Don't know when I will be flying again

[octagon]

Hi Guys,
I was about 36000 feet up in a 737 on my way to Ireland when I said to myself, did I remember to unplug the batteries that I had been putting into storage? I decided I would have our daughter check but of course you cannot use your phone in a plane and by the time we got to ireland it was the middle of the night here. In the hussle and bussle to get away I forgot all about the batteries. She came by on Sunday and heard water running and an alarm going off. In the basement she found a plastic pipe that had split due to the heat of a fire caused by a lipo battery. I was charging on the drier just outside my workroom. The heat was intense, "popcorning" 3 foamies that were in the shop. Had the pipe not burst the whole house would have gone up. The water did extensive damage to my workroom and all the stuff in it. The entire house was covered in soot and the furnace needed to be replaced. We had no idea anything was up until we got home yesterday.Our daughter is very resourceful and got our insurance company involved and they got the fire restoration people to work right away. The shop and basement it is shambles.  Probably the hardest thing to replace will be all those specialty tools and parts that you use when modeling. All of that was bagged up and is sitting in filthy moulding bags waiting for us to sign off on it before it is taken away. A lot of thing probably are not replaceable, that the thing with a fire, how do you replace something that is of value because you had it when you flew models with your dad 50 years ago? I have not been able to find my DX9 tx yet, and of course most of what I need to fly has to be replaced, so God knows when I will get out again, but hopefully soon. So let me just say here that all those things they tell you about charging batteries that after a while you kind of don't do (you know, don't leave them unattended, always charge in a Lipo bag) make sure you do them. By the grace of God I still have a house.

[Crazyflyer]

Wow, so sorry to hear that Rob.
I just got my DX-8 back from service at Horizon, since I use another now, you are welcome to borrow it until you get a new transmitter. I have a few Orange receivers as well.

[battlestu]

glad no one was hurt.... same offer here. I have a DX6 your welcome to use

Greg

[sihinch]

I'll donate some lipos, a charger and foamy to fly if you want Rob.

Glad no-one was hurt. Sorry about the house. And the irreplaceable items.

On a positive, Ireland looked fabulous.

[bweaver]

I am so sorry to hear of the fire Rob. I hope you have a quick turn around in getting your house back in order.

Similar to the other offers, I have a few planes you can choose from that could help you to get back into the air earlier than you have originally thought.

Take care Rob and give our best to your wife as well.  I am sure this is very upsetting for her too. 

I'll give you a call and you can drop over for a coffee and pick.

Bruce

[octagon]

Thanks for all the kind offers guys. They took away about 140 boxes of stuff to be cleaned and "desmoked" and I don't know what all they took. I did manage to find my TX so I ok with that, and I have planes in the storage facility at Stouffville and Kennedy. I have not found my batteries which were all in a metal box, and as my charger was in the centre of the fire I suspect that will not be working any more.The only positive is that the insurance will issue a check and I will be able to replace what I need. Thanks again guys

[Michael]

I'm glad no one was hurt, and that your house is OK.

I've got a bunch of lipos I don't use. Let me know what you're looking for.

[Andy Hoffer]

Hi Rob:

This is a very tough and sobering read.  We are all thankful for your plastic plumbing and that your home was spared.  Too close.... 

Wishing you and your wife a speedy recovery from the trauma and a quick return to the flight line. 

Cheers!

Andy

[retiredVTT]

Hi Rob, so sorry to here about your lipo fire. I'm in NS and President of the Hfx Electric Flyers and 10 years ago in September our then President had a house fire that turned into a $400,000. mess along with a seven month reconstruction issue with the Insurance Company.

I'd be interested to know what brand of charger you were using, since most of the newer ones have very good circuitry to prevent the cells from getting overcharged and bursting.

Glad it was not worse for you, and hope you're back at the field soon.

Bill

[Frank v B]

Rob,

Thanks for writing about it.  It was difficult looking at the picture and seeing the E-Flite Beaver in the background.

Please tell us what you need and you can borrow a plane/radio/batteries out of my stable until you straighten out your house and the insurance claim.  I will supply charged batteries.  You will be supplied stuff for the TEMAC Funfly which you should (must?) attend.

Hang in there.  Things could have been much worse.

Frank

[octagon]

Thanks again everyone for all the kind words and offers. Thought I would tell you I called Hitec today to ask them is they had any idea why the battery would have caught fire in the first place. They think what happened was that although when you program the charger to put a battery into storage, it stops charging or discharging the battery, but even though it says the program ends, there is a current drain. I don't understand the whole thing well enough to know, but apparently when this happens the battery continues to discharge, because of the drain, and if left long enough, that somehow leads to a fire.  I think I want to try and understand the whole battery thing better than the thumbnail knowledge of them I have now. Anyone got any suggestions of where to get good solid, understandable information?

[retiredVTT]

Hi again Rob,
I appreciate you giving us an update on your charger.
There is a company in the US called Progressive RC, the owners name is David, and he sells the "I-Charger" line of battery chargers. I have the "206" model. First off you can program it to shut down after say two hours, in case you forget that you have a battery connected.
I had a choice of buying mine from overseas or from David, and opted to get it from him for the possible service or info that I might need after the initial purchase. this guy has been excellent to correspond with and his customer service is 100%
So that's one source.
I would have thought that a HiTec charger would also be a quality product, but I suppose it depends on the age since improvements come along every couple of years with these electronic devices.
I know the manual that came with my 206 I-Charger has many pages showing "flow charts", etc,. The cost of this unit was around $US139.00 and it's been worth it. Right know it's "beeping" to let me know that the pack is full and the charge current has been reduced to zero.

..all the best,
Bill

[sihinch]

I also have an iCharger from Progressive and one of their parallel charge boards. Great for charging up to 6 lipos at a time!

[Oscar]

So sorry to hear about the fire.     Luckily no one were hurt. 

[bfeist]

Rob, my thoughts are with you. I'm glad everyone's ok. @Frank v B  had a close call as well several years ago. Since hearing his story I haven't charged indoors. I hope your story can motivate others to take similar precautions.

For those interested, here's my routine: The morning before flying while brewing coffee, I plug in my power supply and chargers in the back yard. With 5C charging available on most of my packs now, time really isn't an issue. My whole set of batteries can be completely charged in about 2 hours. Discharge them at the field. Store them at home discharged. Easy as pie. I only put packs into long term storage (60%) over the winter.

Ben