What constitutes a "puffy" lipo

[Cryptic]

I bought 4 turnigy nano-tech batteries last year, ready for my LR kit build.

First time out of the packaging yesterday, and 1 of them is very slightly soft on one side - say 1mm squidgy.

Does this constitute a "puffy" battery, and therefore should be treated as suspect?

 

[Ykick]

Any "softness" of the pouch is puffy, IMO. I've had some which mildly did that but worked normally for several years. The main thing is to keep an eye on that cell, maybe test IR and if it gets worse and/or loses charge (leaker) while sitting, it should be culled out.

 

[dogman dan]

A brand new pack should be hard as a rock. So that's not good, I'd dump that cell from any bike battery I was depending on.

But it may or may not puff more, and what you describe could be what all the cells look like in a year or so. I wouldn't complain to HK myself, unless the cell self discharges.

But if it looks like this, That's a puffer. That picture is a pack with 3 cycles on it, not abused. It was slightly puffed on arrival, and a few easy cycles turned it into that. Haven't had one pack with a bad cell since, this was from 2009.

 

[Cryptic]

Thanks guys - bench testing at moment - will use it on first test rides once up and running, and monitor closely. If it gets any worse, it's history

 

[wesnewell]

There are easy ways to deflate a puffy pack and it may or may not ever puff again during its lifetime, which can be up to 6+ years.