Originally Posted by
Burton
It was my understanding that its mostly just the packaging thats different. An 18650 is a particular 3.7V polymer Li-Ion cylindrical single cell format and what I'm using is an 11.1V power pack comprised of three 3.7V polymer Li-Ion cells linked together. What am I missing?
Lithium polymer uses a crystalline (salt form) electrolyte which still should not be subject to direct shorts, it's very bad for them, though I suppose if that's what it's designed for maybe it's OK. In any case I don't think the electrolyte in a LiPo battery will boil like it will with LiIon. I dunno, I haven't tried shorting LiPo cells. Maybe this summer I'll grab a few cheap cell phone batteries, remove the protection circuits and see what they do. From the Youtube vids I've seen though, basically they get hot, swell up, the plastic container pops and steam comes out.