3 ms·

> It is super easy to mess up with these. Drop a pack, drop a sliver of wire or interconnect ribbon, misplace a tool and you have a thermal runaway on your hand

> It is super easy to mess up with these. Drop a pack, drop a sliver of wire or interconnect ribbon, misplace a tool and you have a thermal runaway on your hands which you will not be able to stop. Doing this in a facility that is not set up for it (say, your kitchen or living room, especially if it is in shared accommodation such as an apartment building) is super dangerous. What's your point? Changing your own break pads or hydraulic fluid can very easily leave you with a runaway 2-ton vehicle on your hands which you will not be able to stop. This is also super dangerous for you and the people you share space on the road with. It's still neither illegal to do nor do car manufacturers refuse to sell you either pads, rotors or fluid. And the same is true for home reloading rifle rounds, messing with rodent poison or common cleaning chemicals. At some point you have to trust people. Slap some warning stickers onto things, rely on the news to really drive the point home after the first person burns down their kitchen.

jacquesm 3y ago
> Changing your own break pads or hydraulic fluid can very easily leave you with a runaway 2-ton vehicle on your hands, which is also super dangerous for you and the people you share space on the road with. Yes it is. But just handling brake pads or hydraulic fluid by itself does not have the potential to harm you and a lot of others, neither does working with them and presumably you know how to bleed your brakes and test them. Most people that have worked with and on brake systems are in agreement that this can be done safely. Most people that have worked on e-bike battery packs are in agreement that this is a risky affair at best. That pack mentioned above is a one-off. I would never sell it to anybody else. At the same time I would have absolutely no qualms about selling someone a car on which I've worked on the brakes. Brake systems can - and do - fail but modern cars have multiple cylinders, and have mechanical backup for failed vacuum assist. So it's not as if a failed brake immediately translates into people dying though it definitely does have that potential. A fuckup with a 40 or 50 cell e-bike pack is pretty much guaranteed to cause a serious fire. You're essentially dealing with the DIY equivalent of a live grenade, it isn't going to go off with the same bang (fortunately) but when it goes it will keep on going until it runs out of stuff to burn.

jacquesm 3y ago

> Changing your own break pads or hydraulic fluid can very easily leave you with a runaway 2-ton vehicle on your hands, which is also super dangerous for you and the people you share space on the road with. Yes it is. But just handling brake pads or hydraulic fluid by itself does not have the potential to harm you and a lot of others, neither does working with them and presumably you know how to bleed your brakes and test them. Most people that have worked with and on brake systems are in agreement that this can be done safely. Most people that have worked on e-bike battery packs are in agreement that this is a risky affair at best. That pack mentioned above is a one-off. I would never sell it to anybody else. At the same time I would have absolutely no qualms about selling someone a car on which I've worked on the brakes. Brake systems can - and do - fail but modern cars have multiple cylinders, and have mechanical backup for failed vacuum assist. So it's not as if a failed brake immediately translates into people dying though it definitely does have that potential. A fuckup with a 40 or 50 cell e-bike pack is pretty much guaranteed to cause a serious fire. You're essentially dealing with the DIY equivalent of a live grenade, it isn't going to go off with the same bang (fortunately) but when it goes it will keep on going until it runs out of stuff to burn.