A warning about flying with Li Pro batteries

[Ellis Vener]

http://petapixel.com/2014/09/08/pro-tip-declare-your-lithium-ion-batteries-or-you-might-set-your-plane-on-fire/

[Colorado David]

I fly frequently with Li batteries.  There was a ruling a few years ago that Li batteries that contained in excess of a certain weight of Lithium could not be carried in your checked bags.  They had to be in your carry-on and had to have a cover over the contacts to prevent anything touching the contacts.  Most of the batteries I use contain less than the prohibited amount except for a couple of large Anton Bauer batteries that I simply stopped carrying by air.  I use the factory plastic covers for the terminals and put each battery in a separate zip-loc bag in my carry-on.  One big point is never lie to airport security personnel.  Otherwise use a big portion of good judgement.

[Alan Smallbone]

Yes never lie about the batteries, but the Li-ion for cameras are a lot more stable than the Li-polymer batteries for the multi-rotors. They do not take any kind of impact well and if they get heated and have an impact they can burst into flames. I have seen a crash of multi-rotor and the battery hit the ground from a couple of feet and burst into flames.

Alan

[NancyP]

I haven't heard of ordinary Li-ion camera batteries or AA/AAAs exploding or catching fire under normal usage. The wattage is pretty low on consumer batteries, though. I use the Li-ion AAAs for headlamps due to light weight and cold resistance.

[Colorado David]

When Li batteries first became available, we looked at them.  They were from a third party vendor and the promise of long life and no charge memory was strong.  However, the vendor was honest in saying they would burst into flame as a result of a sharp blow.  For that reason, the military would not use them at that time.  By the time we began buying the Li batteries, we were assured that the explosive hazard issue was mostly behind us.  We bought Li batteries from Anon Bauer in the early 2000s, some of which are still, remarkably, serviceable.  It was probably 2005 or 2006 when the DHS warnings were issued.  Now my kit is full of Li batteries and I hardly think about it at all other than complying with the air travel requirements.

[mahleu]

They do explode  http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2014/01/economist-explains-19 but it's fairly rare. Some of the sites that stored flammable gasses and liquids where I used to shoot had rules that all electronics had to be 'intrinsically safe' ie, they wouldn't explode or burst into flames.