Safe Dispossal of LiPos
 

Had a LiPo swell up on me tonight, whats the best way to dispose of it

Paul

bucket of sand or dig hole for it..

No, it must be neutralised, there is a thread on here about it, 1/4 bucket of water, lots of salt, and leave it in there for a few weeks, the full info is on the BMFA site.

Sand does nothing but but out the fire.

Discharge on a low amperage .5 amps until fully flat. Low discharge will not cause fire. The salt water just discharges them. Once flat tape they can be disposed of at your local recyle center or normal bins.

Charge fully at 10 amps and post it to schumacher, with a note saying "thanks for that piece of crap you call a cougar"

DCM, is there any dangers in doing this or do they just sit there quietlly doing there own thing?

I`ve got one thats swelled too. but it still works fine. Shud i bin it too or use it till it dont work anymore?:confused:

I had a lipo puff up huge... almost 3 times the size before I noticed it. Seeing as I was pit outside in a parking lot, I just hooked up an old 19t motor to the leads, and let it discharge completely in an empty part of the lot. Then it went to the battery recyclers.

it just slow discharges the battery, nothing else

If the Lipo has swollen a little during use it is likely that the Application has been demanding too much power from the lipo.
Basically the c rating is too low for the battery, this results in the battery getting hot and then swelling.

Its risky to carry on using like this.

So as suggested already put into a bucket of water with plenty of salt and leave somewhere safe for a few days. You will see the pack will start to leak a white discharge when it is fully dead then you can throw in the normal bin.

I really dont think recycling centres know what to do with old lipos they probably treat like old alkaline which is fully wrong!!!!

Saltwater will dissolve the aluminium tabs that connect a pack internally. Its vitally important to discharge the pack before putting it in saltwater because the tabs could break down before the pack is flat.

I'd just get a small 12v fan and hook it up across the terminals to flatten in, then salt bath for a week, then bin it.

I've got 2 new lipo's that swell slightly when fully charged compared to when not, but I have had a lot slightly swell, is this bad? I'm talking a movement of about 0.5m in 26mm packs!?

Any swelling is a bad sign. They can still be useable but with massively reduced punch and a considerably shorter lifespan. The swelling means a chemical reaction has happened and the internal resistance has shot up. It'll be a matter of weeks/months before the thing dies.