Last night I was charging a 2S A123 pack. Due to operator error (don't ask, I'm not interested in enduring an iquisition regarding my charging methods) I let the pack get to almost 12V at about 3-4A. The end of one cell blew out. The pack flew a couple of feet and landed on the floor. There was no smoke or fire just a bunch of black power and copper foil. Seems like a pretty safe cell to me - certainly no worse than NiCd or NiMH.

There will be attached photos if I can figure out how...

Dont you just love test to destruction methods! At the very least, you proved what has been said. And I thank you for that.
Edwin

Me too! I love my A123 cells.

Black power eh?

Must be a gang-cell (a bit like a terrorist cell really) :-)

I think it might be time to squeeze all that shirt back in there, tape it up and put it on eBay as an (ab)"used A123 battery" :-)

I think that is a black magic cloth to be exact

So simple a caveman can do it........

Good one.

any cell or battery is always dangeous, especaily when mis-operating.

Where did you get the cells and what charger did you use to charge them. I am interested in getting my hands on a few for my Mamba but I won't go throught the hassle if I have to buy another charger.

I got a Dewalt pack off EBay for about $90. It has 10 cells in it and is pretty easy to take apart. To use you existing chargers, get a 'Dapter from http://www.slkelectronics.com/lipodapter/index.htm. If you are using a 3S 3 cell pack, you can use a 12V battery connected to the cells with several feet of lamp cord. The lamp cord keeps the current down and the cells can be safely charged to 4V.