Hi,

Somebody I fly with crashed an airplane, and it dinged the LiPo pack. He didn't want anything to do with it anymore, and gave it to me.

Could I get some feedback on whether it's still safe to use...and store in my house?

I'm unemployed right now, and really appreciated the gift. But it's not worth it if I'm at risk keeping it.

I attached a scan of the pack...Please let me know what you think.

Thank You,

Mark

Romero:

I have the same cell by the same manufacturer. Its several years old as yours appears to be, but still going strong after about the same very light damage to one outside cell. It has had around 15 cycles on it after the damage, always charged in a ceramic flower pot. Regardess, you take a chance on any damaged li-po. Give it a standard charge outside the house and leave it there after full charge. Let it sit for several hours and then disccharge & check out the charge. If its still around 1320 mah you are at your own risk. Keep it in a safe fireproof box at all times as you should do with all your lipos when overnight in the house. ENJOY

Thanks for the feedback rmenke!

I'm not that knowledgeable on the physical make-up of LiPo cells. Which is why I started this thread.

I know that each cell is made up of many layers, but I'm not really familiar with how each layer is arranged, and assembled...or how a ding like the one mine incurred can effect the pack? Like, If one layer in the cell comes into contact with another layer, is that what can produce a fire? Is any damage to a LiPo, no matter how small, a risk...or are certain kinds of damage worse than others? I know there are thousands of incidences of LiPo's bursting into flames around the world, but the only one I know of personally was the result of a charging error. The charger didn't shut-off at peak charge, and kept charging until they burst! This person has since gone to all A123 cells...and NEVER leaves them unattended anymore.

I do have 6 other LiPo packs in this size range. So it's not imperative that I keep this one if the risk is to great. I don't want to have to treat this pack differently than all my other packs either. If I have to treat it with kid gloves, and be scared of it every time I plug it in, it would probably be best if I just discard it.