With my fire, I am certain I was charging the battery properly.. i.e. 2s pack charger said 2s. I saw it puffing while on the charger. Put it in the safe, put it outside (thank God) and went to bed. Tiny little pack smoked that doc safe. hate to see what one of the 7000 packs for my planes would do!

I do my best to only buy TP packs if I'm buying lipo. And I tossed all the off brand random ones I had.

Thanks to all for the well wishes and concern, they are appreciated.

The battery was a 2100ma 3S Lipo I use for powering the fuel pump. I had it on charge as I was in the RV arranging and packing. The battery charger indicated charging complete with beep, so I unplugged it from the charger and left it sitting on the table. Left about five minutes later for the store, returned maybe half hour later to black smoke.

The battery explosion somehow caught ignited the upholstery/foam of the couch on fire. Took the fire dept about ten minutes to arrive. As soon as they opened the entry door, boom, the flames erupted!

I usually charge these at the field, in the pits, but, as I was eager to be able to get in afew flights later today I wanted to get a head start. Obviously a bad idea.

I will try to make it to ButtonWillow for Saturday flying at least, but someone will have to loan me a battery for the fuel pump. Both of mine were in the RV.

David S

David,

Glad you are safe, very scary, just hope they get that type of battery, and the systems correct for use in public transport aircraft.

Thanks for posting this unfortunate experience. All of us need to learn from this. I certainly have unplugged and walked away not thinking about this potential consequence. I will now revisit this concept

I have had some experience with this myself. I love the way people love to point out what they think is obvious. I lit up the inside of my explorer one day at the field. I for some reason set the charger to 4 don't know why. I knew what I did as soon as I heard the pop. I also blew up a a 123.2s when I forgot to change the setting back to 2s. Both of these incidents where completely my fault and I learned a great deal from them.

Freddy

Over 10 fires that I know of in this area over the last few years. I have seen brand new in the package Lipo batteries PUFF up hanging on the hobby shop wall. I'm surprised by the number of people still using them.

My home is a Lipo Free Zone! Not worth taking a chance.

sorry for your fire!

We wrongly assume that we are safer after unplugging the batts after charging. Thank you very much for your warning and detailing about the incident.


best regards, Enrique.

Even small batteries can go up when my back was turned in same room

Damn,, David. Sorry for your loss man. I left you a message.

Dave, not to be a downer but I remember you let me crash on that very couch in 2009 at Fresno jets! Gosh, crazy! I hope you are able to get a great upgrade!

Exactly my concern now. I use ammo cans, sacks, and even a (apparently worthless) "fire" safe. And now these lipo's can just go off "unprovoked", even months later?

Man....

I keep mine stored in an ammo can with holes drilled in the top. I only charge outside the house.

Man, this just freaked me out. I just moved all my lipo's out to the shed, I'm ok if that goes up. What's the best way to store these?

Damn David, so sorry to see that.

David,

Thank you for sharing this experience with us, I am sure it will serve as a reminder as we all get going this season. Sorry for your loss.

Dave

Great thread, finally something worth reading and learning something new. I had no idea of that risk, I only figured the problem occurred while charging. I am going to find all my lipo's right now and take them outside!

So sorry for your loss David, thanks for posting. You most likely just saved someone from a similar fate.

For the average person, I think the best way to store them is at someone else's house or garage.

Also, an underground bunker comes to mind.

But the absolute best way is to store them in a BAT CAT, a KHEM Bio TCV, or a DETCAN (containment device) like this one.

Dave,
Sorry for your loss.. thank you for reminding us to be safe.. its too bad there are *****holes out there that like to kick people about the obvious..

I have to admit, I would not have thought twice about taking batteries off charge and leaving with nothing actively charging.. I suppose I had better rethink my storage plan..

Hope this all turns out ok for you.. good luck with the upcoming camper upgrade..

Goose

Dave,

Sorry for your loss and glad no body got hurt!!

Andy,

Remember you had a LIPO pack pop in your F-4 at JOK last year on the flight line. I had a LIPO pack sitting in a plane for a few months, Me & Barry were going to go fly and I needed a battery so I was going to steal the pack from my P-38. As soon as I opened the battery hatch, the pack popped and went nuclear. Thankfully it happened while I was home and I didn't come home to a smoking home. I threw it out on the drive and dug a hole and buried it. It was still smoking in the ground after we got back from a day of flying. I then proceeded to get rid of all my LIPO packs and only use LIFE or Nimh packs.

Dirk

And flight 370 had 400 pounds of those things on board. I use an ammunition box with a tight lid. Could it be blown apart?

This is another instance that just goes to prove that you can never trust these batteries.

About two years ago, I saw a battery begin to smoke, and then burst into a nova star within 30 seconds. The battery was on a bench when it happened. It wasn't being charged, nor was it recently charged or used. Someone surmised that the battery must have been "damaged by being dropped" for the battery to have gone into self-destruct mode. But since it wasn't my battery, I didn't know if that could have been the situation.

I always thought it was possible for these things to fail at some point for no apparent reason, or without any indication. Now I know these batteries can pretty much melt down at any time.

David, thanks for bringing this to the attention of others. Sorry your RV was destroyed. What a bummer!

The most unusual one that I have heard of happened to the wife of our oldest hobby shop owner (now retired). Her pocket book started smoking from the lithium battery in her cell phone.

Wow,

This stuff is so scary. Now you can't leave 'em alone OFF the charger.... Somebody please tell me LiFe is safer?

Thanks Dave. I am rethinking my use of lipos now. I have many and recently a hard cased one swelled up very badly, which got me concerned. I hope you are able to recover from the fire in the RV without to much hardship.

I like that your post has brought discussion on the subject, even though their were a couple of blame game posts made. My favourite was "how many times must you guys be told". Why do some talk to a whole community like that.....wow. For Me, I would like more discussion and maybe less telling me how it is. Maybe softer words, like "what do you think could have caused it" which promotes discussion and not ill will, well for me anyway.

Anyway, I like your thread, and as a result I will be looking at one aspect of my charging of Lipos definitely as a result.

Man, Sorry to see that.... What type of charger do you use? Glad to see it's not putting a damper on your event!