Cheap Li-ion battery scare

[bert]

My RC batteries a 3s Lipo, charged in the house but in a lipo bag and sat in a steel ammo box. If they go then a quick unplug and close the lid before being launched into the garden.

They are also stored in the ammo box and that lives in the garden too.

Lipos should not be stored fully charged or flat but iirc 3.7v per cell. Bit hard to control on a phone/laptop though

 

[Munkul]

Li-ion is funadmentally unstable stuff, that's why the electronic protection systems and quality control are really important.

I personally won't buy cheap moody li-ion batteries, especially not those spurious makita/milwaukee knock-offs. It's really not worth buring the workshop down when I'm not there. In fact, I don't like charging any li-ion stuff when I'm not around to watch it.

I had a similar scare to the OP a few years back with a cheap bike light... one of the two 18650 cells decided to heat up and start spitting and hissing when charging. I ran outside with it as well! Since then I've made sure i only buy Samsung cells from a reputable source... not that it will eliminate problems entirely but it's one less thing to worry about.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

That's all very scary! And to think we all carry/have these things around us.....

 

[julianthegypsy]

When I moved a few years ago, we lost a tablet, which was very annoying. My ex accused all sorts of people of nicking it, which made me wince as they were friends who's brought vans and helped for free. Anyway, when we split up, I went through the house looking for her things so I could return them. In the middle of a box of her old paperwork, in the wardrobe in my bedroom, there was the tablet...except that it was now about two inches thick and banana shaped. Lucky escape, if it had gone up in the middle of the night it would have been a disaster. Well rid of both of them!

 

[My Old Landy]

When I moved a few years ago, we lost a tablet, which was very annoying. My ex accused all sorts of people of nicking it, which made me wince as they were friends who's brought vans and helped for free. Anyway, when we split up, I went through the house looking for her things so I could return them. In the middle of a box of her old paperwork, in the wardrobe in my bedroom, there was the tablet...except that it was now about two inches thick and banana shaped. Lucky escape, if it had gone up in the middle of the night it would have been a disaster. Well rid of both of them!

I had one of those Tesco Hudl tablets. I stopped using it and about a year later I found it and that was in the same sort of shape. I check my devices regularly now but there is always a chance it can go pear shaped

 

[jimbo84]

jump to 7.25 and you will see

What was most impressive was how long the stuff around it took to ignite, a good few minutes before the rest of went up.

 

[jimbo84]

The genuine stuff is risky enough but then there's all the dodgy batteries and electricals coming over from china by the ship load, frightening really, some of the electrical stuff you see on ebay and the likes puts a shiver down the spine, it's the volume of the stuff as well, people's houses loaded with it...because it's cheap. Not when it burns your house down though.