Don’t store damaged eBike batteries in your RV!
A damaged Lithium battery can become a fire hazard...
Everyone,
Here’s an important post from one of my readers. The lesson is to never store damaged Lithium batteries in your RV. It appears they can burst into flame even days after water damage. I’ll try to find more details on exactly how this happened later. But in the meantime be warned about the dangers of storing damaged Lithium batteries.
Dear Mike,
Good Evening! I do not post much, but I feel I need to share what happened to us and our Navion 15J. We are also owners of 2 RAD e-bikes. We were totally enjoying the bikes while we were in Hilton Head.
On our trip on Monday morning, we crossed a small water path along the beach, which we have done previously. On our return, the water looked deeper and decided to walk the bikes across. It definitely was much deeper than we expected. Our e-bikes were not happy and didn't work anymore. We rode them old school back to our resort. Immediately we took them off the bikes and watched them.
I called RAD to ask what we might need to do. They suggested hitting a hard re-set and they gave me the cost of what new parts might be. They suggested taking them to a bike repair shop. We decided not to push our luck and we left them alone, expecting to take them to our bike guy when we returned home. We did check on them to make sure there wasn't any heat coming from them.
On Thursday, we left Hilton Head and drove to Asheville to help with Samaritan's Purse (SP) in Asheville, NC. We stored our e-bike batteries under our dinette, next to our closet/microwave cabinet.
While serving with SP on Saturday, we received a call from our campgrounds that there was smoke coming from our RV and the fire department was on their way. We were 20 minutes away. Our hearts were racing with the "what will we find when we get there".
The fire department used the jaws of life to open the RV. I believe we were in total shock once we got there. The firefighters were very helpful with what to do and not do. Here are some photos of our beloved 2015J. From the outside, the rig looks fine.
What I want everyone to be aware is that your e-bike batteries can have problems after several days after they have been damaged. It was 6 days after they got wet when our batteries exploded.
We usually travel with our two pups. Since we were planning on work long days, we decided to leave them home with family. I'm very thankful my fur babies were safe at home. - George P
Back to me…
The lesson is to never store damaged Lithium batteries anywhere near flammable materials. And certainly don’t store them inside of your RV!
Let’s play safe out there… Mike
I’ve found a bunch of fire resistant lithium battery storage bags on Amazon. Here’s one for eBike batteries. More to study…
https://a.co/d/9QUgPj1
We have a View (a Navion twin) travel with our dog, and are considering getting a couple ebikes, so this grabbed my attention.
Ebikes tend to use lithium-ion batteries, which are not as safe as lithium-iron-phosphate (LiFePO4 or LFP). Here are a couple FAQs I came across:
"Can LiFePO4 catch fire?
LiFePO4 batteries are the safest of the lithium batteries, because they will not catch fire, and won’t even overheat. Even if you puncture the battery it will not catch fire. This is a massive upgrade over other lithium batteries, which can overheat and catch fire."
"Is LiFePO4 better than lithium-ion?
The LiFePO4 battery has the edge over lithium-ion, both in terms of cycle life (it lasts 4-5x longer), and safety. This is a key advantage because lithium-ion batteries can overheat and even catch fire, while LiFePO4 does not."
https://lithiumhub.com/lifepo4-batteries-what-they-are-and-why-theyre-the-best/
There are ebikes that use LFP batteries. It might be worth considering one of them. I definitely will.