[rawbert]

I just started RC cars with my kids and made first contact with LiPos and find it quite scary. A lipo counts already as damaged when the voltage drops below 3V so you have to use equipment permanently checking the voltage. In RC cars you mostly use some kind of buzzer that fires when a certain threshold value was reached. A "damaged" LiPo might catch fire randomly.

Also you have to store them in fire-proof LiPo bags and recharge them regularly to prevent voltage drops below 3V.

[RecycledEle]

I hear these rumors about lithium batteries, and I see videos online.

My experience is different.

My students absolutely abuse the cheapest lithium cells I can find - from eBay and salvaged from dead laptops.

They did some art on pieces of metal through EDM using dozens of 18650 cells. No problems.

They tested what would really happen to old devices subjected to a massive USB over-voltage by building the "Over-Volter 9000." No problems for the lithium cells.

They ran lithium cells in dead shorts, just to see what would happen. Maybe a touch of smoke.

The only 2 times I have ever seen lithium batteries melt down was:

(1) when I pulled an early lithium pack from a Sharp 486 laptop and ran my RC car off it. (Associated TQ-10) That melt down resembled a bubbling mud pit at Yellowstone National Park. That was the first lithium battery I had ever seen, and it was useless when the laptop died and early death.

(2) Another time I melted an 18650 cell by accidentally leaving it in a dead short as I wired a large battery pack.

In both cases, the combustion was mostly smoke and sparks, with little to no visible flame.

[fsmv]

18650 cells are lithium ion not lithium polymer