The mobile power bulges

[bancroft]

When the mobile power bulges, is it still possible to continue using it?
I didn't have the photo in my hand and I was a little scared so I didn't dare to put it close to me.

 

[Harald Kapp]

Possible? Maybe.
Dangerous? Certainly.
A bulging LiIon battery may catch fire anytime. Better dispose it in a recycling container.

 

[bertus]

Hello,

Have a look at this:
https://www.tomsguide.com/reference/smartphone-swollen-battery
https://temperaturemaster.com/why-do-lithium-batteries-swell/

Bertus

 

[bancroft]

Hello,

Have a look at this:
https://www.tomsguide.com/reference/smartphone-swollen-battery
https://temperaturemaster.com/why-do-lithium-batteries-swell/

Bertus

This looks really scary, I mean MPP to be exact, I think it is as likely to explode as a cell phone battery.

 

[dave9]

If a bear mauls you, is it possible to continue to still try to pet its cub? Of course until the body suffers too much damage to go on.

Don't. Be. Silly. And please learn english if you're going to post in an english speaking forum. It is not as though there are not forums in your native language who have never come across cell phones/etc that use Li-Ion batteries and know the issues surrounding their safe use. Because Internet!

What is "possible" should always be weighed against "what is sane" given the researched, risk factors. Your question should not exist, if you can find this forum you can more easily find the answer to your question without it, because people owning devices using Li-Ion batteries are far more common than people who don't.

Take your bulging battery and burying it at the bottom of the ocean in a vault filled with a mountain of silica jell. I'm sure I've read somewhere that you must do this.

 

[cheddarman]

PLEASE ignore the above very unhelpful reply bancroft and DO NOT dispose of your battery in the ocean, stupid advice.
If you have a local rubbish tip, take it there, to the people in charge and they will make sure it is disposed of properly.
LiPo's are extremely dangerous if not taken care of and handled properly. I am a drone flyer and have some very powerful batteries. When they bulge, get rid of them, as has been said, they can catch fire.

 

[Harald Kapp]

PLEASE ignore the above very unhelpful reply bancroft and DO NOT dispose of your battery in the ocean, stupid advice.

That wasn't meant as real advice, this is sarcasm.

If you have a local rubbish tip, take it there, to the people in charge and they will make sure it is disposed of properly.

Of course that's the proper way of getting rid of old batteries.

 

[VenomBallistics]

Some RC pilots submerge packs in a bucket of salt water as a means of safe destruction.

 

[Harald Kapp]

Imho not a good practice. I prefer recycling.

 

[VenomBallistics]

in a few of these cases, transporting the battery is an even worse practice.
they go in cool and rectangular .... and come out round and steamy. after which point, nobody want's them near their vehicles.

 

[cheddarman]

Some RC pilots submerge packs in a bucket of salt water as a means of safe destruction.

I've never heard of that in my years as an RC pilot! Most dangerous practice!
Just let them discharge normally, and then to the tip!

 

[VenomBallistics]

I've never heard of that in my years as an RC pilot! Most dangerous practice!
Just let them discharge normally, and then to the tip!

its not that uncommon. I don't do it, but the theory goes that the salt water will discharge the pack while it's kept from ignition by the cooling action of the fluid.
there really isn't a great method for dealing with this in field

 

[bertus]

Hello,

Lithium is an alkali metal,
Read this page:
https://ehs.stanford.edu/reference/information-alkali-metals

Bertus

 

[dave9]

PLEASE ignore the above very unhelpful reply bancroft and DO NOT dispose of your battery in the ocean, stupid advice.
If you have a local rubbish tip, take it there, to the people in charge and they will make sure it is disposed of properly.

As Harold mentioned, I was being sarcastic, but ironically, if more and more areas of the world start to ban sales of new ICE vehicles in favor of EVs, we will exhaust all land-based sources of lithium and have to extract it from the ocean. Frankly it wouldn't make much difference if you threw it in the ocean, relative to the massive pollution China is causing to make and deliver the products to you. The only real way not to cause pollution is to not buy things.

 

[cheddarman]

Quite agree Dave9, Chine, but ultimately us are the biggest problem. We MUST cut the world population to save it and I can't see anybody agreeing to that!

 

[bancroft]

I was going to just throw it away. What if it was sorted as recyclable waste at the garbage sorting place?
Maybe someone will dispose of it well.

 

[cheddarman]

Where are you bancroft? Take it to your nearest tip/recycling centre and they will have a battery disposal bin/box where batteries are sorted and sent the the appropriate place.

 

[smarttr1]

yes possible, but a little bit dangerius

 

[cheddarman]

Dangerius? Why would that be dangerous?

 

[dave9]

I was going to just throw it away. What if it was sorted as recyclable waste at the garbage sorting place?
Maybe someone will dispose of it well.

It may depend on your location but generally speaking, if you throw something away as bulk waste, it is not sorted through at all, unless the collector spots something that cannot be put in the landfill then it is left and not picked up at all.

If you want to recycle it, make sure Google can approximate your location in a browser then search "battery recycling near me", or without location awareness for the browser, enter a local city name in the search, the among the search hits, check which ones do bare Li-Ion.

Personally, I have a metal ammo box and I put old batteries into it (making sure they can't short out against each other or the box), so I can take several batteries to a recycler at once instead of a separate trip for each. I keep the ammo box in the garage on a concrete floor so if it were to ever achieve thermal runaway, it is self contained and the heat won't do harm to anything else.