SDS100/SDS200: **SAFETY ALERT** SDS100 battery severely swelled

[caldwest]

I see one owner had this happen 4 months ago but never posted anything about it here until now. I understand no one is under any obligation to do so, but I'd think this would warrant a head up to other owners. But that's just me.

About two months ago I had the same problem with the larger battery. I only discovered it when the battery failed to recharge. At the time I thought it was just a 'quirk' since I had not read about the problem before.

 

[IAmSixNine]

As with all companies they have to be notified first. Then do some research. Sounds like a handful of people actually notified Uniden about the issues with their batteries. Is it isolated or is it a bigger problem. It takes time to investigate this, especially when dealing with manufacturers over seas.
Knee jerk reaction and saying uniden knew and is bad for not responding is probably not whats going on here. just a guess but i bet they are looking into it.

 

[letarotor]

I need some help identifying if my battery, the smaller one, is having this problem please. I am legally blind and I cannot tell. But it looks like it is possible my battery might be swelling up in these photos I just took.

In these photos, I have the battery sitting in the cover that would go over the smaller battery if it were installed in the radio right now. In one of the pictures it is sitting on a blanket that mysteriously started getting holes in it about a month ago. I'm wondering if some of the battery acid had leaked out back when I had the battery sitting on the blanket before putting it away until just now finding it to take some pictures. The holes I am talking about are not the issue and they are not in the picture but in the second picture I am holding the bottom of the case or cover and turning it at an angle so that others can see what I think I am seeing with the deformity of the battery inside of the case cover.

Maybe this all is normal looking but to me it looks like the bottom corners are crimping as if the battery could be swelling causing the crimping. But I just can't tell with my vision so I hope somebody can help. Thank you.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

Sent using Google Voice to Text. Please excuse any errors I could not see or catch.

Brian (COMMSCAN)

 

[trentbob]

As with all companies they have to be notified first. Then do some research. Sounds like a handful of people actually notified Uniden about the issues with their batteries. Is it isolated or is it a bigger problem. It takes time to investigate this, especially when dealing with manufacturers over seas.
Knee jerk reaction and saying uniden knew and is bad for not responding is probably not whats going on here. just a guess but i bet they are looking into it.

Not sure if I see it that way. With companies who are always conscious of their liabilities when a problem is discovered even in a few isolated cases that involved electricity, potential fire or explosion and any type of personal body injury a responsible company would put out a notification or advisory immediately.

Then they research the problem as I'm sure Uniden is doing with all of their multiple problems. After a while they make a determination if a recall or further safety notifications are required to protect from physical bodily harm, fire, destruction of personal property Etc.

For example now that we know, and not from from Uniden by the way, I will not be carrying one of these batteries in my pocket, also other people are taking precautions against fire and damage to their radios. This kind of notification should be put out immediately upon knowing of a problem however isolated it is.

Of course everyone has a different opinion based on their loyalties and their mindset but the law kind of looks at liability the same way in all cases.

 

[buddrousa]

Having had this happen with 2 RC batteries and 1 Uniden all 3 appeared to be caused by storing fully charged.

 

[KK4JUG]

Isn't it sort of the nature of the beast when it comes to these types of batteries so that it shouldn't come as a complete surprise?

The problem is certainly not unheard of.

 

[buddrousa]

This happened outside of the scanner sitting on a desk not in the scanner or by the scanner.

 

[IAmSixNine]

My opinion is not based on Loyalty to Uniden. Mine is based on years of working at a 2-way radio shop and then onto repairing cell phones.
I saw very few 2-way batteries off gas and expand as these units are doing.
I saw quite a few Samsung and Apple phones with batteries that were swollen and had gone bad. If you watched that video you noticed none of the over charged or shorted batteries ever exploded or had thermal runaway, aka fire. They are designed to off gas and thats why they are in a sealed enclosure. The swelling is the battery going bad and breaking out of its case. There is a chemical break down happening and its producing heat and gas. It happens. Extreme heat and over charging can cause this. However normal use probably wont. As with the couple of people who fully charged then let the batteries sit its more likely an isolated incident and not a defect or safety issue. At least not yet.
If we start to see this happen with normal use then yes it could indicate a problem. My original 2 unicatoin G4 were shipped with Li Poly batteries. About 6 months to a year ago Unication made the decision to ship new units with Li Ion battereis and not use Li Poly. I had one Poly battery start to swell. Contacted Unication and they replaced it with a Li Ion. I was happy with the resolution.
Let Uniden do their investigation. There is a lot of speculation going on so until i see more units go bad (facts) or these start to blow up (more factual based data) i say lets keep an eye on them and ask people to report to the board and Uniden when or if they have battery issues. Collect more data and research the issues.

 

[Stupidfatkid]

Isn't it sort of the nature of the beast when it comes to these types of batteries so that it shouldn't come as a complete surprise?

The problem is certainly not unheard of.

Yes. Exactly. I manage a large fleet of mobile phones and laptops. We see this all the time.

 

[buddrousa]

I also never post non Uniden mobile failure 2 weeks old either.

 

[KE5MC]

I need some help identifying if my battery, the smaller one, is having this problem please. I am legally blind and I cannot tell. But it looks like it is possible my battery might be swelling up in these photos I just took.

In these photos, I have the battery sitting in the cover that would go over the smaller battery if it were installed in the radio right now. In one of the pictures it is sitting on a blanket that mysteriously started getting holes in it about a month ago. I'm wondering if some of the battery acid had leaked out back when I had the battery sitting on the blanket before putting it away until just now finding it to take some pictures. The holes I am talking about are not the issue and they are not in the picture but in the second picture I am holding the bottom of the case or cover and turning it at an angle so that others can see what I think I am seeing with the deformity of the battery inside of the case cover.

Maybe this all is normal looking but to me it looks like the bottom corners are crimping as if the battery could be swelling causing the crimping. But I just can't tell with my vision so I hope somebody can help. Thank you.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

Sent using Google Voice to Text. Please excuse any errors I could not see or catch.

Brian (COMMSCAN)

Brian,
Viewing angle is not good, but it looks like there is some displacement at the bottom of the battery. A profile view looking across the top from the long side would help. Metal cover should be uniformly flat to the corners with some distortion at the folded corners. Yours does not look that way.
Mike

 

[letarotor]

Brian,
Viewing angle is not good, but it looks like there is some displacement at the bottom of the battery. A profile view looking across the top from the long side would help. Metal cover should be uniformly flat to the corners with some distortion at the folded corners. Yours does not look that way.
Mike

Thank you for your reply Mike. I took a number of photos here and I'm posting a link to where they can be seen on my Google Photos account. I believe I did what you were mentioning and hopefully some of these will be the type of images that can be helpful. I took photos with both the flash off and on just so there would be a better chance of getting what was needed. I do notice that at one end of my battery the metal portion seems to taper down and have some crimped looking edges. Maybe that is normal? It's not uniformly flat the whole way across but it does look relatively flat and level up until the point where it tapers down on one end. Thank you for your help and I sure do appreciate you taking the time to do it. Here is the link to about 10 or so photographs that will hopefully help determine if the battery looks safe or not?

https://photos.app.goo.gl/xL1UzXu8hSYJ4qn97

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

Sent using Google Voice to Text. Please excuse any errors I could not see or catch.

Brian (COMMSCAN)

 

[diskmonger]

CPSC.gov

Since Uniden doesn't want to admit or acknowledge the issue maybe you guys should report it to the consumer product safety commission? They have an online submission.

 

[sparklehorse]

For those with swollen batteries, I'm curious where your voltage alert preference is set. I saw a post on the SDS Facebook group where someone mentioned setting theirs to 3.2 volts and had no issues. I'm not an electrical engineer, nor do I own an SDS100 (yet), but what I've read over the years is that over-discharging lithium cells is very bad for them. It's hard to see Uniden allowing an alert setting that would compromise the cell life, but 3.2 volts seems like a pretty deep discharge for Li-ion or LiPo. What do you battery experts think?
.

 

[KE5MC]

Thank you for your reply Mike. I took a number of photos here and I'm posting a link to where they can be seen on my Google Photos account. I believe I did what you were mentioning and hopefully some of these will be the type of images that can be helpful. I took photos with both the flash off and on just so there would be a better chance of getting what was needed. I do notice that at one end of my battery the metal portion seems to taper down and have some crimped looking edges. Maybe that is normal? It's not uniformly flat the whole way across but it does look relatively flat and level up until the point where it tapers down on one end. Thank you for your help and I sure do appreciate you taking the time to do it. Here is the link to about 10 or so photographs that will hopefully help determine if the battery looks safe or not?

https://photos.app.goo.gl/xL1UzXu8hSYJ4qn97

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

Sent using Google Voice to Text. Please excuse any errors I could not see or catch.

Brian (COMMSCAN)

Brian,
Without handling or seeing in person I will commit to your battery is 'Puffy'. It should feel, look like a deck of playing cards or pack of cigarettes. Opposing side parallel to each and flat edge to edge. The top metal side looks puffed up across the center and then tappers off slowly to the edges. I've seen worst, but it does not look like my small battery I took out of service when I got the bigger replacement.

 

[KE5MC]

For those with swollen batteries, I'm curious where your voltage alert preference is set. I saw a post on the SDS Facebook group where someone mentioned setting theirs to 3.2 volts and had no issues. I'm not an electrical engineer, and I do NOT own and SDS100, but what I've read over the years is that over-discharging lithium cells is very bad for them. It's hard to see Uniden allowing an alert setting that would compromise the cell life, but 3.2 volts seems like a pretty deep discharge for Li-ion or LiPo. What do you battery experts think?
.

My thought too about warning setting, but expect without doing the research the radio would shut down before harm is done.
Mike

 

[RCjim]

I would suggest not running them down below 3.3 and full charge 4.2, when not using a lipo for a week or so store it at 3.5. Put it back on charge before needed but from what I have seen don't leave it fully charged or discharged for an extended length of time but at 3.5 called a storage charge.
None of the manufactures I know will let you ship a puffed battery back to them! Very surprised Uniden is doing that.
I'm sure some will say they have never had a problem fully charged or discharged for a long time, good for you.

 

[letarotor]

Brian,
Without handling or seeing in person I will commit to your battery is 'Puffy'. It should feel, look like a deck of playing cards or pack of cigarettes. Opposing side parallel to each and flat edge to edge. The top metal side looks puffed up across the center and then tappers off slowly to the edges. I've seen worst, but it does not look like my small battery I took out of service when I got the bigger replacement.

Thank you for your help and opinion Mike. I really appreciate it and I believe that you called it right because that's the way it feels and looks with the vision I do have. I'm just glad I didn't put it back in the radio and try to use it after getting the replacement, larger battery. I took it with me about a month ago when I was going to be gone all day as a backup battery but then I never had to use it. It's definitely better to be safe than sorry and what you told me has helped a lot...

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

Sent using Google Voice to Text. Please excuse any errors I could not see or catch.

Brian (COMMSCAN)

 

[milcom_chaser]

What you need to do is look at this video from the RC hobby.

The Dreamliner comes to mind while watching this...

 

[buddrousa]

For those with swollen batteries, I'm curious where your voltage alert preference is set. I saw a post on the SDS Facebook group where someone mentioned setting theirs to 3.2 volts and had no issues. I'm not an electrical engineer, nor do I own an SDS100 (yet), but what I've read over the years is that over-discharging lithium cells is very bad for them. It's hard to see Uniden allowing an alert setting that would compromise the cell life, but 3.2 volts seems like a pretty deep discharge for Li-ion or LiPo. What do you battery experts think?
.

Please read all post. This happened after they were stored not in the scanners.