Ammo Box for Lipos ??

I feel now I ought to get an " Ammo Box " in which to store and transport my growing collection of lipos .

Looking on line there are many to choose from , so I would welcome any suggestion as to the best size and useability which would suit the average leccy flier !

so any experience /advice would be welcome

thanks

cheers

I have a smallone but soon bought a Battsafe.

If you use an ammo box it should have some vent holes drilled in it. Our club sec did a really fancy one with holes and welded in baffles and even compartments to keepthe batteries separate.

The oimportat thing is the vent holes or the gas could make the box explode.

On my one I drilled a few 11/4" holes and removed some of the seal round the lid.

I use 50 Cal Ammo Box 5.56mm Steel Tin 27cm x 14 cm x 17 cm. (ex-U.S. Army/Danish NATO).

Put layer of sand or ideally vermiculite on the bottom and never seal the lid down otherwise it’ll turn into a small bomb – unless you drill some vent holes that is. Stored outside in a dustbin – lipo storage charge level checked every 2-3 months.

Try Google or eBay.

For charging inside anywhere (e.g. house, shed, garage) – and transporting - I use Bat-Safe.

**LINK**

Yes - - - - BUT!

Although an ammo box might keep the flames inside - metal boxes are remarkably poor heat insulators and as Peter mentioned above, you need to provide vent holes to allow the gases to escape, otherwise you've got a bomb on your hands, also, given time the heat transferred from inside your box may ignite anything remotely flammable nearbye. Potentially you can add to heat and fire risks the smoke escaping through the vents which will damage the inside of your shed/garage/hobby room. We had a house fire back in the 60s - having been there ( but no Tee shirt ) - I never ever want another one.

My own "solution" has been to store my LiPos outside in a large insulated box after charging ( charging always outdoors - on a pensioned off NHS steel trolley ), the box is frost proofed by fitting the bottom of a heated seed tray on thick foam underneath my LiPos. Incidentally, despite assurances from some LiPo suppliers ( not all, some remain cagey ) some of my LiPos that did get well and truly chilled a couple of years ago have never seemed quite as good since, however I have no figures to quote, it's just a feeling.

Edited By Old Geezer on 14/10/2019 12:27:36

For most of my Coastguard service years we stored signal and parachute illumination flares in 50 cal ammo box's with larger mortar box's for the spare's on station. A new purpose made box was introduced and frankly we thought it was a joke.

The new box's are thin steel with more holes than metal and a carboard liner ! A demo with bunch of flares inside and then ignited showed us sceptics how effective it was at containing and dissipating the pressure and tremendous heat produced by such flares.

Thanks chaps ,

I now know which way to progress .

cheers

Remove the rubber seals from the ammo box lid, that way you get plenty of ventilation without the need to drill holes. I lit some newspaper in the first one that I got to do a smoke test, works fine.

Another vote for the Battsafe.

It’s purpose made for the job and there is a video on You Tube somewhere showing it’s effectiveness.

S

If a Bat Safe is a lined bag with handles, I greatly prefer them to ammo boxes. There’s a good reason why the latter are always measured in metric. It’s because they’re disappointingly small and I thought not a particularly sympathetic environment for several hundred pounds’ worth of LiPos.

BTC

Not the old 'without holes it'll become a bomb' warnings again. An ammo box will contain a burning lipo without any ventilation.

Yes, but how about several Lipos?

I reckon if a load went up all together it may force the lid or seal but with explosive force?

No, I doubt it very much.

Looking at the You Tube demo, it looks that the Battsafe will also filter some of the smoke emitting from a Lipo fire. I think that is a key feature of the Battsafe,

I don’t have the documents that came with my Battsafe but the FAQ’s are on the link.

https://www.bat-safe.com/faq

Lutterworth Army Surplus Stupphed. Open Thursday-Sunday.

Take the seal off the lid and drill some holes in the top. Store the lipos in a lipo bag inside the box, job done.

Edited By Chris Berry on 14/10/2019 21:58:00

If you really want to go to town with your ammo box, remove the seal and line it with 2mm self-adhesive vynil off e-bay.