6 Cell Battery Explosion (and fire!)

[DieselPhotos]

So, after working on the backyard R/C track, painting the clear body for the slash, setting up headlights, and yadayadayada, I decided I needed to drive the track to test the changes we made. I come to realize my battery was dead. So, I pull out my trusty, simple, promax Black widow Charger (charges at 2 or 4 amps). I set it to charge at 2 just because, and me and friend stand outside his garage to enjoy fireworks. I comeback to check on it, and the battery was fine, not too warm, but not cold. Go back outside, enjoy fireworks.

Then it happens. We see a firework go off, then suddenly a pop behind us, we look back, and then hear another pop, and see something flaming shooting from the ground. As it turns out, my 6 cell 3800 7.2v Slingshoot battery pack decided it wanted to explode, causing 6 little fires around the workbench area. We freak out, and turn off the power right away, then preceded to dump water on the little fires (I know... Electrical Fire - Baking Soda, but when there is a 5 gallon drum of 103 octane race fuel with in the area, as well as bottles of nitro, you use what you can). A Minute passes, I put out all the fires and then we check to see what was damaged. Lets just say the list and the pictures will explain the rest...

Who is at fault here? I got this battery a month and a half ago, and only used it a few times in my drifter, and mostly in my EZ Start, and now, more recently, the slash (maybe charge it twice a day for the last week.). I've taken care of the battery. If it got warm, I'd let it cool down, I'd cycle it every now and then. We also tested the charge to make sure it didn't malfunction, and it did not (tested a 1500 pack, and 3300 pack, both 6 cell, 3300 was at 2 amp, 1500 was at 4. Both fully charged, and were not too warm.). Also, if its slingshot selling the faulty product, Would I have the ability to sue for damages if needed? (Don't want to take it that far, but I've googled 6 pack cell explosions, and searched for vids... Haven't seen any, also, a friend and manager at a hobby store said for the 15 years he has done this, he has never seen a 6 cell NiMh pack explode.

I know you guys are waiting for the carnage pictures, but here is the list of current damage, and an explanation of what is going on in the pics. (I'll have a full gallery soon, with 60ish pictures of just the incident.

Damages:
E-maxx ESC - ($180?)
Easton Monkeylite SL MTB Handlebars (Packaging melted to the bars) - $98
Numerous RC parts/Packaging
Burned/Melted Metal Mulisha Bandana - $10
Broken Battery Slingshot 3800 - $54
Melted Fuel Bottle - $8
Burned Workbench wood/top - ?


The Battery pack, missing the 2 cells it shot. Found 1 of them, kinda have an idea to the where abouts of the other (Parts on the other side of the garage after bouncing off the work bench) (Cells look like empty Shotgun cartridges..):

See that charger up top? Thats where mine was, until the battery pack blew up, and shot it down. Luckily, it didn't damage the charger too much. You can see where most of the little fires where.. Those things were bright... (and most likely toxic..):

Mesh from the inside of the battery..:

 

[Difuser]

Diesel not much you did. Unfortunately with Sub C cells and the higher capacities they are now/have been having issues with cells popping. People get worried about Lipo but we instituted a Lipo sack being mandatory for all cells due to SubC's exploding at our Indoor track. I made the switch to Lipos exclusive a little over a year ago from my Heli flying and all of my crawlers and Slash are Lipo only.
We had a cell blow up about 12" in front of a racers face at a major race. caught his neighbors pit on fire. Luckily noone was injured........
Some will say over charging or high charge rates but I have personally looked at all charge profiles after explosion and can say not one of them were doing anything wrong with the charger or cell.

 

[666]

Yikes!! I also have seen this on new packs, working at a hobby shop a couple of guys brought in toys that were destroyed by cells popping. And yet I have to see anything like this from a DANGEROUS lipo.

 

[DieselPhotos]

Yeah. I called the Manager of the LHS I purchased the pack from (as we are good friends), and he made a few phone calls to the Owner, and a few racers. They thought it was most likely be from a faulty charger, which inturn over charge the battery. How ever, after testing the charger on several batteries, and having the Manager test the charger, We know it is the Battery that went south. (I think I mentioned that in the original post).


Needless to say, I will be e-mailing Slingshot, and Giving them a few phone calls on Monday until something gets done.. I know I could of lost a lot more, but a 6 cell battery SHOULD NOT explode, especially when the user has done nothing wrong. (I am still upset that all that was damaged.)

 

[Slyp Dawg]

yikes! makes me want to go lipoly with all my cars, as expensive as that may be!

 

[BJoe]

I personally know of a few of the old Venom 1100mAh 8.4v Hex packs going kablooey, including one that did within a couple feet from me, but haven't seen it yet with the larger sub-c packs yet.

 

[RC_Addict]

I personally know of a few of the old Venom 1100mAh 8.4v Hex packs going kablooey, including one that did within a couple feet from me, but haven't seen it yet with the larger sub-c packs yet.

I had that happen with one of those in my VMG:x, It caught the truck on fire, and melted the body to the chassis:x:-lol:

 

[binaryterror]

I hate to say it this was happening alot to the much higher Mah batteries...makes me happy and safe to know my Lipos seem to be less dangerous now!

 

[JasonInAugusta]

CSR was charging some batts in my pit trailer...three or four of us were in it when a cell popped.

I heard the pop and knew what it was, Alan freakin' 'bout pissed himself, he was close to it when it popped. :lol:

 

[Destroyer]

It may sound harsh, but it happens. Thats why manufacturers say to charge batteries in a safe area, and not to leave them unattended. A workshop counter is not a safe area, especially when surrounded by the fuels and such as you stated. Was the battery in the E-Maxx while you were charging it?:shock:

Sorry to hear it though, hopefully they will send you a new pack.

 

[DieselPhotos]

The battery was on top of the counter. It then Shot down, pulling the charger with it..


I think they need to start adding more warnings to the labels... These Slingshots are just logos and a price tag ... (While Orion and Promax do place warnings and proper charging things on the back.)


And if a workbench isn't a safe place (regardless of the fuel), then you might as well put the charger in the dirt to charge.

 

[Destroyer]

Gotcha, I was just wondering if that was how the EVX got damaged. BTW, the EVX is no longer made, but you can get a new EVX2 for a little over a hundred, otherwise watch E-bay for an original.

There are a few easy/safe ways to charge. I tend to either just push the battery a little ways out into the concrete garage floor, dump it in an ammo can (any Army/Navy surplus shop should have one for a couple bucks) or just leave it on the table of my mill or drill press."thumbsup"

 

[stack'o'rocks]

I've had a battery blow up on me a couple years ago. It was an old sanyo 2400 nicad that i built and i had just gotten into nitro and i needed rechargeable glow starter batteries. I disassembled the pack and checked if a cell would fit into the glow starter. The cell was shrink wrapped and the wrap made it to big to fit. So i removed all the shrink wrap from all six cells. After i had taken all the wrap off i realized that i didn't have a way to charge the cells individually. So i decided to reassemble the pack and then charge it and disassemble it again... That was not my brightest hour:roll:... I put the pack on the charger and everything seemed fine. About 15 minutes later i decided to check on the pack. I noticed that there was a fine curl of smoke rising from between two of the cells. I immediately decided to unplug the pack from the charger. As soon as i unplugged the pack i lifted it by the wires. It caused more of the cells to short and i heard a little pop and huge amounts smoke erupted from the pack, it scared the hell out of me. Before i could get the back door open two more cells popped and sent hot acid onto my chest. luckily i was wearing a shirt... I threw that damn battery out into the yard and that sucker caught fire. I was really really lucky it didn't catch fire in my hands. Long story short the shrink wrap is on the batteries for a reason.

 

[rm25x]

Wow that sucks. Never had a cell pop on me yet luckly. Now that I run all Lipo, I actually feel safer since the pack never gets warm. Charge it, run it, whatever and it never gets hot.

 

[crawler_king]

Years ago I had a split D 12 cell pack that melted down in my clodbuster, of course it might have been old tech (it was the late 80's) I am going to guess that it can happen with any battery that recharges, just got to be safe, at least when it went it didnt take your fuel with it!

 

[JohnRobHolmes]

I bet those cells are rebranded IB 4200's. Notorious for popping when charging and discharging.

 

[gearmonkey23]

It happend to me 3 days ago with a intellect 3600 nimh pack. charged it for 15 mins on a lil dynimite duel charger, and BOOM in my room, all over my bed. all six cells exploded, one cracked my t.v (it was ancient anyway) and the others were found smoldering under piles of clothes....

 

[marzzz23]

i have to say that usually its a freak thing, all the racing i used to do, touring cars, carpet oval and dirt oval i never witnessed a exploding sub c pack. I used to charge at high amps too, before a heat race i would pump 10-12 amps into 3300,3600,3800 or 4200's. got them hot as heck when they peaked. never once exploded a pack. thats crazy, now that i have switched to lipo's i am worried all the time but havnt had an issue yet.

 

[josh_smaxx]

They will be rebranded IB3800 cells. Over here in the UK there is alot of battery safety going on, our governing body, the BRCA have pages and pages of guidelines on how to look after them but in some cases like this its just luck of the draw. In Norway all electric racing was stopped because 3 cells popped in the same meeting. I have never had a cell explode but have had plenty just die (drop all voltage). Going lipo when i get my crawler though.

 

[mysharona]

we had one go during one of our local races, the guy's pack blew right in front of the driver stand on the first lap. blew the black powder all over the track and put a nice black mark on the stand. Amazingly, none of the drivers stopped racing:shock: they all kept going! The pack didn't hurt his car at all (no fires), just instantly tinted his windows :lol::lol: