SMC barely puffed 6s Lipo

[Zgills1]

Hi all,

I have an SMC 6s 5200 MaH 90c soft-pack Lipo. It is puffed on each side about .5mm in the middle, just on the sides. The battery discharged properly to 3.8 on each cell, and is balancing properly. The battery is even cold to the touch when charging.

Is this safe to run/charge?

 

[Lazy Bushman]

Your problem is that it is going to get worse with risk growing exponentially. What is not known is when catastrophe will strike. Things might go fine for ages or escalate extremely rapidly.

The question really is, what is your tolerance to risk around these thing? When it comes to puffy lipo’s I have zero tolerance

 

[nino]

0.5mm is nothing. Unless you're talking about 5mm, there's no worry.
If you ARE talking about 5mm, I'd watch the battery. I've had packs go back to normal after a few cycles. If it keeps getting fatter, get rid of it...

 

[bicketybam]

I've had one sitting in my driveway for 5 days now, lol. I bring them to my LHS and he gets rid if them for me. I don't trust a puffy battery.

 

[Captain Dirt]

Shoot it with a bb gun.

 

[arrmadillo]

.5mm doesn't seem like a lot, but I would charge it outside, run it, monitor it and keep an eye on it for now. If it gets progressively worst, then I would dispose of it.

 

[Mazing3]

Shoot it with a bb gun.

Dude have you ever really done that? Could be exciting. I once tried to make a custom fiberglass battery tray for one of my boats. Wrapped a 4s hard pack really well to protect it then used it as a plug for the mold. The FG wound up bonding to my wrap job and I berry carefully tried to pry it out with a screwdriver once it cured. Not careful enough! First was the hissss, then the smoke!! So much smoke!! I’m freaking out thinking it’s going to explode in my garage. Smoke billowing everywhere couldn’t see anything through it, it’s coming into the house, dashing to get the real cars out of the garage and generally having a near panic attack in the process thinking about exploding Samsung phones on airplanes.

Didn’t explode though. But man the smell from that thing. Took a month for it to air out.

I’m officially afraid of all things outta whack with kilos now. But shooting one with a BB gun sounds really fun. I may actually try that tomorrow. I’ll make a vid and post up.

Thanks for the stupid idea.

 

[slick2500]

Before you do anything post a pic of this puffed battery.
Btw for reference this is a puffed battery.

 

[arrmadillo]

Dude have you ever really done that? Could be exciting. I once tried to make a custom fiberglass battery tray for one of my boats. Wrapped a 4s hard pack really well to protect it then used it as a plug for the mold. The FG wound up bonding to my wrap job and I berry carefully tried to pry it out with a screwdriver once it cured. Not careful enough! First was the hissss, then the smoke!! So much smoke!! I’m freaking out thinking it’s going to explode in my garage. Smoke billowing everywhere couldn’t see anything through it, it’s coming into the house, dashing to get the real cars out of the garage and generally having a near panic attack in the process thinking about exploding Samsung phones on airplanes.

Didn’t explode though. But man the smell from that thing. Took a month for it to air out.

I’m officially afraid of all things outta whack with kilos now. But shooting one with a BB gun sounds really fun. I may actually try that tomorrow. I’ll make a vid and post up.

Thanks for the stupid idea.

Sounds exciting but not in the garage. What a way to pucker up the rear end. I've heard the smell inside is nothing nice.

Bashing on beer one night I tried to ignite one in a parking lot where we were running. Found a nail and punctured the pack and nothing happened, what a let down.

 

[Zgills1]

Thanks for the advice all. When I hold a ruler flush to the sides there is a very minor gap on each end. I only have about 10 runs on it. I’ll post a pic tomorrow for reference. If it were truly “puffed” wouldn’t it be on all sides? Like I said before, only about .5mm -1mm puffage.

 

[Captain Dirt]

Dude have you ever really done that? Could be exciting. I once tried to make a custom fiberglass battery tray for one of my boats. Wrapped a 4s hard pack really well to protect it then used it as a plug for the mold. The FG wound up bonding to my wrap job and I berry carefully tried to pry it out with a screwdriver once it cured. Not careful enough! First was the hissss, then the smoke!! So much smoke!! I’m freaking out thinking it’s going to explode in my garage. Smoke billowing everywhere couldn’t see anything through it, it’s coming into the house, dashing to get the real cars out of the garage and generally having a near panic attack in the process thinking about exploding Samsung phones on airplanes.

Didn’t explode though. But man the smell from that thing. Took a month for it to air out.

I’m officially afraid of all things outta whack with kilos now. But shooting one with a BB gun sounds really fun. I may actually try that tomorrow. I’ll make a vid and post up.

Thanks for the stupid idea.

? Did I say to do it indoors? Do it outdoors with lots of space around it. Fun way to dispose of it.

 

[arrmadillo]

? Did I say to do it indoors? Do it outdoors with lots of space around it. Fun way to dispose of it.

I'm sure he know's better than to do it indoors. Lol

 

[Mazing3]

Sounds exciting but not in the garage. What a way to pucker up the rear end. I've heard the smell inside is nothing nice.

Bashing on beer one night I tried to ignite one in a parking lot where we were running. Found a nail and punctured the pack and nothing happened, what a let down.

That IS a total let down. Probably not a bad let down considering you were doing it with your hand on purpose. I will make a redemption video for you tomorrow. I have 2 old 3s batteries laying around.

I really want to shoot that plump blue bomb we've been talking about here.

On a serious note for Zgills- yeah that thing doesn't look right at all. Like the others said, it's only going to get worse. That looks a lot bigger than .5mm so guessing you meant 5mm. I don't know what the insides of these things look like but in other smaller lipos (for kids toys and stuff) I've had that went puffy, they did it the same way yours is. Top and bottom. None of them ever exploded or anything just eventually wouldn't charge or hold one.

I'm sure he know's better than to do it indoors. Lol

Yeah that lesson is permanently etched in my brain already. I remember grabbing a respirator and a fire extinguisher at some point in the mayhem that night. My eyes were burning so bad from that smoke too. Zgills- none of these shenanigans are in your immediate future with yours unless you do something to cause it so don't worry.

 

[nino]

Don't get rid of a pack because it's half a millimetre puffed. Half of mine are worse than that and they're fine.
IF it gets worse, the pack is on it's way out... but this is still no reason for concern.

 

[Zgills1]

Here’s photos of what I am talking about. I hope I can still use it as the pack was $108 shipped.

 

[arrmadillo]

Here’s photos of what I am talking about. I hope I can still use it as the pack was $108 shipped.

I have that same pack. I won't tell you what to do, but if it was mine I would send those picks to Danny at SMC for his professional opion. He's a cool dude and has been outright honest with me.

 

[LibertyMKiii]

I have an SMC pack that arrived new slightly puffed. Kicking myself still about not sending it right back. Today it is much worse and been using it for 1.5 years, BUT it is always kept and charged in a LiPo safe bag. At this point I'm ready to discharge it fully and trash it since the G10 hard case is cracking due to the puffage. Oddly enough it still works just fine although a few cells will drop 2 tenths of a volt below the other healthy cells.

 

[olds97_lss]

These were my SMC 2S 9000mah packs after a little over a year running them in my brushless revo:

One eventually dropped a cell, but I still used 2 of them (always ran them in the same pairs). I ran them in my erbe and savage flux. I eventually changed over to using SMC's 2S 7200/7400 hard case as they were lighter and easier on the erbe's suspension. I still have 3 of the 9000's in a drawer that are 2.5 years old. Haven't tried using them in about a year. THey are probably garbage.

 

[Mazing3]

I didn't go out and play crazy redneck in the woods shooting lipos today but I did have a 4s hardpack go crazy and roast the ESC in one of my boats. Smoke, that smell, all kinds of heat. I ran it for a few mins on a full charge last week in the Outcast. No problems. Was charging a bunch of batteries getting ready to take the 2 boats out. Too many batteries and can never keep track of who needs more juice. The charger immediately told me "overcharged." Never seen it say that before and it seemed to run fine in the truck so I pretty much ignored it. Lesson learned. Bad move.

Threw it into my Revolt turned it on in the garage to look at the rudder movement before leaving. Instantly-and I mean instantly- Snap crackle and pop started and smoke started hissing out of my ESC. Disconnected the battery as fast as I could and it was like a little red hot brick. ESC is completely baked-dead. Only had it for 6 months. This all happened in the span of literally 3 seconds. I really thought I was on the verge of another garage fog out. I'm gaining a new found respect for bad stuff happening with my older packs. This one too is now going to go the pellet gun firing range. That's going to be quite a video I think.

 

[tcv4]

This is how my 3S 5400 mAh pack arrived a few weeks ago. I've been keeping an eye on it, but it hasn't changed much.