help w/ lipo fire
 

Don't mean to be intrusive, and hope none of you ever find yourself in my predicament.
Looking for any one, or organization that might be able to help me protect myself, (or get information on) from a lawsuit from an insurance company as a result of a lipo fire. Yes! It sux

Need more information

Ooooo....that doesn't sound good. What's the situation? How did the fire start, and why is the insurance company coming after YOU?

The insurance company probably paid out and is now suing for that payout back. An example of this would be if you filed a claim, the insurance company paid and then found some sort of negligence on your part that's not covered in your policy. Another example would be, you hit someone's car, the victim uses their insurance to pay for the damages and then the insurance company comes after you for what they had to pay out.

Those are the most common reasons why an insurance company would sue an individual. But if the poster sold a lipo to another person and the buyer suffered damages the insurance company could be listing them as part of a lawsuit. In this example the insurance company likely also listed the lipo manufacturer, the distributor and retailer in the lawsuit as well. Sometimes they list anyone that was involved (at what point they were involved doesn't matter) to cast a wide net in hopes of snaring at least some of those named into paying them something.

I'm also curious about the details of this case as well. Are you a retailer or distributor of some sort? Sell a lipo to someone or were the current owner of a lipo that caused property damage? Then of course there's all the particulars of the lipo pack's use and why it started a fire. Whatever the case may be you really should consult an attorney as well.

We don't know what your predicament is so how are we going to offer help or information ? I assume it has something to do with an RC car but then again this thread could be cross-posted. We can throw darts at this for days and not hit the target.

Sorry guys logging back in was a chore man overdrive hit on a lot of it. I was charging a battery personal use(still not sure battery was still plugged in ) (I thought I unplugged it ) last known charging 2-3 pm wife and I went to dinner and movie about 3 hours got home at about 9 pm to fire in house(mostly smoke damage) (I rent) insurance paid landlord fixed house over a year ago now suing me for breach of contract( so it states) (no where does it state no lipos in house . Even lived in house till now moving out. Just tryin to get help against Ca blood thirsty attorneys and insurance that now want me to pay back for damages. Tried to sum up shortly thanks guys for all your replys

Sorry Maj overdrive

Get a lawyer of your own. I'm not a lawyer but it sounds like this is going to come down to picking apart the lease agreement and possibly generally accepted as well as lipo manufacturer safety practices.

All rc battery manufacturers put "never charge a battery unattended" on the labels of all battery packs. I'm sure that'll be one of their arguments and could constitute negligence of some kind. Your lease may not specifically prohibit charging batteries, but it may state that doing any activity in an unsafe or negligent manner will put you on the hook for damages as opposed to a purely accidental incident like an equipment malfunction or accidentally knocking something over. This is where you need a lawyer to go over your lease agreement. The insurance companies will also be more likely to accept a settlement (which is likely what they're looking for, anyway they can minimize loss is good for them) after you've retained legal counsel.

Edit: Other arguments in their arsenal could include other "generally accepted safety practices" like the use of a lipo bag or other fire resistant container, the material of the surface you were charging on, etc. Anything you may have done wrong or that could've resulted in damage that is greater than if you followed generally accepted safety practices you could be held liable for due to negligence and/or incompetence.

PLEASE tell us you were at least using a LiPo charger, properly set for the battery being charged. Using a NiMh charger, or a LiPo charger set to NiMh, to charge a LiPo battery, can cause a fire.

Get yourself a lawyer.

Definitely look into a lawyer and also beware that any discussion of details here ,or anywhere online may be used against you...

I would take the advice, get an attorney and edit/delete your posts here and elsewhere. Good luck to you.

If you left it charging unattended you may be hosed. (Reconsider editing above). A guy in our club was charging from his truck battery. The battery caught fire, he was off inside the house, and first he knew was when the fire dept showed up. Brand new pickup totaled by the fire. Insurance adjuster read the warnings on lipos, and the insurance sent him a nice letter saying he was negligent and no check. "Failure to follow manufactures specific instructions/warnings as noted in the instructions and packaging".

Get good attorney... They all leave you alone..a good attorney will destroy that lease agreement. What happened was totally unintentional..

Just because it wasn't unintentional doesn't mean it isn't still negligence. If you forget to unplug your lipo battery and it catches your place on fire, it's still kinda your fault since you plugged the battery in in the first place. I'm not here to beat anyone up. The OP needs a lawyer and with some hope, will come away without (at least) full responsibility.

I would recommend renters insurance in the future. It's cheap and *may* cover something like this.

Sorry for your situation. This is called subrogation in insurance terms. Do a google search on renters fire insurance suing and subrogation. A very common situation for renters apparently.

I would NOT talk to the insurance company again until you talk to your own lawyer. Problem here is a lawyer is going to want a retainer fee up front just to get things rolling. You should be able to get a free consult, but after that they're going to want some money up front. Maybe with the free consult, they can tell you your chances of winning a lawsuit if at all.

With drones selling like hotcakes there will be lots of situations like this. People do not realize what they are dealing with and the potential danger.

Yep. You are screwed.

The OP has received some great advice: Get a good attorney, and for the love of God, don't disclose anything more here or elsewhere. Keep it between you and your lawyer. The suggestion to clean up existing posts here is spot on.

What are the odds of a lipo, already charged, or discharged, igniting just sitting there. no external stimulant, just sitting. Is it possible or something that should be a concern? I have several lipo that I only charge while observing but fear them catching fire while I am at work. I keep them inside the lipo safe bag but thats not a 100%

Pretty damn steep. This is the first fire I've EVER heard about that wasn't "well of friend of my cousin's uncle said...." I've never used a lipo safe bag, nor so I store them in an ammo can. Never had a problem. But I am anal about not leaving them sit fully charged. Only because I want to keep them healthy. Not because I'm afraid of them spontaneously bursting into flames. The only thing I am aware of that can cause a Lipo to catch fire is putting on the wrong kind of charger.

not the 1st I seen on this site actually one guy that posted here long ago wrote how(it turned out later) he had the charger set wrong went in the house to watch TV, and the thing burst burning his house down. He even had pictures of the mess.

Also remember one guy saying how he was charging a lipo while it was in his truck (I think it was an Emaxx I know it was a traxxas though) on his kitchen table went to sleep just to wake up to the smell of burning, and finding his truck melted, and a hole in the table.

But fire stories on the car forum are pretty rare outside those cases

Now a charged lipo bursting... that isn't common unless something damages it.

My point exactly.

so your saying then Rob that I should always set the charger to storage after use and it will condition them to proper storage voltage and provide a longer life? I am new to electric. I had a Kyosho Javelin in the 80's. I have concentrated on Nitro since that time. Now I got an Axial Yeti to play with in the cooler months. I am well versed on Nicd and Nihm but not Lipo.

Storage mode doesn't so much condition them, in the way you used to condition nicds and NiMh s. It just discharges or charges th Lipo to its quiescent voltage. If you leave a Lipo pack fully charged all the time like you did with NiCds, it would shorten the pack's life and capacity.

Leaving them fully charged could also cause them to puff therefore damaging them. I've had it happen to a lipo before that I fully charged meant to take the RC out something came up figured next day I'd take it, rained, day after rain, day after rain forgot about it for 2 weeks pack was swelling. Leaving a LiPo charged for a day or 2 won't hurt it when its charged for multiple days it does damage.