Swollen Battery

DocMicro · Feb 7, 2018

STRONGLY agree! Below are pictures of two batteries same age same number of logged flights since New... The swollen one is a time bomb waiting to destroy your drone or your home while you sleep! As a commercial pilot I strongly urge every pilot to know your equipment very well and subscribe to a forum such as this for help from others. Could save your life and your family and at the very least your UAV.

Happy Flying,
Doc

See attached photos

PS: As a side note it is a good idea to keep a log of hours on a battery from date of purchase same as it is to keep a log of flight time on your drone. As a commercial pilot it is also on the test...hint hint

NorWiscPilot · Feb 7, 2018

DocMicro said:
STRONGLY agree! Below are pictures of two batteries same age same number of logged flights since New... The swollen one is a time bomb waiting to destroy your drone or your home while you sleep! As a commercial pilot I strongly urge every pilot to know your equipment very well and subscribe to a forum such as this for help from others. Could save your life and your family and at the very least your UAV.

Happy Flying,
Doc

See attached photos

PS: As a side note it is a good idea to keep a log of hours on a battery from date of purchase same as it is to keep a log of flight time on your drone. As a commercial pilot it is also on the test...hint hint

Thanks Doc,

Would love to see a vertical view/comparison. I have yet to see any side distortion is any posted images.

By the way, your example appears to show more than just heat related expansion of those printed plates.

Thanks for sharing.

Jeff

KBProjust · Feb 7, 2018

Is there any way to tell how many times the battery has been charged in a Typhoon H. The DJi will show you when you touch the battery level on the screen? Thanks

DocMicro · Feb 7, 2018

NorWiscPilot said:
Thanks Doc,

Would love to see a vertical view/comparison. I have yet to see any side distortion is any posted images.

By the way, your example appears to show more than just heat related expansion of those printed plates.

Thanks for sharing.

Jeff

Hello Jeff,
Nice to meet you and thanks for the reply.
Here are a couple more pics to maybe help.
More than heat distortion? I'm curious what do you think else?

Thank you,
Doc

Eyeup · Feb 7, 2018

Worth considering where you store your batteries too. Mine are kept in a vented steel ammo box There are aluminium boxes available, best avoided. Vent the box by drilling a few holes in or remove the rubber seal at least, otherwise you've just made a very dangerous can of bang!

Ty Pilot · Feb 7, 2018

Something that may need to be emphasized (not saying this is what happened in the OP's) case, is that if these batteries are not in use, or are going to be stored for any period of time longer than a day or two, they need to have the voltage brought down to storage level - 15.2 volts or, 3.8 volts per cell. And even at storage level they will self discharge slightly over long periods so a regular routine of putting the batteries back to storage voltage is a good practice.

The stock charger cannot do this accurately but one can fly the voltage down to a point of about 14.8 volts on the screen of the ST16 then after turning off and setting a while the voltage should rise up fairly close to 15.2 volts. But I would recommend that an aftermarket charger with storage capability is used. I have three batteries I've been using for over a year now and they're almost as good as new in terms of flight times and no sign of swelling.

NorWiscPilot · Feb 7, 2018

DocMicro said:
Hello Jeff,
Nice to meet you and thanks for the reply.
Here are a couple more pics to maybe help.
More than heat distortion? I'm curious what do you think else?

Thank you,
Doc

hi Doc,

What I meant was heat and cooling cycles causing distortion of the name plates, not the cells themselves. Sorry for the confusion.

This point was part of the banter in a former "level of puff" discussion whereas more than one of us mentioned the possibility of this name plate distortion posing as swollen cells. In my case, I can feel some play if I push on the printed plastic (what I call plates) of the two batteries I have that are showing slight signs of swell. The "puffiness" I see is not nearly as noticeable as shown in your pics.

I have a feeling if you do the same (push on the puffy printed sides), you will definitely feel swollen cells. If you feel a lot of give, then you have much more "distortion" than mine do!

Jeff

P.S. By the way, the two slightly distorted batteries in my fleet are still the best performing of the nine I have, aside from the two still beautiful Gens Tatu babies!

Victory Pete · Feb 7, 2018

I have many LiPos that are up to 8 years old. I always storage charge and have never had a puffy battery. I see them all the time at my club, many are ignorant to the hazards of LiPos. Every one of my LiPos still seems to have its original capacity.

NorWiscPilot · Feb 7, 2018

Victory Pete said:
I have many LiPos that are up to 8 years old. I always storage charge and have never had a puffy battery. I see them all the time at my club, many are ignorant to the hazards of LiPos. Every one of my LiPos still seems to have its original capacity.

Congrats, Pete!

Once I "learned" about the proper care and feeding, I do not see any adverse signs. The batteries I have that I am watching carefully, were likely subjected to a naive maintenance crew who had not yet read up on the critical maintenance communique pertaining to this subject.

Hopefully those who are still in the "information mass ingestion" phase of our hobby/business, will see these discussions sooner rather than later in their quests to learn everything UAS.

Jeff

stogies · Feb 7, 2018

Gdmoe said:
Hello all.
Have a concern, Today while getting ready to fly I notice one of my power 4 batterys to my Typhoon H was puffy on the sides, wondering if anyone knows why and is it a problem. Please let me know.

The battery is no good, don’t use. You rick having your done drop from the sky because the battery lost all of it charge. One of the cell or cells in the battery are no good.

Joeman434 · Feb 8, 2018

I had two 3000 mah batteries for my Blade 350's start smoking and one caught on fire after I tossed it into the yard. I gained a lot of respect for charging after that.

Victory Pete · Feb 8, 2018

I don't understand what happened.

Jim Davies · Jul 7, 2018

Very good thread.
I have the T H and 5 batteries.
None of the batteries holds more than about 5 minutes of charge.
4 of them are getting puffy. Similar to the photos.
The one that's still flat was charged fully and when I took off the next day I got a low battery warning so landed straight away.
I'll bin the puffy ones after discharging.
Buy a couple of new ones and an expensive charger.
I'll test the flat one but if no good that'll go in the bin too.
( When I say bin I mean re-cycling centre )
Thanks to you all for posting.
We all help each other to stay safe this way.
Jim

Victory Pete · Jul 7, 2018

I left one of my batteries fully charged over the winter. It started to puff so I took it out of service, discharged and recycled it. Not worth taking any chances.

Joeman434 · Jul 7, 2018

One thing I learned from members of a local flying club. They say they never take a battery that was just used and is still warm/hot and re-charge it. Some of them said their batteries are 5 or more years old. With the drones I have now, 20-25 minute flying time and two batteries for each, I never need to re-charge until much later. Seems to be working and I use a balance tester before and after charging.