What to do with a puffy ??

[torker]

It finally happened to me. Got my first puffy. I have been balance charging to 4.2 This time since I have an extra battery I left one sit fully charged. Usually I charge right before I ride then leave the batts partially discharged till I ride again. I usually only run em down to 3.7 or 3.8 Hopefully a good voltage to sit idle. Also my bikes/batts/chargers are all in the detached garage. Just hit the 27th day over 100 F here this year . Not the best I'm sure. So seems I made a couple of mistakes or three
1) I should charge to 4.1 instead of 4.2
2) I need to always leave the batts partially discharged
3) Maybe I shouldn't be doing this in a 100+ degree space...

Now what to do with my newest battery I have it in a steel bucket with a piece of sheetmetal over it right now. Should I hook it to my charger and put it in discharge mode? Do I need to open it up to relieve the pressure on the cell/s?

I know you all are not too bashful to tell me Did I bend/break a golden rule ?

 

[neptronix]

OK; so you learned the hard way what many people have been saying.
Leaving a battery at 4.2v/cell for a prolonged period is definitely a mistake.
These kinds of issues also seem to be reported during the summer and not the rest of the year.

That battery is most likely toast. Consider it toast, and put it on light duty!

Also here's something to consider; are you only running 5ah? if so, what kind of peak amp load are you putting on it?
Running a lipo at half it's C rate in sweltering heat could be the reason why it puffed ( too much damn heat inside ).

 

[torker]

Actually I haven't been riding much in this heat. I just didn't even think about that one battery sitting there fully charged. Noob mistake. I should also set my charger on lilo. instead of lipo to charge to 4.1 I guess. I did mod my controller for 50 amp peaks but it doesn't stay there long. With the 6x10 winding in a 20 inch it drops back to thirty pretty quick and just keeps dropping.
Still what to do with it first?

 

[AussieJester]

Do I need to open it up to relieve the pressure on the cell/s?

You dont have to but this is the course of action i have always taken, "de-puff" the pack
then seal it up again with glue or selastic, few wraps of tape around him for good measure
mark it so you know its the 'problem' pack and can pay closer attention to its performance.

[youtube]ZcR8tDgiIeE[/youtube]

KiM

 

[torker]

Awesome. You make it look easy Kim. Right now it is at 4.16 per cell so I guess that is a good sign. My charger has a discharge feature so should I go ahead and take it to 3.85 and then open it?

 

[AussieJester]

Awesome. You make it look easy Kim. Right now it is at 4.16 per cell so I guess that is a good sign. My charger has a discharge feature so should I go ahead and take it to 3.85 and then open it?

Just do it as it is voltage hasn't made a difference to the ones have de-puffed in the past and i de-puffed at least a dozen individual Lipo cells LoL.. And yes it looks easy because it is, just dont apply to much pressure to the cell, you only want gas venting NO LIQUID should come out of the cell if it does you have to much pressure on the cell, just need enough to ensure all the gas is released nothing more So many treat these with kid gloves, its like they think these will blow up in their face
like a bomb, its not the case for these Turnigy LiPo packs, i have had one i was de-puffing go off in the vice right in front of me scared the living shit out of me, filled the workshop with smoke, but the only flame lasted for a few seconds the rest is just alot of smoke, Now that said, obviously take reasonable safety precautions dont charge packs unattended sitting on a pile of newspapers and magazines (reminds me, must take lipos of Playboy collection LOL) etc but i do that even with lead acid batteries i never leave anything charging unattended anything could happen with the battery or the charger, its just common sense i would have thought, making bomb proof charging stations in the middle of the backyard and putting them in stoves and pots etc to charge is taking it all to far though IMHO...what ever makes one feel safe though is the best way to go though, dont let posts from idiots like me sway you haha...

KiM

 

[dogman dan]

There's puffies and then ther'es PUFFIES.

Likely safe enough to do what AJ does for a puffie. But when you get a PUFFIE, you toss it. A real puffie has popped the shrink wrap, and turned into a large flower. Think a small glove that just turned into a catcher mitt. To really make a pack puff, you have to overdischarge it. And at that point, you know you need to toss it.

I've been keeping my lipo charged for a year now. I don't want to have to plan riding a day in advance. If it's nice after work, I want to hop on and ride. I charge to 4.2 and maybe two days later when I ride they are down to 4.1 or 4.15. None have "puffed" buy after a years use they are now softer and a bit larger.

I do agree, if you really only use them on weekends, then charging friday night could be best. I've gotten a year out of this lipo, and I never wanted or expected much more. So I'm happy. But I wouldn't be happy if I always had to wait for a charge before every ride.

I don't think you need a bunker to charge lipo, but since I have a tile hearth and a fireplace screen it makes sense for me to charge my lipo there. Reading a few scare threads, I recently took to storing my lipo between uses in ammo boxes. I don't latch down the lids, but just close em. If they should go off, at least the flames won't shoot out, only up towards the tile around my fireplace.

If you fret about charging, just don't set em on wooden tables. Get someting fire resistant under them, and an old barbeque grill top can be set over them if you are really worried. Like charging the puffies.

 

[texaspyro]

1) Remove puffy cells from pack
2) Charge puffy cells
3) Slather puffy cells with bar-b-q sauce/bacon/jerky/etc
4) Toss puffy bar-b-q cells to that NASTY, out of control dog
5) Give freshly bar-b-q'ed nasty dog carcass to those nice Vietnamese people down the road ... they tend to have good recipes...