Originally Posted by
rgreen24
Completely agree with you. The thing is I have never really liked the battery that caught fire. But I kept it anyway as I could use it for practice. I am sure many of us have batteries just like this that we use for practice. If I could offer some advice, if you are using it for practice only because you suspect something is not quite right, whether it's not holding the charge it once did, takes longer to charge or doesn't have the power it once did. Then it may be time to recycle them. My .02 cents
I think you can get some clue that a battery is nearing the end of its safe life, by monitoring the IR of each cell,
Although the IR numbers will vary a bit from day to day,mainly due to the ambient temperature, you can spot the trend.
In my experience, the IRs will stay pretty much the same across the ten cells in a typical F3A pack,just gradually increasing a bit over number of recharges,but eventually, one,or two, cells will show a fairly rapid increase above the average IR----and this will often coincide with other indicators like slight puffing,longer recharge time,&c.
Personally, with my Zippy Compacts, the IRs start around the 1 to 2 mOhm mark, gradually rising to 3 or 4 over time---and when one or two fairly suddenly go to 6 or 7,I discharge the pack safely through a series resistor (7 lorry sidelamp bulbs) and recycle them.