First off - if those friggin batteries get damaged...get rid of them.
I bought a 6S pack and at the beginning of my second run, I damaged my Outcast pretty bad. (Made a thread about that here on the forums.) It wasn't long into that pack, so I took it out and had my brother try it in his Kraton because he'd never run 6S before. Somewhere along the line he landed upside down and it damaged the corner of the battery. Being a soft case, it tore away some of the outer casing away and exposed the foil. The foil was wrinkled a bit, but didn't look punctured. I brought the battery inside and put a storage charge on it (inside a LiPo bag), and then packed it away inside the ammo box. (I double up on my LiPo protection.)
A couple of days later I started researching LiPo damage online to see how much is too much. I'll admit; the only reason I was researching was because I was desperately looking for a reason NOT to toss out my $110 battery that only got ONE full run through my Outcast. Somewhere along the line while skimming over information, I saw something about "if there's a sweet smell coming from your battery, it's punctured and no longer safe to use." So I immediately retrieved my ammo box and upon opening it smelled this sweet smell. I took the LiPo bag out, opened it, and sniffed the battery. The smell was even stronger. Trying to convince myself the battery was bad and it was time to flush $100, I sniffed a couple more times before walking to the door in disgust and tossing it into the driveway. (I live WAY out in the woods, big driveway, no chance of catching stuff on fire.)
I then sat at the computer again and continued my research, including YouTube videos of batteries "exploding". This made me decide to go move the battery from the driveway into a snowbank, further away from the vehicles. (Me being over cautious.) When I went out, once again I had to sniff the battery to convince myself it was in fact punctured. The damage was so minimal, I couldn't believe it. The smell was still there, I put it on the snow bank and went inside.
Now it was time for bed, so I headed into the bedroom. Once in there, I sat on the edge of the bed and started to cough violently. One after another with some weird feeling in my throat. I took it as dry throat, downed some water and continued to cough. Eventually sleep took over because I was so tired.
I usually get up at 3AM for work, but at 2AM I woke up and I couldn't breathe. My throat was extremely sore, my chest hurt and it felt as though my airway had closed up tight. My voice was gone and my wife would barely understand what I was saying. I was also coughing pretty bad again. Because I have asthma I figured this was my problem, although it had never felt like this before. I took a nebulizer treatment and it did absolutely nothing. My inhaler did nothing. Things started to click and I did a google search for "inhaled LiPo fumes". This got me scared shitless. Earlier that night when I smelled the batteries I remembered people saying that punctured LiPo's would smell sweet, so I assumed it was ok to inhale the fumes as long as the pack didn't catch fire and emit smoke/flames/gasses. Incorrect.
I ended up getting in touch with my boss (who is fortunately my cousin) and telling him what happened, and that I was going to see if it would pass. I would either be late or not going in. My wife stayed up and listened to my breathing as I tried to sleep a little more. 2 hour later I got up and went to work. My breathing was a little better, my voice was coming back but still extremely hoarse, and my throat hurt. Within 12-14 hours of inhaling the fumes, almost all symptoms were gone and I was back to normal.
If your LiPo's are damaged, get rid of them.
I bought a 6S pack and at the beginning of my second run, I damaged my Outcast pretty bad. (Made a thread about that here on the forums.) It wasn't long into that pack, so I took it out and had my brother try it in his Kraton because he'd never run 6S before. Somewhere along the line he landed upside down and it damaged the corner of the battery. Being a soft case, it tore away some of the outer casing away and exposed the foil. The foil was wrinkled a bit, but didn't look punctured. I brought the battery inside and put a storage charge on it (inside a LiPo bag), and then packed it away inside the ammo box. (I double up on my LiPo protection.)
A couple of days later I started researching LiPo damage online to see how much is too much. I'll admit; the only reason I was researching was because I was desperately looking for a reason NOT to toss out my $110 battery that only got ONE full run through my Outcast. Somewhere along the line while skimming over information, I saw something about "if there's a sweet smell coming from your battery, it's punctured and no longer safe to use." So I immediately retrieved my ammo box and upon opening it smelled this sweet smell. I took the LiPo bag out, opened it, and sniffed the battery. The smell was even stronger. Trying to convince myself the battery was bad and it was time to flush $100, I sniffed a couple more times before walking to the door in disgust and tossing it into the driveway. (I live WAY out in the woods, big driveway, no chance of catching stuff on fire.)
I then sat at the computer again and continued my research, including YouTube videos of batteries "exploding". This made me decide to go move the battery from the driveway into a snowbank, further away from the vehicles. (Me being over cautious.) When I went out, once again I had to sniff the battery to convince myself it was in fact punctured. The damage was so minimal, I couldn't believe it. The smell was still there, I put it on the snow bank and went inside.
Now it was time for bed, so I headed into the bedroom. Once in there, I sat on the edge of the bed and started to cough violently. One after another with some weird feeling in my throat. I took it as dry throat, downed some water and continued to cough. Eventually sleep took over because I was so tired.
I usually get up at 3AM for work, but at 2AM I woke up and I couldn't breathe. My throat was extremely sore, my chest hurt and it felt as though my airway had closed up tight. My voice was gone and my wife would barely understand what I was saying. I was also coughing pretty bad again. Because I have asthma I figured this was my problem, although it had never felt like this before. I took a nebulizer treatment and it did absolutely nothing. My inhaler did nothing. Things started to click and I did a google search for "inhaled LiPo fumes". This got me scared shitless. Earlier that night when I smelled the batteries I remembered people saying that punctured LiPo's would smell sweet, so I assumed it was ok to inhale the fumes as long as the pack didn't catch fire and emit smoke/flames/gasses. Incorrect.
I ended up getting in touch with my boss (who is fortunately my cousin) and telling him what happened, and that I was going to see if it would pass. I would either be late or not going in. My wife stayed up and listened to my breathing as I tried to sleep a little more. 2 hour later I got up and went to work. My breathing was a little better, my voice was coming back but still extremely hoarse, and my throat hurt. Within 12-14 hours of inhaling the fumes, almost all symptoms were gone and I was back to normal.
If your LiPo's are damaged, get rid of them.
