Battery swelling?

[Lewis101]

Hi,
I’m very sorry if this had been a covered subject but I’m very new to the forum and I’ve done a bit of searching and I can’t find the answers, basically I read a post about swelling batteries on the MPP and I wondered if there was a build date batch which was bad for this, I currently have 3 batteries with build dates of 2018/10 each with approx 10 charge cycles. thanks in advance for any help, lewis.

 

[msinger]

I read a post about swelling batteries on the MPP and I wondered if there was a build date batch which was bad for this

Some people believe this, but it most commonly happens when the batteries are not cared for as described here:

HOW TO: Maintain and store your DJI Mavic batteries

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Hi,
I’m very sorry if this had been a covered subject but I’m very new to the forum and I’ve done a bit of searching and I can’t find the answers, basically I read a post about swelling batteries on the MPP and I wondered if there was a build date batch which was bad for this, I currently have 3 batteries with build dates of 2018/10 each with approx 10 charge cycles. thanks in advance for any help, lewis.

We have also done some research on this issue and do not think the answer is pilots not taking care of there batteries .
Our research shows that the Batteries our very susceptible to moisture do to the power buttons being on top.

This means Rain/ Snow / Fog and Moisture can compromise your batteries.

We can prove this point very quickly by running the battery under a water faucet and within a few days the battery will in fact Swell.

This is why we think the best way to protect your batteries is to get the Mavic Wet Suits as they cover the Power Button and Protect the Battery
with an air tight seal so no water gets inside of it.

Batteries will swell for other reasons but this one experiment can be repeated each time.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your drone in the Rain.
Coal

 

[Lewis101]

thanks for the link really helpful info there, I try my best to care for my batteries cycling through them in order and only charging when flying etc, I just want to keep them in best possible performance being that they are expensive and are the difference between cruising through the air or plummeting to the ground ? I’ll keep a close eye on them and follow the link you provided thanks.

 

[msinger]

We have also done some research on this issue and do not think the answer is pilots not taking care of there batteries .
Our research shows that the Batteries our very susceptible to moisture do to the power buttons being on top.

So, you're thinking nearly everyone who has a swelling battery was flying in wet conditions? That seems unlikely since most people avoid flying in wet weather.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

So, you're thinking nearly everyone who has a swelling battery was flying in wet conditions? That seems unlikely since most people avoid flying in wet weather.

No , im saying that I dont think most Pilots our not taking good care of there batteries,

But we have found repeatedly that the battery does swell do to moisture entering the power button.
This is the reason why we had to protect it with the wet suit.

Battery's can swell for other reason but I have read enough posts to know that pIlots our not that careless with the batteries.

The Wet Suit solves the problems with Moisture by protecting the battery inside and out.

 

[old man mavic]

they mostly swell if they are allowed to get too hot ,and if you try to charge them before they have cooled down after use, i have one battery with the build date 2018 -10 and have had no problems ,my first 4 batts have over 40 charges each and are still perfect, it is more important to store them correctly and not let the cell voltages get to low, also the same with charging them to 100% and leaving them for to long, just keep a careful watch on them and you should not have any problems, but by the same token do not become paranoid over them, we are lucky in the UK we dont get the extreems of hot or cold that happen abroad

 

[Maviac]

Some people believe this, but it most commonly happens when the batteries are not cared for as described here:

HOW TO: Maintain and store your DJI Mavic batteries

I think you’re right. There is some chance that there could be a bad batch or pre-sale storage issue, and I don’t think EVERY swelled battery is a result of bad maintanance (there are probably a few that are just bad luck) but I suspect most of them are poor battery management (although as I say this I seemed to notice one of mine seemed to be a slight bit bulged this evening and I’ve kept them maintained very carefully since i’ve owned them based on everything I’ve read here - this is a bit OT since I have an air but never charged more than 2 hours after flight and never kept fully or minimally charged for more than a couple of hours).

What are your thoughts on letting them charge as soon as the battery allows it? I know the DJI algorithm/software doesn’t allow charging for a while, but I don’t know if it just bases it on a time limit, or temperature limit, or what. I put one of mine on the charger when it still felt warm, and it started charging. I immediately pulled it off.

 

[Maviac]

We have also done some research on this issue and do not think the answer is pilots not taking care of there batteries .
Our research shows that the Batteries our very susceptible to moisture do to the power buttons being on top.

This means Rain/ Snow / Fog and Moisture can compromise your batteries.

We can prove this point very quickly by running the battery under a water faucet and within a few days the battery will in fact Swell.

This is why we think the best way to protect your batteries is to get the Mavic Wet Suits as they cover the Power Button and Protect the Battery
with an air tight seal so no water gets inside of it.

Batteries will swell for other reasons but this one experiment can be repeated each time.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly your drone in the Rain.
Coal

Is this a specific issue to the MPP or MP? I ask because every Mavic has a battery button, and virtually no one is flying in the rain unless they have a very specific use case (which I understand is what your product is targeted for). Or is the MPP/MP battery particularly susceptible to moisture more so than other models?

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Is this a specific issue to the MPP or MP? I ask because every Mavic has a battery button, and virtually no one is flying in the rain unless they have a very specific use case (which I understand is what your product is targeted for). Or is the MPP/MP battery particularly susceptible to moisture more so than other models?

Batteries Swell: no getting around that

1. Some think its Pilot Error or those not caring for there batteries , which I dont believe.
2. Others think its extreme heat and cold changes in the battery
3. Others think you cannot charge when the battery is already hot.
4 We know for a fact that rain/fog/snow /moisture will cause the battery to swell and the Power Button being the Weak Link .

The Wet Suits Protect that battery from Moisture, dirt and sand all things that can lead to damaging the battery.
We also noticed moisture can compromise the electronics circuit board , thus again the power button being the weak link.

The Mavic Wet Suit come with 3 battery Covers for the Forum Members protects the battery inside and out.

 

[msinger]

What are your thoughts on letting them charge as soon as the battery allows it? I know the DJI algorithm/software doesn’t allow charging for a while, but I don’t know if it just bases it on a time limit, or temperature limit, or what.

I think that's an okay thing to do since the batteries prevent charging when they are too hot.

 

[scoobie77]

Leaving them in a hot car for a few hours is all you need to do to have your batteries swell. I just replaced two for that very reason.

 

[WithTheBirds]

Batteries Swell: no getting around that

1. Some think its Pilot Error or those not caring for there batteries , which I dont believe.
2. Others think its extreme heat and cold changes in the battery
3. Others think you cannot charge when the battery is already hot.
4 We know for a fact that rain/fog/snow /moisture will cause the battery to swell and the Power Button being the Weak Link .

The Wet Suits Protect that battery from Moisture, dirt and sand all things that can lead to damaging the battery.
We also noticed moisture can compromise the electronics circuit board , thus again the power button being the weak link.

The Mavic Wet Suit come with 3 battery Covers for the Forum Members protects the battery inside and out.

From the posts here and around other forums- pilot error and ignorance of LiION chemistry limitations and maintenance requirements are the major contributors to premature failure/reduced service life.

The impact of extremes in temperature is a demonstrable fact. Elevated temps and full SOC combined provide one of the best and quickest ways to permanently kill LiION cells.

Charging when hot isn't ideal however it is significantly preferable to attempting to charge at very low temperatures where irreversible damage is likely. In any case the battery smarts prevent charge initiation at temp extremes to protect the cells.

What sort of water did you leave batteries sitting in to cause the swelling you claim (fresh water has close to zero conductivity so unlikely to cause any problems)? What was the SOC of the battery?

There seems to be no evidence to suggest people should believe rain/snow/fog etc will cause a battery to swell. The other causes you seem to dismiss are, without question, represented as being significantly more common than water ingress. The fact you might have observed a couple of packs swelling after being placed in water tells us nothing about the cause.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

From the posts here and around other forums- pilot error and ignorance of LiION chemistry limitations and maintenance requirements are the major contributors to premature failure/reduced service life.

The impact of extremes in temperature is a demonstrable fact. Elevated temps and full SOC combined provide one of the best and quickest ways to permanently kill LiION cells.

Charging when hot isn't ideal however it is significantly preferable to attempting to charge at very low temperatures where irreversible damage is likely. In any case the battery smarts prevent charge initiation at temp extremes to protect the cells.

What sort of water did you leave batteries sitting in to cause the swelling you claim (fresh water has close to zero conductivity so unlikely to cause any problems)? What was the SOC of the battery?

There seems to be no evidence to suggest people should believe rain/snow/fog etc will cause a battery to swell. The other causes you seem to dismiss are, without question, represented as being significantly more common than water ingress. The fact you might have observed a couple of packs swelling after being placed in water tells us nothing about the cause.

I was more than surprised and really dissappointed that after just flying for 4 minutes in the rain, that I was to find water inside the Battery Compartment as this is what triggered me to Make the Mavic 2 Wet Suit in the first place.

So i made the Wet Suit to Stop the water from getting inside the battery compartment which could comprimise the drone in mid air.

I than decided to test the Drone under the Kitchen sink with the Wet Suit on the drone and the faucet coming down over the power button.

I ran the drone and the battery under the sink for about 15 minutes.
No water got inside the battery compartment , the wet suit held up well , however the battery swelled, made no sense to me.

I than did the test again with the water pouring over the button button for about 2 minutes and sure enough the battery started blinking and was compromised.

Now I had 1 battery swelling and 1 battery blinking as the computer chip some how got wet.

To my Horror I realized I was going have to come up with a way to Seal the Power Button

It was the weak link for someone like me that is compelled to fly in extreme weather conditions. snow / rain/ fog/ ect.

Once I sealed the Power Button and stopped the water from getting inside the Battery Compartment i was confident to fly in any weather conditions.

Im no scientist , but i do know how to recognize when things our working , and everything on my end is working well as I put my batteries through ****: No one would disagree with that.

Phantomrain.org
Cutting edge gear for your Mavic
Coal

New Product Release : SEA LANDER Jackets / Float your Mavic in the Sea.

 

[dirkclod]

This seems to have got off topic and turned into a sales
pitch. Let’s try and head that off here.

 

[djaco]

Lithium batteries will swell up as they reach the end of their life. Even my laptop began to swell at the time it didn't want to maintain a charge for very long. All the batteries I used to use for my homebuilt drones eventually became swollen, then I knew they weren't long for this world.

 

[DanMan32]

Most claims of swelling over the summer were with M2 batteries. So far it seems to be with production dates 2018-8 or older.

The thread I'm following that's mainly about M2 is Two More Battery Failures

 

[GadgetGuy]

This seems to have got off topic and turned into a sales
pitch. Let’s try and head that off here.

Amen!

 

[GadgetGuy]

Hi,
I’m very sorry if this had been a covered subject but I’m very new to the forum and I’ve done a bit of searching and I can’t find the answers, basically I read a post about swelling batteries on the MPP and I wondered if there was a build date batch which was bad for this, I currently have 3 batteries with build dates of 2018/10 each with approx 10 charge cycles. thanks in advance for any help, lewis.

I can't specifically speak to the MP and MPP battery Production Dates, but, so far, on the M2 batteries, all the swelling problems have Production Dates, as reported in GO 4, of 2018.08 and earlier. Since your Production Dates are after that, I see no reason for concern, as DJI appears to have solved any issues of premature swelling after that on M2 batteries, which would presumably include Production Dates after that on MPP batteries, assuming they might also have been affected by prior Production Dates. Just keep an eye on them to make sure they always seat properly with clicks on both sides.

 

[julius13]

Leaving them in a hot car for a few hours is all you need to do to have your batteries swell. I just replaced two for that very reason.

Me too. I've had a Mavic for almost 3 years with no issues. My P4P has had 3 batteries swell and the Mavic 2 Pro has had two go bad with just over 50 charges.