Lipo Fire in my Easyglider
#1
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Calgary, AB, CANADA
Posts: 139
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Lipo Fire in my Easyglider
T'was a sad day for my new Easy Glider. A brand new 1700 e-tech 3 cell Lipo internally shorted right after a brief flight and vented with vengeance. I had just landed and unplugged the battery, was answering a question and not 1 minute later there was thick white smoke and flames shooting out everywhere from the model. Thank goodness I hadn't taken the battery out and put it in my van as I usually do. I told the fellow asking the questions that he had although inadvertently, probably saved my $40,000 van. As you can see, the glider is salvageable but not so with my radio equipment. Yes, the battery was charged properly (Apache 2500 smart charger), No, it was not over discharged(less than 500mah used at 10 amps).Here is the kicker…. it was dented slightly and the shrink wrap was broken when I got it through a local mail-order dealer. I should have returned it right away but they were only $30 Can. Consider this as sage advice, if your "new" battery has split shrink wrap or even a small dent…SEND IT BACK. This could have been really bad if it happened whilst I was flying in a city park, or left the battery in my unattended Van in the parking lot. I shudder to think what could have happened with a smoking model coming down in a populated area. By the way, the HiTech RX still works! I will be retiring it as it's reliability may be a bit compromised. So, I guess there is a moral to this story…these batteries are great and I will continue to use them…but with a whole new respect for the ability for them to be an uncontrolled blowtorch at any time when only slight damage is apparent in them. Oh, I am buying a battery balancer and staying away from battery deals that are "too good". Good luck
Cptn.K
Cptn.K
#2
Senior Member
My Feedback: (39)
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Orland Park,
IL
Posts: 1,725
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
RE: Lipo Fire in my Easyglider
WOW! It looks like your lipo caught fire! LOL. Can you fix it? How much damage? I know when we had a fire in are electric speed boat every thing was shot besides the servo and receiver.
#3
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Calgary, AB, CANADA
Posts: 139
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
RE: Lipo Fire in my Easyglider
Yeah, it's fixed and the good old RX still works. I rebuilt the plane last night. A new spar and some scrubbing, a control linkage and the antenna tube plus all the wiring. It gave me a reason to upgrade the power system and now I don't need to change the name of the plane from "Easy Girl" to "Stinky Girl" Boy, is that lithium awful smelling. Cheers,
Cptn.K
Cptn.K
#5
RE: Lipo Fire in my Easyglider
Your van would have been safe. Minor blaze there.Are your sure your ESC worked proper. You could have over discharged. Seems most that burn after a flight like that is from over discharging.
#6
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Calgary, AB, CANADA
Posts: 139
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
RE: Lipo Fire in my Easyglider
Postal, Thanks man, I have read that over-discharge is the #1 cause of venting fires. Your statement reminds me of the TV show, Living Color with Jim Carrey, AKA, Fire Marshal Bill. "A 3 foot flame in a closed vehicle ain't a problem...until you add about 70 liters of gasoline" Yeah, like I explained in the first post, the battery was freshly charged and I had used around 1/3 of the charge. I checked everything with a watt meter whilst making the plane and the set up pulled 10amps a WOT and the SC was not even warm. I had the motor on timer set to 8 minutes. The motor had 2.5 minutes of run time. But seriously, thanks for the advice.
Better days,
Cptn.K
Better days,
Cptn.K
#8
RE: Lipo Fire in my Easyglider
Cpnt. I must admit I responded to your post without Reading who wrote it. I have read enough of your post to know, you are fully aware of Lipo safety. Glad all is OK and please keep us posted on what you find was the cause of your Bar-B-Q battery.
Have good day
Have good day
#9
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Calgary, AB, CANADA
Posts: 139
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
RE: Lipo Fire in my Easyglider
Crash 9, the battery just cooked on the pavement. I have a CO2 extiguisher in the van but never got to it. I bet the whole thing was done in 60 seconds.
Cheers,
Cheers,