GregsGarage wrote:First the insurance question. My policy doesn't cover faulty components but will cover damage caused by faulty components. So, since the battery and or charger was the likely cause of the fire they wouldn't be covered. Next most expensive component was the motor, around £650 (ex vat, and since this is on a commercial policy they don't remeberse VAT). Then factor in £500 excess and loss of no claims bonus and claiming really isn't worth it. If I had implemented Peter's digital bms system with remote data logging and could show the fault was a particular cell then I would have a good case for a claim. So keep that in mind when implementing any sort of BMS.
mmmmm interesting insurance ? surely if its caught fire then its caught fire ?? must admit I've not noticed if my policy has a "if its a faulty component we're not paying out" feature on it
GregsGarage wrote:The cells were Lifepo4, not lipo, which are supposed to be even safer than lipo. The manufacturer's claims make it appear that they are 100% safe and impossible to catch fire. I seem to have achieved the impossible!
Sorry my mistake, yep as you say the Lifepo4 cells are supose to be idiot proof which makes me wonder if it was something else ?
GregsGarage wrote:
A popular topic on various forums is using these cells without a BMS or with a very simple system. I think that this example shows that this is not the case and that if you venture outside the cells performance specification you will have trouble.
I would agree that the charger was at least a contributing factor, but that also some destructive testing of these cells would be a good idea to find out how safe they really are and what conditions will cause a fire.
Now that is a good idea but you would hope that the manufactures had done some to put out the claims of their indestructablity
ChrisB