Ask Cubby, A Weekly Q & A Session, Version 06.09.2010

Welcome back to yet another fabulous edition of your letters, and my butchering of the English language…. 🙂

==========
“To the gents at Bigsquid,
I have a Turnigy Lipo that is all puffed up. What should I do with it?
Collin – Bonnyrigg UK”

Cubby- Hey what’s up Collin? Thanks for writing in.

So you have a puffed Lipo and you don’t know what to do with it. Here’s the scoopage, just follow the three D’s….

Discontinue use– Why? Because there is no “fixing” a Lipo that is puffing, it’s venting internally, oxygen gas is actually being released but trapped inside the cell packet. The battery will only get worse, and even if it’s not dangerous at the moment, if you keep using it the pack may rupture unexpectedly and become so.

Discharge– Discharge your Lipo at a LOW rate, at or below 1C (if you have a 5000 mah battery, a 2 amp discharge for this purpose would be great), and discharge it as far as you can. Below 3 volts per cell is just fine. The more energy you can remove from the pack, the safer it will be. Once fully discharged, remove your connector and put heat shrink tubing or electrical tape over the end of the wires to prevent them from dead shorting the battery.

Discard– Get rid of that puffy pack. Most lithium based batteries are considered non-hazardous waste by the federal government of the USA, so we can literally just chuck them in our trash, although they can (and should) be recycled. So if you live in the states, you may be able to recycle your Lipo batteries at your local Radio Shack or even your local hobby shop. Collin, I do not have disposal information for Lipo batteries in the UK, so I’d suggest calling your local hobby shop and asking what they do with their old batteries.

==========

That’s it for this week, summit your comments, questions, objections, and reflections to cubby at BigSquidRC dot com!

YOUR Cub Reporter