Help question with puffed lipos
 

As the title stated....

I have trakpower lipos that are 2 cycles old, or should I say new. I bought them new, but the sat for a long time, nearly a year.

I made sure they were balanced, charged and used, then balanced and charged again.

Almost out of no where, with no out of the normal use, they both puffed.

One is enough to notice, and the other if you look at it, you can tell its slightly puffed.

The warantee date is passed, and I cant return them.

I dont care about the money to much, as whats done cant be reversed.

I also dont want to burn one up in my rc and risk loosing the electronics or truck.

Would you use them, anyway, or just toss them (properly) and suck it up and buy new ones.

Again, money not the issue, safety and not wanting to burn up my truck is the true concern.

Thanks

If it's just slight then monitor them closely and continue to run them. If you aren't sure it's only slightly puffed dispose of them. The most common cause of puffed cells is storing in a fully charged state. Try to avoid this in the future and you likely won't have this issue again.

This is why I buy cheap batteries...

Use them for 6 months, toss them, buy new ones.

I disagree with link.. there are many many reasons for a lipo to swell or puff..when they do they are unsafe.. as the insulating foil now can not contain the cell material..send them back to trak power and see tell them ur story maybe u'll get a New pack..storing at full charge is the last reason a cell will Puff.. it might loose capacity but will not puff thats a misnomer there..I also have a set of trakpower saddle paks that puffed after 2 years of use..1 cell just lost all voltage while charging and the other took full charge to 6 volts and the other has 2.4..opps no balance outlet at the time..

Sounds like they self discharged too much while they weren't being used, since it's out of warranty, I don't think you have any choice but to buy new batteries.

If you fully charged them and then stored them that is probably why they puffed. Lipos should be stored 3.7-3.8v per cell and in a room no hotter than room temperature.

They arrived, UPS, and were put into my office closet. Where they sat till I charged them, before using them. I checked the voltage, charged them, used them, balanced and charged them. They were fine, then puffed.

I emailed trakpower todsye, expecting them to say sorry out or warantee, but well see. I already bought new ones, so if they are replaced - bonus to me.

I'm going to say that was your problem....you cant charge them and then let them sit.

Re read the thread... I believe he states he got em in the mail and threw them strait into storage without charging them

You should try the same. :rolleyes:

He stated he threw them in the closet when they arrived, then charged them up before using them, ran them down and THEN charged them again after.

You cannot charge a lipo fully to 4.2V/cell and then let them sit. 3.7-3.8V/cell is what you need to have them at for storage.

When you say “balanced and charged them” do you mean balance, then charge without balancing? Or a balance charge?

Many folks have reported storing a pack at full charge then finding it puffed.

The only packs I've ever puffed was from storing charged. I've more than once charged everything up for a race day, then not used all the packs. Week or two later when pull out things to get ready for the weekend, sure enough packs that were left charged puffed. I now make effort to use an old school lightbulb discharger to knock the charge off what doesn't get ran before packing things up. The puffed packs will still work fine, and I use them around the house to play, but they will begin getting out of balance and start hitting lvc early.