Respect Your Lipos Part 1 - Lipo Fire

Watch a 5s 5000 lipo burst, go up in smoke and then catch fire.
Occasionally we have a battery or two that is ready for retirement. Rather than dispose of them as we would normally, we thought we'd use them to demonstrate some do’s and don'ts when it comes to handling, charging and storing your lipos.
We personally know of a few people that have lost their homes or garages in lipo fires and it would be awesome if we could raise awareness about lipo safety issues that all people in the hobby should be comfortable with.
When it comes to lipo safety, we’d like to spread the word because with the number of new people coming into the hobby, it’s the old story of “you don’t know what you don’t know”. I wonder how many people that buy their first Bind ‘n Fly planes take the time to read and understand the lipo warning section in their manual?
I need to issue some kind of disclaimer here that under no circumstances should anyone replicate what we do in the videos. We have fire extinguishers, safety glasses and collectively, have many years of experience in handling lipos and other hazardous goods. We learn more about them all the time.
This video was a big fail based on the intended outcome but should serve to demonstrate the amount of energy that is in a fully charged lipo, even one as old as the one we spiked. It is/was a 5s 5000mAh lipo that was part of a pair that Danny used in his 10s powered Pattern Ship. After about 150 cycles, it was no longer able to put out enough power to fly the plane. A much newer lipo would store more energy than what you see in the video.
The short that we created with the nail can also happen accidentally for a number of reasons. In one case we know of, a fully charged lipo was knocked off a workbench and fell on a concrete floor. That house is no longer standing! Also, please make sure that you watch over your lipos as they charge. The same thing can happen if they become overcharged.
This video was going to be a one-off to show the difference between shorting out a fully charged lipo and one that was at storage voltage, and how much safer it is to store batteries that are at storage voltage. In the past, we have spiked lipos whose cells were at 3.85 volts and the reaction was very minimal, certainly not enough to start a fire (if stored correctly). Unfortunately, we messed up and weren’t able to show you one that we spiked at storage voltage but will do it again in another video.
From here on in, when we have lipos that are at the end of their useful life, we will use them to demonstrate a number of lipo safety topics. I hope you will find them interesting and will treat your lipos with the respect they deserve.
I'd like to give a big shout out to Danny who donated the lipos, pounded the spikes and who will be working with me to bring you more of these videos! Thanks Danny!
Thanks for watching!
The Royalty Free Music is from YouTube’s Audio Library
Song title: Trancer
Artist: Gunnar Olsen