Disposing of a fully charged lipo.....

[Kpowell911]

Right guys, bit of an issue, not me, but this is the second hand  account.

 

Fully charged 3s Lipo, came flying out the car within first few seconds, car stopped. The cells on a cell checker are showing 4.12v. When linked up to a charger, it just says connection break, but you can hear 'sparking' in the battery?

Whats best way to get rid of this? Its currently in a lipo bag under bricks away from the house?

 

Any ideas? Salt water?

 

Thanks

Edited April 7, 2021 by Guns

[Redback]

No way to drain the lipo, does it not supply any power via the main plug?  what mha is it out of interest?
Sparking inside the battery? What the heck good call keeping it out the house.

[walkbythesea]

Chopsaw, Talbot stylee...

 

...be sure to post the video 🤘

[Kpowell911]

Just now, Redback said:

No way to drain the lipo, does it not supply any power via the main plug?  what mha is it out of interest?
Sparking inside the battery? What the heck good call keeping it out the house.

It doesnt power a car via the main plug aparantly,

 

Its a 6200mah

[turok007]

5 minutes ago, Guns said:

Right guys, bit of an issue, not me, but this is the second hand  account.

 

Fully charged 3s Lipo, came flying out the car within first few seconds, car stopped. The cells on a cell checker are showing 4.12v. When linked up to a charger, it just says connection break, but you can hear 'sparking' in the battery?

Whats best way to get rid of this? Its currently in a lipo bag under bricks away from the house?

 

Any ideas? Salt water?

 

Thanks

cut all plugs off then salt water. 

[Stormbringer]

I read on the Zeee instructions to put it in salt water for 2 weeks to discharge it 

[locky]

From British Model Flying association

Disposal of used lipo batteries. When a lipo reaches the end of its useful life it should be disposed of in a
responsible manner. The unfortunate aspect of this is that the definition of ideal disposal is very unclear. One thing
that must be stated is that the widespread suggestion that disposal should be preceded by degradation in a bucket
of salt water is not now recommended. This process adds Lithium salts to the water, and the disposal of this through
our normal drainage systems is likely to affect the work of our Water Authorities, who use Lithium as a trace
element when locating leaks. At the time of writing, the best available disposal procedure is via the local authority
Environment and Waste department, but not through the weekly collection. Most authorities have a web-site where
you can find the location and other details of their waste re-cycling collection system and this usually includes a
collection point for spent batteries.
The lipos you wish to dispose of should firstly be discharged to a minimum voltage. In this case you can
afford to drain them as near to zero volts as possible. Do this in a controlled manner using a suitable resistance
matched to the battery so that neither the battery nor the resistance overheat. DO NOT attempt to discharge the
battery by shorting the leads for reasons previously covered. Once the discharge is complete, the batteries should be
placed in a stout cardboard box or similar, bound with tape, labelled with "SPENT LITHIUM BATTERIES FOR
RECYCLING" and transported to the local authority Household Waste Recycling Facility where there will almost
certainly be a location specifically for such items. There is also the National "Battery Back" Scheme under which
battery retailers are obliged to accept returned spent batteries from their customers, and model shops are included
in the scheme. If you wish to take advantage of this arrangement it would seem sensible to confirm that your local
shop takes part in the scheme. The procedure is clearly less convenient if your batteries have been purchased by
mail order.

[turok007]

I have a bucket full of lipos and none of them went bang while in the salt water.  I had to do a lot as i was into RC flying  and even if the plane survived the lipo sometimes didn't.

[.AJ.]

Pretend the lipo is a fish 

 

[Kpowell911]

Cheers guys 

[.AJ.]

That’s ok, I’m happy i could be of help 👍 

[PraetoR]

I've used the salt water method before. The battery was completely inert, afterwards.

 

EDIT: I should point out, that the battery was below voltage, before I started.

Edited April 7, 2021 by PraetoR

[Paul Busby]

You can use a car headlamp bulb, connected to the battery terminal and leave it until the light goes off. That should do the job.

[walkbythesea]

15 minutes ago, Paul Busby said:

You can use a car headlamp bulb, connected to the battery terminal and leave it until the light goes off. That should do the job.

No power to the connector apparently so sadly that won’t work. 
 

I’d cut it open myself, the case and heat shrink and try and find if the solder tab has broken off...
 

... but then I’m quite stupid. 

[Paul Busby]

Just now, walkbythesea said:

No power to the connector apparently so sadly that won’t work. 
 

I’d cut it open myself, the case and heat shrink and try and find if the solder tab has broken off...
 

... but then I’m quite stupid. 

How much do you reckon you can get away with on the balance cable?

 

Personally I'm with you, i'd take it apart, but if the balance cable is still intact then you can still tap into the cells to discharge them.

[walkbythesea]

4 minutes ago, Paul Busby said:

How much do you reckon you can get away with on the balance cable?

 

Personally I'm with you, i'd take it apart, but if the balance cable is still intact then you can still tap into the cells to discharge them.

I’d try a filament sidelight bulb on each cell, 5w to 10w I guess - leave it in the garden until the lights go out

[Nitroholic]

Personally.....It's probably a soldering issue on the battery and quite possibly fixable.

 

I have had LiPos with bad cells, cut them out, resoldered tabs and sorted the balance lead and things were perfect. The 'sparking' noise would indicate soldering torn loose when the pack went flying. If it's not puffed to showing distress, it may not be shorting...just connecting intermittently. The charger would detect it as open circuit as it is reading directly across the main tabs...and not getting a reading. The voltage checks on the indivual cells will read from the balance leads....which are a different connection.

 

I'd carefully unwrap it, and see if I could fix it before I consigned it to the scrapyard.

[walkbythesea]

2 minutes ago, Nitroholic said:

Personally.....It's probably a soldering issue on the battery and quite possibly fixable.

 

I have had LiPos with bad cells, cut them out, resoldered tabs and sorted the balance lead and things were perfect. The 'sparking' noise would indicate soldering torn loose when the pack went flying. If it's not puffed to showing distress, it may not be shorting...just connecting intermittently. The charger would detect it as open circuit as it is reading directly across the main tabs...and not getting a reading. The voltage checks on the indivual cells will read from the balance leads....which are a different connection.

 

I'd carefully unwrap it, and see if I could fix it before I consigned it to the scrapyard.

Absolutely, but if the original poster, or indeed anyone else reading this stuff, feels neither competent or confident to do that safely then they should indeed leave well alone and just destroy the pack in the  safest way they are happy to.