Goodall Jump packs

[chidog]

Just beware, any thing that uses a lithium ion battery can at any time catch on fire.

I personally never have a lithium ion battery in a shop or garage. But then there maybe a few coin cells that are lithium. I will likely have to toss my dewalt drill since I don't think I can get any Nickel metal hydride batterys now.

Someone needs to come up with an affordable outside tool battery storage container.

 

[Shimmy1]

Just beware, any thing that uses a lithium ion battery can at any time catch on fire.

I personally never have a lithium ion battery in a shop or garage. But then there maybe a few coin cells that are lithium. I will likely have to toss my dewalt drill since I don't think I can get any Nickel metal hydride batterys now.

Someone needs to come up with an affordable outside tool battery storage container.

So, you don't use a mobile phone or a laptop? Ever??

 

[Welder Dave]

I think poorly built lithium batteries are a problem but when have you heard of Milwaukee, Dewalt, Mikita and several other brand name cordless tool batteries catching on fire? There are probably millions of them out there. Same with cell phones. I'm not sure you can get them without lithium batteries. If you're worried keep/charge them in a metal enclosure that would contain a fire.

 

[HarleyHappy]

Have seen all brands catch fire, it’s just a matter of time.
All my chargers, I wire to my light switches, so when i leave and turn the lights off, the chargers shut down. I try very hard, to never leave a battery on the charger, when it’s charged.
Had a mobile work, Rubbermaid cart, set up with Milwaukee chargers and tools inside.
Came out one morning, to a melted pile of plastic and burned tools, had to sawzall apart.
That was an eye opener.
Think tools are more likely to get dropped, jammed, busted and damaging batteries.
At work, one contract was to remove 250k battery packs, for GPS and impact monitors, from battle helmets.
The Military thought this would be a good idea, not understanding that this modification would void the warranty and reduce ballistic advantage.
Cut all glued in sensors, with Lithium batteries, in a small Haas milling machine.
For months, we had Lithium battery fires and ended up having to individually bag each battery and Uncle Sam paid for the Hazmat disposal.
The smell from a lithium battery fire sucks.

 

[chidog]

So, you don't use a mobile phone or a laptop? Ever??

Yup I do, but its sure not stored in the shop.
The wife had her phone go super hot in her pocket many years ago, could have been a real disaster too, cause they can go bang as well.
Airlines have adopted strict rules on the lithium battery stuff. There have been many air disasters caused from them as well in the past.

The brand names don't matter, a few years ago at an expo they had to bury a lawn mower I think it was because of the fire.

There was a video about a person that had a lawn care business that had their STIHL leaf blower catch fire in the pile of debris in the back of the pickup, he caught in time. BRAND OF BATTERY IS NOT THE ISSUE lithium and thermal runaway is the issue.

Oh and for a metal container to work it would need to be designed like a turbine engine combustor to contain the fire when I heard they can burn down through concrete? Fire brick maybe would work I don't know, and I would think a pile of ashes won't burn.

Listen to Stache D training on youtube he'll set everyone straight on these Bats and fires.

Just trying to help save someone some grief. Be careful where you keep these battery's, $100,000 pickups and shops and houses is NOT where to keep them.

HarleyHappy,​

Good post thank you for that.

 

[HarleyHappy]

Once you smell a lithium battery burning up, you never want to smell it again.
Whole incident got me so paranoid, I put electrical tape over most batteries to throw in the trash, or do like razor knife blades and always keep a Gatorade bottle laying around.

 

[colson04]

My father in law lost his work shop to an old 18v dewalt battery exploding on the charger. This was in fall of 2012. He put the battery on the charger and left for the day. Within 20 minutes the battery exploded and caught a bin of dirty shop rags on fire, lighting off the structure. Total loss. Fire Department quit spraying the work shop and instead sprayed his house, 40ft away, to keep it from catching fire. It melted the aluminum siding on the house facing the fire. That was not a lithium battery, but the fire Marshall said that wasn't an uncommon fire as he saw several of them a year caused by a charging battery failure.

 

[Truck Shop]

Local contractor lost his shop with office, dump truck and track loader inside.
Fire investigator related it to a battery on charger explosion. That was four
years ago.

 

[Truck Shop]

And my .125 thick home made BBQ grille makes a perfect place to charge batteries,
hood shut no air and outside. Makes a good steak too.
*

 

[Welder Dave]

That's a very well built BBQ!

Have heard of a few fires but didn't realize how serious it is. Charging in a BBQ isn't a bad idea. Maybe someone should make special enclosures for charging batteries or manufacturers should have to include them. Curious what insurance companies say about electric vehicles parked/charged in garages, especially attached garages??

 

[chidog]

I'm really surprised that auto shops and dealers and other places with Li power tools not going up in smoke everyday.

 

[HarleyHappy]

Guy I worked with, down in TN, was having his 69 Chevelle, which was about as mint as it gets, was having a friend do some work done on it, in his garage.
Hitachi battery started a fire, on the charger and burnt the garage with the Chevelle in it, to the ground.
What do you do?
Guy had no insurance on his garage, other than homeowners.
Guy with the Chevelle had insurance but it was seasonal and this was in the winter.
Sorry Charlie!

 

[LCA078]

A little late jumping in but yesterday I used someone's DSR 12v/24v DSR166 jump pack to start a truck with the Cummins 8.3L 6CTA. Truck had lost all prime in the fuel system and they ran the batteries down to nothing cranking it. They asked me to help so I bypassed the leaking fuel system and manual primed it as best as I could before cranking it knowing I had only one or two chances to get her going. We cranked 10-15 secs with the jump pack (we disconnected the dead batteries) before she caught and ran on her own. It was the first time I ever used a jump pack so was quite impressed it could pack that much juice for a hand-held. It wasn't light as it weighed 30-35lbs (from my calibrated arm) but did the job. I looked up the spec's and it wasn't li-ion but AGM lead acid. I'm surprised it was AGM but it definitely was a brute.

 

[HATCHEQUIP]

Some were talking earlier about the clamps being a weak point, weld a bolt to a cheap set of visegrips and bolt the lead to them paint one red one black. For charging and changing your jump batteries from 12 to 24 welding cable quick connects work for great

 

[Welder Dave]

Some welding ground clamps can work but they're kind of big. What's really stupid on booster cable clamps is the crappy way the cable attaches. It amazes me that no one ever thought to put welding clamp style cable attachment on booster cable clamps. A copper block with a large half round bolt to clamp the cable. Could even have a strip of copper to wrap around the cable. 1000 times better and easier to hook up than any booster cable clamps.

Conventional booster packs are better than lithium boosters when you need to use glow plugs or crank for longer times. Lithium are great because of their small size and low weight.

 

[LCA078]

Some were talking earlier about the clamps being a weak point, weld a bolt to a cheap set of visegrips and bolt the lead to them paint one red one black.

The clamps on the DSR were pretty beefy. DSR is by Schumacher so pretty good quality but I'm sure you're paying for it compared to others. Again, I just borrowed it one time and it was the only jump packed I've ever used so use my one data point with caution.

And yes, I agree 100% that alligator clamps are probably the crappiest way to connect to a electrical system as they only have a few sharp points digging into the lead terminal or post. When starting, that's a lot of current to push through a few contact points! Any trick like using bolts on vise grips will help a lot.

The other thing was the truck I was jumping had a 24v starting system so current was half compared to a similar 12v. I'm sure that made a difference when using the clamps too.

 

[terex herder]

I saw Milwaukee is making a jump pack that uses their tool batteries. No help for me, as all my stuff is Makita, but it does seem useful.

 

[Shimmy1]

I saw Milwaukee is making a jump pack that uses their tool batteries. No help for me, as all my stuff is Makita, but it does seem useful.

As long as they incorporate capacitors so it doesn't overload the battery, they might be useful. All I know, the time that I have saved over the last three years with my Goodall has convinced me that I will go to town the same day it dies and buy a replacement, even if it's well over a grand when that day comes.

 

[LCA078]

even if it's well over a grand when that day comes

Well, you're in luck. The smaller Goodall's are reasonably priced but the largest 12v version is already above a $1k. What's ridiculous is 12v/24v version is almost $2k but it's not double the capacity of the 12v. As far as I can tell, it's the same battery capacity of the $1k 12v which means you paying $1k for a switch.

 

[Shimmy1]

As far as I can tell, it's the same battery capacity of the $1k 12v which means you paying $1k for a switch.

The battery pack is not the same, it has at least half again as much battery as the 12 V version.