As I have a battery that has reached the end of its life I figured I would write a short bit on proper lipo disposal.
First of all the thing to remember about lipos is they are a consumable. If one shows signs of impending doom then just get rid of it. It’s not worth the risk to your home or family.
So how do you dispose of a lipo?
Lipos that have been punctured or are puffed must be disposed of.
The best way I have found to do this is to first of all take the lipo outside (we don’t want to accidentally set fire to the house)
Then attach the lipo to a suitable resistive load. What is a suitable resistive load?
For a 4s lipo I would suggest a 12v car lightbulb. Connect the lipo to the resistive load and leave it well alone… the battery will discharge at a slow and steady rate all the way down to 0v.
Once your lipo is at 0v I usually cut the connectors off (hey who doesn’t want spare balance and xt60 connectors that are pre soldered)
I usually then make up a bucket of salt water and submerge the lipo in the water.
After a week or so I put the dead lipos to one side for the next rip run.
It’s worth noting the higher the charge level the more fire can happen so once it’s totally discharged it’s very unlikely to cause a problem.
May as well bury it in sand while you’re discharging it. That’s standard practice at a racetrack, the BRCA insurance require a suitable amount of sand buckets to be available at all times.
I have one that by the looks of it give up yesterday. I was taking it to 8% to give it a service but couldn’t land due to someone walking 3 dogs and the dogs going mental, jumping up and trying to grab the MP out the sky. Next thing the battery drained from 7% to 1% in a matter of seconds and the Mavic fell from about 3m. Luckily I was able to catch it before it hit the ground. But it looks like the battery is now for disposal
Hi Grahame
These batteries have built-in BMS which should have stopped this level of discharge.
Definetely for disposal, it’s not just a cell issue
Cheers
Steve