Lipo fires....

[cpaine]

thought I would share what can happen when 4s lipo hit the ground....
this plane used to be a proud bird

[sihinch]

Oh no, that's terrible.  Glad you are OK, but sorry for the loss of your plane and electronics.


Reminder to self: get some more fireproof containers and another fire extinguisher for home.

[battlestu]

ouch...sorry to see that and i hope all are ok

[cpaine]

I will add, Not my stuff!!.. guy in the states racing!... Maybe i should of said that!? lol

[eddiecj]

WOW! the first thing that crossed my mind is how much it looks like it could be a fossil from the cretaceous period, carefully cover it with soil, and in a millions years, archaeologists will ponder its origins, theories of a large bio-mechanical birds will abound!

[gordonbw]

Last month I managed to set off four lipos in my basement while charging.  They were inside a Liposaver bag, which contained the flame, but not the smoke!! Oh man was I ever in deep yogurt...

Since then I have replaced the old Great Planes PolyCharge 4 (which lacked an integrated balancer).  The new ride is a Hitec H4 with 4 channels @ 120 watts each. Two of the channels can be ganged together for a 240 watt output.

May history not repeat.

[Candu]

Can you share with us what charger you were using and the charging conditions when this happened.  ie balance charging, all 4 lipos in parallel, charging current, etc.?

[gordonbw]

Sure....  I was using a Great Planes PolyCharge 4, no balancing. I was charging three 3-cell lipos -- two 1000 mah and one 2000 mah -- at the same time.  One of the 1000s caught fire and took out the other two batteries.  I thought it was due to user error -- perhaps I had set the capacity too high (the PolyCharge is supposed to auto-detect the number of cells).  I took the charger outside and set it up to charge 3 more batteries, all 2000-2200 mah.  Within 10 minutes there was another lipo fire.... suggesting the charger itself was at fault.  I quickly disposed of the charger end started shopping for a new one.