Lithium Ion jump pack failed today during a jump, looking for ideas on what happened?

[DaveM]

I have (had) a Micro Start XP-3 jump pack that I keep in my Outback as backup in case I ever over drain the main battery on a camping trip. Have never had to use it for myself but have used it to jump others many times. Excellent product, never had any issues in the maybe 7 or 8 years I've had it. Today I used it to jump a small mini-van that was dead. The pack was fully charged and in good shape as far as I could tell. I hooked it up, let it sit on the battery for a minute then had the van owner try to turn the car over. The turn over was very weak, as if there was no jump pack attached. I had him try a couple more times before I noticed the power lights on the pack had gone out. I grabbed the pack which turned out to be extremely hot and swollen! I unplugged it from the leads (leads also very hot) and tossed it away from the car. It never caught fire but was probably less than a minute away from doing so if I'd left it attached to the car.

My question is, assuming it's not user error (very hard to get this wrong and I triple checked that I had the pos/neg hooked up correctly). What could cause this? Can the car I was jumping have an issue with the alternator or battery that could short the pack? Was it just too old (we used it just a few months ago though)?

I need to get a new pack now but wondering if there is something I need to be aware of to prevent this next time.

 

[pdxfrogdog]

We have a desire to keep jump packs in the vehicle at all times, just in case…. But if I read the fine print on my Noco jump pack, it indicates that heat and cold are things to be avoided. Not sure where you are located but the inside of my rig is exposed to both extremes seasonally… so that could well be a factor. 7 to 8 years might be a reasonable service life also? Hard to say.

 

[LRNAD90]

Typically they fail in such a manner after developing an internal short circuit, something this style of battery is increasingly well known for..

BU-304a: Safety Concerns with Li-ion

Learn what causes Li-ion to fail and what to do in case of fire. Battery makers are obligated to meet safety requirements, but less reputable firms may cheat.

batteryuniversity.com

 

[pluton]

At 8 years, it's most likely done. Most users (Amazon reviews, etc) report that they often fail at 4 or 5 years, sometimes at 3 years. You could investigate the super capacitor packs next...no batteries so no battery death issues.

 

[86scotty]

It's a lithium battery after all. IMO, even though I have lithium in my rigs and would love to buy a Tesla if it fit my life, I still hold lithium at arm's length.

 

[DaveInDenver]

It's probably not user error but where you mentioned the leads getting hot do suggest perhaps more than just aging batteries. What everyone's said about lithium is true but there's some important aspects to using lithium.

In this case it's probably lithium-ion polymer (e.g. LiPo) packs inside, at least that's what it seems Noco used in the one I have. These are typically in phones and computers and most devices anymore. They are the ones that swell and can be unstable, so being caution was a good move.

Good thing about LiPo is they are fairly energy dense and can source a lot of current for their size. These are nice features and make a jump pack like this possible. But they don't regulate themselves and will dump current far beyond what is safe so the device has to do that. Some component batteries will have internal protection so it doesn't matter what you use it in, other component packs are just a lithium battery and expect the protective electronics to be a part of the design it's going in. This is fine but requires some attention to extremes in temperature, vibration, shock and overall reliability of the construction.

So it's not at all implausible that the device itself failed to adequately handle the safety demands, so the hot leads are evidence that it allowed more current or for a longer period than the packs really should have been subjected to. So I'd be a little suspicious in the future. Make sure to know and understand the specifications for storage and operating temperatures, for example. For example, it's in the fine print usually that these jump packs should not be stored in a car if the temperatures are expected to be extreme.

It's just my $0.02 but people, both designers and users, are a bit too casual with lithium. When it was novel and expensive the engineering and manufacturing was generally limited to higher end where there was less restriction to the quality, be that the bill of materials price or time spent analyzing corner cases. Now that everything has them I think there's more questionable products floating around. That's speaking as an engineer with experience using them in aerospace and automotive, though, so no doubt more skeptical than average since I've seen firsthand the failure modes.

 

[ThundahBeagle]

At 8 years, it's most likely done. Most users (Amazon reviews, etc) report that they often fail at 4 or 5 years, sometimes at 3 years. You could investigate the super capacitor packs next...no batteries so no battery death issues.

Is a capacitor not a battery?