Swelling batteries

[hewo]

Documentation reveals 300cool cycles and 200warmcycles end of life.
Do you recharge not forbearing cooldown 1st?
Obey operating procedures!

 

[Thomas B]

Documentation reveals 300cool cycles and 200warmcycles end of life.
Do you recharge not forbearing cooldown 1st?
Obey operating procedures!

True! But if you use a DJI charger it won’t start charging, once the battery is connected, until the battery cools to a certain level.

 

[hewo]

True! But if you use a DJI charger it won’t start charging, once the battery is connected, until the battery cools to a certain level.

Know wonder, no wonder, pushing it on its own internal protect schema. But why pushing it? I fly dawn dusk daily. Yet I dont abuse any device, delicate and preferential caring.

 

[Thomas B]

Know wonder, no wonder, pushing it on its own internal protect schema. But why pushing it? I fly dawn dusk daily. Yet I dont abuse any device, delicate and preferential caring.

?

 

[hewo]

?

Meaning you have kinda stretched limitations regarding safeguards
retaining LONGEVITY

 

[deleted member 877]

Meaning you have kinda stretched limitations regarding safeguards
retaining LONGEVITY

I would be very surprised if triggering the mechanism that prevents charging from commencing until the battery has cooled down is going to cause a problem in terms of reducing longevity.

 

[hewo]

I would be very surprised if triggering the mechanism that prevents charging from commencing until the battery has cooled down is going to cause a problem in terms of reducing longevity.

That is a very good question. Denominator appears you swollen plural batteries BUT WHAT IF , the charge?
For example, group charge?

 

[deleted member 877]

That is a very good question. Denominator appears you swollen plural batteries BUT WHAT IF , the charge?
For example, group charge?

Sorry mate, I don't understand your question. All I'm suggesting is that charging the battery using a genuine DJI charger is not going to cause any problems. With the newer model DJI drones, the charger will wait until the battery has cooled down before the charging process begins.

On the other hand, I would definitely not be using or even storing (unless it was in a fireproof container) a swollen LiPo battery. Too risky - just spend the money and buy a new one - it's only money. Better to lose a little money than have an accident that causes damage or injury.

 

[ff22]

Has anyone else experienced swelling of their batteries with fairly little use?
I bought the drone in September, standard fly more pack. Each battery has had between 18 and 22 charges according to the Go4 App, never run down below about 20%, usually 50% max. Charged with the standard DJI charger. Sport mode is never used - its a photo bird so 75% of its time is spend in the hover and very little else.

Ive reached the point now all 3 of my batteries are so swollen underneath the slightest bang on the drone unlocks one side of the clip leaving the whole thing help on by just the clip on one side which is obviously a recipe for losing the drone if the other side detaches.

One of the batteries after a flight is so tight the power button is recessed to the point i cant push it down to power off any more.

Do these things just not like operating in warm temperatures? I live in the tropics with ambient air temps in the mid 30s celcius.

My old Mavic 1 batteries also swelled up but that was after a year of fairly heavy use.

Is there any chance of a warranty claim here or am i just screwed as its "wear and tear"? Ive just bought a new, 4th battery for flights over water as i dont trust any of the current 3 not to detach in flight and if they do, i want the drone back for a refresh claim!. View attachment 68249

Here's a link to the official DJI forum. I think you could post there and suggest "that while I don't know if my batteries are covered by warranty, I find it odd that THREE of them have suffered from swelling and that DJI might want to investigate the issue!" And see how it goes???

Mavic 2 Zoom - DJI Products forum

Seize the Moment. DJI Products discussion and support.

forum.dji.com

 

[Herbie D]

Are you seeing any higher failure rate in Air batteries than for MP and its successors? You pointed out a while back that Air batteries tend to get hotter because they don’t have the benefit of downwash from the props like on the MP,

Interesting, I have noticed the Mavic Air batteries are warmer than the P4P that I have as well.

 

[Former Member]

With the build dates and serial numbers you should be able to tell if they were produced at the same time or not - they very likely were not, especially if you bought the fly more combo. If they were, perhaps more investigation can be done by DJI into a bad run of batteries but that would still be incredibly rare and is mostly likely not the culprit. The fact that all 3 exhibit the issue very much points to user error of some kind. I know people sometimes scoff at the extreme care some of us take with our batteries, and this is a good example of why we do that. Best practices with regards to usage and storage are there for a reason. Obviously we don't know exactly what happened here, but the chances of 3 factory defective batteries is pretty much zero IMHO.

If the OP lives in the tropics I am guessing improper temperature practices has something to do with it, especially if the issue is swelling and all 3 are affected the same.

Personally I spend lots of time in Hawaii and it can get as hot as 38C/100F where I live and have never had battery swelling issues with my usage practices.

Good points.

 

[Former Member]

I hope this isn’t going to be an issue with MP2 batteries... they cost too much[emoji15].
I’ve been here in Maui temps for over a month, but I’ve also been in Michigan temps flying in 15-20* weather with no issues so far [emoji1696].

It probably won't be an issue for you because you take care of your drones and batteries.

 

[Former Member]

True! But if you use a DJI charger it won’t start charging, once the battery is connected, until the battery cools to a certain level.

That's a good point, but the battery circuitry, and not the charger, will not allow itself to be charged if it detects the battery to be too warm.

 

[Former Member]

Sorry mate, I don't understand your question. All I'm suggesting is that charging the battery using a genuine DJI charger is not going to cause any problems. With the newer model DJI drones, the charger will wait until the battery has cooled down before the charging process begins.

On the other hand, I would definitely not be using or even storing (unless it was in a fireproof container) a swollen LiPo battery. Too risky - just spend the money and buy a new one - it's only money. Better to lose a little money than have an accident that causes damage or injury.

Great advice.

 

[Mike4884]

So i consider myself fairly lipo "savvy" coming from an rc heli background using 6s packs 12s stick packs and 14s sticks packs....im going to say it was one of 2 things......first of all its weird that all 3 show the same signs. So could absolutely be your charger... but thinking about it I'm pretty sure the stock charger has overcharge protection and that would be the only thing that would hurt your batteries as far as the stock charger malfunctioning, because all it does is charge the batteries doesn't have any other features..the 2nd possibility and like thunderdrones says (mostly user error in most cases)...is even if u were putting them at a storage charge, how long were u waiting while lipos were fully charged? Because i will tell u right now the 10 day discharge dji has set in app is wayyyy long for charged lipos or even really discharged lipos to be sitting around..... I don't know why DJI has not fixed this option for the mavic 2 because you could change it on other DJI drones I always have it set to one day basically what I have to do is if I'm not going out to fly I will run the batteries down hooked up to USB with the little adapter that came in fly more to 45%....or just go out front and let it hover to 45% u want to see between 3.80 to 3.85 v each cell at rest and that will be a good storage voltage.... I also see guys make the mistake of putting their lipos in storage but not checking on them for 5 or 6 months...lipos tend to lose life/percentage whether in storage or fully charged. So one will put them in storage at 3.80v per cell but come back to find the lipos will not charge at all or are dangerously low. So i always make it a point to check all lipos every few weeks and top back off to storage charge if needed. Another killer of lipos is running them down or "discharging" to far .....u dont want to be taking them down to 10% every flight. That will cause puffy lipos in the long run also....taking care of lipos is a pain almost a chore. But for the amount of money my lipos are worth it has to be done...to much money$$$!!! Anyways sorry for long post

 

[paulatkin73]

Also, no Lipo likes to be left stored at 100% for more than a few hours time. So, Im not sure if you left them fully charged at high ambient temps for long periods of time.

that is a #1 reason for puffed lipos - and, usually, if all batteries you have went over same defect - it probably means you followed same procedure with all of them, so, if would be helpful to understand what was done in order to be able to help... it is usually a routine one follows that leads to such events.

if battery was never forced to discharge rapidly close to minimum - like you did not try to fly extra fast drawing 14-20A from a nearly discharged lipo and never charged them to 100% and left them on a shelf to self-discharge - then it must be some defect, or, something else to explain this. my primary battery has now close to 60 cycles and i have no swelling, it is all i can say...

a defective charger can also be a culprit, btw. if it consistently overcharges the lipo it will do same. but, from what i know, in dji charger is actually not a charger - it only provides voltage and an actual charging regulator in the smart battery itself. so, dunno. odd to see all 3 do the same with such a little count of charging cycles.

 

[CanadaDrone]

I'd put money on the cause being leaving them at 100% too long in high (tropical) temperatures. If temperatures are really high, that time cold be very short. That is the recipe for swelling.

Also a really good reminder not to be lazy and rely on the automatic 10-day discharge - that is there as a safeguard not a convenience. The batteries should never be at 100% unless you're about to use them.

 

[Thomas B]

Wish someone would market a storage charger that auto stops at 60% charge for those potential long term storage times and for travel.

 

[ff22]

So i consider myself fairly lipo "savvy" coming from an rc heli background using 6s packs 12s stick packs and 14s sticks packs....im going to say it was one of 2 things......first of all its weird that all 3 show the same signs. So could absolutely be your charger... but thinking about it I'm pretty sure the stock charger has overcharge protection and that would be the only thing that would hurt your batteries as far as the stock charger malfunctioning, because all it does is charge the batteries doesn't have any other features..the 2nd possibility and like thunderdrones says (mostly user error in most cases)...is even if u were putting them at a storage charge, how long were u waiting while lipos were fully charged? Because i will tell u right now the 10 day discharge dji has set in app is wayyyy long for charged lipos or even really discharged lipos to be sitting around..... I don't know why DJI has not fixed this option for the mavic 2 because you could change it on other DJI drones I always have it set to one day basically what I have to do is if I'm not going out to fly I will run the batteries down hooked up to USB with the little adapter that came in fly more to 45%....or just go out front and let it hover to 45% u want to see between 3.80 to 3.85 v each cell at rest and that will be a good storage voltage.... I also see guys make the mistake of putting their lipos in storage but not checking on them for 5 or 6 months...lipos tend to lose life/percentage whether in storage or fully charged. So one will put them in storage at 3.80v per cell but come back to find the lipos will not charge at all or are dangerously low. So i always make it a point to check all lipos every few weeks and top back off to storage charge if needed. Another killer of lipos is running them down or "discharging" to far .....u dont want to be taking them down to 10% every flight. That will cause puffy lipos in the long run also....taking care of lipos is a pain almost a chore. But for the amount of money my lipos are worth it has to be done...to much money$$$!!! Anyways sorry for long post

This is almost like owning a pet, a pet Goldilocks!

 

[paulatkin73]

Wish someone would market a storage charger that auto stops at 60% charge for those potential long term storage times and for travel.

all smart lipo chargers have 'storage' setting where it either charges to 30% or discharges lipo to that level. all dji stuff is, just, well, a bit outside of the norm.