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Hi all! I figured I would make a little writeup on the proper and safe disposal of a damaged or dated LiPo battery. But first, let me clear some confusion here:
Salt Water Method:
This method has been passed around for a long time, ever since the first lipo packs hit the market for hobby use. The disposal method was originally written by a Kokam cell manufacturer engineer and details having to first slice the pack open with a sharp razor blade and then submersing the lipo cells into a salt water/brine solution. The brine solution would then enter the opened cells and begin to render them inert. Obviously slicing lipo cells open with a sharp razor blade can cause problems with the pack wanting to erupt into flames, so the method was quickly pulled from public view and changed to the proper disposal method. Unless you actually slice the cells open to allow the brine to saturate the insides of the pack, then I do not suggest attempting it. The brine solution, through electrolysis, will actually eat away the thin aluminum tabs on the individual cells causing you to get a very inaccurate and imprecise method of measuring the voltage. Most of the time you will see 0v at the meter, which leads you to think the cells are discharged. They are not, I can almost fully guarantee it 100%. Very rarely does the method actually work, and totally kills the cells, but for the most part you are left with no accurate way to measure the individual cell voltages because there is no terminals to measure with! Many a times have people proven the cells still have a charge in them by puncturing the cells with a nail. The following video is proof of this:
[video=youtube;E0dBCeOPw4c]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0dBCeOPw4c[/video]
As you may have noted (you did watch it before proceeding down to here, right?
), the salt water bathed cells were not inert and still had energy inside of them, despite the volt meter saying it had 3 volts (3 volts is nothing for a 6s pack). If your cells were punctured then a brine solution will work, so long as it can enter all of the cells. I would not recommend puncturing any cells that are still in tact- proceed at own risk!
The proper method to discharge a lipo pack is to either set your NiMH discharger to discharge mode and set the voltage down as low as it can go, then discharge at a 1C rating max (for a 2250 pack for example, that would be 2.25 amps). Please make sure you do the necessary precautions and discharge OUTSIDE away from anything that can catch fire in the event the pack does flame up during discharge. Preferably, discharge on concrete inside of a concrete cinder block to keep flames from spreading.
Afterwards, let the pack sit for about half an hour, then run it again on your discharger. At this point, as soon as the pack has very little to no voltage left in it, cut your connector off (or desolder it, whichever works for you) and twist the positive and negative leads together. Let the pack sit overnight inside of the cinder block. Put a cinder block lid on it if you must. At this point, the pack is ready for disposal and can be tossed into any garbage bin- lipo cells are biodegradable and can be tossed into any regular garbage bin. They will not hurt the environment so there is no need to recycle.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.
Salt Water Method:
This method has been passed around for a long time, ever since the first lipo packs hit the market for hobby use. The disposal method was originally written by a Kokam cell manufacturer engineer and details having to first slice the pack open with a sharp razor blade and then submersing the lipo cells into a salt water/brine solution. The brine solution would then enter the opened cells and begin to render them inert. Obviously slicing lipo cells open with a sharp razor blade can cause problems with the pack wanting to erupt into flames, so the method was quickly pulled from public view and changed to the proper disposal method. Unless you actually slice the cells open to allow the brine to saturate the insides of the pack, then I do not suggest attempting it. The brine solution, through electrolysis, will actually eat away the thin aluminum tabs on the individual cells causing you to get a very inaccurate and imprecise method of measuring the voltage. Most of the time you will see 0v at the meter, which leads you to think the cells are discharged. They are not, I can almost fully guarantee it 100%. Very rarely does the method actually work, and totally kills the cells, but for the most part you are left with no accurate way to measure the individual cell voltages because there is no terminals to measure with! Many a times have people proven the cells still have a charge in them by puncturing the cells with a nail. The following video is proof of this:
[video=youtube;E0dBCeOPw4c]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0dBCeOPw4c[/video]
As you may have noted (you did watch it before proceeding down to here, right?
), the salt water bathed cells were not inert and still had energy inside of them, despite the volt meter saying it had 3 volts (3 volts is nothing for a 6s pack). If your cells were punctured then a brine solution will work, so long as it can enter all of the cells. I would not recommend puncturing any cells that are still in tact- proceed at own risk! The proper method to discharge a lipo pack is to either set your NiMH discharger to discharge mode and set the voltage down as low as it can go, then discharge at a 1C rating max (for a 2250 pack for example, that would be 2.25 amps). Please make sure you do the necessary precautions and discharge OUTSIDE away from anything that can catch fire in the event the pack does flame up during discharge. Preferably, discharge on concrete inside of a concrete cinder block to keep flames from spreading.
Afterwards, let the pack sit for about half an hour, then run it again on your discharger. At this point, as soon as the pack has very little to no voltage left in it, cut your connector off (or desolder it, whichever works for you) and twist the positive and negative leads together. Let the pack sit overnight inside of the cinder block. Put a cinder block lid on it if you must. At this point, the pack is ready for disposal and can be tossed into any garbage bin- lipo cells are biodegradable and can be tossed into any regular garbage bin. They will not hurt the environment so there is no need to recycle.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.
