Smelly lithium ion battery pack

Since my 15ah 36v Samsung lithium battery pack arrived, my flat smells. It's an unpleasant chemical smell. Clearly my bike-building hobby has turned my home into a heated chemical storage shed.

Is it safe to keep these things in a sealed plastic bag? The pack contains Samsung ICR18650 29E LiNiMnCoO2 cells (3.7V 2.9Ah).

Edited March 20, 201511 yr by jonathan75

Lithium has a sweet sort of smell. If you can smell that, one or more of your cells are leaking. You should investigate.

Defiantly as there is a real fire risk too.

Thank you all of you for replying. What ought I do to investigate? The battery pack has a big label seal on it. I opened it as far as I could without breaking that seal (just the other side), and the batteries are wrapped in a tough blue shrinkwrap.

There are two sorts of smells. The smell in the room is a non-sweet-smell, just a chemical smell, moderate, quite noticeable when you're used to fresh air, not extreme; smelling the front part of the opened battery pack revealed this smell again, a bit more concentrated. It's an electronics-y smell, like fresh alkaline batteries used to smell. I thought it might be from glue or something else used in manufacture.

The second smell type was from the part of the battery pack which connects to the mounting, there is a slight - slight - smell of rancid almond essence, i.e. sweet. I could smell that with the battery pack closed or opened. But it was only when I pretty much stuck my nose against it, i.e. not the smell affecting the room.

Would this be adequate investigation, and suggest that any leak of the lithium (the sweet bit) was negligible and should be ignored?

I've bought a 1m x 1m fire blanket (good for £4) http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003RUJFM4/ref=pe_385721_37986871_TE_item to wrap the thing in when not in use, and hopefully will get hold of a new kettle type fully-lidded barbecue with high legs to store it in. That would be adequate, provided that any fire was just a flame and smoke type, and involved no explosive kinetics which could make flame or material escape the barbecue and set fire to anything in the room.

Edited March 21, 201511 yr by jonathan75

Can you not return the battery?

Where did you get it?

if there is no sign of leakage, I would not do anything about it. All the 18650 cells have an air vent to prevent pressure building up when the battery is too full or too empty. The smell could come from a tiny amount of fluorine that was released at some time in the past.

You can see the air vents on this picture:

http://img.dxcdn.com/productimages/sku_1283_1.jpg

if there is no sign of leakage, I would not do anything about it. All the 18650 cells have an air vent to prevent pressure building up when the battery is too full or too empty. The smell could come from a tiny amount of fluorine that was released at some time in the past.

 

You can see the air vents on this picture:

 

http://img.dxcdn.com/productimages/sku_1283_1.jpg

I have a quick question.

On Ebay, some of the cree lights are available with the 1680 batteries secured in a water proof/sealed case. Would I then be correct in thinking that either these cases aren't water proof at all, or are that the sellers are sealing batteries in, when they perhaps they shouldn't be.

I know nothing about this subject, and it was just something that occurred to me, and then had me wondering.

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This is an example of what I had seen. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WaterProof-Battery-pack-18650-For-CREE-XM-L-LED-Bicycle-Light-9000mAh-6000mAh-/141251684868?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&var=&hash=item20e341aa04 From reading the above, replies, I couldn't understand how it could be water proof, if the batteries needed to breathe.

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I doubt they need to breathe any large amount of gas, so it may be that the spare space surrounding the cells is adequate.

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No batteries are waterproof. .. if you drive your bike into the canal, you'll need a new pack and bike.

Well that is true at the extreme, but Marine batteries are available for use on boats - they will survive a period under water such as a dip in the canal!