Murphy's law???
 

I plugged in my week old 5000Mah battery to charge in with my week old Hobbico 900 charger and turned the dial to 15 minutes. I let it sit and then turned it to another 15 minutes as I sat here watching TV. Well, I went over to check on it after the time was up and I noticed it felt hot, not normal warm. I put it down and went to unplug the charger when I heard a pop followed by what sounded like air releasing from the battery pack. I unplugged the charger and checked the battery pack again.It looks hazy on the inside of the plastic wrapping, but there is nothing leaking anyplace I can see. What the hell happened here?

RE: Murphy's law???
 

Not sure, I always program mine to fully charge in an hour and never had any problems.

RE: Murphy's law???
 

Overcharged the pack, or a cell was way off balance and got overcharged, so a cell(s) vented, best to get a peak detection charger, a really good cheap one is a triton,though the lipo/ion charge rate is a bit low esp if you get into a123 cells, but it is hard to beat a triton for the cost, dont get the jr

RE: Murphy's law???
 

Sounds like you vented a cell. Either from overheating or a bad cell.

Some Big NIMH packs don't like aggressive fast charges. I used to consider a 30 minute charge aggressive for my small cells. A lot of larger cells tend to consider a 4 hour charge as a "fast" charge.
Nicds on the other hand can handle a more aggressive charge (15-30 minutes usually), though slower charges heat them up less and result in longer lives.

D.

RE: Murphy's law???
 

Yellow:

It sounds like you were using a regular cheap NiCd charger... and you should always check the temp on 'em before attempting to crank the dial a second time. Better yet, rig a multi-meter to see where your voltage is at... its the way we 'old-timers' used to 'peak' out packs before peak-detection digital ones came about.

Was it a NiMH pack you were charging? Thya could explain things... using the crank-dialers to trickle charge, aka slow charge, which they do when plugged in and NOT cranked, on niMH is fine... but using it on a NiMH is not recommended as the unit isn't designed for that kind of battery. You CAN use it, but you have to monitor the pack carefully...

And yes, as the guys said, you probably blew at ~least~ one cell. Unless you know someone that rebuilds packs, you're going to need a new pack, as this one's going to be short at least 1.2-1.5v (depending on where it would peak before)

If you want a good digital charger thats not too expensive, and can be used at home, and off a car battery at the track, I'd recommend the duraTrax DTXP4005 DuraTrax "Piranha AC/DC Digital Peak Charger", list at Tower of $49.99: http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXCLD5&P=7

Hope that helps ya out.

RE: Murphy's law???
 

Yes it was a  <font color="#000000">NiMH</font>. Ok, so the pack is wasted as i thought? Great news. I guess i'll be looking into that other charger from tower hobbies. It seems strange that I had run this pack and recharged it a few times already and had not had an issue before with it getting hot like that. I won't take a chance though. I'll just get a better charger.
As always, thanks for the great info guys.

RE: Murphy's law???
 

As Whitewolf stated, the piranha is a great charger I have one, and have used it for years on all my packs, works great.

Cheers,
Wade

RE: Murphy's law???
 

I just called the hobby shop and he will replace the pack for free. I ordered the recommended charger from tower hobby moments ago and it'll be on the way soon. For now i have to run the tank with the 2000maH battery I have. Again, I want to thank you guys for all the help. At least it wasn't a car abttery, that would probably have exploded all over me.