Battery Fire Today

[Jgibson]

Buddy of mine was breaking in his Rotax 503 in his Hawk lite sport plane on the ground today. He had left the master switch on, so the brand new lithium ion battery was low.
We jumped the starter to get it running and observed the volt meter, which sat at 10 volts.
After running approximately 40 minutes of the hour required, the volt meter went to 11 volts, then immediately to 12. At that point, it lit off. As I ran for the fire extinguisher, he fought with disconnecting it and upon getting it free, threw it away from the plane.
It burned and smoked profusely for 5 minutes or so before finally burning itself out. IF this had happened while in the air, there is no way he would have gotten it on the ground before the fire had done serious damage to the plane, IF he could have seen anything through the dense white smoke.
Taught both of us a valuable lesson. I myself will NEVER install one of these until or unless better overcharge protection is in place and unless a low-charge shutoff is in place to prevent it from discharging too far in the first place.
It's just not worth what I saw today, no matter how light and compact it may be.

[gasman]

What brand was this battery?

[rv7charlie]

Yes, please specify brand, model number, and if it is indeed a lithium *ion* battery. If it is, "there's your problem."

I haven't heard of anyone who recommends using a lithium ion battery in an a/c.

Do be aware that there are multiple battery chemistries that include 'lithium' in the name/chemistry. Some are much safer than others.

Charlie

[Mike S]

Originally Posted by rv7charlie

Do be aware that there are multiple battery chemistries that include 'lithium' in the name/chemistry.

Charlie

My favorite is dilithium crystals

[n82rb]

Originally Posted by Mike S

My favorite is dilithium crystals

are you kidding? 30 years and 7 movies an those things still keep phasing!...

bob burns
RV-4 N82RB

[Mike S]

Originally Posted by n82rb

are you kidding? 30 years and 7 movies an those things still keep phasing!...

bob burns
RV-4 N82RB

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story...ths-to-6-weeks

[ColoRv]

Brand please...

[scrollF4]

Originally Posted by Jgibson

Buddy of mine was breaking in his Rotax 503 in his Hawk lite sport plane on the ground today. He had left the master switch on, so the brand new lithium ion battery was low.
We jumped the starter to get it running and observed the volt meter, which sat at 10 volts.
After running approximately 40 minutes of the hour required, the volt meter went to 11 volts, then immediately to 12. At that point, it lit off. As I ran for the fire extinguisher, he fought with disconnecting it and upon getting it free, threw it away from the plane.
It burned and smoked profusely for 5 minutes or so before finally burning itself out. IF this had happened while in the air, there is no way he would have gotten it on the ground before the fire had done serious damage to the plane, IF he could have seen anything through the dense white smoke.
Taught both of us a valuable lesson. I myself will NEVER install one of these until or unless better overcharge protection is in place and unless a low-charge shutoff is in place to prevent it from discharging too far in the first place.
It's just not worth what I saw today, no matter how light and compact it may be.

As the previous repliers said, we need to know the type of lithium battery. Many of us fly EarthX batteries, which are Lithium IRON (not lithium ion). Flying a lithium ion battery is, well, in a word ... risky, no thanks to their trend for high combustibility. We're not seeing this issue with lithium IRON batteries.

I'm really glad he got the battery out of there, and that it happened on the ground.

So, you have our attention: Was it a lithium IRON or lithium ION battery?

[Tbone]

It seems very similar to a previous thread a while back. Search "A very lucky pilot"... Not sure how to link it..

[...Here you go...try this link It's in the Safety Forum, which is probably where this thread should be...dch...one of the moderators.]

[Lenny Iszak]

I have a swollen Odyssey PC545 on my bench from a friend's Hawk. It got overcharged due to a bad regulator on the Rotax.
You can't expect any battery chemistry to stand up to overvoltage conditions. It's easily preventable though.

Lenny