Swollen battery identification method

[hispeed68]

This may not help everyone but it's my new way of determining if my battery is going bad. We all know swollen batteries are a sign of bad or going bad. I had my second one go bad in flight and got the Damaged Battery notice before it tried to return home. Looking closely at all my batteries I noticed the slightest swelling in my two older batteries. Again, just a post to help others and maybe save a drone or two. I'm recycling my two older batteries and buying two new ones. I'm a home inspector and use the drone occasionally for roof inspections.

Looking at the pics I drew reference lines across the pics in line with a fixed portion of the battery housing. The case is 'bowed' slightly on my two old batteries and you can see the case on Batt #4 is nice and straight. The angles are slightly different but the swelling can be seen.

Hope this is an indicator before crashing!

 

[mike9591]

This may not help everyone but it's my new way of determining if my battery is going bad. We all know swollen batteries are a sign of bad or going bad. I had my second one go bad in flight and got the Damaged Battery notice before it tried to return home. Looking closely at all my batteries I noticed the slightest swelling in my two older batteries. Again, just a post to help others and maybe save a drone or two. I'm recycling my two older batteries and buying two new ones. I'm a home inspector and use the drone occasionally for roof inspections.

Looking at the pics I drew reference lines across the pics in line with a fixed portion of the battery housing. The case is 'bowed' slightly on my two old batteries and you can see the case on Batt #4 is nice and straight. The angles are slightly different but the swelling can be seen.

Hope this is an indicator before crashing!View attachment 7966

Yeah those scratch marks start happening too when the batteries are swelled up and then removed. They scrape the lower case of the drone as they are detached.

First thing to note is REDUCED flight time when fully charged. The app/RC will show the battery under the 24-25 min you see on a newer battery. Most often it starts around 21 min. You get in the air, and flight time reduces even at a faster rate. This is a huge Red Flag that it is time for new batteries.