Just discovered one of my three batteries has swollen a little bit.  Was able to get it in the AC tonight and check the charge times, only charged 43 times.
Not happy.

Any one else experience anything like this?

If the battery is swollen a little what does that mean for the battery? It is not reporting any issues in the app.

It means bad news; that's what it means.  I would not use a hobby LiPo after it has swollen at all.  Just look at the other thead where the guy had one explode on him.  Do you want that to happen inside your house?  Lithium ion fires can be rather hard to put out.  With only 43 charges, I hope your battery is still under warranty?

DJI doesn't seem to be having good luck lately.  What else can go wrong?  Popcorn time.

Aloha Robert,

     My friend had that problem with his company's P2 Vision +, but I only heard about that problem with the P3 series when they first came out and it was related to counterfeit batteries.  Get a check on your battery serial number from one of the DJI Team members here on the Forum.  

     You can also ask them to check with the engineers if that much swelling is an issue on a genuine DJI battery.  The swelling on my friends P2 was way more than that but it really screwed up flights and gave new meaning to "the motors stopped!"  Fortunately, he had soft Widelia and Haleconia to fall into.

     BTW, dropping the batteries (or general rough handling) and excessive humidity or getting damp or wet can cause swelling.

Aloha and Drone On!   

Once puffing occurs - this indicates failing battery and should be dealt with ...

Puffed LiPo's are a higher risk than a LiPo in good condition ....

You could use it - but any more puffing and you may not be able to extract from the AC ...

Puffed LiPo's also tend to develop higher temperature when used - due to extreme levels of Internal Resistance which is one of the main causes of Puffing.

It's a condition that you can see a battery in early puffing stages regain original shape - but in use soon puffs up again .. is an accumulative damage condition. Each time it puffs up - the damage done is increased. There is NO fix or remedy other than retire it out of use.

Depending on age - contact DJI and see what they say to replacement.

Please try to press the swollen areas to check whether it is soft or not. For soft battery, we do not recommend to use it any more.

For warranty claim, we recommend you to find the purchase invoice and send an email to Support Team via support.us@dji.com for further assistance.

DJI Susan Posted at 2017-7-29 20:03
Please try to press the swollen areas to check whether it is soft or not. For soft battery, we do not recommend to use it any more.

For warranty claim, we recommend you to find the purchase invoice and send an email to Support Team via  for further assistance.

Overuse during flights ( in other words using the battery to the last drop of MAH /discharge capacity ) will cause a battery to swell. I know people that the fly their batteries to the absolute minimum limit in the field mandatory RTH, then bench them doing adjustment settings in the App ect... battery should never be discharged < 8%.
Not a good thing to do.

Does DJI make a Battery Check meter that conforms to there propriety pin setup for checking actual battery voltage? The lights are OK as a reminder but I use one of these for my Race quads. It would require a balance port or pin cable to do this though.



Other than that I guess you can use a regular voltage meter to check voltage but not individual cell Volts and Balance of each cell.

QuadKid Posted at 2017-7-30 02:03
Overuse during flights ( in other words using the battery to the last drop of MAH /discharge capacity ) will cause a battery to swell. I know people that the fly their batteries to the absolute minimum limit in the field mandatory RTH, then bench them doing adjustment settings in the App ect... battery should never be discharged < 8%.
Not a good thing to do.

All that information is available from the intelligent battery in real time if you look at the app.

Discard it properly. It has one or more bad cells. Strong potential for a fire and or explosion.

endotherm Posted at 2017-7-30 04:24
All that information is available from the intelligent battery in real time if you look at the app.

Magic ....

So put a swollen battery into the AC .... switch on ... check your app !! Fabulous !

Not me thanks.

I've been around RC long before LiPo's ... came through when LiPo's went into models ..... so have a reasonable idea of what they can do.

DJI has chosen a path to make safe use of LiPo's for those potential owners without LiPo knowledge. This has created a situation where those who DO KNOW about LiPo's cannot get to the cells to check / balance / maintain.

Nigel

QuadKid Posted at 2017-7-30 02:03
Overuse during flights ( in other words using the battery to the last drop of MAH /discharge capacity ) will cause a battery to swell. I know people that the fly their batteries to the absolute minimum limit in the field mandatory RTH, then bench them doing adjustment settings in the App ect... battery should never be discharged < 8%.
Not a good thing to do.

Actually its not discharging low that usually causes puffing - its too high a discharge amp rate ...

When Internal Resistance increases in the cells - it creates more heat when power demand comes on ... that gases the electrolyte and puffs the batterys. It can happen at full ... partial or low state of charge.

Its irreversible damage. Many batterys will go back down when they cool off and no load ... but they are already damaged and each time used makes it worse ...
As you know - the battery checker you illustrate is unuseable on a DJI battery.

Nigel

Keep it in a firer proof bag

DJI Susan Posted at 2017-7-29 20:03
Please try to press the swollen areas to check whether it is soft or not. For soft battery, we do not recommend to use it any more.

For warranty claim, we recommend you to find the purchase invoice and send an email to Support Team via  for further assistance.

It seems soft just on the outer layer.  

Soft or hard makes no difference.

Swelling is caused by gassing of the ekectrolytes and the foil envelope being sealed acts like a balloon.

You can sometimes put battery into a cold area and swelling reduces - but its already a damaged battery and will swell again on use.

I would retire the battery to bench use personally ....

(In fact if it was mine - I would take the case of ... replace the cells ! But to do that you need to cheat the counter ..... not a subject I will expand here .... only for experienced LiPo users).

Nigel