what to do with a swollen lithium battery?

bmx6454 · August 7, 2022

hello, i have a few lithium batteries from old phones, and other electronics, and noticed one of them turned into a balloon. it isn't hot, or emitting any odors, but i put it in a metal bucket with sand for the time being out in garage for safety. two questions i have, how did this occur(it's kept in a decent temperature area, away from moisture, and hasn't been damaged in any way)? and more importantly, what is the best way to neutralize it so i can take it to an e-waste dump? or do i just bring it like it is? thanks for any input, haven't dealt with this issue before.

LIGISTX · August 7, 2022

2 minutes ago, bmx6454 said:

hello, i have a few lithium batteries from old phones, and other electronics, and noticed one of them turned into a balloon. it isn't hot, or emitting any odors, but i put it in a metal bucket with sand for the time being out in garage for safety. two questions i have, how did this occur(it's kept in a decent temperature area, away from moisture, and hasn't been damaged in any way)? and more importantly, what is the best way to neutralize it so i can take it to an e-waste dump? or do i just bring it like it is? thanks for any input, haven't dealt with this issue before.

Best way to neutralize it is make sure it’s fully dead.

To do this for rc car LIPO batteries, I got a~10 watt low voltage light from Home Depot and soldered a plug into it so I can plug the batteries into it to make sure I fully discharge them.

From there, they are safe to take to a battery recycler, which most e-waste places at least for me will take (Home Depot even has a place to recycle them right in the front of the stores here as well).

Shimejii · August 7, 2022

Contact your local battery retailer if you have one and ask about it. If nothing comes up, you have to figure out what in your local area is able to handle it

bmx6454 · August 7, 2022

8 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

Best way to neutralize it is make sure it’s fully dead.

To do this for rc car LIPO batteries, I got a~10 watt low voltage light from Home Depot and soldered a plug into it so I can plug the batteries into it to make sure I fully discharge them.

From there, they are safe to take to a battery recycler, which most e-waste places at least for me will take (Home Depot even has a place to recycle them right in the front of the stores here as well).

i have a bunch of rumble motors sitting around, it's a 3.7v battery with positive and negative wires, i assume these could work as well to discharge? or is the idea to discharge slowly?

LIGISTX · August 7, 2022

2 hours ago, bmx6454 said:

i have a bunch of rumble motors sitting around, it's a 3.7v battery with positive and negative wires, i assume these could work as well to discharge? or is the idea to discharge slowly?

I opted for slow discharge so I don’t get the batteries hot, thus the low wattage light.

MLConian · August 8, 2022

On 8/7/2022 at 5:58 AM, bmx6454 said:

hello, i have a few lithium batteries from old phones, and other electronics, and noticed one of them turned into a balloon. it isn't hot, or emitting any odors, but i put it in a metal bucket with sand for the time being out in garage for safety.

I've had DECT phone batteries balloon on me for years now - even phones in active use - and Haier Chromebooks. Also my PSP battery and one of my GBA SP units have ballooned. It's just something they do, sadly. My PSP and GBA SP were kept indoors, in dry conditions with a constant temperature, so that doesn't seem to have anything to do with it (maybe it prevents the ballooning from happening sooner, but the batteries ballooned anyway).

I always try to discharge them slowly as well. I haven't had any battery explode on me, yet, but I'm not waiting for that to happen either.