LiPo Bags and Metal Boxes

A starting point for LiPo charging and storage protection has to be the commercially available options. Some preliminary thinking on these options is set out below. Note we are not offering any advice or making recommendations, or have any commercial links with products mentioned – we are just sharing our thinking.

These have evolved from the original velcro flap sealed envelope style to all shapes and sizes for single to multiple LiPos. Many now also have built in wiring access holes to make it easy to separate the battery inside from the charger outside the bag. If you haven’t looked for a while visit your favourite search engine or mass market online retailer and search for ‘lipo bag’ to explore the range now available, along with videos of them in action.

Against our emerging Action Plan these bags play some role in both forcing discipline into what we do, and some limited containment in the early stages of an incident in hopefully keeping some of the flames / explosion at bay while other actions are taken. Only for very small batteries would we see them being an effective overall solution – and other sites we read support this view.

Of the many videos out there about the impact of LiPo bags this is one pointed out to us by some Canadian colleagues. It speaks for itself – both on the potential scale of LiPo fires and the challenges in controlling them. Video link HERE

Not far into exploring LiPo bags you will discover the options of metal ammunition cases and the Bat-Safe line of products. Our sense are these are a big step up in providing containment, and some smoke filtering as well with the Bast-Safes.

Realistically the metal style ammunition boxes are more of a storage / transport option unless you choose to drill holes in them to allow wiring access (in turn compromising the structure unless you can seal it effectively. The Bat-Safes are more about charging. Here are some relevant links on both.

• HeliGraphix quick test of metal boxes and Bat-Safe HERE
• HeliGraphix review of Bat-Safe HERE
• Bat-Safe home page HERE

Bat-Safe products are available through hobby retailers

There are also a range of commercially available explosion proof safes and dedicated charging cabinets that have come up in our discussions. As we learn about these we will add any relevant content. In general the ones we have seen are are more expensive than we would naturally consider for a home workshop or hobby club (which, in its self, may be a false economy!).