My starter battery caught fire!!
 

Went out for a few flights tonight. I use a Hobbico electric starter and a 12v for power. The starter attaches to the terminals of the battery with large crocodile clips. Tonight when I started my engine and moved the starter away from the propeller, the exposed metal clips connected to the battery touched each other. There was a shower of sparks and then the top of the battery burst into flames!! I pulled the starter free and blew out the small fire. The top of the battery was singed badly, an electric arc cut through one of the terminals and the crocodile clips had briefly fused together!!

All of this happened above my fuel bottle which was lying on the ground beneath the starting table.

Well ... needless to say I was not impressed. First thing I can I will be buying myself some bannana plugs and removing those crocodile clips.

I wonder if I should toss my battery too ... I don't know what the effect of shorting it out will have had to its internals.

What spooked me most is the idea that my battery sits in a big 'tackle box' that I use as my current field box. In that tackle box there are screw drivers, pliers and, of course, the crocodile clips on my starter. Up until now I had just been tossing them into the box without thought. If I had caused a short within my box while driving home I could have been in serious trouble (with the wife ... it was her car).

... so ... my hint/tip ...

Take notice of those small 12 volt shrunken car battery like things because they don't like to be shorted. Mine yipped at me loudly for attention.

RE: My starter battery caught fire!!
 

Mine is mounted in my field box with velcro on the bottom. I have my power panel and fuel pump tied together with insulated spade connectors, that slip over the male spades of the pack battery. so far no problems. I additionally will be placing a piece of rubber sheeting over the top of it, when I install it in my fieldbox from hell.

Fusing wouldnt hurt either. perhaps a 1.5 Amp?

RE: My starter battery caught fire!!
 

Toasting your car??? It can happen. Several years ago a friend burned up the back of his truck when essentially the same thing happened. The only difference, his battery was in a field box with the fuel. Needless to say the fuel went up as well. The fire department was impressed.

RE: My starter battery caught fire!!
 

That why I keep my fuel and power equipment in separate chambers in my ultimate field box!

RE: My starter battery caught fire!!
 

I found the following (attached picture) in an OS Engines manual showing the croc clips on a battery. Based on my experience and the ones coming in, I am getting spooked by this configuration.

RE: My starter battery caught fire!!
 

WHy not use a power panel and have your battery hidden completely inside your field box?

I know lots of folks think power panels are useless but I have mine and think its great. The battery is completely sealed inside a seperate compartment in the field box and there is no danger of a toold shorting it out.

RE: My starter battery caught fire!!
 

The biggest drawback to power panels is the small wire they run to the battery - it really reduces the starters power. I prefer a seperate starter battery, either a car or lawn tractor battery. That eliminates dragging the starter wire across the prop arc and significantly boosts the umph of the starter. It also makes it impossible to short with alligator clips. I CARRY MINE IN A MARINE BATTERY BOX TO PREVENT ANY ACCIDENTS. Oops- caps lock!

RE: My starter battery caught fire!!
 

Gringo,
Already ahead of you my friend, I ordered the following panel:

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...5&I=LXACW7&P=K

Neil

RE: My starter battery caught fire!!
 

Was this a sealed battery?

A friend of mine uses one of those sealed gel car batteries with like something like 15000 cold cranking amps, or something insane like that.

Over kill yes, but I have seen advertisements where one of the sells are compromised with an ax with out leaking, and it would still start a auto.

RE: My starter battery caught fire!!
 

thats the one I have although I bought the Tower version

for a while I didnt want to buy one bc of all that I had read about them here on RCU, now that I have one it is great.

I can test glow plugs, power my field charger and starter, I really like the electric fuel pump and its nice to be able to charge my glow starter.

I am the only person in my small club with a panel and everyone is always coming over to charge batteries, use my starter, etc!

RE: My starter battery caught fire!!
 

i have had problems with the size of wire they use to power a power panel, my solution, i cut a 110v extention cord in 1/4 -3/4 used the female end attached to the battery with termals, put the plug in end on the starter and got rid of the alligator clips, now i just plug in my starter to that short ext cord end, problem solved. but dont try plugging it into a 110 outlet it sure wont like that
what i do like is the size of the cord allows you to get the most out of your starter, i am starting 1.08s with a standard starter