Bargain basement ... with swollen batteries

[AussieCate]

After my very sad fall from the sky in May this year - not me but my first love of drones the YTH - insurance paid out and I bought an Autel Evo Pro II V2.

BUT, I had two brand new batteries and didn't want to give up totally.

So on a recent trip I ended buying not one, not two but THREE YTH's.' (I'll post that haul on another thread as I need to problem solve a few things.)

As you may be able to see from the image all the Yuneec batteries are swollen or very swollen and the two Gifi are swelling, at the sides.



A few questions about what to do. I've already had a Fimi battery blow out and burst into flames whilst charging on the tile floor and have had a DJI Phantom 4 battery swell so I dumped that in a bucket of salt water.

In your collective humble options, please advise what you think is best to do.

I'm too scared to plug them into the EV Peak to discharge. So putting them in a bucket of salt water? Then for how long (the Phantom battery had 'stuff' in the water that I threw the on some plants I want to kill) and do I need to do anything else to special to dispose of them safely?

Cheers,

 

[Pier2162]

The right way is what you mentioned, which is to discharge them up to zero volts in a bucket full of salt water (for at least 24~48 hours) and then give them as required by local regulations.

To prevent it from swelling or worse from catching fire, it would be enough to follow some simple rules, which you can find in the discussion linked below:

Blinking lights during battery charge

New and old batteries do the same thing:— red comes on solid, then blinking green. Red gets brighter, then blue comes on bright for just a second, then the cycle repeats. Beeps alot. one battery is brand new— and I just bought a second new one. One is from last year, and I have another that...

yuneecpilots.com

 

[AussieCate]

The right way is what you mentioned, which is to discharge them up to zero volts in a bucket full of salt water (for at least 24~48 hours) and then give them as required by local regulations.

To prevent it from swelling or worse from catching fire, it would be enough to follow some simple rules, which you can find in the discussion linked below:

Blinking lights during battery charge

New and old batteries do the same thing:— red comes on solid, then blinking green. Red gets brighter, then blue comes on bright for just a second, then the cycle repeats. Beeps alot. one battery is brand new— and I just bought a second new one. One is from last year, and I have another that...

yuneecpilots.com

Oh believe me ... after the small fimi bursting and flaming up on the tile floor inside there is NO way I'd want one of these going up and setting the others off. NO WAY.

Thank you. for the link.

The fimi still has the swollen look but it's been is salt water for weeks and then rain water. Is swelling just the packaging you thing and it would be safe to say there's minimal fire risk now?

 

[Pier2162]

Hard to say....but swollen means gases due to chemical reaction, not good situation.
Also depends how much it's swollen.
You can check voltage with a multimeter to see the actual tension.
If it's near to zero no risk, but better to throw away the battery asap or store into a closed metal box.

 

[DoomMeister]

I had a battery for the Mantis Q/G that started bloating during a charging cycle. It had one bad cell of the three and swelled seriously during the balance cycle of the charge. I soaked it in a super saline solution for two days and still had appreciable voltage on the pack. It did a good job of eating away at the contacts, but that prevented the cells from discharging. I would suggest connecting them to a vehicle headlamp until fully discharged. They will take several hours to discharge at a rate that should be safe. Of course do this outside in an open area on concrete paving blocks just in case.

The company ISDT has charging equipment that includes a discharge function that will fully discharge a battery pack at a safe rate (the Q6 Nano that I own will discharge at 0.1 to 1.0A). Most chargers will only discharge down to 3.0 to 3.2V per cell, but the discharge function on the ISDT’s allows full discharge for safe disposal.

 

[Yuneec Skins]

Battery Destroyer; Battery Destroyer Drain Batteries to 0.0 volts for Safe Disposal

Salt Water doesn't work well...

 

[Douggieboy]

The Yuneec batteries are awful. After just a few flights they get fat. All LiPos do this; DJI puts a small space between cells that gives you alittle more time. My desk is full of fat batteries— they even charge all the way up, and the cells balance, but getting them in and out of the drone is a problem.
A different technology is needed for flight batteries. Fat batteries are fire hazards. I haven’t (yet) had one light up on me, but it’s probably just a matter of time.
I’ve heard of grapheme, not sure when or if it’s going to make it to the drone market but that has yet to be seen…