Battery Fire!

[@Rip]

A friend's son-in-law purchased a drone on eBay. I am told not too long after receiving the drone he proceeded to charge the batteries.
I am not sure what the knowledge level (if any) this almost-new drone pilot is but I thought for discussion sake I would post the pic here.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Lucky there, the runaway lipo fires can be hard to put out, and the gases emitted can be very toxic.
Be interesting to know what sort of drone, but looking at the charger wiring, probably not DJI or other high end consumer drone.
Lipo fires are very rare in well made, hard cased batteries, and the DJI (and likely other brand) BMS's really do their jobs well.
Certainly there are cases of Phantom battery fire incidents, those might be just that much older, and possibly not as good a tech, but in years to come maybe older Mavic Pro, Spark, and other early drones will see batteries becoming more unstable in the battery chemistry, which can result in fires.

 

[AMann]

Wow, how terrible. Are those generic batteries or DJI originals?

I always charge mine on a fireproof surface (carbon fireproof blanket is good to have also).

 

[mavic3usa]

Yo, that charger!

Would be helpful to know the details on how the fire was put out, please.

 

[msinger]

An important reminder to always charge batteries in your presence.

Are those generic batteries or DJI originals?

The photo doesn't appear to show a DJI battery.

 

[Cafguy]

Looks like he had a 2c battery charging board hooked to a DJI charger via USB a lot of the cheaper 1c and 2c boards will not handle the output. You must be careful and not use an output too high for the charging board most of the one piece boards will only handle the 5v 1a chargers

 

[@Rip]

I have asked these questions of my friend. Any more questions that may arise and I'll as him those too.

 

[teccer]

I always use this lipo bag to put my charger in to charge my batteries, so simple and cheap

 

[Cafguy]

I always use this lipo bag to put my charger in to charge my batteries, so simple and cheap

Best idea for charging your lipos!! This and don't leave them alone (Even in the bag) for anything!! I myself have a charging station outside in my little work shack its made with cement blocks and I place each battery inside the little slot while it charges. if the battery blows it all goes upward. ( hasn't happened yet knock on wood)

 

[Droning on and on...]

Looks like he had a 2c battery charging board hooked to a DJI charger via USB a lot of the cheaper 1c and 2c boards will not handle the output. You must be careful and not use an output too high for the charging board most of the one piece boards will only handle the 5v 1a chargers

Could clarify what electrical metric you mean by "output"? Volts/amps/watts?

 

[Cafguy]

Could clarify what electrical metric you mean by "output"? Volts/amps/watts?

The typical output of the typical 30W dji charger is 5 volt 2 amp -THE USB SLOT- and that goes up to 5v 3 amp if you use one of those yx chargers- FPV and hobby grade drones will use 1s, 2s , and so on up too 6s batterys-(the s being number of cells) they sell cheap chargers that will charge 6 of these at a time because flight time on these batterys is low But those cheaper boards will only operate safely on a 5v 1a usb slot such as those little phone bricks. These boards do have measures that should prevent this type of thing but its no way 1oo%

:::: looking more carefully It looks like those might even be 4s batteries on a balance charger ( the upside down box on the floor) perhaps the charging parameters for the battery was incorrect those little banana ports have an adjustable output Good thing he saved the house

 

[Bob in Savannah]

I always use this lipo bag to put my charger in to charge my batteries, so simple and cheap

so... Its the CHARGER that ignites? I thought it was the batteries that caught fire. Why the bag, again?

 

[Cafguy]

so... Its the CHARGER that ignites? I thought it was the batteries that caught fire. Why the bag, again?

No its the charger that MALFUNCTIONS and causes the battery to explode ALWAYS use the bag

 

[Bob in Savannah]

No its the charger that MALFUNCTIONS and causes the battery to explode ALWAYS use the bag

So, the fire is actually coming out of the charger?

I need to google lipo fires asap. I have an electric bike, too, that I keep inside and charge. grrr...

 

[Cafguy]

the fire comes from the batterie the charger will overcharge the battery unless you set it to charge correctly this overcharged batterie will swell and tear its outer lining causing the chemicals inside the batterie to instantly catch fire( if you have ever taken a lipo battery and poked a hole in it with an icepick ( NOT RECOMMENDED!!!) you will see that it will burst into flames the chems inside lipos don't play well with air .
HEY @Rip is that charger on the floor there a B6AC pro charger ( I have a few ) if so I don't see a wire going from the board to the balance ports on the side of the charger ( as Needed )

 

[@Rip]

I'm still waiting on a reply from my friend. Obviously he is waiting on more info. The scene is incredible. There might be an insurance claim, but I do not know.
There are a lot of things wrong with this picture. We can see (I presume) that the fire extinguisher was used to squelch the fire. But if we look closely at the photo, whomever was walking barefoot in he room. Not good. I'll post the answers to the posted questions as soon as I get them.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Those lipo bagging their batteries to charge, remember the batteries, especially if older and mildly destabilising, will heat up while charging.
Putting them into the confines of a bag that is fairly sealed will possibly cause them to overheat more and possibly begin the runaway process (heat, smoke, flame out).
I like the idea of a charging area outside and in a specific spot . . .

made with cement blocks

Like a U shape protecting say bottom and 3 sides, a 'bunker' if you like.
This would allow normal airflow / cooling while charging, allow a lipo fire to flare out and dispense that energy, and relatively safely with gases dispersed to the air.

Putting out a lipo fire is not easy.
In the early stages heat / first smoking, cooling with water or any non alcoholic liquid (soft drinks etc) is supposed to cool them rapidly and alleviate the runaway.
After flaming out, a suitable fire extinguisher is used to smother the flames, then cool the living heck out of them for a good while, even leaving in a bucket of water for days, perhaps later good salty water to really make sure the battery charge is dead for disposal.

Folk here probably know fires in lithium car battery fires take up to 6,000 gallons to put out / cool, and THEN some catch fire in holding yards days after they are towed.

 

[Deleted member 170519]

So, the fire is actually coming out of the charger?

I need to google lipo fires asap. I have an electric bike, too, that I keep inside and charge. grrr...

I have an e-bike as well. I think fires from those batteries, depending on manufacturer, are rare.
I have charged a whole mess of lipos in my time, and I have only had one battery that swelled and started a fire during charging. That was an equivalent to a RC 6c battery
I like the idea of the lipo bags just in case though.

 

[Cafguy]

I have been doing RC aircraft since before These batteries came around. Lipos are great Things, but must be treated with respect. remember all the hoverboard fiascos ( almost all of them due to malfunctioning chargers or swelled batteries that where ignored) now that I have started FPV droning I have to pay closer attention to Batteries because these drones crash all the time its part of flying. I have seen drones hit the concrete and burst into flames its a cool effect unless your the owner of the drone. I keep an eye on them as they charge in case of some damage I may have missed after a crash.

 

[mavic3usa]

i have a couple of those bat boxes.