What to do with old Lipo's

[cliffdawg]

So I have been off the scene for a few years, and my lipo's have been sitting for a year and a half with a full charge. I know stupid me! I have inspected them they are not puffed up, I am a little fearful of putting them on a charger though. I am wondering if I should use these? Or should I put them on the charger and discharge them? or use them in my truck? or throw them out... I would prefer not to throw them out. The batteries are 1450mah 11.1v packs for a lcc they were maybe charged and discharged 25 times max.

Thanks
Ryan

[TONKA TOY]

Originally Posted by cliffdawg

So I have been off the scene for a few years, and my lipo's have been sitting for a year and a half with a full charge. I know stupid me! I have inspected them they are not puffed up, I am a little fearful of putting them on a charger though. I am wondering if I should use these? Or should I put them on the charger and discharge them? or use them in my truck? or throw them out... I would prefer not to throw them out. The batteries are 1450mah 11.1v packs for a lcc they were maybe charged and discharged 25 times max.

Thanks
Ryan

I am no electronics expert by any means, but I did the same thing with a couple of my batteries. After sitting for so long, they were drained. I put it on the charger & balancer and charged it, while watching it constantly. I wouldn't leave the room just in case it caught fire. It took a charge just fine. I dis-charged it on the charger, (took forever), but didn't leave the room just in case it caught fire. After I dis-charged it, I gave it a final charge & all was good. Stuck it in the scaler & drove the hell outta it.

If they are a little bit puffy, I wouldn't even attempt it. I would dispose of them the fun way......

[grob23]

Lipos are Perfectly Safe - YouTube

After reading this thread, if you decide to dispose of them, this guy has a killer technique!

[Grabbem88]

Becareful thinking they are puffed cause they sometimes retain air from temp changes

If they are or get hard as a brick then yes toss them

[SMR 510RR]

With the price of Lipos I would dispose of them and get some new packs.

I just recently disposed of probably 15 packs and couldnt feel better about not having them in my house any longer.

[Erin]

Is it really necessary to discharge packs before soaking in salt water? Or can you just soak them longer?

[TJ Steve]

Since they are NOT puffed, it won't cost you anything to try them
I would probably go ahead and discharge and then put a fresh charge on them if your charger is capable of doing that, just to see if they will take a full charge again. Then put them in your truck and run them. Stop and check them for excessive tempature after a minutes run time, and if all is ok, run them as you always do.

[SMR 510RR]

Originally Posted by Erin

Is it really necessary to discharge packs before soaking in salt water? Or can you just soak them longer?

I just dumped mine in, I did check to make sure they were not 100% full but since they had been sitting a while none of them were.

[Erin]

Yea thats why I ask. Mine have been sitting long but only down .2v. And reading about salt water, some say if the packs arent below lvc, the tabs will corrode off before discharging to zero.

[SMR 510RR]

Hmm I read a bunch and didnt see mention of that...I would think if the tabs were completely gone then there would still be a path for the stored energy to come out, the tabs had to go somewhere right?

[Erin]

From what I can tell, once the tabs are gone the cell losses conductivity with the salt water. This being the reason the cells could still have a charge and you have no way of measuring it.

[SMR 510RR]

Well I guess the standard procedure has changed and now the recommended method is to bring it to 0v with a load (any load, lightbulb, resistor, charger, etc) and then just toss it.

[Erin]

Yea I guess I will wire a 12v bulb to a deans and go that route. Just put the pack in a can full of sand lol

[cliffdawg]

So after a year and a half with no use, and stored on a full charge.... the batteries still had almost a full charge! I just topped them off and they seem fine. They did not get hot when I charged them, I have yet to run them in the crawler but I think I am in the clear. I will let you know if I see any magic smoke :-)