Just removed a swollen Li-Ion battery

bazzabear · 14 Jul 2020 at 15:58

My wife was complaining about her work laptop playing up, and when I looked I realised the battery was fairly swollen.

We have removed it, so the laptop is made safe (and thankfully will happily run on the cable with no battery installed.

Is the battery safe as long as it's not connected up? Or is it still a potential fire risk? I suspect we might need to keep it in case her work want some kind of return for proof.

jonchaz · 14 Jul 2020 at 16:17

It is not likely to catch on fire unless it is already getting hot or is connected to something. However with lithium batteries its always better to be on the safe side as when they do let go it can be quite spectacular. So put it somewhere safe for now. As lithium batteries may not be sent through the post most firms I've dealt with regarding returns just ask for a photo of the battery showing both the swelling and its factory serial number. So your wife's work may just want that as proof so they can forward the photo to their laptop supplier.

bazzabear · 14 Jul 2020 at 16:19

Cheers!
Now I think about it, I have a LiPo bag for the batteries for an RC car - I'll see if it'll fit in there.

Quartz · 14 Jul 2020 at 17:58

bazzabear said:
Now I think about it, I have a LiPo bag for the batteries for an RC car - I'll see if it'll fit in there.

Little beats a bucket of sand.

Rroff · 15 Jul 2020 at 05:45

As jonchaz said they don't tend to fail catastrophically very easily but when they do go it can be dramatic... I actually had a lot of trouble getting a swollen, partially damaged li-ion battery to intentionally catch fire. I'd definitely store it somewhere it can't do any harm however.

Screenbeat · 15 Jul 2020 at 06:40

Split it open and chuck it in a bucket of water!!!.............

Don't do that!