Lipo Safe Handling Month

[DPeterson]

July is Lipo Safe Handling Month.

Be sure to visit the Charger and Battery forum for some good information.

Doug

[ozzie-crawl]

There has been some controversial threads over the last week or so as to lipos and there safety/hazards. Does not matter if they were good or bad but it made me think twice about how i store my own cells. I moved them all in to steel boxes. I am also in the process of helping a large indoor rc car track open up and in a meeting tonight i brought up lipo safety as it had not been discussed.There is now in place strict guide lines as to were they will be charged. A lipo sack will need to be used for all batteries being charged. Extinguishes and sand will be provided.
I doubt this would have happened if it had not been from the awareness posted up on this forum over the last week or so.

Thank you all

[Steven Vaccaro]

If I was going to open a shop that allowed people to charge indoors, I would have an area with a stone or tile counter with stone or tile backsplash. And make everyone charge in that area.

[detox]

Charge in your own area, but I think everyone should use lipo sack sealed with steel buttons like Grimracer described. Every Youtube video I have seen show that Lipo sacks do work. Longer charge/balance leads would help lots.

[DPeterson]

I am curious. Anyone got a video of a 4S, 5S, 6S, or larger burning in a lipo sack? All I can ever find is 2S and alot of them look like receiver packs.

Doug

[ozzie-crawl]

If I was going to open a shop that allowed people to charge indoors, I would have an area with a stone or tile counter with stone or tile backsplash. And make everyone charge in that area.

The pit area will be a seperate section built outside The main building. If it was in doors i wonder if a couple of old barbecues would work ?

[785boats]

Every month is 'Safe Lipo Handling Month' in my book.
I've been wondering if having a fire blanket at the charging station would be a good idea. It won't put out the fire (neither will an extinguisher) but it would contain the flames somewhat if there were to be an incident.

[JIM MARCUM]

The pit area will be a seperate section built outside The main building. If it was in doors i wonder if a couple of old barbecues would work ?

Of the several LIPO storage methods bantered about as a result of last months LIPO Fire threads, three strike me as better than simply storing the LIPOs in fireproof bags.

1. Storing inside a fireproof bag, placed inside a metal sealed container (i.e., ammo box), and stored outside

2. Storing outside in a Webber style barbeque, with or without fireproof fiberglass bags

3. Storing inside fireproof bags, placed inside the fireplace

Methods 1. and 2. should be workable for nearly all of us, and have the advantage of being stored outside - where LIPO smoke is less likely to cause harm to people & pets.

Method 3. is the only semi-safe method I've heard of for storing LIPOs indoors. If your fireplace vents well, it should contain the fire and provide the ventilation needed to vent the toxic smoke outside. The obvious major shortcomming - you can't use the fireplace.

My favorite is 2. Like many of you, I have a collection of different style barbeques purchased over the years. Using multiple barbeques spreads out the risk of loosing all of your LIPO investment due to a single LIPO flaming out. By design, barbeques are fireproof and will largely contain a LIPO fire safely. However, even they may not contain the flaming liquid that accompanies a LIPO fire. Be sure to close the bottom vents, and keep the BBQ away from dead grass or flamable items.

No matter which method you choose, I strongly suggest that all LIPOS be stored outdoors. You may indeed control the LIPO fire - but it's almost impossible to contain the toxic smoke.

Be smart - and be safe. JIM

[Basstronics]

I want to make a suggestion.

Once the proper information accumulates can someone PLEASE summarize it in an easy to read step by step format.

While these threads are awesome for information, they are hell to wade through.