Battery got shorted.

[AlucFahhT]

I dropped my battery and landed on something small and pointy (couldn't find what) but i dropped it and saw a spark, the thing got under the paper insulator and touched the negative and positive together, it melted both the wrap and insulator but the battery seemed fine, had to peel off the wrap to see the damage and the only thing was a little bit of the whatever it landed on looked like it soldered a tiny micro drop on the negative side but no other damage to anything (can get a picture if needed). Would the battery be safe to re-wrap and use?


side note, if it is safe any place to buy brown wraps? I can't find any anywhere. These are LGHG2s and i want to keep them brown so i know when ones they are.

 

[classwife]

Moved this to batteries and Chargers from Ask The Veterans

 

[ImThatGuy]

Rewrap and test on a voltmeter. But to me...is the risk worth replacing a $6-10 battery?

 

[Clark Kent]

This

Rewrap and test on a voltmeter. But to me...is the risk worth replacing a $6-10 battery?

or you can just get a odd color that none of your normals use and you will know that it was the re wrapped lg

 

[sonicbomb]

Recycle, replace, move on.

 

[AlucFahhT]

The problem is I don't have a that much of a budget to just replace things, been wanting to get into rebuilding (recently got the RTA for the Cleito) and don't have the extra cash to replace at the moment. I use it in my Istick 100w TC so it's married to another, only have one mod and 2 sets of batteries so I can use it while charging the other set (all 4 are LG HG2). So I was wondering if it was still safe to use after the split second short/spark and it wasn't damaged internally. It has no damage on the battery case save for that 'soldered' little bit but isn't too near the positive terminal.

 

[deviantplatypus]

The istick runs the batteries in parallel. I don't think they have to be married. (Though someone please correct me if I'm wrong on this.)

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[AlucFahhT]

Yea it is a parallel mod, i can run it on one battery up to 75 Watts but I do prefer to use 2, It lasts me for well over a day or 2 before i need to recharge. It's more of a convenience than anything. Don't have to worry so much if my batteries are charged before I head out (the parallel mod for double mah and 2 sets since they take 5-6 hours to charge from when the mod cuts off at about 3.3v)

 

[sonicbomb]

The istick runs the batteries in parallel. I don't think they have to be married. (Though someone please correct me if I'm wrong on this.)

Yes they do still have to be married.

 

[DaveP]

I wouldn't trust a battery that got hot enough to melt anything. You can try doing a rewrap on the battery and charging it to see what happens, but you run the risk of ruining the charger if it goes into runaway and spews hot electrolyte. The reason that the wrap extends over the positive end of the battery is because the case and the positive terminal are exposed on that end. If there's a nick in the positive end wrap there's potential for a contact short. I'd at least rewrap the battery to restore the insulation.

Kidney Puncher sells wraps for a dime each and you can shrink them into place with a 1500 watt hair dryer. Just cut them to size, leaving about 1/4" overlap on the positive end and 1/8" on the negative, then slide it on and shrink it.

 

[sonicbomb]

Yea it is a parallel mod, i can run it on one battery up to 75 Watts but I do prefer to use 2, It lasts me for well over a day or 2 before i need to recharge. It's more of a convenience than anything. Don't have to worry so much if my batteries are charged before I head out (the parallel mod for double mah and 2 sets since they take 5-6 hours to charge from when the mod cuts off at about 3.3v)

Regulated or unregulated it doesn't matter if it's parallel or series, it's still the same amount of runtime at a given wattage.
You may be getting mixed up with unregulated devices where series doubles your voltage, parallel doubles your amp limit.

 

[Baditude]

If a battery gets hot enough to melt the insulator wrap, then there is likely internal damage to the cell. Heat damages batteries. You can't learn much about how much damage a battery has had by observing the "can" or metal casing, unless the cell went into full blown thermal runaway and explodes on either end.

Checking the voltage with a digital multimeter or voltage tester will probably reveal this battery is burnt toast. If the voltage is below 2.5 volts, it is ruined.

However, batteries are relatively cheap to replace compared to what a damaged battery might do to its user. It's just not worth the risk, is it? Recycle, replace, move on.