DJI Mavic, Air and Mini Drones
Friendly, Helpful & Knowledgeable Community
Join Us Now

Swelling batteries

About a month ago I experienced a crash of my Mavic 2 where the motors just seemed to shutoff mid-flight without warning. Review of data logs by members of MavicPilots.com indicated that the problems seemed to be battery related.
Yesterday I tried to fly while up here in Colorado on vacation near a inactive airport. DJI Go4 still thought it was active and displayed a message window that covered most of the display screen shortly after I lifted off the drone warning me that I was in a restricted area and provided a prompt to acknowledge that I was responsible for flying there. The "Yes" prompt was greyed out and it never gave me an opportunity to accept and continue to fly. Since I couldn't see anything on the display screen I just landed and put my drone away and moved on to another location.

I was planning on capturing some aerial footage the next day so when I got back to where I was staying I took my drone out of the bag and was surprised to see that the battery appeared to no longer be seated properly in the drone and the latch on one side was not engaged. It was not in this condition when I was flying nor when I put it back in the bag. I took the battery out and looked at the bottom side and found it to be swollen. I checked the other three batteries in my bag and two of the others also showed the very same swelling. The fourth battery did not exhibit this - it was the brand new one that DJI sent me along with the new drone I got from Refresh. (It has only been recharged 4 times.) The other batteries have been used extensively since I obtained the drone and have been charged 80-90 times each. (They no longer fit in the drone, so I can't check their stats.)

View attachment 77481
Sorry to hear about your battery situation; sounds like there may be a few bad batches of batteries floating around. There's nothing to do but contact DJI, if it's under warranty they will replace, but if not under warranty - if even a few weeks over warranty, as with mine - they will not investigate further. Good luck! Curious to hear how your situation turns out.
 
Mine were 7 months old. Batteries have a 6 month cover on them.
But at $170 each i wasnt impressed having to buy 3 more after only 20 flights each.
The new batch im cooling in the fridge before charging. Otherwise they're still hot many hours after a flight.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bill Ludwig
Mine were 7 months old. Batteries have a 6 month cover on them.
But at $170 each i wasnt impressed having to buy 3 more after only 20 flights each.
The new batch im cooling in the fridge before charging. Otherwise they're still hot many hours after a flight.
Mine were (are) 7 months old as well, a batch of two, with less than 40 flights each. They don't stay hot many hours after flight though, your seem to be a bit further down the road. I too was disappointed in the fact that they started puffing so early, with basically normal use. By the way, i was trying to find the auto-discharge settings on the Zoom, since 10 days seems a long time to go before auto discharge, but see that it's now that function has been defaulted at a factory setting as far as I can tell without user ability to intervene and set it at 3 days or 5 days, something more reasonable.
 
There is no way to alter discharge time (officially from DJI support).
I live in the tropics where its usually 30-35c in the daytime (more in the sun) and room temp is around 28c. That may have shortened the life span a bit but even so, 20 flights is pathetic!
 
Anybody using those LiPo safety bags?

I guess they're mostly for transporting on flights. They're suppose to contain lithium fires somewhat.
 
There is no way to alter discharge time (officially from DJI support).
I live in the tropics where its usually 30-35c in the daytime (more in the sun) and room temp is around 28c. That may have shortened the life span a bit but even so, 20 flights is pathetic!
I agree, I think you got shafted; I may have as well. I live in SE Asia, also quite hot here at times but I think within DJI's 'official' temp guidelines. Even so, the batteries are rated at 200 recharge cycles - anything below 50 is a real anomaly and disappointing. Either it's a bad batch or consistently warm ambient temperatures do in fact chew at the lifespan.
 
Reading this thread I can’t help wonder what would happen if the batteries were left too long in a hot car?

I’m thinking I’ll be carrying mine in a ice chest in the near future, lol
 
A hot car can easily surpass DJIs temperature guidelines for the batteries.

The issue a few of us have is the batteries seem to have issues *inside* those guidelines. The trend seems to be hot and humid significantly shortens the lifespan.

My mavic 1 batteries all swelled and became unusable after about 100 cycles each and 18 months use. My mavic 2s all did the same in under 20 cycles and 7 months.
 
A hot car can easily surpass DJIs temperature guidelines for the batteries.

The issue a few of us have is the batteries seem to have issues *inside* those guidelines. The trend seems to be hot and humid significantly shortens the lifespan.

My mavic 1 batteries all swelled and became unusable after about 100 cycles each and 18 months use. My mavic 2s all did the same in under 20 cycles and 7 months.
You should expect significantly reduced service life with higher temp usage. From memory 40deg C wipes 1/2 of the cycle count.

That doesn’t explain your scenario.

Are you sure they weren’t allowed to sit at very low SOC? That is one of the best ways to kill them..

An observation that must be made is that the problem you are describing seems rare.

I have killed many expensive battery by not giving them the care they need- the LiPo issues are not DJI specific. DJI doesn’t make the cells or battery.
 
Reading this thread I can’t help wonder what would happen if the batteries were left too long in a hot car?

I’m thinking I’ll be carrying mine in a ice chest in the near future, lol


Unfortunately I may have an answer.... (From another forum where I was posting my story):

I had a colleague leave one of our Emergency Services sUAS (Mavic Pro Platinum) kits in his vehicle during a very hot day and all (3) packs were at 100%. The next morning they were still warm and "Puffy".... actually so puffy they barely fit in the battery saddle in the aircraft. We've deemed them NOT FLIGHT WORTHY now.

In none of the previous batter inspections was any swelling noted but these three are majorly PUFFED.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Shon
I carry my M2P and 3 batteries in that little shoulder bag which comes with Fly More.

I guess I'll let the batteries cool before packing it back in that case.

But when ambient temps. are over 30 degrees Celsius, that may take awhile.
 
Anybody using those LiPo safety bags?

I guess they're mostly for transporting on flights. They're suppose to contain lithium fires somewhat.
Combust needs prerequisites: the fuel, the air, the ignite
for battery combust, the metal is fuel called lithium
Can u please explain the trigger called ignition?
Maybe it is factory defect? not spontaneous combust but instead a defect boundary breach occurring inside battery whose responsibility is separating charge stowed from annihilating itself to earth

Oxygen starve will cease lithium fuel furtherance rampant oxidation (fire)
 
Yesterday I tried to fly while up here in Colorado on vacation near a inactive airport. DJI Go4 still thought it was active and displayed a message window that covered most of the display screen shortly after I lifted off the drone warning me that I was in a restricted area and provided a prompt to acknowledge that I was responsible for flying there. The "Yes" prompt was greyed out and it never gave me an opportunity to accept and continue to fly. Since I couldn't see anything on the display screen I just landed and put my drone away and moved on to another location.


There is a small hard to see "radio button" next to the line about being allowed to fly that you need to tick before you can hit Yes.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BigAl07
Combust needs prerequisites: the fuel, the air, the ignite
for battery combust, the metal is fuel called lithium
Can u please explain the trigger called ignition?
Maybe it is factory defect? not spontaneous combust but instead a defect boundary breach occurring inside battery whose responsibility is separating charge stowed from annihilating itself to earth

Oxygen starve will cease lithium fuel furtherance rampant oxidation (fire)
Lithium is not the fuel source when a LiION battery ignites- it is volatile hydrocarbons in the electrolyte. There is actually very little elemental Lithium in a LiION cell. Lithium metal batteries are a different story. The fact that water is recommend to extinguish LiPO fires suggests the chance of a lithium fueled fire isn’t considered.

The usual cause of a LiPO fire js extreme heat which most often originates from an internal or external short of a cell.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: BigAl07
Combust needs prerequisites: the fuel, the air, the ignite
for battery combust, the metal is fuel called lithium
Can u please explain the trigger called ignition?
Maybe it is factory defect? not spontaneous combust but instead a defect boundary breach occurring inside battery whose responsibility is separating charge stowed from annihilating itself to earth

Oxygen starve will cease lithium fuel furtherance rampant oxidation (fire)


Ignition can be from several sources but usually "internal". During mishandling or from a crash the battery can become damaged (inside the shell) or it could be punctured from something external.

Here's a video showing an intentional "puncture" causing the battery to self destruct:
To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
 
There is no way to alter discharge time (officially from DJI support).
I live in the tropics where its usually 30-35c in the daytime (more in the sun) and room temp is around 28c. That may have shortened the life span a bit but even so, 20 flights is pathetic!

Only way I found is short-charge battery to 50-60% or buy charger with storage mode - RCGeeks makes one Amazon.com: RCGEEK Compatible with DJI Mavic 2 Pro Charger Multi Charger Hub Intelligent Fast Charging 4 Batteries and 2 Remote Controller Compatible DJI Mavic 2 Pro Mavic 2 Zoom Battery: Toys & Games
 
for retiring batteries for the moment, can't it be manuvered into factory dormancy? its called hibernate


That's when the battery is under 10% and is not storage mode, merely the smart monitoring circuitry ceased to monitor the battery
 
That's when the battery is under 10% and is not storage mode, merely the smart monitoring circuitry ceased to monitor the battery
so hibernate status destroys battery while brand new in the box sealed @10% charge level all cells??
 

DJI Drone Deals

New Threads

Forum statistics

Threads
134,575
Messages
1,596,437
Members
163,076
Latest member
thelelans
Want to Remove this Ad? Simply login or create a free account