinary on the charge cycle, final voltage, and mah put into the battery. I plugged everything in and flipped on the ESC switch and......POOF! smoke and flames! After pulling apart the body and figuring out that it was all from the batteries, I quickly pulled the batteries out of the truck. I then took these pictures. The only damage to both packs was in the exact same spot, on the battery bar at the end of the pack. BTW, when I was done I plugged in the stock e-savage batteries to make sure that the damage wasn't cause by the ESC. Everything worked fine as I took it for a spin around the garage. I will be emailing Duratrax to see if I will get a response, if any.

01-22-2008, 08:00 PM	#2
Unholy I wanna be Dave Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: One Legend. Posts: 2,134	Did you by chance solder the Deans on backwards? EDIT: Nevermind... I read it wrong and didn't catch you had run them before.

01-22-2008, 08:15 PM	#3
ClodMaxx Pebble Pounder Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: rochester (detroit area) Posts: 116	sounds like both packs have one or more bad cells. it's pretty common for unmatched ni-mh stick packs, even though it seems like a very strange coincidence that both would go at the same time. i had 2 packs (bought together) go due to bad cells - and these were very expensive packs. but, they were unmatched stick IB4200 packs. i did all the right things to take care of them too - didn't over discharge, charged at a 1C rate on a Ice charger, etc. i'm sure duratrax gets this a lot - hopefully they'll take care of you.

01-23-2008, 08:46 AM	#4
Itch Newbie Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Indianapolis Posts: 41	Update: I got a hold of someone in the customer service department. They were apologetic about the situation and are mailing me out 2 new battery packs. I guess I will try and salvage the good cells out of the old packs and make some custom batteries. I have to give them credit, I didn't have to fight them at all about sending me new packs. I basically said I wanted to make them aware of the situation, and their response was "we will send you new packs". So +1 for their customer service. BTW I know it was not crawler related, just wanted to share my experiences with everyone.

01-23-2008, 08:49 AM	#5
kurt Quarry Creeper Join Date: May 2007 Location: Brenham, Tx Posts: 495	i had a maxamps battery pack burn up on me like that. the final cause was wear on the drivetrain causing excessive current draw but it was scary nonetheless. Outer Plastic melted and the battery pack was blistering hot. i threw it away immediately.This was on an rc18b

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