Vapaneezer Scrooge
Vendor
- Joined
- Dec 23, 2017
- Messages
- 6,128
I thought I would share this, as I hadn't a clue until it happened to me.
So I was sorting through my vape spare parts and components from dead mods and came across something a bit scary, I had a triple Li-po battery pack that was under voltage, I only kept it for reference but I forgot about it and had a bit of a shock when I dug it out, 1 cell had expanded pretty much to its limit, it's the first time I had come across a battery in this condition so naturally it was a bit of a butt clenching moment.
Anyway I researched the best way to dispose of a lipo battery safely, it turns out to be pretty simple, snip any wires off and pop it into a salty water solution (I used 2 tablespoons in a jam jar) for a few days, it should start bubbling after a minute or so, ideally you should check if it has any charge left in it with a multimeter, in this case it was still over 1 volt after 3 days so I just left it for a week and now the voltage is next to nothing and safe to dispose of.
Even if your battery isn't swollen, you should always fully discharge them before disposing of as it causes some pretty hairy moments for recycling centres as they often explode in the sorting process.
*This is for Li-Po batteries as in the photos, 18650/21700 Li-on are generally less problematic.
Most recycle centres and some supermarkets accept 18650's Li-on cells but you should always protect the +/- ends first (I use a blob of glue from a glue gun on each end).
There are other methods to fully discharge cells but I wanted to make this safe asap and this was easy.
If anyone has a better method please share.
(No Polymer Clay cats were harmed in this post)
So I was sorting through my vape spare parts and components from dead mods and came across something a bit scary, I had a triple Li-po battery pack that was under voltage, I only kept it for reference but I forgot about it and had a bit of a shock when I dug it out, 1 cell had expanded pretty much to its limit, it's the first time I had come across a battery in this condition so naturally it was a bit of a butt clenching moment.
Anyway I researched the best way to dispose of a lipo battery safely, it turns out to be pretty simple, snip any wires off and pop it into a salty water solution (I used 2 tablespoons in a jam jar) for a few days, it should start bubbling after a minute or so, ideally you should check if it has any charge left in it with a multimeter, in this case it was still over 1 volt after 3 days so I just left it for a week and now the voltage is next to nothing and safe to dispose of.
Even if your battery isn't swollen, you should always fully discharge them before disposing of as it causes some pretty hairy moments for recycling centres as they often explode in the sorting process.
*This is for Li-Po batteries as in the photos, 18650/21700 Li-on are generally less problematic.
Most recycle centres and some supermarkets accept 18650's Li-on cells but you should always protect the +/- ends first (I use a blob of glue from a glue gun on each end).
There are other methods to fully discharge cells but I wanted to make this safe asap and this was easy.
If anyone has a better method please share.
(No Polymer Clay cats were harmed in this post)
