Battery Exploded
 

Well it happend to me. Not sure what the hell. Not sure if i did anything wrong but ya. Anyways i had a 6 cell IB4600 that i was charging. it was its frist charge. I was charging it on my DuraTrax Ice charger @ .4 amps. i was doing a slow charge and it had been on the charger for awhile not sure on the hours but over 6. Anyways battery i just had checked the battery 2 min before it happend and it wasnt hot or anything. Readings that i can remember where 4200 Mah is what it had taken @ .4 amps. I was siting next to it when she blew and didnt make one sound letting me know something was up. Did i do something wrong or was this a bad battery?

Usually it requires heat to blow up a battery. If everything you did is according to normal battery care rituals, then I would have to say either shipping damage or MFG defect.

1. did you discharge and equalize the pack before charging
2. what was near, on in the vicinity of the pack before it blew
3. what was the charger settings at during the charge (amps, mv drop/cell, temp cut-off)

0.4 amps is very low rate to be charging batteries at, it serves no real purpose. You can accomplish almost the same at higher amp rates (4+), then trickle charging them to top off... I still see no need to trickle charge.

Welcome to the wonderful world of large capacity NiMH batteries.

battery was a sealed pack. with no power in it at all.

the pack was about 12 inches away from the charger and 24 inches away from the power supply. battery was sitting on top of the box it came in on my kitchen table :( (4K table destroyed) and i was next to it.

charger setting where set to .4amps for first charge 5mv cut off and im not using a temp prob but it was cool 2 min before she went.

i only slow charge it off the get go then i run 4-6amps normally. i dont trickle charge as i see no point as well

Sorry to hear about your table, that sucks. I’m not sure, but I don’t think you are supposed to trickle charge nimh packs at all. I don’t think the charge rate is enough to produce a detectable peak and it just keeps charging until…ya got nowhere to eat dinner.

At every indoor WDRA event I was at this winter at least one person had a pack that blew a cell out. Kinda scary if your the guy in the pits next to him/her...

question
 

ok so 2 more questions?

1 are you saying to just charge it at normal amps till its done or what. i figured you would slow charge it the first time.

2 is there any kind of warranty for this thing? i know its kind of out of there hands but i dont think i did anything wrong. I bought it from towerhobbies and i also contacted the company that made the pack to see if they will do anything for me.

Never trickle charge, always charge a normal amperage

Depends were you bought it from but most warranties wont allow you to give it back for a new as that was you fault as they on the box to never trickle charge, so it classifies as abuse

So, this was a stick pack (shotgun style, shrinked) that went boom. I don't trust these packs at all because there is no way to equalize the cells in the pack prior to charging. There is the chance that one cell had much more of a charge in it than the others and you didn't notice the temperature building in that particular cell.

When cells near the end of their charge, instead of storing electrons, they convert them into heat. A cell is a sealed device, and will build pressure when heated. This pressure vessel usually has vents that are supposed to release the pressure build-up before a detonation can occur. The newer cells have a lot less 'dead space' than the older cells, therefore less compressible gas area. This is one of the reasons the newer cells are more temper mental... I know nothing of the chemical reactions...

Battery matching companies sometimes have really great customer service and may help out in certain situations. I am also sorry to hear about your table.

When I get a new pack, first thing I do is discharge the pack and equalize to .9v. Then I charge at about 7.5 amps with a 3mv/cell delta. No mercy. Charge, run, repeat.

BTW, been doing this for the past 3 years without an incident. Two things keep my packs relatively safe.

1. equalizing, all the cells (in the pack) start at the same voltage and peak pretty much at the same time.

2. proper charge cut-off, I have an Ice with temp probe - temp set to 120f, and all chargers are set to 3mv/cell delta peak cut-off.

I actually haven't blown up a cell in over 15 years. We treated ni-cads even worse.

post pics of damage!

show us what happens!:flaming::flaming::sneaky:

That can't apply unless you have some sort of cobbled 6-probe temp checker.


I kept saying how we used to abuse NiCDs much worse, and that if you do things right you can't blow up a pack, that was UNTIL I exploded two last summer. One happened as I was standing next to it and it blew apart with such ferocity that it left me with a bruise on one of my buttcheeks that took two months to go away.

its not funny....but it is.....

you got shot in the a$$ like forrest gump!

million dollar wound?

i have had a cell vent, and i have had the almighty hottness come out of a battery i was trying to solder!

but never blow up!

it wasn't, but it was

yuppers, just like forest and about scared the crap out of me because I honestly thought I'd been shot

thought it might cost a million the first night after the wife saw what appeared on first glance to be a hicky, lucky for me it got worse overnight

box
 

well i just looked on the box and it says nothing about not trickle charging it. it says for more power charge at 6A. doesnt say anything else

yeah, that's a wive's tale. every slow charger is a trickle charger, so half the RTRs that come complete with battery and charger must have been wrong too. nope

ok just got off the phone from trinity. They are going to replace it. Im going to send them an email once i receive the new one asking what rate of charge they want me to use for the first charge. i thought i was doing it right. i read alot of info online and i came up with a 4600 should be charge for its first time at .46 amps. So last question

What do you think i should charge it at. I know one of you put let it have it right off the get go but what do u all think. Also thanks for everyones help and time.

Unless something has changed recently, don't bother to e-mail Trinity, call them. Past track record shows they don't get back to their e-mails in a timely fashion (hardly ever). You may have better luck going to Tech Talk and posting the question, if you only want to communicate online.

Trinity IB 4600
 

Hi all.
I recently purchased some Trinity 4600 6cell team packs,,
They were crap?:flaming:
I had to go to the local R/C shop, and pay a premium price for some SMC 4600 packs..At least 100 secs run time difference..heaps better cells..but they were iffy on consistancy..we had to basically change cells around after a run to get the discharge/charge times right....The numbers on the packs didnt mean too much to me as they were wrong....After full charge, some only had 1.13-1.17 volts straight off the charger..using muti meter on each cell..:confused:

It wasnt me either, a few others who waited for the 4600's had duds as well...
The shop I got them off was willing to break apart packs to replace dud cells..That was good..but i needed them during the event,, not after...He done the best he could,,Thanks ..
Tried all week before a major event, 1/12 mod brushless..couldnt get run time..Changed a lot to find the problem..
Then borrowd someones "old 4200's"..and i made the time..Wasnt i pissed.
I never abuse my cells..I took it for granted that "Team matched" packs would be fine..Ha!!!!!
I usually buy my cells in bulk and match my own..cheaper and easier.
I had some 4200..but was waiting for the 4600..as they were being legal in Aus on that weekend. 1st july.
I was running out of time..so i orded some off the net, paid fast freight..
And the rest is history..
I dont know if they are pushing the limits for capacity, but it seems that IB at least arnt doing to well..
I had some IB 3800...bought bulk..they were prety sad as well..ran my old GP3700..they were sooo much better...(where is GP now?)
any way,,the 4600's vented real bad...wasnt too happy about that either,,,
Just my little spit..
mike

The major problem with the current sub-c race cells is that they pack to much capacity in a size that is to small. It seems that battery manufacturers seem to think that they need to beat each other by releasing the highest possible capacity cell. When you combine this capacity with low IR and high average voltage you get a cell that is not very consistent and has a short shelf life.

To get more reliable cells we would need to go backwards in capacity but it has been my experience that once there is a higher mAh cell available racers want to buy it so going backwards is not an option. We could go to bigger cells but the sanctioning bodies wouldn't allow this as EFRA and BRCA went the opposite direction buy forcing the cell manufacturers to make the cells smaller for 2008.

With the current improvements made in the Lipo market Lipos will give you the same or better performance than sub-c cells and they are defintately more reliable but proper care and charging is a must.

+1


bring back a 3300 max rule
-or-
go lipo

no pictures?

IB Cells..
 

Back a few years ago when IBs first appeared in the R/C scene, everybody bought them right away because of the capacity.... And just about everyone at the track I raced that bought them had this happen..

I have pretty much stuck to GPs... never had a cell pop or go bad before its time.

A lot of my buddies are using the EP cells.. but they seem to have some probs too.. cells going bad.. The EP 4200 and 4500 have some exceptional voltage though.. seems to be a gamble..

I'll stick with my GPs if given a choice.

I'm very surprised that Trinity gave you the time of day.. let alone offered to replace a pack! Maybe they have realized that if you are charging 2-3x the amount for a pack... ya better have some decent customer support!


Jerome :cool: