Bloated lithium batteries

[woody1]

Totally this. Apparently it isn't as dangerous as with old batteries but it brings a 'maybe' in which is too much for me so as soon as it happens it has to go. Just not worth it.

It's extremely rare but I've read about them exploding. More common though is them breaking laptops and phones by pressing on other components.

[northernladuk]

I wouldn't leave a bloated battery connected to anything.

Totally this. Apparently it isn't as dangerous as with old batteries but it brings a 'maybe' in which is too much for me so as soon as it happens it has to go. Just not worth it.

[woody1]

I wouldn't leave a bloated battery connected to anything.

I wasn't comfortable with this either. However, at least with the sticky tape work-around, it's no longer being charged.

I was planning to replace it with a 5G router, when 5G became available in our area, but I might do this sooner and get a mains (non-battery) unit.

[ladymuck]

I wouldn't leave a bloated battery connected to anything.

[woody1]

Having applied the solution with the sticky tape above, which touch wood seems to be working fine, I was left with one further problem. The battery was so bloated I couldn't close the case of the router.

I stuck a pin in the outer casing of the battery, to let the gas out, and that seems to have worked ok. No liquids leaked out.

NB. it might not be wise to continue charging a bloated battery after piercing the casing.

[woody1]

Just thought I'd share this.

If you leave devices connected to a charger for long periods of time, gas bloating is quite a common problem with lithium batteries. I've had this happen a few times. I replaced the batteries twice on a 4G router, that I leave permanently on, but it wasn't long before the new batteries also failed.

An obvious solution would be to just power the device from the charger without the battery. Unfortunately, many devices won't work without a battery installed. However, it's worth searching the net for work arounds. I found several for my router. Some involved cannibalising the battery or soldering components. However, it turned out that there was a much easier solution; just cover the battery -ve terminal with some sticky tape*. This prevents the battery from charging (and ultimately bloating) but allows the device to work normally.

Hope this is of use to someone else.

* the battery has 4 terminals; taping over the -ve terminal doesn't affect the device but does stop the battery charging