Lipo swelling while being discharged

[Oze30]

My lipo swelled up (only one side, but it's more the plastic casing/shrink) wrap than the actuall cells. Is this still ok to use?

It feels like a blister on the foot, blown up and full of air, and a bit spongey when you press on it.

I was running my crawler and it wasnt until I realised that the power was dropping setting up the dig,when I removed it, I noticed the pack had swollen on one side. I've left it to cool, but it's still swollen.

Any ideas? It s a 2200 15c 2s lipo off ebay. so no real damage in costs, just annoying as I'd like to use it!!!

 

[xzk7nr]

I dont know. I have heard bad things about LiPo's off ebay. Some thing about the cells being inferior or damaged. Do a search on it to double check. Cause what you are descibing does not sound normal or safe.

If you have seen the magic smoke leave the battery I wouldn't try it. But if you do proabably do it outside, away from your house and your 1:1 mode of transportation, the battery out of your R/C car, in an ammo box or LiPo sock and some sort of fire supressent near by.

 

[renoirbud]

Dispose of this battery. It is not worth dealing with. The damage a Lipo can do is very impressive (5ft + flames).

 

[binaryterror]

Sounds like it was over discharged and swelled up.

It is not safe to continue using, though that I guess is your personal call on trying.

 

[Raider]

Dispose of the battery correctly. It is now a fire hazard. Invest in a lipo cutoff to prevent this happening in the future. I have seen 5ft flames mentioned by renoirbud. It was not pretty. Luckily it was not in the car at the time.

 

[skellyo]

Invest in a lipo cutoff to prevent this happening in the future.

My question exactly...were you running a LVC or an ESC with a LVC built in?

 

[cmdrpopnfresh]

o man....trash that thing......i had that happen to me. left the battery plugged in while the truck was in my closet over the winter......that was a scary thing to see when i pulled it out the next spring. dont mess with it....ive heard alot about these things popping......

 

[Tanis]

Don't charge it whatever you do, that is when it gets really dangerous. Here's what I have read that you should do, mix up some saltwater in a container, and put the lipo in it. Let it sit until it doesn't have any voltage left. Then dispose of it properly(recycle), the garbage can is not the right place to put it.
I've got 2 lipo's that I let my buddy borrow, and he didn't set the cutoff on his Mamba, they are now both swelled nicely. They are in the lipo bag waiting to be taken care of.

 

[Spucknit]

Tanis, did you get a chance to soak yours yet? If so, did it work as you had expected?

 

[Reflection]

I've got a 3 cell that swelled from discharging to fast. I left it by itself in the bed of the truck on the ride home. It was cool when we got home and the swelling went away,but the plastic wrap is now loose. Just to be safe,I checked the voltage and it was still above 3 volts per cell. I then placed it in the wood burning stove in the shop for 2 weeks or better. Without a lipo sack,I figured that would be the best place for a fire to start.:lol:

I've charged it up and ran it several times with no issues of swelling or getting to hot.

 

[mysharona]

Don't charge it whatever you do, that is when it gets really dangerous. Here's what I have read that you should do, mix up some saltwater in a container, and put the lipo in it. Let it sit until it doesn't have any voltage left. Then dispose of it properly(recycle), the garbage can is not the right place to put it.

actually, The proper way to dispose of a lipo is to discharge it all the way, a light bulb works well. once the pack reads 0.0 volts, throw it in a saltwater solution for 2 weeks. The saltwater neutralizes the Lithium, makeing it safe to throw in the trash.

toss that suckka!

 

[JohnRobHolmes]

discharge it to zero and toss it. Once a pack is puffy it is loosing it's capacity. A puffed cell will be weaker than the rest, and be in risk of more damage in the future.

Best to toss it or take it apart and remove the bad cell.

 

[666]

Chop chop!!

 

[slowrockr]

:ror: I remember that. No fire or anything just some funky smell, I was quite dissapointed. :-(

 

[flomofo]

...

hahaha

 

[Ty@Tekin]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjmnVOjBjMk

 

[maro69camaro]

Chop chop!!

Apogee the only li-mn i will use, no more balancing, no more fires, very very safe dont have to worry about burning your house to the ground.

 

[Cloak]

Chop chop!!

I like how you safely shrinkwrapped the exposed wires so they don't short... before you ran an axe through it.

 

[binaryterror]

Apogee the only li-mn i will use, no more balancing, no more fires, very very safe dont have to worry about burning your house to the ground.

Kokam says the same thing about 2S packs, its the 3S and higher pack they recommend balancing to help.

 

[maro69camaro]

Kokam says the same thing about 2S packs, its the 3S and higher pack they recommend balancing to help.

if it makes you warm and fuzzy inside then you can balance it but talk to them and they say it is unneeded, and that there cells are so matched that you dont need to balance. and i got a friend who has about 100 cycles on a 3 cell pack with zero balancing:shock: and still running strong.. now thats apogee for ya."thumbsup" now this came right off there site.

No Gimmicks!​

For years we have sat quietly aside watching the proponents of "pack balancing" spew forth misinformation. The truth is that a properly matched pack will not require balancing. Yes, we're sure this is a shock to many of you who have fallen for the balancing gimmick. Yes, Apogee was the first to put commercial grade plugs on all packs due to customer demand. We've had and seen enough.

Pack balancing is a gimmick perpetuated by companies who make balancers, and by other companies who do not match battery cells within the pack. A properly matched pack will not require balancing, and in fact will mask a failing cell. Balancing is a band aid for companies who lack the proper equipment to do cell matching. All Apogee packs have been cell matched since the day we started.
Due to misinformation, more packs have been damaged during balancing than have been helped. If you insist on balancing a pack (If it makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside, and you sleep better at night, have at it), please, please, only balance fully charged packs.​

Why only balance fully charged packs? All properly matched cells are mated together so that the high and low voltages will coincide. There may be mid-point voltage variances. Balancing a partially charged pack can cause the high and low voltages to become unbalanced. Again, please, if you insist on the balancing gimmick, please only balance fully charged packs.​