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BIF
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A place to recharge my batteries

Sat Jul 29, 2017 9:17 pm

No, really, I have tons of batteries to recharge. 18 volt, 56 volt, CR 123 3.7 volt, and the usual AA, AAA, C, D, and yep, even a few 9-volt types. I recharge both NiMH and Lithium batteries.

Right now I have a table in my kitchen reserved for all this, but it has become a cluttery mess and it prevents having a cup of coffee or a meal in there, so I think I want to mount my chargers on a wall in my laundry room. The laundry room is about 5' X 7' X 8' tall, has a washer and electric dryer in it, and it is under AC.

The laundry room has no windows and two doors; one going to the garage and the other to the kitchen. The garage door is always closed (to keep the possums, snakes, frogs, and lizards out of my house). The kitchen door is closed at night and when I'm gone. That little room never gets humid or hot, partly due to the AC duct that goes directly into the room. In fact, it's usually the coldest room in my house.

I never run the washer or dryer when I'm away from home. I'm a stickler for cleaning my dryer's lint screen after each load, and I disassemble and vacuum out the dryer's guts once every 18-24 months. I have never found any lint in the dryer's internals, nor in the duct that vents directly to the outside.

Opposite of the two machines, the laundry room has a rack where I'm storing some chemicals (laundry soaps, bleach, vinegar, granite cleaning stuff, window washing stuff, typical household pesticides, some old computer equipment in boxes, and other stuff that shouldn't be in the hot and humid garage.

When I'm home, the door to the kitchen is usually open, especially if I'm doing laundry (I want to hear the machinery running and I want to know if the washer is overflowing) as well as the dryer's end-of-cycle buzzer).

I want to hang the battery chargers on the wall to the left of and in front) the washing machine, at about eye level (roughly 5' off the floor). This should keep it out of the way and keep it far enough away from the washer's tub full of water.

The reason I told you all that stuff is because I know that lint, dust, chemicals, and heat can make for an explosive mix. And then there's those lithium batteries. Given everything I wrote above, I think the laundry room is safe for my batteries and their chargers, but I don't want anything to go boom either. What say you?
 
Heiwashin
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Re: A place to recharge my batteries

Sat Jul 29, 2017 10:36 pm

This is what i keep my lipos in in the truck.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaqEb75sTdM

Really they aren't quite as dangerous as you might think as long as you stop the fire from being spreadable. I wouldn't exactly go for a run while they're charging, but if you have some solid cookware or a ammo box type thing and put them on a metal table nothing would be harmed. I don't know what you meant by hanging the chargers on the wall, would the batteries be there too? Either way i wouldn't do that. If the fire managed to affect the charger itself you could start a house fire with the wall. Stay as far away from things as possible.
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BIF
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Re: A place to recharge my batteries

Sat Jul 29, 2017 10:47 pm

Hello. The chargers have eye-holes designed for hanging them on a wall.
 
Heiwashin
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Re: A place to recharge my batteries

Sat Jul 29, 2017 10:52 pm

I would most definitely not put my lithiums anywhere near a wall while charging. What are you supposed to do if you have a fire? At least keep a fire extinguisher in there so you can put out the burning wall.
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BIF
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Re: A place to recharge my batteries

Sat Jul 29, 2017 11:12 pm

Okay, point taken.

But then why do these chargers all have eye holes for mounting, and why do they all have short power cords? It's nearly impossible to have them far from a wall anyway. And who has their battery chargers in the middle of a room?

Here are some links showing pretty much what I want to do, only not in my garage.

https://www.ryobitools.com/products/det ... percharger (ready made for mounting on a wall; it even comes with a bracket designed to make it easy to remove the unit and use it to carry up to 6 batteries to a job site)
https://community.egopowerplus.com/ego/ ... on-storage (scroll down in this forum thread a bit, and you'll see a mounting idea)
https://www.ryobitools.com/products/det ... on-charger (no pics of this one mounted on a wall, but it has eyelets designed to accomodate screw heads)
 
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Re: A place to recharge my batteries

Sat Jul 29, 2017 11:27 pm

I see what you're saying and I'm not saying don't do it. I really do mean that preparing for the risk if you choose to take it is the way to go.

My batteries are much more likely to burst into flames due to the abuses they see and the current they deal with. Hell I actually land on my batteries every flight. That said, the bag is sitting in a Pyrex bowl and if a battery ever goes up, the bag, the bowl, and the charger will all be taking a flight out the window.

If you're dead set on hanging them for organization purposes I wouldn't use plywall to do it. Get a shallow metal cabinet and modify it for the purpose.

Always apply your own caution to other people's projects.
http://www.9news.com/mobile/article/new ... /457998249
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BIF
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Re: A place to recharge my batteries

Sun Jul 30, 2017 12:22 am

I don't think I'll have enough clearance for a cabinet (not one with a working door, anyway), but I might try to affix a metal plate and use that as a backing.

I think I'll also use a power tap with a master shutoff switch; that way I can positively shut off the power to all chargers with one rocker switch.

As for candles, I used to make them; but haven't done so in many years. I knew at least one person who's house burned down due to the use of unsupervised candles. I would never apply anything flammable to a candle or glass surround, yikes! But thanks for the reminder.
 
just brew it!
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Re: A place to recharge my batteries

Sun Jul 30, 2017 8:12 am

BIF wrote:
As for candles, I used to make them; but haven't done so in many years. I knew at least one person who's house burned down due to the use of unsupervised candles. I would never apply anything flammable to a candle or glass surround, yikes! But thanks for the reminder.

We had a close call once with a candle on a bathroom vanity. Someone moved the candle towards the back of the vanity while it was lit, and somehow the flame got large enough to badly scorch the wooden medicine cabinet ~18 inches above the candle. Fortunately no fire resulted.

Back on-topic: Barring a major charger malfunction, the NiMH ones should be safe. I agree with the others who are leery of the lithium ones though. Using at least a metal backing plate seems to be a wise idea; you should also ensure that there aren't any flammable materials nearby when lithium cells are being charged (e.g. no piles of laundry under the charging station).
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BIF
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Re: A place to recharge my batteries

Sun Jul 30, 2017 12:24 pm

just brew it! wrote:
...Using at least a metal backing plate seems to be a wise idea; you should also ensure that there aren't any flammable materials nearby when lithium cells are being charged (e.g. no piles of laundry under the charging station).


Definitely!
 
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Re: A place to recharge my batteries

Mon Jul 31, 2017 12:36 am

Those tool cell packs seem to be hardy and well-controlled by charge/discharge circuity, personally I don't worry about those too much. But if you're planning to have RC LiPo packs or discrete Li-Ion cells charging in close proximity then you might give a thought or two to the possibility of a chain reaction.

For paranoid wall mounting, you could use a plywood backer with a couple layers of 1/2-inch drywall stacked on top to act as a sort of firestop, then use hanger screws that are long enough penetrate the drywall into the plywood. But IMO your biggest dangers are (1) What's above? (heat rises), and (2) If a cell explodes and scatters flaming debris, what other flammables might become involved?

just brew it! wrote:
We had a close call once with a candle on a bathroom vanity. Someone moved the candle towards the back of the vanity while it was lit, and somehow the flame got large enough to badly scorch the wooden medicine cabinet ~18 inches above the candle. Fortunately no fire resulted.

People have no idea how much heat rises from a candle, so they incautiously place them in unsafe locations. Before buying the townhome I was renting at the time, I toured a couple others listed in the same complex and probably saved a realtor's job: she had lit a couple scented votives for ambiance and one of them was sitting on a shelf of a now-empty Ikea unit, merrily setting the shelf above it on fire. I asked about it. "Oh, I guess I should check on that" and then proceeded to nearly burn her hand. Good thing the unit had a dark espresso finish, all she had to do was wipe away the loose soot and hope the light wasn't too bright when the owners unpacked their book collection back a couple weeks hence.
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BIF
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Re: A place to recharge my batteries

Mon Jul 31, 2017 6:14 am

ludi wrote:
People have no idea how much heat rises from a candle, so they incautiously place them in unsafe locations...

My ceilings are 8' to 12' off the floor, and yet I still don't like having them above a candle.

Campfires are another thing we humans are very nonchalant about.
 
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Re: A place to recharge my batteries

Mon Jul 31, 2017 6:36 am

BIF wrote:
Campfires are another thing we humans are very nonchalant about.

Like this??

Image
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Re: A place to recharge my batteries

Mon Jul 31, 2017 6:51 am

I would just get a wall-mounted wire shelf rack and wall-mount a multi-socket power extension next to it, then clip the charger cables in place with zip-ties.

Image

If a battery does vent/explode, the wire rack is non-flammable so the fire won't spread. Additionally, a solid surface is something a venting battery can use as a launchpad to move the "firework" to a new location with potentially inflammable materials. If it's charging on a wire rack there is less chance of it moving if it vents.
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The Egg
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Re: A place to recharge my batteries

Mon Jul 31, 2017 8:55 am

I'm sure someone sells an industrial sized version of a Li-po Bag/Safe, but they probably charge 10x what it's worth. I would say just build a full cabinet out of sheet metal (back side too), and make it a good 24" deep.
 
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Re: A place to recharge my batteries

Mon Jul 31, 2017 9:19 am

If I were you, I'd go down to the local steel shop and get a shelf-sized bit of 1/4" plate and mount that on top of metal shelf brackets, with a ~1" gap between the wall and plate.

And get a small class-d fire extinguisher.
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ludi
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Re: A place to recharge my batteries

Mon Jul 31, 2017 10:48 am

Captain Ned wrote:
BIF wrote:
Campfires are another thing we humans are very nonchalant about.

Like this??

Sometimes, the picture doesn't provide the full thousand words. Backstory?
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Captain Ned
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Re: A place to recharge my batteries

Mon Jul 31, 2017 11:41 am

ludi wrote:
Captain Ned wrote:
BIF wrote:
Campfires are another thing we humans are very nonchalant about.

Like this??
Sometimes, the picture doesn't provide the full thousand words. Backstory?

Foam rubber mattress thrown on the campfire (the fire IS the trash disposal system at this place). When the accumulated petroleum residues liquefied and ignited, the radiant heat was enough to ignite wood 15 feet away from the flames. The shed to the right of that picture is full of other flammable liquids and we almost lost that, which likely would have taken the rest of the camp.
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Re: A place to recharge my batteries

Tue Aug 01, 2017 10:18 am

Captain Ned wrote:
ludi wrote:
Captain Ned wrote:
Like this??
Sometimes, the picture doesn't provide the full thousand words. Backstory?

Foam rubber mattress thrown on the campfire (the fire IS the trash disposal system at this place). When the accumulated petroleum residues liquefied and ignited, the radiant heat was enough to ignite wood 15 feet away from the flames. The shed to the right of that picture is full of other flammable liquids and we almost lost that, which likely would have taken the rest of the camp.

My first thought seeing that photo was get that car moved quick....................................
 
Heiwashin
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Re: A place to recharge my batteries

Tue Aug 01, 2017 10:33 am

My first thought was about marshmallows.
Looking for Knowledge wrote:
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just brew it!
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Re: A place to recharge my batteries

Tue Aug 01, 2017 11:14 am

Heiwashin wrote:
My first thought was about marshmallows.

Mmm... marshmallows toasted over a burning foam rubber mattress. Tasty!
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
 
Heiwashin
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Re: A place to recharge my batteries

Tue Aug 01, 2017 12:29 pm

You can almost taste the carcinogens.
Looking for Knowledge wrote:
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BIF
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Re: A place to recharge my batteries

Mon Aug 28, 2017 7:10 am

Captain Ned wrote:
Foam rubber mattress thrown on the campfire (the fire IS the trash disposal system at this place). When the accumulated petroleum residues liquefied and ignited, the radiant heat was enough to ignite wood 15 feet away from the flames. The shed to the right of that picture is full of other flammable liquids and we almost lost that, which likely would have taken the rest of the camp.


So after he almost burned down the whole forest, did you take the at-fault party off of sh*t-burning detail? :x

By the way, I just screwed all the chargers and power tap directly to the wall. The chargers all keep the batteries far enough away from the wall, so I decided not to go to any further trouble with steel plates and such. One flip of the power tap rocker switch brings the chargers offline, and I'm ready to run the dryer. Easy. Now I can clean that part of the kitchen where the chargers used to be.
Last edited by BIF on Mon Aug 28, 2017 7:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
 
BIF
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Re: A place to recharge my batteries

Mon Aug 28, 2017 7:16 am

Chrispy_ wrote:
I would just get a wall-mounted wire shelf rack and wall-mount a multi-socket power extension next to it, then clip the charger cables in place with zip-ties.

Image

If a battery does vent/explode, the wire rack is non-flammable so the fire won't spread. Additionally, a solid surface is something a venting battery can use as a launchpad to move the "firework" to a new location with potentially inflammable materials. If it's charging on a wire rack there is less chance of it moving if it vents.


This would not have worked, because it would have partially overhung the washing machine, and it would have impeded a human from accessing the washer, opening the lid, etc. I did think about it though; thanks!

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