An Even Worse Day At The Pond

[txboatpilot]

That is a heartbreaker!!

I suspect the same as Bill, a cell or cells must have been damaged or breached...

I will see what I can do to get you back in the water!!

[shockerman80]

Wow i though my full throttle into the beach was bad.

[Doug Smock]

Man, sorry to hear about this Doby. I won't speculate as to what happend, but please let us know what the outcome is.

That is a sizeable hit, keep your head up and good luck,
Doug

[Flying Scotsman]

Doby, that takes the lustre off LI-PO batteries. I am really interested as to the cause as you mention that some cells were replaced by the manufacturer. I have one 2S battery that does not retain the charge over storage periods as well as my other cells. It may well be time to toss it which is a shame as I run all my batteries in series and that TP 4500 2S Extreme 22C is discontinued.

Douggie

[txboatpilot]

Doby, that takes the lustre off LI-PO batteries. I am really interested as to the cause as you mention that some cells were replaced by the manufacturer. I have one 2S battery that does not retain the charge over storage periods as well as my other cells. It may well be time to toss it which is a shame as I run all my batteries in series and that TP 4500 2S Extreme 22C is discontinued.

Douggie

Douggie,

What voltage do you store your 2S lipos at?? How long do you store them at a time?

[Bill-SOCAL]

FWIW, I asked my battery guru about the possible causes of a fire and here is what he had to say:

Since this pack just came back from repairs, my first thought is, old and new cells mixed together. Although Tanic probably balanced the pack, during discharge, the 2 different cells no doubt did not discharge the same. Of course if this caught on fire we would have a hard time to determining but I bet a cell was going in to mass-over-discharge. If this is a high cell count pack then it is possible the user still had ample voltage running and would not be able to determine the cell was over discharging and just saw a slow down.

Now the other issue, since it was a repaired pack, that something seriously went wrong in the reconstruction of the pack. Maybe a wire close to a terminal got hot during discharge and started shorting out and we all know what happens there.

So there was either a major difference in cell performance due to mixing new and older cells together and more likely something shorted out after the pack warmed up during discharging.

[Flying Scotsman]

I use an FMA charger and store at 50% of capacity. I dry cycle at least every 2 months during the winter and discharge at a rate of 10 amps. It is only one pack that seems to have a problem out of a total of 6 packs. No packs have ever been discharged below 3.2v per cell

Douggie

[Doby]

I got a call from Brian at Tanic Packs a few minutes ago, we discussed several issues and came to an agreement that we will never really know what happened.

The packs will be replaced, 2 for the price of one.

I have no problem with that.

Also, I have 4 more packs on the way from TXBoatpilot. He is giving up 4 almost new packs for good price.

[G Doggett]

Glad to hear you have had a reasonable outcome to the disaster and that people have pitched in to help.
Thats the really good thing about this hobby and this forum.
I have only just made the switch to lipos and was feeling good about it, but now your explosion has made me all nervous again.
Graham.

[astecme]

Look at the date on the videos - plus you need also to be sensible. We had a NIMH boat blow through vented hydrogen - it was CF so there were shards of carbon everywhere. If you are sensible you will not have problems. Charge at the specified rate, store at the right voltage, don't overcharge or discharge and make sure the cells are balanced.

Cells out of balance are favourite - mainly due to corrosion in the balance plug or faulty charger - not faulty Lipo cell.

[SJFE]

I didn't read a thing that lead me to believe Doby was not sensible. The packs received more attention and double checking than I have ever took the time for or seen anyone else for that matter. The only thing i noticed was maybe.. and i mean slightly the boat was running wet. Water conditions where not the best so it's tough to tell.

What don't make any sence to me is digging up a year old thread to flame some one. Thats just my opinion. You are free to say what ever you want.

[Doby]

Look at the date on the videos - plus you need also to be sensible. We had a NIMH boat blow through vented hydrogen - it was CF so there were shards of carbon everywhere. If you are sensible you will not have problems. Charge at the specified rate, store at the right voltage, don't overcharge or discharge and make sure the cells are balanced.

Cells out of balance are favourite - mainly due to corrosion in the balance plug or faulty charger - not faulty Lipo cell.

What does the date of the video have to do with anything?

So what you are saying is that there has never been a faulty/ weak Lipo cell ever produced? A cell never gets weaker with age than the others in a pack, causing a failure under load??

You comments in the other thread "lipo misinformation" basically telling everyone that you can drive a nail through them without incident is pure fantasy......

.....the sad part is that some people may actually belive you....

Treat LiPos with respect and they should be fine,,,but don't ever for even one minute think that they are perfectly safe. If and when they let go,,,,,there will be damage from smoke and fire. Period.

[KillerDave]

I feel your pain, same thing happened to me only it was through not knowing what I was doing.. Doh
I guess I am learning the hard way and hope it wont hapen again but you are right.... "treat Li-Po's with resect"... If you don't, they WILL try to kill you!!!!!

[westbeach]

Sorry to hear about the lipo meltdown. Hope you get up and running soon.

[RandyatBBY]

It does suck to burn anuthing. The only time I had a lipo catch on fire I ran a weak pack way too long in a offshore race with no lipo cutoff.