Lipo Disposal

[garlandk]

When I was cleaning out my shop this weekend I had a few batteries sitting on the top shelf that are well used! Probably nearly 2-3 years old and are puffed. They are all older turnigy batteries. What do you do to dispose them besides blowing them up

What I did this past weekend was drained the batteries all the way down then cut the plugs off and threw them in a bucket of salt water to sit overnight. Unsure what to do with them at this point.

Thanks guys!

 

[ChickenBalls]

I drain them, cut off plugs also, then set em outside. My wife takes all our flashlight batteries, game batts for my son's toys, to a recycle facility. She takes my old lipos when she makes the trip. I've heard the salt water trick before also.

 

[Capt.Roll]

Same. I discharge them completely and then cut off the discharge and balance leads. I'll drop them off at a Batteries Plus store if I know I'll be going by one of their locations when I'm out running some errands.

 

[Xpress]

The proper disposal of a lithium battery does not involve salt water. The acidic salt bath will corrode off the terminals on the cells and give you no way to verify how much energy (voltage) still resides inside of the cells. It can happen very quickly as well, sometimes in just hours depending on how acidic the bath is and how well (or poorly) made the terminals are.

The proper method to dispose of a lipo battery is to discharge it down to 0 volts using either a discharge function on a charger, or to hook the pack up to a bank of automotive light bulbs. When the battery is at or very near 0 volts, strip the positive and negative leads of the wires and twist them together. This will prevent the battery from regaining any voltage from resting. Wrap in tape and bring to a battery recycler.

 

[ryan_m]

A few years back when researching proper lipo disposal both ThunderPower and FlightPower recommended a salt water bath after discharging. I cannot find it on their sites now however.
I did find this article as well as a million more just like it:
http://www.ehow.com/how_6943512_dispose-lithium-polymer-battery.html
which also mentions doing a salt water bath.
And on the discharging, be very careful as they can puff up and apparently even ignite if discharged to low, so opinion on how low to discharge varies greatly depending on what you read.

@Xpress, where did you see the info on not using a salt bath? I would definitely like to know a definitive answer on this as I get asked the question fairly often at our club.

 

[Xpress]

That information came straight from a lithium battery engineer (he doesn't do forums unfortunately). The cell membranes are designed to insulate and protect against moisture and not even a salt bath can penetrate them. It does however eat the terminals right off of the cells, which gives you a 0.00v reading on a multimeter, leading you to believe that the cells are discharged when they can often still be full of energy. I recall someone actually testing this theory before when they placed a battery in a salt bath for a few weeks then went to puncture the cell to see if the pack was infact dead- it wasn't and it erupted in a fury of bubbles inside of the salt bath.

If the cell has been punctured then yeah you can probably use a salt bath just fine as the salt water solution will soak right in through the puncture. But the only definitive method to ensure those cells are fully discharged and inert is to discharge them with a device of some sort (charger, brushed motor, light bulbs, etc.). Puffing may occur as stated, so do be cautious. A cinder block ontop of concrete makes an excellent bunker to safely discharge batteries in (plus cinder blocks are usually pretty cheap).

 

[SteelHusker]

I've always taken my used lipos to Radio Shack. They take them free of charge. I just cut off my connectors to reuse. Hopefully my Radio Shack doesn't close since they just recently announced the closing of 400+ stores.

 

[nearhigh]

Lowes store has a bin for battery disposal. Here in Danville Va. the bin is behind where you go to do returns.

 

[Buck Tracker]

Now that the proper way has been covered........I find a dirt pile on the farm here and shoot my old lipo's with a .22 from a reasonable distance back. Tons of fun for the whole family, I will advise some caution though as I have had several cells not totally ruptured by the projectile.
Should I post a disclaimer now..........only for red necks! lol

 

[doublea]

+1 on the Lowe's bin.