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Interesting Geoman charging advice

Old 10-08-10, 10:48 AM
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Interesting Geoman charging advice

Received an email, I assume, as a Geoman customer, with LiIon safety/charging tips, including this tip:

"• Put battery in the fireproof container and charge in an isolated area away
from other flammable materials."

Good advice actually, but pretty harsh for most users.
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Old 10-08-10, 01:04 PM
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That advice comes from the R/C community, which has had a lot of problems with LiPo batteries catching fire. If you want pictures and video, google for "lipo fire". Several houses and cars have been destroyed. The damage can be caused by overcharging the battery (perhaps putting the wrong parameters in your charger) or by physically damaging it (like can happen in a crash.)

R/C planes and cars typically eschew the protective circuitry and use the lighter batteries (not those with metal cases) for better performance, but of course they become more fragile and more susceptible to abuse.

In general, the chargers have circuitry to keep the voltage right, and then the batteries (for general rather than R/C use) have circuits to disconnect everything if something goes wrong, but there's always room for trouble. The 18450 batteries that the Magicshine uses have metal cases and protective circuitry, so they're likely to survive most damage (well, not catch fire), and even if they are abused they're not likely to catch fire or explode.

Still, the danger is not zero, and Geomangear is covering their ass here. Occasionally you hear about laptops or cell phones doing this, though they do like to blame aftermarket gear for it (which may or may not be true.)
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Old 10-08-10, 01:46 PM
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That tip - well founded to be sure - probably falls into the category of "CYA" (for Geoman/MS) before it is too late and someone has an unfortunate incident.

From one thread on mtbr:
Personally, after taking apart the battery pack, and the charger, I'd never leave these plugged in overnight. Unless it was out on the driveway under an overturned metal bucket. Some of my cells showed clear signs of corrosion, and the charger gets pretty darn hot (not UL approved by a long shot). Good luck explaining to your insurance company how you were using a non approved Li-Ion charger when your house burned down, if you don't sleep thru it.
Li-ion cells in series compound the risk. Cheap cells compound the risk. Is the charger and circuitry up to snuff? Who knows.

Best to be safe and never charge unattended / keep away from all combustibles.
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