I'm not putting this in any of my aircraft!

[Hands0n]

Blimmin eBay battery sellers!

Take a look at the pics below for the deets.

Arrived today, a pair of Turnigy 2200mAh 3S 20-30C LiPo that I have become used to using in my multi-rotors thus far.  They were £22.95 for two, brand new.  I';ve had these at this price before - from another seller. And they work very well indeed, keeping their equal capacity nicely. Simples.

But these two arrived in a "Royal Mail Large Letter Size" Jiffy bag, each battery in its own pink bubble wrap, and that was it. The Jiffy bag is just big enough for these to be fitted side by side, and what appears to have happened is that the Balance Plug has been pressed hard enough against one of the LiPo such as to puncture the plastic skin and also put a dent in the aluminium of one of the cells underneath.   The metal can be seen through the puncture hole.

Now I';m not a gambling man and I have absolutely no intention of attempting to either charge this LiPo or put it on one of my aircraft. The very high chances are that the cell will rupture and cause a fire.

It really doesn';t take much to package these carefully and securely!  Now I';ve got to go to all the hassle of getting it replaced.  And the seller will have a battery that he won';t be able to sell on.

[Hands0n]

Err, wow! I didn';t expect this 

The ebay seller wrote back to me today in regard to the damaged LiPo battery.  I had written to the seller asking for a replacement for the one battery that had the physical damage and he has replied with the following:

Hi Danny,

I apologise for the delayed response, i have been out of office carry out aerial photography jobs. I am sorry to hear about the damaged batteries. As you mention it looks like the balance plug has done the damage. I will replace BOTH batteries free of charge with some more packaging in place.

Feel free to keep the two batteries we originally shipped to you, it is possible you could use one of them and possibly make the other one in to a two cell LiPo or something.

Many thanks for your custom and we look forward to seeing you again in our store soon.

Best Regards

Tim Morley
proFlight-UK

This is an extraordinary response, far beyond the call of duty on Tim';s behalf.  So instead of just replacing the one he has offered to send out two new units.  I am mega-impressed and [also] just a little embarrassed.

Of course, the damaged battery is not going anywhere near any of my aircraft.  I may just give it a charge/discharge outside on the patio. I wouldn';t risk it in the house!

[teslahed]

http://youtu.be/SVMuaDnsqiA

If you take the damaged packs apart carefully it may be obvious that only some of the cells have been affected. You might be able to rebuild one good pack out of the two dodgy ones.

Obviously there is a certain amoun of risk involved - you';d want to be very careful not to short circuit anything in the attempt!

Great response from Tim Morley at proFlight-UK though

[Hands0n]

An interesting video.  The fear of the unknown stops me playing around with these much.  The particular battery tech is new to me - I';ve worked with much less volatile electrical storage up to now.  Having these potential incendiary devices around is mildly disturbing  ::)   

Any thoughts on the best way to store this battery? I';ve got it outside the house in a ziplock bag to keep it from the elements for now.  Before I dispose of it I';d like to open it up to take a more invasive look at the damage that I can see.

[teslahed]

Store it inside a metal or ceramic box with a lid. If you can put the box outside away from flammable stuff, or inside another box, even better.

Safest way to dispose of it is to dunk it into a bucket of salty water and leave it there for a week.

I strongly recommend you don';t do the following;

http://youtu.be/D8OEWg_4T10

[Ross]

......and I STRONGLY  recommend NOT taking a battery apart.
These things have a high density storage of power and one can be badly injured if it is released all at once .   

[mrmurder1975]

pro flight uk are very good. I have bought a few bits off them now, had a need to maybe contact them once or twice for whatever reason and they have always been quick to respond and very helpful.

as for the lipo, burn it, its fun! (id take the wires and connectors off first though, wires come in very handy for making a wiring harness) Lipo fire take 2!

[Gaza07]

I';m pleased you got your issue sorted out, Its always nice to hear of a UK company that have good customer service 

[flybywire]

After buying lipo';s from many sources both here & abroad, i';ve finally settled on HK as lipo supplier of choice.  The prices are about the best around and service fairly good, and they';re always packaged in their own cardboard boxes/bubble wrap.

Andy

[powerlord]

I took someone';s advice on here and store all mine in a 50 calibre machine gun ammo box.  I drilled a small 3mm hole in the top.  Just enough to stop any pressure built up but not enough to allow oxygen in to feed any flames.  The boxes are air tight,  rubber ed sealed other than that. 

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