tamjets

My Feedback: (2)

This just happen this afternoon.
One of my club member put the Li-po on charge inside his suburban and left there few for minute. Next thing he see smoke come out from his suburban. But it too late. It only took minutes caught the whole suburban on fire.

This unstable battery so dangerous if charge without safety precausing.
That why only charge my Li-po outside from the airplane and only at the safety area.
At the end day use. I took the battery out and put in the metal container for storage.
Hope we all learn from all this.

AFTERBURNER1

My Feedback: (80)

There was a guy who charged a Lipo on the front seat of his NEW 4RNR (EL TORO, CA). Guess what happened??? Batt go POP and new sled go up in smoke..[:@]

Always use an ammo box.. Better safe than sorry...

DA

EASYTIGER

My Feedback: (119)

How many times are people going to do this stupid trick?

Details 4 Scale

My Feedback: (3)

What I want to know is what kind of charger are they using? The Triton charger has an optional temp probe that senses the heat from the charge and can turn the charger off if the battery gets too hot. They say it's for Nimh batteries, but is it possible to adapt it to Li-po's as well. If the probe is based on resistance, could an extra resistor be put in line with the probe to change the heat shut off resistance value? I think I remember the Triton manual says to only charge Li-po batteries at no more than 1A. Does anyone have any real data on the max charge rate for the Li-Po cells or the maximum safe temperature they can handle before going nuclear??? It would be great if anyone has this data and could share it with everyone. They make an oven probe for $20.00 that has an alarm on it. It would be cheap insurance to monitor the battery's heat while charging. Of course you'd need to be near the alarm since it's not very loud, but at least you might be able to avert an accident...

Dan

Silver182

My Feedback: (2)

In my humble opinion the type of foil packaged Lithium polymer battery cells that are being sold, and purchased throughout the modeling community.... were never intended for use under the conditions we use them! I believe sooner or later someone is going to really get hurt because of a (foil packaged) Lipo burn-down and or exploding, and the company that distributed / sold them and possibly the manufacture of origin is going to end up in court.

Don't get me wrong here I do believe people are responsible for their actions...including my stupid mistake of charging a 7.4 volt LiPo with my LiPo charger manually set at 11.1 volts.. which totally burned up within 30 minutes causing $800 in damage. The foil packaged Lipo's are being promoted and sold by model industry distributor's for use in a way they were really never intended by the original manufactures.

Indeed we all want to have electric power sources that are lighter and more powerful, but foil packaged Lithium polymer batteries are NOT what we should be using!!
Lee H. DeMary
AMA 36099

Wayne22

My Feedback: (2)

It's not just LiPo's that explode....this nicad pack blew a cell while it was on a field charger, and 2 more cells cooked off after it was taken off charge, and they were attempting to remove it from the aircraft. Fortunately, no injuries and no fire !!

It doesn't pay to become complacent!

volkan

since i have had a couple of fired with nihm and pb batteries (dont ask!)
I charge all my lipos, and nicads on a upside down PCB, it is very
heat and fireproof.

I also have a smoke alarm next to the setup and a fire extinguisher next to me,
which i have used in the past.

Cant be too safe.

sirrom

My Feedback: (4)

Tam,
What charger was he using, what charge rate was he using, and why in the hell did he put it in his car? I hear this sky is falling stuff all the time here on RCU about LiPos, but you know most of the people who have had problems with them admit that they did someting wrong. Lee even says that we shouldn't be using them but the only reason he stopped using them was that he made a mistake and charged them at the wrong rate and almost fried his airplane. If you use a slow charger to charge these batteries and PAY ATTENTION to what you are doing then you should have no problems. If you have a hard landing or a mild crash check them and make sure they are ok.

You know if this guy had gotten his fingers sucked into the front of a turbine because he was not paying attention (and I hope that never happens), we wouldn't say BAN TURBINES, we would say hey he got complacent and S&*T happens, but he burns down his suburban because he got complacent and we scream stop using the batteries. Hmmmm...makes no sense to me.

Patrick.

seanreit

My Feedback: (60)

I'm confused, so far as I know there are hundreds of us using Duralites with no charging issues whatsoever. I just recently bought some SR li ion, charged them on my duralite charger over night, they are in great condition and 5400 MAH. That's a bunch more at very little weight increase, do we have any info on how he charged them? DId he do the wrong setting?

EASYTIGER

My Feedback: (119)

You are probably right about someone getting hurt sooner than later, and about lawsuits.
But I don't think there is a need to throw the baby out with the bathwater, and these cells are totally useable.

I also am not going to fault you, me, or the guy who burned down his truck for starting a fire. Human error happens.
But to pile that single error on top of two more basic ones...namely, charging the lipos in your car, and, above all...CHARGING THEM UNATTENDED, well, that's not too bright. I mean, it goes against every warning.

EASYTIGER

My Feedback: (119)

Correct me if I am wrong, but the Duralites are Li-ion, a totally different technology.
I don't know about charging those lipos with the li-ion charger, does not seem like a good idea.

wojtek

My Feedback: (73)

are Lithium-ion batteries as bangerous ? or are these safer in their chemical nature ? My primary concern is charging my Duralights inside of the models ... I have just started using these this year, so my experience with these is still rather limited ..

Thanks for the heads up remider Tam, hopefully it prevents complacency and potential disaster with these types of batteries ...

thanks ,


Wojtek

Zagiflyer576

***sry, double post***

Zagiflyer576

I have been tought to charge my lipos at no more than 1C, which means, If you have a 2100mAh batt. you can charge it at no more than 2.1 amps. Or if you have 720mAh batt. to no charge it over .7 amps. BUT i have also read somewhere that you should charge at 1C with a max of 1amp. I have been useing the first meathod for over a year now and have yet to have a batt. get above room temp. but plz correct me if im doin something wrong....

yes they are different, but you can use a charger for li-ion with a lipo. for example, the hobbico quick field charger says it can only charge nicads, nmhi, and 1-3 cell li-ions, but there is a sticker on the box and a suplement sheet in the box that says you can also use it for 1-3 cell lipos...

seanreit

My Feedback: (60)

Sorry guys, you are right, I have been using Li- Ion, duralites are LI ION and the new batt's I got are LI ION. And the duralite charger on them was ok to use in my situation. This isnt' the first time I've mispoke on this issue, you'd think I'd have it nailed by now.

My confusion.

Sean

seanreit

My Feedback: (60)

Usually, Todd comes in here and corrects me before everyone else

Harley Condra

My Feedback: (4)

Sean,

Duralite is marketing both types of Lithium batteries now. The Duralite E-Plus Gold, and E-Plus Silver are both Li-Po technology. They are flat foil packaged.

The cylindrical and yellow shrink wrapped Duralites that we have been using are of the Li-Ion type.
See the Duralite website for full info.

I sure didn't know that both types (Ion and Polymer) could be charged with the same Duralite or other brand charger...I had not heard that before.

Harley Condra
BVM REP
Team JetCat

Toro1

My Feedback: (2)

Well, here it is the real skinny.... I was there and was the first to see the "puff" of black smoke. It occured at the Heli area, and what started as a small fire rapidly spread to the whole vehicle from the time I did a 100 yard dash to get an extinguisher, to the time I came back the passenger compartment was well involved. all of 30 seconds. He was charging a lipo pack for a mini heli, had a couple of gals of glow in there multiple transmitters, laptops, batts, and other such objects. As far as what charger Im not sure, I did see an astroflight blown out of the car at the beginning of the fire about 20' away. Throughout the whole fire I watched mini helis come flying out the front windshield, batts go flyin' and every other powder actuated safety restraint, and device explode, sounding like Max's house on the Fourth (local inside). I see fires often, as that is what I do for work, but this one was awesome in the fact that it spread SOOOO fast unbelievable. Now to make matters worse the guy got hooked for outstanding warrants. A bad day got worse for him... heres a little pic.... notice the glow fuel can to the side. Thats the only one that got out alive.

EASYTIGER

My Feedback: (119)

Arrested too? Yeah, that's a BAD DAY in my book!
The "charge lipos with li-ion charger" thing kind of threw me, too. I dunno about that.

EASYTIGER

My Feedback: (119)

As far as chargers go, I have seen a few chargers that existed before lipos that were magically "adapted" by just adding "lipo capable!" to the box and advertising, but feel better with something that is made for the job.

Steve S

My Feedback: (54)

Yeah damn I'll second that ,one's day cant get much worse than that!! A brand new truck too,hope he atleast had his insurance up to date !!Imagine that day at the field,watch your new truck burn down to the ground and get hauled off to jail afterwards-errr [:'(]

Steve

seanreit

My Feedback: (60)

Sorry guys, I did not mean charge lipo and lion with the same charger, I meant that my duralite charger, I used to charge my new batts WHICH ARE ALSO LI ION. Just a different make of LI ION than duralite. They don't have duralites charge safe circuitry, but sorry again if I confused anyone. I have never used LIPO.

EASYTIGER

My Feedback: (119)

Well, at least...thanks to the cops...he did not have to call for a ride home!

EASYTIGER

My Feedback: (119)

For the life of me, I cannot understand why the LAPD has a reputation of being harsh!

furloughed ual

My Feedback: (31)

FWIW, I have the Duralite 3+1 charger and I charge my Li-ons for my 36% on it and charge my Li_po for my foamy on it as well.....the Duralite charger will do both.......