Dying battery?

[MRoyer]

Over the last few runs I have noticed that my one battery (PowerHobby Pro 3S 5200mah 75C) may have been slightly beaten up due to the battery tray on my v2 Kraton being too small for them. Now it only seems to charge to 12.1 volts and the balance in cells is off by a bit. I've used the pack once since the issue and the car runs just fine but I was wondering if I should continue to use them or just bite the bullet and get some new hard case 3S packs that actually fit in the tray.

Any recommendations would be great. I'd love to continue to use them because they perform well but I don't want one to blow while using the car or while charging.

Thanks.

 

[Brandon]

Great question I’d also like to know what the experienced people on this forum have to say.

 

[MRoyer]

It seems as if the middle cell is charging just fine and the others are lagging behind. I did manage to change the charge settings on my charger to raise the limit to 5200mah instead of 5000 but it hasn't seemed to do much even with an extra half hour. The battery doesn't even get hot either.

 

[slick2500]

Does your battery charger have a display for IR? I bet cell 1 & 3 are really high.

 

[DoNoHarm]

Nah nahhhh. Something is DEFINITELY wrong. If a batt ain’t charging to 4.2/cell your stuff is DONEE. It probably wasn’t from physical abuse by the way, just normal wear out. Obviously budget China lipos wear out faster. One cell is struggling to be brought up to voltage because it’s charging slower than the others. It’ll also drain quicker than the others as well.

 

[olds97_lss]

Dents and dings won't cause it to charge poorly, but a big enough dent/ding that causes a puncture will cause the pack to start on fire I believe. The cells are sealed and I don't think they do well with air hitting them.

If it's not balance charging in an optimal time, then the cells IR is likely getting out of sync with each other due to time/wear. The older the packs get, the worse they get. Probably gets even worse if you don't always balance charge. It's probably time to get some new packs to replace them.

Personally, I always run the same pairs of packs with each other so they "wear" the same. I also alternate the order they are plugged in to my esc as one of them usually drains a bit further than the other when wired in series.

For my single pack trucks, I have packs I use in those exclusively.

 

[Lazy Bushman]

I would do a full discharge then a balance charge...that said I don’t think it will help a lot as you battery is on the way out.....time to order new batteries. I’m like @olds97_lss and try and keep packs together bu treality is it probably doesn’t make a lot of difference if you end up,cycling your batteries through fairly regularly

 

[olds97_lss]

I would do a full discharge then a balance charge...that said I don’t think it will help a lot as you battery is on the way out.....time to order new batteries. I’m like @olds97_lss and try and keep packs together bu treality is it probably doesn’t make a lot of difference if you end up,cycling your batteries through fairly regularly

I only do so because my single pack trucks don't have near the current draw as my dual pack trucks. So, if I keep my "pairs" together and my "singles" separate, I run less risk of having the IR deviate much, so I get similar life out of my packs I run in "pairs".

A bit of a moot point now as I run 3S packs in my single pack trucks and 2x2S in my dual pack trucks.

 

[MRoyer]

Does your battery charger have a display for IR? I bet cell 1 & 3 are really high.

I did check the IR last night and they were 4, 5, 4 across the battery so the dying cells seemed to be just fine as far as that goes. I've only used the packs a couple of times but the bad one did take a slight puncture that I taped up after a really hard hit in the tray. I also always run them together and I've always balance charged. I guess I'll have to start looking for some new packs.

 

[DoNoHarm]

If a lipo gets punctured the oxygen instantly creates a huge flame about 3 feet in diameter... was probably just a rip in the cover. Like I said, battery is probably wearing out.

 

[olds97_lss]

If a lipo gets punctured the oxygen instantly creates a huge flame about 3 feet in diameter... was probably just a rip in the cover. Like I said, battery is probably wearing out.

I wasn't 100% sure that is what happened when air got to the paste inside. I knew if you puncture one with something metal that it would do that, but I wasn't sure if it was just the fact that there was a hole to outside air or of the metal piece was shorting it out internally.

I poked a hole in a cell phone battery when trying to take the lid off of it when I was messing around with an old worn out battery... caused a fireball on my workbench within seconds. Amazing how much energy was released from such a small battery. Pretty sure it was a 1S battery.

 

[DoNoHarm]

Hydrogen+oxygen=boom

 

[Lazy Bushman]

I only do so because my single pack trucks don't have near the current draw as my dual pack trucks. So, if I keep my "pairs" together and my "singles" separate, I run less risk of having the IR deviate much, so I get similar life out of my packs I run in "pairs".

A bit of a moot point now as I run 3S packs in my single pack trucks and 2x2S in my dual pack trucks.

It's still a good thing to do IMO.....I do

 

[TraverseCity420]

Hydrogen+oxygen=boom

Hydrogen + Hydrogen + Oxygen = Water

 

[Mongoose]

Hydrogen + Peroxide + Cut = ? ? ????

 

[DoNoHarm]

Hydrogen + Hydrogen + Oxygen = Water

Forgot the most important part of the equation oops... LITHIUM