Rob590

We had a little fly-in for our club's 10th anniversary. The fly-in was oppened for modelars and visitors alike. It should be all-day flying and having fun at the field.

But one unfortunate event ended it all.

In the afternoon it started to rain a bit and one guy put away his charger and his LiPO batteries in a car, behind passenger seat, and continued to charge the battery WITHOUT balancing. One cell got overcharged and chemistry took it's place.

This is the video of unfortunate event:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yc8NTkUKJ8k&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

I think that we all must consider our safety and safety of others when charging our LiPOs. And NEVER charge them unatennded.

Robert

EDIT: This was not cheap Chinese LiPO or charger. Charger was BANTAM E Station and battery was EVO FlightPower 4S 2250 mAh.

HunkaJunk

I don't charge lipos inside my vehicle or my house under any circumstances, I have seen one of these fires first hand also and it made quite an impression.

I use a small gas generator, extension cord, and a .50 caliber ammo box to charge my lipos, right in the gravel in front or behind my vehicle, NOT in it or under it.

SkidMan

My Feedback: (17)

Iknow that there have been fires when people have done everything right.

However, the only fires that I personally know about is when people did not use a self-balancing charger that monitored every cell during the charge process.

Rob590

yep, same thing here. battery was charged on charge mode, not balance mode. it was a bit nasty scene. and my face got burnt a bit (only red) when we were putting out the fire.

JimmyZep

You can have those LiPo's Ill never ues them, this is a hobby and there's too much risk
for me.

If you have to use a fire bag to charge em that should tell you something.

I wonder how many lawsuits there are over this?

Jimmy

AmishWarlord

My Feedback: (5)

Lipos have a long way to go before they catch up with oily rags.


Glad your OK Robert. You guys did a good job of putting that fire out.

You think that guy's car insurance will pay for the loss of the car?

guver

My Feedback: (325)

I tend to like to dig right to the cause of these things to learn what happened. Most times no-one knows. Do you know why this happened? How do you know 1 cell got overcharged?

jester_s1

There's no reason to ever not balance your packs. It takes 2 seconds to plug in the lead.

Rob590

hi all and thanks for your comments.

there are no lawsuits over this, and unfortunately, insurance won't pay for the loss of the car. owner had only basic insurance, which covers only car crash situations and situations when car is on the road (moving).

this happened because car owner disregarded the warning from one of his colleagues (also passenger in his car) that his battery got swollen. actually, he checked the battery a few minutes after he was warned and he said that it was not swollen, but that there was error message on his charger. he restarted the charger and continued to charge the battery (which was bought in 2006 and had her share of cycles) without balancing. it takes 2 seconds to plug in the balancing leads, but according to the owner, it charges faster when not balancing. anyway, overcharging the battery is the only reason we could think of and it stands in the police report.


LiPo batteries are good and Ipersonally think that they have bought revolution to this hobby, but they do require a bit more attention when charging and in use. but after this incident Iam moving to A123 systems.

Robert

redliner140

Did he use a lipo charge pouch?

Rob590

no, he didn't use it. after this, every modeler in Croatia ran to their PC and ordered few lipo charge bags.

eddieC

My Feedback: (2)

Balancer wouldn't necessarily have prevented the fire, and it's foolish to espouse such an idea.

The pack should have been charged outside, and while supervised. Quite an expensive lesson, especially since he had warning signs and ignored them. 

TheWoodCrafter

My Feedback: (1)

Very tragic.

But why would you continue to charge them knowing there is a problem, no balancing and unattended.

Hard lesson to learn but those are usually the best lessons.