For those who run LiPo oval regularly at your tracks, how many LiPo fires have you seen to date ?

zero, zip, nada...

seen 4-5 SMOKED ESC's and a couple NiMh's go KaBOOM though

zero, zip, nada...

seen 4-5 SMOKED ESC's and a couple NiMh's go KaBOOM though

Ditto here in Michigan

zero, zip, nada...

seen 4-5 SMOKED ESC's and a couple NiMh's go KaBOOM though


We have a few that have pointed to this thread (trying to illustrate how incredibly dangerous Lipo is):

http://forums.all-battery.com/index.php?showtopic=1282


So there is a great fear that if I run my LiPo car at our track, there is a real risk of it burning down the entire building.

Just trying to gather some hard data.

The guy who works the RC Counter at our LHS has started 2 foil packs for airplanes on fire on the bench at the hobbyshop. One of them was a damaged pack he was trying to revive and charged it too fast/high amp.

He didn't say what he did to cause the other one, but he did say it was USER ERROR and the use of a CRAPPY charger.

Some of the guys at our track are afraid of them because they have heard that if one catches fire they cannot be put out with a fire extinguisher, water, or anything.

Ever try to put a NiMh or other ELECTRICAL fire out?

...I've heard the Airplane guys say they have a bucket of SALT WATER at the places they fly...and if they catch fire they toss them in there, but they also said they've never used it at the field.

These guys did a pylon race on Thanksgiving day... EVERYONE there was flying with LIPOs... A few said they had ruined packs by over discharging them, forgetting to unplug them, causing them to discharge...on guy lost his plane in a tree, and didn't get it back for 3 days. (His battery was ZERO VOLTS - and they charged it for about 5 minutes to see if it would take any of the charge..it did, so they SLOW CHARGED IT and it came back just fine. They watched it very carefully while charging for excessive heat and/or swelling. This battery came back just fine - and this guy was using it at the T'Day event.)

I have been runnung Lipos for some time now and no fires. none!

I did have a IB cell Nimh batteries explode and catch on fire in my hobby room in the house. Not fun...

The boat, airplane, and helicopter guys have been running lipos for years now.
I never seen or heard about one catching on fire.

Whats the problem with running lipos in cars?

Is it that battery matching companies are misinformation the racers for more time? Who knows?

I do know that I'm having fun running lipos in my touring car!!
Bottom line, thats what its all about right? Having fun? :cool:

I have been runnung Lipos for some time now and no fires. none!

I did have a IB cell Nimh batteries explode and catch on fire in my hobby room in the house. Not fun...

The boat, airplane, and helicopter guys have been running lipos for years now.
I never seen or heard about one catching on fire.

Whats the problem with running lipos in cars?

Is it that battery matching companies are misinformation the racers for more time? Who knows?

I do know that I'm having fun running lipos in my touring car!!
Bottom line, thats what its all about right? Having fun? :cool:


Yup - you got it. I've talked with a few different tracks now, and several guys who have been running LiPo in cars for a good period of time -- same reports. Zero fires. Good to hear.

I'm sure it CAN happen -- nothing is 100% guaranteed absolute. But it seems like there is also a LOT of misinformation being tossed around -- which is too bad.

We have a few that have pointed to this thread (trying to illustrate how incredibly dangerous Lipo is):

http://forums.all-battery.com/index.php?showtopic=1282


So there is a great fear that if I run my LiPo car at our track, there is a real risk of it burning down the entire building.

Just trying to gather some hard data.

Looking at the list you provided, maybe 85-90% were user error. Sure Lipo's can be dangerous. But, the risk is not any more then with NiMh or even Nicad. If you abuse a battery, it will be dangerous.
Also, sand will stop a lipo fire. I saw a video of a test where they used a concrete cinder block and a large Ziplock filled with sand. They placed the lipo in the block and sat the bag over the hole. When the lipo started to burn the sand immediately stopped the fire.

I believe the Orion/ Peak packs are safe. Just make sure that you use a lipo only charger and you can cut the risk considerably. A good quality charger is the FMA (http://www.fmadirect.com/index.htm). There are a few others, but, I can't think of them right now.
Here is Kokams' safety test data (http://www.kokam.com/english/product/kokam_safety_02.html).

Yes that's a very good idea -- using a LiPo - ONLY charger certainly eliminates LOTS of those cases where someone charged a LiPo pack using NiCD or NiMH charge modes.
I've also heard very good things about the FMA units.

The Kokam test data is also very interesting. Thanks for that link.

like geezer said that the link that was listed by GOODWRENCH had about 80-90 % user error being the true cause. Maybe some PEOPLE are dangerous when using things they dont understand or have the proper information on how to handle them. But back on subject, I personally have seen ZERO li-pos go up at either the track or airfeild. Have seen a couple Nimh's vent out here lately though.

None, and I have been running Lipo's. The thing is that you need to charge them at the recomended rate, not like you wou would other batteries.

3 1 caught a canopy on fire, 1 melted a polyester chair, the last one burned the hell out of a guys hand trying to get rid of it. If youve ever seen this its pretty impressive. Kind of like lighting a roman candle. They keep going and going and going.. Ive seen the same amount of nimh batteries they just go boom. Who said rc is safe???

3 1 caught a canopy on fire, 1 melted a polyester chair, the last one burned the hell out of a guys hand trying to get rid of it. If youve ever seen this its pretty impressive. Kind of like lighting a roman candle. They keep going and going and going.. Ive seen the same amount of nimh batteries they just go boom. Who said rc is safe???

I'd be interested to know the details on these:

-- What brand and type of LiPo pack ?
-- What charger was used ?
-- Was the CORRECT charge rate used (i.e. 1C ?)
-- Was the charger set the correct charge type ? (CC/CV)
-- Was the pack damaged or bulged in any way ?

Thanks -- it's good to get all of the data on these things.

We have several using them at our track including me. No issues so far. This season I have seen three NIMHs explode.

It usually points to the user. One new guy asked what rate to charge his new Lipo at. I asked if he read the directions that came with it, the answer was "what directions". Strange since it was an Orion with the directions in paper in the box and on the battery as well.

Some people will always make mistakes and then be famous for it.

Does anyone recall when the Reedy Quasar Pro first came out and NIMHs were being overcharged and detonating. I saw one blow in a guys face. We washed his eyes out with water and called 911. Some damage but it was not permanent. The Quasars were recalled and the program error was corrected at no charge (to avoid liability suits).

Again, people and equipment can and will fail.

I'd be interested to know the details on these:

-- What brand and type of LiPo pack ?
-- What charger was used ?
-- Was the CORRECT charge rate used (i.e. 1C ?)
-- Was the charger set the correct charge type ? (CC/CV)
-- Was the pack damaged or bulged in any way ?

Thanks -- it's good to get all of the data on these things.
I never investigated the scenes. I just seen the end results.

We have been running Lipo since September at Hobbyplex in Omaha, NE and the SpeedZone in So. Sioux City, NE and have had no issues with Lipo. Everyone I know of is charging batteries properly. I for one monitor the charging process to insure that the Lipo battery does not get hot or overcharge. To date no problems and no issues. and I charge 4.9 amps which is recommended with a 4900 pak. Glad to be using Lipo

We have been running Lipo since September at Hobbyplex in Omaha, NE and the SpeedZone in So. Sioux City, NE and have had no issues with Lipo. Everyone I know of is charging batteries properly. I for one monitor the charging process to insure that the Lipo battery does not get hot or overcharge. To date no problems and no issues. and I charge 4.9 amps which is recommended with a 4900 pak. Glad to be using Lipo

That is great to hear ! Which 4900 pack is that ?

I am going to try to get over and run LiPo at Hobbyplex this winter sometime -- I've heard it is an awesome track.

Thx !

The 4900's we have been running at Hobbyplex are Trackpower. They are running 17.5 lipo and some of the guys are now switching from 13.5 battery to 21.5 lipo. Also you might want to try the Speedzone in South Sioux City, NE. We run 10.5 lipo there and they want to start a 21.5 lipo class also. Rob Murdock at Windtunnel racing also stocks lipo batteries at the SpeedZone. Hope to see you a one of those tracks


Jim Carson

5 minute racing on the VELODROME at roughly 52 mph with the 21.5 motor..batteries only took 1500 mAh to recharge. This class ran right at 2 full laps faster than the 27t STOCK record on the 820 ft. Velodrome.

Of course this was with the 3200 ORION LiPo.

I saw a NiMh cell explode, the interior (positive side) of the cell blasted out 15ft and lodged into an insulated garge door. Probably would've gone right through a person.

The owner said it was a brand new sport pack, factory assembled, just came off the track hot and the cell kept getting hotter. He threw a towel over it when it sparked up, probably saving a lot of people some serious burns.

I saw a NiMh cell explode, the interior (positive side) of the cell blasted out 15ft and lodged into an insulated garge door. Probably would've gone right through a person.

The owner said it was a brand new sport pack, factory assembled, just came off the track hot and the cell kept getting hotter. He threw a towel over it when it sparked up, probably saving a lot of people some serious burns.

Wow -- was it an IB pack ?

I saw a NiMh cell explode, the interior (positive side) of the cell blasted out 15ft and lodged into an insulated garge door. Probably would've gone right through a person.

The owner said it was a brand new sport pack, factory assembled, just came off the track hot and the cell kept getting hotter. He threw a towel over it when it sparked up, probably saving a lot of people some serious burns.


Heres some pictures from the paved nationals. This pack blew into the side of the trailor.

holy crap! I think the end result of some of these ni-mh explosions are worse than li-poly. I for one just had my first ni-mh venting today. the cell had just come off the charger. and i was sitting there talking to a friend and i heard a sputtering sound. i didn't think anything of it at the time. then i looked over at my freshly charged pack (charged at 6amps on a novak meliniem) seeing smoke sputtering out then just start pouring out of the pack. i put on a pair of gloves really fast and threw it outside. then finaly I went out to check the damage and one of the cells had bowed out and the positive terminal was heavly scard and damaged. so keep tally boys. we will have a ni-mh vs li-po fire score keeping. my bet is that more ni-mh batterys go up.

Saw 1 blow in my garage when stuck with razor nife on mistake. The other night at my buddies he had three diff bad lipos that we decided to shoot with .22.
2 did nothing 1 made a very nice fire, huge fun.
Looking forward to more explosions and fires in the future.
I love the way newbies mount lipos,,,,boom,fire.

Been running lipo's for 2 years. Charging with a lipo compatible charger with a balancer at the recommended rates.....packs haven't even gotten warm :thumbsup:

There was a lipo that fizzled last summer outdoors at a local track but I don't know the particulars of how old the battery was, etc.....

:( I had a 3200 LIPO pack get knocked out of the car Sunday (Wasn't in MY car) - it got hit and knocked pretty much all the way down the back straight...

The impact cracked the case on the end...

A little superglue gel on the inside of the case, and a new piece of servo tape to hold the case onto the battery...and an inspection of the cells - and back on the track for the next heat...

Wow -- was it an IB pack ?

Sure was. I had a micro 1200 cell puke its guts out last summer- also an IB.

I have seen a few racers "puff" a couple Lipo packs and I have also seen one blow-up in a guys face..but it was his fault (pluged it in backwards...)

Well maybe if you chaged the stupid batteries right we wouldent have these problems.
99.9% of fire are done by a lack of sence or just not listening. If more people would stop trying to peak everything out to the max and try to run the battery that it was made to run. We wouldent have these problems.
Ant battery is dangerous no matter what it is even 1 AA battery can hurt you.
Take this into counsideration.

Taylor

Also,inspect your packs after a wreck. If there's any damage to the case (on the 3200 Orion/Peak packs) or the shrink wrap,carefully check the cells to make sure there are no puncture marks. Do not use if you find any.

I had a Orion 3200 go poof on me once one day. After my 13.5 BL motor seized-up (endbell bearing),the battery smelled like it smoked. Checked the voltage of the pack and it read 0 volts. I opened up the case & found that there was a circuit board next to the terminals with 4 solder tabs-2 for each cell. One of the tabs was found to be unsoldered (I found the solder ball in the other half of the case). A drop of solder on the tab later,we checked the voltage & it read 8.4 volts. Good as new!

Got my first lipo pack Team Orion3200. Raced on Sunday then charged it back
up,,,,,,,, I was just wondering if there is a possiblity of it self dischargeing below 6volts while in my basement r/c workshop ? Should I be concernd about
it while not in use ????? I'm storeing it in a fire proof bag, for Lipo's
Thanks.... for any info.

As long as you UNPLUG it - you really shouldn't see any 'self discharge' with the lipo..

As long as you UNPLUG it - you really shouldn't see any 'self discharge' with the lipo..

When I got my Orion 3200 I charged it up and then let it sit for 3 days -- it peaked at 8.40 volts. 3 days later I checked it and it was at 8.38 volts. So there really is almost no self discharge. I always store mine between race days with a 50% charge or so.

Got my first lipo pack Team Orion3200. Raced on Sunday then charged it back
up,,,,,,,, I was just wondering if there is a possiblity of it self dischargeing below 6volts while in my basement r/c workshop ? Should I be concernd about
it while not in use ????? I'm storeing it in a fire proof bag, for Lipo's
Thanks.... for any info.

I noticed on the roar website today that you have to charge them in a bag of some kind. Where do you get these bags at?

..Try This

Lipo Sack Search (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=lipo+sack)

We use the LiPo Sack at our track... www.liposack.com

It's a nice sack... :)

HaHa, Todd...you said "nice sack". lol

Here's one. (http://www.racers-edge.com/store/customer/product.php?productid=24882&cat=334&page=1)

Here is the Battery Bunker.
http://www.batterybunker.com/

HaHa, Todd...you said "nice sack". lol

When we talked about them here at first, I felt like Beavis and Butthead...

Huh huh... He said sack.... huh huh.... huh huh huh....

so if there is no fires (or explosions), why is a lipo sack required at some tracks? I refuse to buy one. If a track requires it, I simply wont race there. Seems wrong that a track tells you, that you have to buy something.

NiMh need a sack or something, but not lipo. The most I have seen them do is expand (which is comical compared to sub c's sounding like a shotgun)

I noticed on the roar website today that you have to charge them in a bag of some kind. Where do you get these bags at?


ROAR is off the hook. I will have to think twice before goin to a ROAR race again

ROAR is off the hook. I will have to think twice before goin to a ROAR race again


Think of it as INSURANCE for Safety.

Your CAR has a SEAT BELT - why... a car sitting still isn't going to HURT YOU and hey - maybe you drive safe..so WHY do you need one? Then the GOV. says "You HAVE TO WEAR IT" ... hmmm why? 'cause people aren't smart enough to take their own SAFTEY into their OWN hands..and have to be TOLD what to do.

LIPO sacks are no different.

If you leave it up to the racers - they will blow their OWN Fingers off...or worse their NEIGHBORS...just to go .00001 seconds a lap faster. So, to help insure public safety - little things have to be done. Plus, it makes a good appearance to INSURANCE companies that people are being responsible..and may help keep the cost of Insurance Premiums low enough to be able to KEEP RACING.

I agree SW..safety first. I have been charging mine inside a used Army surplus ammo can, that's what a lot of the fly boys have been doing for years. They had a lot more problems, they got into it sooner, and there crashes can be even harder than ours. If a track doesn't require some kind of enclosure I would wonder why?

i got to see one 2 weeks ago at "the race station" in altoona pa. i have also been around 3 nimh's that blew up, so im kinda torn on the whole subject. lipos swell up like baloons, then 1-1/2 foot flames eventually come out of em. shame on your for not being there while its charging, or for overcharging em. if you put it in a sack, you will not see it do the balloon thing. i personnaly would rather have a small fire start next to me than have nimh guts blow into the side of my face.....or worse.

I saw one this summer for the first time at Allen's in Springfield, Illinois. It was about 15 feet away from me and I could feel the heat from the flame, it was like a propane torch, it scare the living daylights out of me. All I could do was stand there in shock, and everyone was yelling SAVE THE SPRINT CAR! Lucky for the owner he was not sitting in his chair when it happened because it would have disfigured him for sure. Everyone that was running that brand of lipos threw them away after it happened.

If you saw one go up, please post the brand and any charging info. . It would help us to make a decision what lipos are safer. :)

Please also post what charger was being used -- and the charge mode the charger was set to.

99.9999% of these issues are related to user error or charging a damaged pack that shouldn't be charged to start with.

Thx!