Lithium lifepo 100 amp batteries?

[Flysmallie]

Maybe it's the industry I'm in, but I see plenty of cars that have melted down and caught on fire. 

 

This is the same limpdick argument everyone has about EVs melting down on the side of the road. Gas cars burn too. All the freaking time. 

[TRRANGER]

Yes gas cars do catch fire, but when lithium batteries catch fire the burn at a much higher temp and are much hard to extinguish than a normal car fire. Normal car fire can be put out with water or normal fire suppressants that are readily available. 

[MrGiggles]

33 minutes ago, TRRANGER said:

Yes gas cars do catch fire, but when lithium batteries catch fire the burn at a much higher temp and are much hard to extinguish than a normal car fire. Normal car fire can be put out with water or normal fire suppressants that are readily available. 

This is an important detail. 

The picture I posted earlier was a little misleading and no fault of the battery, the shop that installed the haybed didn't put any protection on the wiring for that third battery. It rubbed through and touched the hydraulic unit on the left side. Was quite a show. The crazier part, since the ground wires on that rig apparently weren't very conductive, it cooked the brake lines and many of the smaller ground wires in the harness during the meltdown.

[Seth]

I recall hearing about a few lithium battery fires in boats several years ago, but nothing in several years.

[Flysmallie]

3 hours ago, TRRANGER said:

Yes gas cars do catch fire, but when lithium batteries catch fire the burn at a much higher temp and are much hard to extinguish than a normal car fire. Normal car fire can be put out with water or normal fire suppressants that are readily available. 

The end result is the same. 

[fishinwrench]

6 hours ago, Flysmallie said:

The end result is the same. 

Depends on whether you're at a place where you can just step out and walk away from it or not.

Imagine being out on a lake, in January, way out off a point somewhere.....When all of a sudden a battery starts sizzling, popping, and belching out big plumes of toxic smoke.    

If lithium battery fires weren't a different kind of animal then fire departments wouldn't be holding special classes on DEALING with them.  We have a family friend (EMT Firefighter) who has been to all those classes, and he and his co-horts say the only protocol is to GET AWAY, SAY A PRAYER, and wait for it to settle down on its own.   

Cutting one in half doesn't work.   And that would always work with a lead-acid battery that has shorted internally.   Matter of fact just blasting a hole in a lead-acid battery case, allowing the electrolyte to escape, will stop the electrical current immediately.

The quicker a lithium battery goes up in flames....the better.   But typically they just melt down, fill the air with wicked deadly smoke so thick that flames can only kick up around the outer perimeter and go outward from there.  It can take a Lithium cell a few hours to self destruct.....and to my knowledge there's nothing you can do about it.  

The main reason lithium cells are SO EXPENSIVE is because of the internal breakers whose job is to prevent a meltdown.....BUT long after the warranty has expired, you know those breakers will eventually fail.   And guys aren't gonna be swapping them out near as frequently because they are EXPENSIVE AS HELL to replace.  

I guarandamntee you'll start hearing about PLENTY of lithium battery meltdowns here in less than 10 years.    

Mark my word !   

 

I know one thing......I want completely out of this business before guys start wheeling in used boats with 10 year old lithium cells in them.     Get THOSE SONSABITCHES outa here !   

[snagged in outlet 3]

I can confirm the fire department claims.   My fishing buddy is a firefighter and he says the same thing.   No way to control them at all.  I’ll ask him how many he has seen.  Cars included because I just bought a hybrid.  He said the concern they have on every call is lithium batteries and fentanyl.  

[snagged in outlet 3]

Think about all the dudes getting them in their yaks?   

[fishinwrench]

8 hours ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

I’ll ask him how many he has seen

I don't think it has been that big of an issue YET,   but because of the cost of them I'm afraid it will be a bigger problem later on.  

People will be reluctant to swap them out when they probably should.   And I'm not sure how the disposal of them is going to pan out.  Surely the powers that be have thought this out, right?

[BilletHead]

8 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

I don't think it has been that big of an issue YET,   but because of the cost of them I'm afraid it will be a bigger problem later on.  

People will be reluctant to swap them out when they probably should.   And I'm not sure how the disposal of them is going to pan out.  Surely the powers that be have thought this out, right?

               Well all I can say is we will see what happens. I am seriously thinking about making the switch to  one for my trolling motor.  Sometimes we don't like change, do we? If it was up to you, we would only have two stroke motors, you would be honing valve and valve seats with a suction cup stick on the valve and using valve grinding grit and honing the valve and seat one at a time. Actually, I did that on a 59 Nash metropolitan my first car. Had a great uncle that was an old-time mechanic that instructed me on how to do that.  We would all be driving old pickup trucks and ford mavericks. No phone no lights no motor car not a single luxury like Robinson Caruso as primitive as can be!