Lipo - when is puffy to puffy

J

jhardway

Member
I ask the question, only because I am not experienced enough to know. I have few batteries and even though they are not to old I am starting to notice they are starting to puff, one in general is a little more than others, I figured I would like to hear the feed back from those here that really know about batteries and the signs that would tell me when I should considering replacing it.

Over all the batteries durations are good, and I have not seen much change there, when charging they do not seem to puff or heat and they end up balanced. When they are discharged they are warm but not hot.

In any case, if any one has knowledge I would love to hear about it.

Thanks in advance

Jack
 

J

jes1111

Active Member
Hi Jack

IMO puffing is an indication that at least one of the cells is starting to break down. Since it would highly undesirable for that break down process to finish in the air, I'd regard any pack that has started to swell as junk. Maybe a fun flyer would continue to use such a pack, but on a heavy AP machine... don't risk it!

Jeremy

btw - to dispose of packs, first dump them in a bucket of really salty water for 24 hours to allow them to discharge completely. Then, and only then, take them to whatever battery disposable facility your neighbourhood provides.
 

J

jonesy40001

Member
If your LiPo has puffed up it has been over heated. This can happen because of over charging or discharging. I have some cells that were purchased almost ten years ago and they have not puffed and I have a cell that is two months old and it is puffed up because I charged it to quickly. Do not puncture the cell. If you Have to cut it open to see whats inside then do it under water. if the cell is leaking it will have a distinct smell, it's kind of a sweet smell. if its leaking do as Jeremy suggests. Also as Jeremy suggests, Prolly not a good idea to fly with it as unlike other batteries, LiPo's go open circut when they fail.
 

nicwilke

nicwilke

Active Member
Don't even play with lipo safety. I have a motto... F##k 'n' Chuck, if it's puffy, it's f##ked, so chuck it out (dispose in correct way) . Lipo safety isn't to be played with, just youtube 'lipo explosion'
 




kloner

kloner

Aerial DP
if you have a quality charger like icharger, it has a function called measure internal resistance, that tells you when is when. I usually "retire any pack when it's cells hit 5-6mv resistance. that's the kinda 4s pack that sags to 13 volts, alot. can be puffed or not, but the resistance is what gives them there C rating and it's what you measure to see that c rating has diminished

You really gotta be careful around packs like that if your esc's have LVC. in my experiance one will shut off first and it's unrecoverable
 

Bowley

Bowley

Member
Ah yes, That must have been what happened to me Kloner, on a couple of occasions I would take off with a dodgy battery unknown to me. I would get about 30secs flight then the thing would start large oscillation on a rapid descent. I never thought about the ESC LVC. I was a little baffled as to why the naza LV failsafe didnt just do it usual thing and gently descend. It definitely was related to the battery as I could only get similar flight times on a 450 heli with no FC.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.
Top