Issue with new LIFE battery.
 

So I just ran in to an issue and gave myself a bit of a scare. I am in the final stages of finishing my new project and I was doing some wiring when I decided to chop the tamiya connectors off my battery so I could replace it with deans.

Out of no where a puff of smoke comes out of the battery pack just as I start to cut the wires. Now I have dealt with LiPo's before but never LIFE battery's so I am wondering what the hell I did wrong. The battery looks normal, no heat was present and the cells are all still reading above 3.2v each.

The battery is brand new and I just received it from Jugglez. It was tested and confirmed to be working before it was sent out. As of right now I have put the battery into my charging bag and put it somewhere it won't cause an issue if something else happens.

So my question is what caused this and what should I do with the battery.

Did you try to cut both wires at the same time?

Touching both wires at the same time can do that :/ might be dead now.

No I did not. My guess is somehow the positive and negative made contact even though I was being careful. I have done this before with lipos and had no issues. I guess I can chalk this one up as a failure on my part.

Since my knowledge and experience is limited with LIFE batteries I am wondering if something else could have caused this.

Yeah. As for the battery being dead I am not sure. It still reads over 3.2v for each cell and nothing seems wrong now. I am not sure I want to do anything with it now though.

Did you ground your cutting tool while cutting the red wire?

My cutters should have been grounded. I have never had any issues before so I'm not really sure what went wrong.

Treat lifepo's the same as lipo's

Could not be futher from truth...

LiFe are extremely lenient regarding over charge/discharge or shorts.

Your pack is probably alright, but try to find where the smoke puff came from. It won't catch on fire if there is a failure, only make some smoke (it's still toxic).

You can empty LiFe to zero and they are still good, and discharge rates are typically 50C, so even a quick short does not affect it.

That is, if it is a real LiFePo4 battery pack. Some HK brands like to write random stuff on their battery...

Even if your cutter was grounded, the battery was not. This is not home electricity where the main panel is grounded. To short a pack, you need to touch both positive and negative... if you work on a metal table, that can be a problem. But grounding your tools is not. If the rubber is worn/damaged on the handle, it could have shorted with the other already cut wire though.

what Kos said. Grounding means Jack!

the brief short is fine. monitor the battery over the next couple charge cycles and take note of any bloating or excessive heat. I had a pinched wire in a gun that I could not locate I'd plug the battery in and it'd be fine and then I'd hear and smell it. turns out a small sharp point poked through some heat shrink and caused the short

depending on which life battery you have, it will shut down before being over discharged, but that does not eliminate over discharging with a low draw over time.

I have only had one puff up on me but it was because I left it plugged into a gun with an ASCU for about a week or so after a game.

Nothing else than a short-circuit can do what you explain or maybe a break of soldering inside the pack that short the pack from inside when you moved the wires.
Remember that a short circuit always happen when you don't think its gonna happen. It always take you by surprise.

You can ground your cutting tool, connect it to the active or neutral phase on 120V or on the positive or negative of a car battery and nothing is gonna happen as long as you cut only one wire at the time and you don't close the circuit between the positive and negative of your battery pack.

Now, your LIFE pack is (my guess) 99% still good. It can take small short circuit like that. For short circuit of under 1 sec, probably no internal damage. Maybe some ions welded together that can reduce internal resistance while lowering capacity a bit. Nothing noticeable.

It's more damageable to over discharge your pack while gaming than a one time short-circuit while battery is new.

Keep a look at the balance of your individual cell while charging and always charge with the balancer plug on a charger made to charge LIFE. You can make quick charge without the balance port at a higher C rating but it is not recommended when you have the time to charge it properly at a lower C rating.

Hope it really answer your question.

I mean, with the couple last answers, not just mine;)