Bixpy new battery

You want the battery to be very reachable and serviceable in case of on.water issues.

How are you going to “service” the battery on the water? I’d think having a solid connection is important, but once connected, that would seem to be it. It’s hard for me to see it coming disconnected on the water. Personally, I’d gladly give up reachability for simply having it out of the way—like inside the rear hatch of my Hobie, which is just wasted space.

Right. That’s how most of us have our fish finder battery installed.

I will not put a lithium battery out of reach no matter what chemistry it is. I want to be able to toss it over board if it starts smoking. I would not want it to catch fire while sitting in my plastic kayak. Lithium fire is intense and spreads quick. If it ever goes off, I want to just grab it and toss it. I would not put it in the front hatch or the back hatch where I won't be able to notice the smoke or fire until it is too late. For my FF, I install it in the mid-hatch. For my electric motor, I put it in the tank well behind my seat.

I love lithium batteries. There are many advantages over SLA. But people that use lithium batteries need to be abundantly clear on how dangerous they can become. Shorting a lithium battery will cause it to catch fire intensely no matter what chemistry it is. Do I have to show you guys what happens when they get shorted?  One might say you trust your installation to be perfect and everything is connected correctly. That's great, but you can't control the unexpected. Some conductive material may fall over the battery and touch both terminals. (ie, the aluminum foil you wrapped your sandwich with.)  The device your battery is connected to may have a problem and cause your battery to short out. This is very common. There are ways to prevent or minimize these risks. Just saying that it's better to be prepared.

I will not put a lithium battery out of reach no matter what chemistry it is. I want to be able to toss it over board if it starts smoking.

Lithium iron phosphate is inherently much more stable, as compared to the "lithium ion" batteries that can catch fire; see the "Safety" section here

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_iron_phosphate_battery

I use a lithium iron phosphate battery for my FF, and wouldn't hesitate to put a much bigger battery of this type inside the hull of my kayak.

I will not put a lithium battery out of reach no matter what chemistry it is. I want to be able to toss it over board if it starts smoking.

Lithium iron phosphate is inherently much more stable, as compared to the "lithium ion" batteries that can catch fire; see the "Safety" section here

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_iron_phosphate_battery

I use a lithium iron phosphate battery for my FF, and wouldn't hesitate to put a much bigger batter of this type inside the hull of my kayak.

+1

My Nocqua is under my seat. I don’t know if I want to touch it if it were to explode and burn though, but I got some important body parts right on top of it…

Two things that come to mind are
- I have a fuse that came with the battery. This will protect against short circuiting the battery
- the hull is relatively air tight. If a fire were to break, it would probably die quickly; that’s just intuition. Not sure what would happen in practice

Lithium iron phosphate is inherently much more stable, as compared to the "lithium ion" batteries that can catch fire; see the "Safety" section here

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_iron_phosphate_battery

I use a lithium iron phosphate battery for my FF, and wouldn't hesitate to put a much bigger batter of this type inside the hull of my kayak.

Obviously, where people want to store their battery is their own choice. I'm just stating my reason for having it within reach.

There's no disagreement that LifePo4 is a safer chemistry, but do not equate safer battery compound with a battery being safe. Safe is a relative term. Both battery types can become unsafe. There's really no reason to treat them differently. You still should practice the same safety procedures on either type. When a LifePo4 gets shorted, it produces a less spectacular fire show than LiIon, but both would burn red hot at the contact, enough to melt through the plastic kayak for sure if you let it.
I built three LifePo4 packs and use them in the last two years. I understand LifePo4 cell characteristics well. I do not find them to be safer than LiIon in everyday use.
If you'd interested, I can send you a LifePo4 (K2 26650) and LiIon (Panasonic 18650) cell for testing. You can perform a short test and see the effects yourself. I think the difference is negligible. To see a more dramatic difference, you would have to perform a nail puncture test, in which case the LiIon could catch fire and possibly explode. The LifePo4 would just put out a lot of smoke and melt down. (Last time I performed such test my old neighbor called the cops on me.  )

Sorry if I went off on a tangent. What I tried to say is, lithium batteries are safe if you take cautions. I use lithium (various compounds) batteries exclusively and consider them safe 99.99% of the time. And for the 0.01%, I want it to be within reach of it so I could toss it overboard.

Going back to the topic, I wish Bixpy would release an adapter to allow people to use their own batteries. I could think of so many projects using that motor.

There's no disagreement that LifePo4 is a safer chemistry, but do not equate safer battery compound with a battery being safe. Safe is a relative term. Both battery types can become unsafe.

Here's an interesting video:



I have a hard time seeing how any of these LifePo4 failures are relevant on/inside a kayak, where the battery itself has a BMS, there is a fuse, and the only thing that I can imagine puncturing the battery would be a shark bite (at which point smoke and fire might be a good thing...).