Battery Swelling - beware - near accident today

[Swamidoc]

I have lost 2 MP2 which fell from the sky in unretrievable scenarios, one on a steep cliff, the other into the ocean. I have been using a couple of rubber bands, like your celery have on them. since then. Yesterday after flying I noted my battery was barely in place, swollen. That one is relegated to power up for image downloads!

 

[Mandred]

Yes you can buy new batterys.

Can’t find it in the official cite. Please help

 

[DanMan32]

Even though a problem may not have immediately shown itself, leaving a lipo battery in a very warm to hot car fully charged may have caused irreparable damage. Any battery subjected to over heating what ever it’s parameters are, it’s life is going to be shortened.

WDK

It's a year later and the three are electrically good. Maybe lost 2 minutes flight time when I compared them to new batteries. Well one would still be good if I hadn't taken it apart.
No I don't normally fly with them. Only ground work and maybe low altitude/distance where a loss of power would do little to no harm.

 

[dirkclod]

Can’t find it in the official cite. Please help

I couldn’t get a link to stick. I get my stuff from Amazon.
they had some there.

 

[DanMan32]

You put your batteries in the worst condition, no wonder they only lasted 50 cycles. Temperature is a minor issue under NORMAL outdoor conditions. Car in the summer is essentially a greenhouse, only an oven would have been worse.

I agree and that's my point. Number of charge cycles, particularly only 50 is not a major contributor. The bigger contributor is leaving it at 100% too long too often and at higher temperatures when fully charged.

My laptop and P3 batteries faired better in those conditions though.

 

[DanMan32]

The batteries may tolerate warmer temperatures when not fully charged. It's probably not just the heat and not just being at 100% but rather both.

Anyway, as I said, I now keep them in a cooler when transporting them on warm or hot days, especially if I'm not going to be flying right away after leaving the house. I also might not return home right after a flight.

 

[DanMan32]

By the way, the straps/clip is a good preventative in not losing power, but swelling if significant enough may then damage the bottom of the battery compartment and any electronics beneath it.

 

[ChrisOutdoors]

If you stick batteries in an oven, yeah they aren't going to work. Not a great rebuttal but good PRO tip. ?

 

[DJI DelBoy]

I recall reading a post here that there was a bad batch of M2P batteries from around 2yrs ago. Can’t remember the exact period but I think that thread is still somewhere here on the forum. There was also rumour that DJI acknowledged that bad batch and replaced them for free.

 

[Ken-Mav-Mtl]

That's just not true. Three of my batteries experienced swelling and I have less than 50 cycles on them. However I did tend to leave them in the car too long, fully charged. The swelling showed up late summer after almost a year of ownership. The majority of swelling occurred during summer.

Laptops are now offering settings to charge only to 80%. They recommend this setting if the laptop is plugged in most of the time where the battery would otherwise be at 100% most of the time.

DanMan32 is correct. Battery swell can occur even if you have a low number of cycles. My M2Z went down due to in-flight battery ejection and they had between 32 - 35 charges on them. Possible it was due to a bad batch of batteries sold in the 2018-07 (year-month) production run as I have read that this was an issue in the past.

From the reviews that I have read on battery use/storage/swells I am opting to follow these guidelines:
1) Keep them stored in a cool place
2) Check for overheating and/or swell immediately after landing
3) Only re-charge the day before you plan to fly, if possible.
4) Don't leave these batteries fully discharged, check them every 3 months if not in use.
5) Whenever I fly over water, I always keep a "Getterback" on one of the rear arms of my drone.

 

[Ken-Mav-Mtl]

I recall reading a post here that there was a bad batch of M2P batteries from around 2yrs ago. Can’t remember the exact period but I think that thread is still somewhere here on the forum. There was also rumour that DJI acknowledged that bad batch and replaced them for free.

They were probably in the batch that I got in my Flymore package when I obtained on May of 2019 with batteries from 2018-07. I didn't ask DJI to replace these batteries. Instead I got DJI to replace my M2Z after one of these batteries caused my M2Z to crash into a pond of muddy water. I could not find the battery in the muddy water but I was able to recover the drone using a super strong magnet and sent it back to DJI who replaced it under warranty.

 

[ChrisOutdoors]

DanMan32 is correct. Battery swell can occur even if you have a low number of cycles.

Low number of cycles statistically doesn't happen so long as you keep them outside temps of -10° to 40° C, essentially any non extreme environment.

He's not correct, his point was that hot summer temps caused his low cycles while casually mentioning he's left them in a car a few times, one environment is likely within the temp range while the other is the equivalent of sticking them in an oven. My point was that if you take care of your batteries per the manual, you should be able to get 150+ charges out of them. You have a statistical certainty that a low % will be lemons and just quit, thats true of all batteries.

Most people who complain about their batteries likely made a human error and blamed some other external factor due to ignorance

 

[SpitFire]

I noticed that you have a check list, which is commendable, helps to keep a good eye on the drone. I have six check lists, just slide to green if I checked what emergency procedure Lost satellite connection is. Not to many pilots have a check list.

 

[TigersFan]

Over many years, both here and on the Phantom Pilot's forum, I have followed this battery swelling issue, all the while, hoping that it did not happen to me - which it has not... That's why I mentioned above that it seems to be a heat issue. And mostly, pilots are flying within DJI spec too, although at the upper end in many cases that I have read about. That leads me to believe that the DJI upper spec is more based on the stability of the electronics as they heat up, and less about the battery itself. That's just one guy's opinion, of course, who does not believe in luck...?..

I agree that temperature affects the electronics which may be more critical than the effect on the battery. I fly in South Carolina on the edge of a marsh/ocean and during the summer I have thrice had trouble controlling my M2P when temperatures were high. When I finally was able to RTH each time, the electronics (bottom of the aircraft) were extremely hot while the battery was cool. Now I carry an infrared thermometer "gun" to check the temperature between flights and wait a little to cool. Also I shorten flight times on very hot days.

 

[Rainsong]

5) Whenever I fly over water, I always keep a "Getterback" on one of the rear arms of my drone.

Forgive my noobness but what is a "getterback"?

 

[Thomas B]

Forgive my noobness but what is a "getterback"?

I love mine. Use whenever over water.

GetterBack | Depth Activated Rod Recovery System | Buy Now

Never lose what matters most. GetterBack® is a cutting-edge retrieval solution designed to bring back your cherished belongings, providing peace of mind and a second chance.

www.getterback.com

 

[WDKZoom]

So you suspect they are flying over 40°C? Interesting. Those temps are fairly rare

.....not in Nevada......we had upwards of 100 days of 100 plus degree temps averaging 105 degrees F.

WDK

 

[Thomas B]

.....not in Nevada......we had upwards of 100 days of 100 plus degree temps averaging 105 degrees F.

WDK

Us too!

 

[MedicFL1]

Have to say that I am amazed that this is still going on with these Mavic 2 Pro batteries. DJI tried to fight it but it was hard to deny a video of batteries rocking back and forth on a flat surface. The original 3 batteries with the fly-more kit all swelled at 30 and under charges for me and DJI reluctantly replaced them.
BTW there first reply email was to the tune of sorry about your luck, buy new ones here...lol.
104F is a ridiculous temp as my Airdata readings often report up to 134F temp and I don't fly them "Hard". For me it's our normal heat and humidity.
I always Air Cool these before even considering a recharge so I'm still befuddled at the causes.
I have not had problems with batteries of the other UAV's.

 

[MROJAS]

Have to say that I am amazed that this is still going on with these Mavic 2 Pro batteries. DJI tried to fight it but it was hard to deny a video of batteries rocking back and forth on a flat surface. The original 3 batteries with the fly-more kit all swelled at 30 and under charges for me and DJI reluctantly replaced them.
BTW there first reply email was to the tune of sorry about your luck, buy new ones here...lol.
104F is a ridiculous temp as my Airdata readings often report up to 134F temp and I don't fly them "Hard". For me it's our normal heat and humidity.
I always Air Cool these before even considering a recharge so I'm still befuddled at the causes.
I have not had problems with batteries of the other UAV's.

And, Lipos are more charge-awareness batteries. I try to conserve their health by not going under 20% and recharge them to 55% after use (if it's not going to be used soon).