Speedbird_666
AF-UK patch owner
- Jul 28, 2014
- 1,719
- 1,327
I see it daily on the various forums and social media.
Little Johnny asks: ‘What am bestest charger’ – the answer more often than not from people that are self-professed ‘experts’ will be ‘Imax B6’.
Little Johnny runs off to Amazon or eBay armed with this advice, punches in the search term, finds the cheapest result and orders it. Problem is – it’s more than likely a fake – knocked-off to the extent that even the logos and holograms are the same on the outside. Unbeknownst to little Johnny, the inside of said charger is a shit-show of cheap and nasty components that will likely at some point fail.
Hopefully, the failure will be benign – maybe a little pop, or a little puff of magic smoke, leaving a dead charger to be consigned to landfill. On occasion though, the failure can be catastrophic, leading to fire, property damage or worse.
Oh, little Johnny picked up a real one from a reputable source? Surely that’s safe...right?
Erm…no.
Here, dear reader, is a story of the catastrophic failure of a real Imax B6 belonging to a fellow (long-time) RC Flyer and Club member local to me. This happened in 2017.
The following emails were sent to the club’s email distribution list. Some information has been redacted for his privacy but spelling/grammar unchanged - I added the bold:
Hi All
After flying at [Redacted] yesterday I was recharging 3 lipo batteries. Batteries are put into a heavy highly fired pot and lid to contain the battery and reduce fire damage from any flare-up.
I was close bye to this area when I saw white smoke, then flame and the next instant big flames.
My garage is now a pile of rubble, the fire brigade took 12mins to arrive. The entire roof was gone within 7 minutes of the fire starting; all my rc and models stuff with it.
I hope to see you for our Wednesday meeting and will update you then. I've have spoken to BMFA, my Morgan insurers and hiuse insurers from which I have a suspicion I will not get anything like value back.
He clarified in subsequent emails the following:
My Charger was an iMax just as you've quoted [Imax B6 AC quoted in a previous email] Mine was the true Chinese original: note that Hobbyking and eBay did offer a lesser cost replica by the same name /ref. Mine was c £60 the imitation more like £45. I will go for a better EU origined unit in future, havingnint3rnal resistance of cells - the good wqy to check up on capacity decreasing and therefore health.
Only 1 lipo 2S 20C 2200mAHrs is every kept near my charging area and is always charged at no more than 1.5Amps. I carefully monitor health by physical inspection of case and leads for damage and capacity check by flight time then checking remaining capacity / cell volts remaining.
The fire spread in a standard brick detached garage with slate double hipped roof, was too intense and too rapid to deal with by far. I had a fire extinguisher CO2 right beside my charger but in turning to pick it up the heat was too intense to stay there.
The battery on charge was always put into a fireproof heavy highly fired pot with lid!
The garage was roofless in 7mins. The firebrigade arrived 12mins after their call; the station is part time non retained staffed and only 0.4miles away.
I'm fairly sure the fire started with the charger so its an electrical fire
My guess is that even with 1hr fire resisting an integral garage to the home would have taken some part of the home with the fire.
And finally:
1. The Garage Fire
I'm fairly sure now that my fire started with the iMax battery charger while charging my known to be healthy lipo, housed in a heavy earthenware highly fired trough with its heavy cover over.
I still can't reconcile myself to the fact that there was so much heat and flame so soon: it was far more than Ive ever seen on YouTube.
The battery, receiving electrically erroneous charging - not to its liking - fired very soon after the charger set fire. That's my best guess.
NOTE: All my stored batteries were on the floor of the garage in a tin box with tight fitting lid with a large stone on it - these batteries survived even though they were well baked but did not add to the fire. These were 2 half discharged and the rest not used that day fully charged.
Now, being realistic, the vast majority of genuine Imax B6 chargers will be fine. Mediocre, but fine.
The knockoffs will likely work for a bit. Some will last years, some will only last months. Those that fail will likely do so without harm, but there will be some that will be catastrophic.
If YOU own a B6, genuine or not, and works great - kudos! But new people, who don't know any better, will be exposed to greater risk with your so-called 'advise'.
Little Johnny asks: ‘What am bestest charger’ – the answer more often than not from people that are self-professed ‘experts’ will be ‘Imax B6’.
Little Johnny runs off to Amazon or eBay armed with this advice, punches in the search term, finds the cheapest result and orders it. Problem is – it’s more than likely a fake – knocked-off to the extent that even the logos and holograms are the same on the outside. Unbeknownst to little Johnny, the inside of said charger is a shit-show of cheap and nasty components that will likely at some point fail.
Hopefully, the failure will be benign – maybe a little pop, or a little puff of magic smoke, leaving a dead charger to be consigned to landfill. On occasion though, the failure can be catastrophic, leading to fire, property damage or worse.
Oh, little Johnny picked up a real one from a reputable source? Surely that’s safe...right?
Erm…no.
Here, dear reader, is a story of the catastrophic failure of a real Imax B6 belonging to a fellow (long-time) RC Flyer and Club member local to me. This happened in 2017.
The following emails were sent to the club’s email distribution list. Some information has been redacted for his privacy but spelling/grammar unchanged - I added the bold:
Hi All
After flying at [Redacted] yesterday I was recharging 3 lipo batteries. Batteries are put into a heavy highly fired pot and lid to contain the battery and reduce fire damage from any flare-up.
I was close bye to this area when I saw white smoke, then flame and the next instant big flames.
My garage is now a pile of rubble, the fire brigade took 12mins to arrive. The entire roof was gone within 7 minutes of the fire starting; all my rc and models stuff with it.
I hope to see you for our Wednesday meeting and will update you then. I've have spoken to BMFA, my Morgan insurers and hiuse insurers from which I have a suspicion I will not get anything like value back.
He clarified in subsequent emails the following:
My Charger was an iMax just as you've quoted [Imax B6 AC quoted in a previous email] Mine was the true Chinese original: note that Hobbyking and eBay did offer a lesser cost replica by the same name /ref. Mine was c £60 the imitation more like £45. I will go for a better EU origined unit in future, havingnint3rnal resistance of cells - the good wqy to check up on capacity decreasing and therefore health.
Only 1 lipo 2S 20C 2200mAHrs is every kept near my charging area and is always charged at no more than 1.5Amps. I carefully monitor health by physical inspection of case and leads for damage and capacity check by flight time then checking remaining capacity / cell volts remaining.
The fire spread in a standard brick detached garage with slate double hipped roof, was too intense and too rapid to deal with by far. I had a fire extinguisher CO2 right beside my charger but in turning to pick it up the heat was too intense to stay there.
The battery on charge was always put into a fireproof heavy highly fired pot with lid!
The garage was roofless in 7mins. The firebrigade arrived 12mins after their call; the station is part time non retained staffed and only 0.4miles away.
I'm fairly sure the fire started with the charger so its an electrical fire
My guess is that even with 1hr fire resisting an integral garage to the home would have taken some part of the home with the fire.
And finally:
1. The Garage Fire
I'm fairly sure now that my fire started with the iMax battery charger while charging my known to be healthy lipo, housed in a heavy earthenware highly fired trough with its heavy cover over.
I still can't reconcile myself to the fact that there was so much heat and flame so soon: it was far more than Ive ever seen on YouTube.
The battery, receiving electrically erroneous charging - not to its liking - fired very soon after the charger set fire. That's my best guess.
NOTE: All my stored batteries were on the floor of the garage in a tin box with tight fitting lid with a large stone on it - these batteries survived even though they were well baked but did not add to the fire. These were 2 half discharged and the rest not used that day fully charged.
Now, being realistic, the vast majority of genuine Imax B6 chargers will be fine. Mediocre, but fine.
The knockoffs will likely work for a bit. Some will last years, some will only last months. Those that fail will likely do so without harm, but there will be some that will be catastrophic.
If YOU own a B6, genuine or not, and works great - kudos! But new people, who don't know any better, will be exposed to greater risk with your so-called 'advise'.
Last edited by a moderator:
