Had a lipo fire in the house. Sharing my experience for others to learn from

[Edough13]

Glad it wasn't a lot worse and your house and family are ok.

 

[Speedy!]

Well, I decided to just order the larger bat-safe and some balance and IC5 lead extensions. Figured it's good insurance. I may still grab an ammo can when I see one on sale, or get a spare from the range with a lipo bag for transport.

 

[milehighspeed]

Inside a lipo safe with fire extinguisher granules. Using Extover. Have several lipo safe boxes.

View attachment 193179

I like this! My storage is In a metal box, lined with ceramic tiles, and then lined again with 5/8” type X gyp to form cells for each battery. But now I’m going to fill each “cell” with this stuff. Good info.

 

[RC-Dude]

Make a few holes in top so pressure can get out.

 

[Doom!]

Inside a lipo safe with fire extinguisher granules. Using Extover. Have several lipo safe boxes.

View attachment 193179

Can't seem to find a source fir these in the USA. They seem like the perfect solution.

 

[RC-Dude]

https://poraver.com/extover/

Set the website language to english.

 

[abracing]

Sorry yo hear about the fire.. glad you n your family are safe though.


I have the same venom charger, have noticed last few times upon starting to charge batts that it produces an odd sound like something is jammed n it won’t charge (maybe the fans inside?) I have to unplug it (there is no power button??) 2-4x than it’ll finally start charging right.

Have you had this issue at all ?

Sorry yo hear about the fire.. glad you n your family are safe though.


I have the same venom charger, have noticed last few times upon starting to charge batts that it produces an odd sound like something is jammed n it won’t charge (maybe the fans inside?) I have to unplug it (there is no power button??) 2-4x than it’ll finally start charging right.

Have you had this issue at all ?

Yes

 

[Tex Koder]

https://poraver.com/extover/

Set the website language to english.

I didn't see any mention of price..
May I ask -how many lbs. and for how much did you pay?

 

[drkern88]

Oh man. That's scary stuff. Do you recall what C rating you were charging at? Not trying to place blame at all, just curious.

 

[RC-Dude]

I bought 20 liters all together. 5 liter are about 15EUR. I only saw later you can get it in bigger units. It's like an insurance. Seems like a waste until you need it. Same with the lipo safe boxes. Kept adding over the years.

https://www.feuerwerkshop.de/extove...um-batterien-und-metallbraende-xxl::3673.html

https://www.stefansliposhop.de/sich...nulat-fuer-lithium-akkus-kissen-5l::2062.html

https://www.nexusmodels.co.uk/extov...extinguishing-granules-lithium-batteries.html



How did the lithum fire react to the fire extinguisher? Saw there are some made for lithum fires. Those prices are nuts. Expiry date 18 months.

 

[arrma only fans]

I don’t do anything. I just keep them on a shelf. Maybe I should rethink that?

 

[RC-Dude]

No problem on the shelf, as long as it does not burn.

 

[ChemEng]

Glad you are ok, that is scary... i charge in my garage too, and despite knowing better, i do walk away from time to time. My wood workbench is basically kindling... here i am charging over 40,000 mah of 4s at one time... I did install a fire alarm right above my charger, but I would hate to see the fireball this would make:

 

[RC-Dude]

So many types of Lipos on one board with one charger. Have not seen that before. What kind of board is that?
Had some weird thing with that Q8 ISDT charger: When the lipo was done the alarm went. Did not check. It then kept charging. One cell was 4,3 Volt while the other cells were approaching 4,2 Volt. Balancing was not going good enough. Not sure if the contacts of the balancer were just dirty.

 

[ChemEng]

I have been using that charger for years with no issue. Did you have it set to LiPo HV by chance?

It is a fused parallel board. There are many different types, here is the updated version of the one I have in the picture:

https://www.readymaderc.com/product...te-josh-bardwell-parallel-charging-board-2-6s

You can parallel charge different battery types and MAH capacities, but you can't mix cell counts. Need to all be 4S or all 6S etc... and they need to start at the same voltage.

 

[pjmofperk]

Lmao this is DIY at its finest!! Just invest in the batt box bro!!

Batt Safe Box is a great investment. Not too expensive.

 

[RC-Dude]

@ChemEng - The settings were on Lipo and not HV. Had this happen twice. When the alarm went off and I did not take the Lipos off immediately.
Thanks for the link.

 

[SrC]

Mmmm nothing like some metallic acidy taste!

Actually Lipos will make the meat sweet.

Lipo has a sweet smell when they leak. I always smell mine. I have received new out the box sweet smelling lipos. And One was a Ace of gens. I called them and they said to discard it and they sent a new one out right away.
Sweet smell of lipos is a bad sign. The cell must remain hermetically sealed. Or when Lithium reacts with air (oxygen) It becomes unstable and volitile.
That is why when a lipo is punctured whether intentionally or not, they fire up. One reason that causes fires.

Lipos fail at some point. Hopefully not in your home. I had a fire when bashing, a different story altogether.
But most fires I think happen during the charging process. I always stay with them in the room wherever I charge them. Bat-safed most of the time. I do get lazy. But have a fire extinguisher nearby, And a window right there to toss them out.
The only fault of the OP here is that he left the garage. The lipo going in flames was Not his fault. Hard to predict when a lipo will fail. And fast that it will without warning in many cases. But, I always use a Cell Checker on ALL my lipos Before charging them. The only way to know if it is safe to charge that one lipo. Sometimes I might balance them first before charging them. If they wont balance well, I know that lipo is dangerous to charge. Checking the IR's of all the cells matters also. Letting you know that the lipo is approaching its End Of Life.
I find that if I get aprox 50 cycles out of a lipo, pretty much they are done or almost petered out. And need to watch them more closely.

Edit:
I have seen many Smart lipo complaints of them failing. Sooner than later.
Smart Lipos are not any safer. I don't know why newbs think they are? Bad Marketting info. perhaps?

 

[Adiabatic]

How did the lithum fire react to the fire extinguisher? Saw there are some made for lithum fires. Those prices are nuts. Expiry date 18 months.

As far as I understand, there is (or should be) very little metallic lithium inside a LiPo. More in an older pack where it can plate out on the anode more easily, but the heat from a thermal runaway is primarily generated by the electrodes short circuiting internally, and the visible fire by burning gases generated by decomposition of the electrodes/electrolyte/separator/case materials. So it's more of a combination A, B and C class fire which a common dry chemical extinguisher should deal with.

 

[N.Mango]

Actually Lipos will make the meat sweet.

Lipo has a sweet smell when they leak. I always smell mine. I have received new out the box sweet smelling lipos. And One was a Ace of gens. I called them and they said to discard it and they sent a new one out right away.
Sweet smell of lipos is a bad sign. The cell must remain hermetically sealed. Or when Lithium reacts with air (oxygen) It becomes unstable and volitile.
That is why when a lipo is punctured whether intentionally or not, they fire up. One reason that causes fires.

Lipos fail at some point. Hopefully not in your home. I had a fire when bashing, a different story altogether.
But most fires I think happen during the charging process. I always stay with them in the room wherever I charge them. Bat-safed most of the time. I do get lazy. But have a fire extinguisher nearby, And a window right there to toss them out.
The only fault of the OP here is that he left the garage. The lipo going in flames was Not his fault. Hard to predict when a lipo will fail. And fast that it will without warning in many cases. But, I always use a Cell Checker on ALL my lipos Before charging them. The only way to know if it is safe to charge that one lipo. Sometimes I might balance them first before charging them. If they wont balance well, I know that lipo is dangerous to charge. Checking the IR's of all the cells matters also. Letting you know that the lipo is approaching its End Of Life.
I find that if I get aprox 50 cycles out of a lipo, pretty much they are done or almost petered out. And need to watch them more closely.

Edit:
I have seen many Smart lipo complaints of them failing. Sooner than later.
Smart Lipos are not any safer. I don't know why newbs think they are? Bad Marketting info. perhaps?

Well alrighty then...teriyaki it is!

I think the smart lipo thing is that the charger sets everything automatically...and you can adjust as you feel the need to.
I started with Heli lipo's and a charger that was new to me and needed everything adjusted. It took basically an online course to learn the in and outs of charging.
So I would guess it plays a roll in the decision for the purchase. I have a set of smart batteries with a smart charger...its only as smart as I am so it's not very smart. LOL!