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Comment by maccam912 | Hacker News Reader

Here's a question this group might know the answer to: are lithium battery and lithium-ion battery being used interchangeably by airlines? When they say "lithium" do I need to read that to also mean li-ion as well? Am I the dummy who thinks they mean two separate things and everyone else knows they mean the same thing?

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Ideally we'd have smarter policies, I think? I can bring on 2x+ RC hobbyist 100WHr lipo packs that scares even me, a lot.

Amazing tech, super cheap. 4.5Ah 22.6V pack, converts down to usb-c ranges with absurd efficiency, 24v->120vac inverters are awesome. Packs are so cheap. High power ones can fully discharge in under a minute, which is 6.5kW output, absurd. But my heavens these things are just terrifying. I occasionally use two for a short-range electric skateboard & am shocked nothing has yet exploded or caught on fire. They're more durable than I expect but there is so much energy here so unprotected. And I as someone who watches the internal resistance change over time- I know for real these things age, a lot over time, and eventually some might well become quite unhappy monsters.

But if I had lifepo4 packs, the only thing catching on fire would be whatever the pack was powering. Lifepo4 is amazing. Drive nails into it, set it on fire, whatever. Great cycle count too.

Keep an eye on those skateboard batteries. I left a few of those charging and burned down the house. Get an ammo crate for them!

Yikes! I use a charging pouch for sure but definitely think of going further.

I also have a pretty great charger & charge gently, usually 1A on my 4.5Ah cells. Barely anything. And I monitor cell resistance closely to spot trouble ahead of time. That's key.

I feel pretty responsible here, but I also know I am playing with a dangerous dangerous scary scary thing. I still don't feel great about this. I charge while I'm home & leave my charge setup in the middle of open floor, away from flammable things. But oh I know it's still a risk. I should get a charge crate. Thanks. Sorry that happened to you. Terrifying.

Yes, they're basically used interchangeable even though it's not 100% accurate. A LiIon cell versus a LiPoly spicy pillow may be different, but from this perspective they're the same.

They're the same thing. At this point no batteries are made purely from lithium (I remember seeing some research on that front).

It's all lithium ion, lithium polymer, etc. In casual settings the terms get used interchangeably.

It's not all the same thing.

In general, rechargable batteries are lithium ion, with a few different chemistries that differ in danger.

The other main class of lithium batteries are lithium metal batteries, which have metallic lithium as the name suggests. In general these are not rechargeable. Lithium metal AA/AAA batteries are better than alkalines but more expensive. Any button battery that has a name starting with "CR" is a lithium metal battery.

So if you know the context is rechargeable batteries, "lithium" and "lithium ion" are basically the same term. But in a wider context "lithium battery" has more uses.

Lithium primary cells (not rechargeable) are very different from Lithium ion, Lithium polymer, Lithium iron phosphate, etc.

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