GSR

My Feedback: (145)

O.K. Come to Jesus time. With the two LiPo threads going like a 2 cell Lipo charged at 24 Volts lets be honest about if we have ever been bad LiPo chargers.
I'll Start: My name is Scotty and I have charged LiPos unattended in my garage.
You Dont have to give a name.

smitty1001

My Feedback: (29)

too funny Scooter!!! I took the liberty to go ahead and vote YES on the wife one because at the time she was my wife! Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

BTW - not making light of the very serious subject (Lipos AND females, as they both are very dangerous!)

kimhey

All of the above...?[X(].... someone? anyone?

madmodelman

I confess that I always charge in the plane, eg. All batteries were under the fuel tank in my Elan's for cg reasons, never a problem, maybe I am just lucky. I know I am not the only person to do this.
Gary.

Geoff White

I can't believe 30% of the people who have voted have charged Lipos overnight. Utter madness

Jim Cattanach

I charge my lipos in the jet, but am always nearby while they are charging.

Carsten Groen

Really sorry for those who have had such bad disasters with LiPo (and other chemestri batteries), but i charge batteriers (LiPo) in my planes, have always done.
I also drive a car, my wife drives a car, and both my sons drives, even though hundreds of people get killed alone here in Denmark each year in car accidents.
No matter what you do, charge and drive carefully (and ALWAYS monitor you charger while charging..)

FlyinTiger

My Feedback: (45)

The real tragedies are when a charger fails and then your jet goes up in flames...I've only read about chargers failing, but that would be a bad day. When a person has charged carefully, is near by, but since they leave LiPo batteries in the aircraft end up losing a composite turbine model because they couldn't get the battery out fast enough.

rcjetsaok

My Feedback: (7)

LiPo Batteries are not near as bad as they were early on... It is rare to have this event, I would have to say that the majority ( 95%+ ) occur with the cheapo brands.. Battery quality is a contributing factor. IMHO of course... I don't understand that with the Airplanes and $ we are dealing with here, why would anyone even go there....



Danno

S_Ellzey

My Chevy Volt is packed with Lipos, so I always charge in the car, in the garage, over night.



For those of you who don't know what a Volt is, it is an electric car.

dubd

The Chevy Volt has lithium-ion batteries, not lipos.

dubd

How do you know it's the battery brand that is the contributing factor? I've been using lipos from a wide range of companies, both high end and low end since 2006. I've literally owned hundreds of lipos over the years with configurations ranging from 2s to 14s and I NEVER had a problem until I used a specific charger.

dubd

Yes, we should ALWAY monitor our batteries and make sure they are in lipo sacks or contained in a fire proof container during charge. The time you don't do that may be the time the battery explodes.

PaulD

My Feedback: (39)

I'm just wondering what people would do if a lipo did go off with you standing right there. Let's say you are in your workshop and decide to put a lipo on charge. You're 10 feet away working on your plane and suddenly you notice the things going off. Everything I have seen about a lipo fire at this point is the burn is so hot and uncontrollable that there's no way you're gonna stop it. Even seen a video of a lipo fire that was set off inside a metal bucket filled with water where the lipo fire was hot enough to burn thru the metal despite the water.

A buddy charges his lipos in one of those portable fire proof safes. I think I am going to pick one up. I do use the lipo bags but after seeing Dubd's place I'm concerned.

PaulD

dubd

Paul, I stored my lipos in a fire proof safe. In terms of charging, I converted a stainless steel BBQ grill into a charging station. BTW - The fire is why my Tutor never got finished, however, Tutor #2 is being worked on.

Regarding what to do if a battery does go off... hopefully it's in a container that can be handled without getting burned. A very well known helicopter pilot had a battery go off in his house and he tried to get it out and severely burned himself.

rhklenke

My Feedback: (24)

Yea, I was going to say, when they go off, you can't touch them for sure. Also, if you try and pick them up by the wires, the wires fall out and the burning doesn't stop.

Charging a LiPo in a plane is just foolish - there is *no two ways about it*! If it goes off, you are *never* going to get it out safely and putting it out without damaging the plane is going to be near impossible.

I have had a LiPo charging fire in my lab - a student who didn't know any better, put a 1200 mAh LiPo on charge at 5 Amps. It was sitting on a bench when it went off. Another student tried to pick it up by the wires to move it and the wires pulled out. I came in the lab and took a "Pig Pillow" (make of ground up - recycled paper for absorbing oil spills) and tried to smother the fire. It knocked it down initially, but then the LiPo caught the Pig Pillow on fire. We poured water onto the Pig Pillow until it was soaked and that smothered the fire completely out. Damage was limited to some (not a lot) smoke in the lab and hallway, and a singe mark on the bench.

I also had a LiPo go off while charging in my garage. The charger was set correctly and I was charging through the normal leads - not the balancing leads. The garage door was open and the battery and charger were in an open area on the concrete floor. I went inside the house for 5 minutes and when I came back out, the battery was just letting go. After the initial "venting with flames," I was able to get the fire out with water. There is a singe mark on the garage floor and cleanup was a *****, but damage was limited to the battery and the charger.

Both of these incidents convinced me completely that if you are charging a LiPo in the aircraft and it goes, your aircraft is lost - it doesn't matter how close or how fast you are...

After these two incidents, which were with small batteries, I wanted to see what would happen with a larger cell, so when one of my 5-cell 5000's puffed, I shorted it out on a piece of plywood in the back yard. The resulting "venting with flames" was one of the most impressive Roman candles I have ever seen. Big LiPos are really not a thing to be taken lightly!

Bob

indubitably

My Feedback: (14)

I use A 123, so no need to respond here. Simply no issues. Charge them any way you want to. And on the reasoning we use -

Whats interesting, is - its the same people who charge overnight since nothing has gone wrong for them that are using brand X, because they have had no problems with it in the past. Just pointing out a common theme here.

rcjetsaok

My Feedback: (7)

"Pilot Error" is always the most common problem... Again, I think I would not use low price no name batteries for any application... In this example of 1200Mah pack at 5 Amp rate is not a problem for some brands..(And I do not know what brand was used here.) But the Batteries I use will charge at 6C.. I charge them at 1 - 1.5cC so there in lies you safety margin... Thats all I'm trying to say...


Danno

Jim Cattanach

A few years ago when lipos were fairly new on the scene, when one puffed up, some of the gung ho types used to deliberately short them out to see what would happen. In the many such events I saw, there was lots of smoke & noise, but none ever erupted in flame. not saying it doesn't happen, just my experience.

Termites Dream

My Feedback: (11)

I fessed up to charging overnight in the garage (lipos in a closed ammo can with slits for the wires) but dont think I will do that again. I usually am not present all the time during charging. I am a bit freaked out by some of the stuff I have read lately and am going to isolate the batteries better (ceramic pots covered by sand bags, maybe a ventilated metal box to enclose the charger plus lipos, smoke detector by lipos). Have never had a problem but dont want to temp fate either.

RobinLeblond

At home, I charge outside the plane in a metal canister and while I'm not too far away (with balencer)...

At the field, I charge int the plane (without balencer) at a VERY LOW rate, since I have really big capacity bat, I rarelly need to charge at hi rate at the field. (but I admit it may not be that safe)...

But I voted "Charge attached to a fuel jar..." ;-)

hooker53

My Feedback: (106)

I always charge in the plane and on the fuel jug BUT I never charge mine at even one half C. I trickle my charges in.

seflyer

My Feedback: (12)

guilty of all of the above.

Kevin