battery toast after 1 or two accidental shorts?

[jazzmasterflex]

let's say, hypothetically, and not saying I've done it, but what if possibly the two leads were to accidentally touch and short out once, or even twice because of a friend's limited understanding. I've read that this could lead to disastrous results within the first 15 mins, but if it looks fine and it was a simple lead short for a millisecond, would the battery be unusable or would it's life be severely affected. Finally, should I worry about problems with this battery such as a mid-air explosion?

Thanks for the help everyone!

Taylor
I may or may not have accidentally shorted my battery before it even made it into a plane...

[Octavius]

Likely 1 quick short and you're done. Let imagine I don't know that from 1st hand experience.

[Louis]

...

[Octavius]

Hypothetically only, I say take it into an empty driveway and poke it with a knife to learn about the potential dangers. Realistically it's going to catch on fire and you could be burned so don't.

[jazzmasterflex]

so my friend should probably throw it away then. there's 15 bucks down the tube... dang

[Louis]

...

[jazzmasterflex]

yeah - thanks everyone! thought I'd add a little humor to everyone's day

[Marc]

Okay, knock it off! You shorted the battery for a millisecond and got a spark. The battery is not puffed up, and now you want to throw it away. I admit that this happened to me a while back, and I'm still using mine after several charge cycles. It happened when I was changing the plug from EC3 to Deans even though I cut and soldered just one wire at a time. I still don't know how it happened, but it seems not to have been catastrophic. I always keep my batteries in a glass bowl with a lid, but I doubt that this would be adequate protection in case of fire. That's why I have a lot of homeowners insurance.

A more troubling situation with a couple of my batteries (including the shorted one) is that they have have been rammed into the firewall due to crashes. They are slightly crumpled on the end, and I am wondering if the anodes are insulated internally on the ends. We used to put foam on the receivers, but now I think it's more important to put foam between the battery and firewall. For goodness sake don't allow mounting bolts to protrude through the back of the firewall.

Before you toss your battery, send me a PM concerning the size and shipping cost. If I can use it, I'll sent you the postage and my address.

[jazzmasterflex]

I plan on just getting a charge bag and going ahead with the conversion of the plugs to ec3's. if it hooks up to the charger and reads something normal and seems to charge fine, I'm just going to assume it's A-ok and just mark it with a big red mark on the side of it so I know to be cautious when I use it.

Thanks

[Jarsalla]

Shorted one cheap lipo aswell ( Nice sparks BTW), worked fine nonetheless. Sometimes they die sometimes they don't, go figure.

[wingspann]

I made the mistake of using a "helping hands" device with magnifier and alligator clips to help me solder a Dean's Connector on a LiPo. It did not occur to me that when I heated the wire the alligator clips could cut through the insulation and cause a short. I found out the hard way that they will. Got a nice spark, but the battery continued to function normally for many cycles.

John

[Rodneh]

Chances are that a very brief short did not harm you battery. As long as the short was a short enough duration to NOT heat any interconnect or other internals to the point where they melt or become partially fluid, probably no harm was done. Do not take this to mean that you should not use caution or pay particular attention to the battery effected when you put it back into service. Just ask yourself, what would cause failure?. If all connections are still secure, you have not vaporized any internal parts etc. probably no harm done. Yes, LiPo's can be made to catch fire but it is much more difficult to do than most seem to think. The worst offender is overcharging if you really want a fire. Just shorting one out will seldom do more than burn out an interconnect or cause puffing. A short of very short duration will seldom do any damage. After all, when you connect that LiPo to and ESC you have created a very short duration short circuit until the circuit stabalizes. Have you not seen that spark when you connect a 5 or 6 cell LiPo to the ESC?

[Glacier Girl]

Speaking of the "SNAP" you get when plugging in a higher count pack to the esc.
First off I always flinch when it occurs, electicity and snapping noises don't mix.

Little trick I picked up to prevent this. Install a second smaller power connection with a 20-50 resistor in line on it. Resistor value is dependent on cell count.

Connect it first, the resistor eliminates the SNAP when you plug in the main positive lead.