I had a crash with my RC car today, this was a brand new (never used) 3S.
The crash wasn’t that hard but it was enough to crack the bumper and engage the servo saver. Where the LiPo sat between the battery posts even though it was a snug fit it moved forward and created a indentation against the battery.
I am guessing its not good to use but I thought I would ask here first, if not how should I dispose of it?
Few weeks ago I crashed my electric sailplane. Only could save ESC, servos and receiver.
It was the same brand lipo as yours, 2650 45c, with 4 cycles.
I know there are people that still use a crashed lipo but is like a little bomb that you don’t know when will expolde.
What I did: get a bowl or similar,
Fill it with water and a big quantity of salt.
Remove.
Put the lipo inside during one day.
Afeter that it will read 0.0volts and you can throw it to the bin safely.
By the way, there are going to come outsome bubbles from the lipo but don’t worry about it.
Hope it helps.
1.Throw it in a fire and run 
2. or use it till it blows 
3. or toss it in the bin :weary:
If you choose option 1 please make a video
If you decide to risk continuing to use it, I’d be using a quality safe charge bag and watching the charging cycle like a hawk, with a fire extinguisher nearby. You should also make peace with the possibility of fire damage to your RC vehicle.
If you’re OK with all that, keep it. If you’re not, don’t.
Dispose of it correctly. Every Home Depot and Lowes have a free battery disposal service and I am sure the Oz equivalent will as well. Just put it in the one for power tools. We don’t need lithium leaching into our water systems.
Asking here is useless.
Forums like this are obsessed with paranoia and you wont get objective answer.
Its only upon you to decide.
Worrying about a Li-PO battery venting-with-flame under normal usage conditions is called paranoia.
Worrying about a physically damaged Li-PO battery venting-with-flame during continued use is called legitimate concern.
Not worrying about a physically damaged Li-PO battery venting-with-flame during continued use is called a false sense of security.
Telling other people not to worry about it is called bad advice.
The pictures wont tell much.
The main thing is if the cells are puncured/cut or not.
If not, I would’n worry too much, dents are ok.
As long as it charges and discharges fine I would use it, or I would tear it apart to see what is in there. I’m not familiar with these packs but I imagine there are individual cells in there. Those cells are brand new, no reason to throw them away.
There are indeed “cells” in a pack like that, but not the sort of cells you’re thinking of. Lithium-ion Polymer battery packs like the one pictured in the OP typically consist of multiple flat square/rectangular type cells wrapped only in foil (in other words, no hard protective casing). It’s difficult to imagine a practical use for them individually.
Ive had the same thing happen with a lipo in my RC helicopter. It was a brand new battery and had very similar damage. I binned it (safely) as I would rather replace a battery than have it burn up my heli mid flight . Although it wasn’t split It may have been weakend inside and with the high discharge rate of these things they can heat up rapidly, the exspantion and contraction may cause it to fail at any time.
In that case I guess I would just use it but only at night so if it did flame it would be more awesome.
I agree, just stick it in a beater car though, and have video camera’s set up constantly.
To give people an idea of the current draw of an rc car on full chat, I built one my brother bought me for Christmas, we fitted s ten turn single motor and 50a speed controller, it melted the speed controller after putting two ni-mh packs through it, we ended up adding a 100a speed controller.
A brushless plane I built uses two Li-po packs at 14.8v, I think it worked out I’d draw 45a max from each pack, or to put it another way, I had about 1.1kw of power. I use a 1.1kw 3 phase motor to drive a fair size fridge compressor in work life.
RC uses some serious power, seeing a flashlight drawing 3a or so is laughable in comparison.
@gords
These batteries are 2200mAh x 25C constant and 35C burst, thats about 55 amps constant and 77 amps burst.
I have a 60 amp ESC capable of 90 amps burst and a 4370kv motor capable of 500 watts.
Running off a 3S battery, 4370kv (RPM per volt) x 12.6v = 55062 RPM.
I have calculated it to do around 120km (75mph) but with drag and friction of moving parts it will probably do around 90km or less. Ill try and test it with GPS once I get everything how I want it.
The battery is gone now, I don’t have anywhere safe to store it incase it does burst in to flames so I thought its best to dispose of it.
I have another 2 batteries but they aren’t very cheap, I cant afford any more crashes
Umm, try a brushless……
Those motors in my plane ran at about 94000 rpm.
I’m very scared of that thing considering their pushers with razor sharp high pitch blades, top speed is about 120mph, which is the ceiling of the foam airframe, any faster requires serious work.
If you don’t have a brushless set up, get one, the motors really blew me away. I’ve not run one in a car, but in planes the weight saving/power increase means a battery powered plane is at least as fast/agile as the ic equivalent. Their that good.
It it brushless, I could go up to a 7000kv or higher rating and have it at something stupid 88200 RPM but it would be nearly unusable. But also the higher kv rating the less torque it will have so it would be good for high speed runs and nothing else.
I just got back from the empty car park at the beach with it a few moments ago, first I ran a 2S through it then another new 3S and the power is crazy already with the 3S battery.
What started out as a $70 RC car I have spent around $400 on it over the last year then lost interest before I ever used it, I just got around to completing everything I was doing a few days ago and have only driven it 3 times so far.
The old motor and new motor
The old speed controller
The new speed controller
Ive actually put the stock motor and ESC back in it and havent used it with the new ones yet, I didn’t want to jump in the deep end right away. Those pics were taken nearly a year ago.
The end
Its somewhat about rolling the dice, and the odds certainly are not heading the right way with each damage.
Dented cells Might be ok, but its about how deep the dent Went, as you don’t know if its done any damage to the internal cell structure, for risk of internal short/failure. Also keep in mind that the extent of the dent does not fully represent the extent of the impact, due to elasticity of the materials. Looking at super slow motion videos helps reveal how much things really deform, like looking at golf balls compress to a D shape is pretty crazy.
BTW, Serious looking dampers there!