After a hard crash my 1.2Ah LiPo got out of shape. Pics attached.
Can it still be used without risking explosion? Is it safe to charge it?

It is working fine as of now (used it on a hovercraft before noticing the dents). The individual cell voltages are 3.86V, 3.87V and 3.85V.

Anybody have a similar experience?

If I was in your place I would discard it immediately

its an hazard now. anytime anything could happen. dont take chances

I don't think you should take chance with LiPo battery. They are highly dangerous. So I would advice you to discard this pack of yours and get yourself a new one.

It seems that it has not puffed yet and safe till now.

Actually, In mechanical damage, internal short circuit occurs in some location, and instantly High short circuit current flows resulting gassing and localized burning (internally at short circuit plates) and the short circuit vanishes with local burning.

And now comes the part what be the short circuit current (internal) to melt and split the plates ! If that is safe withen it's burst current (RARE), gassing wont occure. But if gassing occure, you have to discard it. It should have less C Capacity (due to less chemical reaction area on plate surface due to micro bubbles of gasses trapped into) and some less Capacity (in mAH). So, you may use those in low discharge rate circuits like Tx/Rx batt, LED Lighting etc. And even you may survive it by puncturing it and keep in vacuum to take out gases (Hard work, but possible).

But if you found no puffing i. e. gassing inside cell, it s completely safe till now.

Even you can get better performance from puffed cells using pressure plates in both side so that bubbles compreses and take lesser area. This sounds no Good, but have been used for ages in any Handycam Battery (2S Li-ion) where, the Iron pressure plate weights are more than 50% of the total weights of the entire pack. Surprised! It's true. Just open and check .

So, you may use the battery pack just like you have not noticed it.
And you mat take safeguard as other electronics have considerable value than only the battery one. It's only the viewpoint of yours only. I have give the internals I know.

Thanks

There is no puffing, just dents. I haven't yet seen the internal structure of a LiPo so don't know whether such deformations can cause malfunction. Thanks for the great info Kalyan da!

Throwing away a new LiPo pack gives a heartache but I guess I'll just have to dispose it. I can't separate and use one or two cells either as all of them are deformed.   

hi
if cells are not puntured then u can use this battery but it is not recommended by the company.
if you use it make sure you charge these battery in personal watch and at lower charging rate for atleast 2-3 chargings.
i am using one without any problem(3s 2.2Ah).i am also using 4s converted to 3s 

DO NOT USE IT LIKE THAT.

Ah, now I won't feel bad about disposing it!

H-Energy,
Would you suggest about the proper dospose off the LiPO.
If we discharge, totally (Actually Deep Discharge by resistance) then the stored energy will not be dangerous and will not explode. But what about the chemicals ?

So, expert openion is needed and you are requested. It's not educatioal but practical fisibility and available laws and is not known to me.

Thanks

Good point Kalyan da.

Here's the recommended method.
===>i.e 1) Discharge LiPo to (or near to) 0V ...2) Make a slit in LiPo ...3) Put in saltwater for 24hrs

However, I don't like it...particularly the slitting part. And I read somewhere on 'wattflyer' that lipo manufacturers don't recommend using salt water to discharge LiPos anymore.

This is what I do: Seperate Lipo into individual cells, bring down the voltage near to null, plastic-seal it and stuff it in a handful of concrete and bury it underground!

No risky handling and no environmental hazards! Some might say these are unnecessary steps, but I do it for the fun part as well as the safety part!

H-Energy, please do enlighten us with more info.

Please contact Lt. Col. Sundaram at Shillong, he is a champion at this (reviving and repairing LiPo's). He has saved many batteries for me f.o.c.

Ah, alas the LiPo has already been prosecuted in the way described in #10.

And, of course, Sandy sir is amazing at reviving things. He has already done a BLDC for me.
But re-working LiPos? Nah, I'm much more comfortable with the procedure I follow after reading all the bad things about them.

This battery can be use ,but will be danger if you do charge it or discharge it. I am not good enough to explain that in English.We  will talk about what the Lipos make up.Anyway,I will try.(I don't know if you guys can understand what I say..)

The point is, a damage Lipo is very dangerous.As we know,the power comes by chemical reaction,the lipo inside has lots of samdwich, like aluminium foil--chemical--aluminium foil--chemical...After we know about the Lipo inside,we will know that the coating of the + （positive pole）and - (negative pole) is different,one is use by aluminum another is copper.........

After the damage ,the Lipo inside MAY have put the + side and the - side together, or worse,the chemical together.If you are luckey, the metal fatigue is now appear ,but if you still use it, maybe next time it will explode.


So that is why I suggest not to use the batts when they were out of shape.We shouldn't risk our safety by some money.

Quote from: H-energy on March 10, 2012, 09:22:42 AM
This battery can be used ,but will be danger if you do charge it or discharge it....if you still use it, maybe next time it will explode.

Yes, that is what I thought and decided to dispose it.

What we wanted to know was the 'manufacturer suggested' method of disposing it.

Oh,ok,I know what you are talking about now.

In China, we have "Battery-Recycling Station".
Or you can send them back to the battery factory,we will recycle the material inside the batts to make other batteries.
Or you can send them to the Container Park ,they will deal with them.

wow 
i did not know hazards of improper use of lipo
thanks for using word "explode".
need to take care of my damage lipo

one more question i had a 4s battery it got puntured (by pin) i removed that cell and using it as 3s.
is it safe to do that?   
there is no internal short circuit as said in #13 other cells are perfectly in good shape