2. OVERCHARGE – LiPos are extremely non tolerant to an overcharge condition. A standard charge profile is CC/CV to 4.200V. Drastically overcharging a cell just once is a sure way to send a cell into thermal runaway. Overcharging a cell slightly but repeatedly is also extremely bad for a cell. For example, it you charge a cell to 4.300V, the lithium ions start plating on the electrodes forming lithium metal. Lithium ions are not flammable, but lithium metal is. Every slight overcharge cycle will plate more and more lithium metal resulting in a battery that is very prone to igniting.

The best way to prevent overcharging is to charge through a balancer and to avoid chargers that do not charge with the standard 4.200V CC/CV charge profile. At this point in time I do not recommend passively balancing the cell (matching the voltages while the cell is not charging) – I posted my reasons for this in another thread somewhere. There is an Integy charger with a 4.25V/Cell setting which allows for a slight overcharge. In my opinion, that charger should be banned.