Airport wh verifications

How do airlines check the wh ratings on a pack? Do they look for a sticker or do they have a machine?

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They look for a sticker. 99wh goes without question and 136wh has to be approved I think.

Obviously, for the better of all of us, if you’re bringing batteries on airplanes and make official-looking stickers please don’t lie about wh ratings.

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Indeed. You can better don’t ship li ion that is bigger then the company told you.

There is always a risk with li ion battery’s. Even the best battery’s in the world.

If you are going to take a battery higer then 99wh or 160wh. Just rent the whole airplane. I don’t care if you died due the own stupidness off take such a big battery on the plane. But I really care about the other guys in the plane.

How higher the amount off wh, most off the time: how higher the amount off Li ion there is inside the battery, how more difficult it is to take care off a smoking/burning battery.

FedEx 2004:
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Ups 2006:
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2010:
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Okay but if no sticker, what do they do? Simply ask you or do they have a minimum of knowledge to verify the batteries? I’m not trying to smuggle batteries, I dont even own a passport. I’m just curious as to how it works out if one day I can go to the Paris event. 99wh for a pack, is it only one pack per person? Or you can carry multiple packs if they all have under 99wh each?for a future project, I’m thinking of making some sort of pack that I can disconnect into multiple pgroups

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If it’s not labeled they can just don’t let you take it. Doesn’t matter which size.
If you plan to fly with big batteries best you can do is get in contact with the airline, sent them pictures etc from the pack(s) you want to take and get it approved in a formal way. Print that out and hope it’s enough on the airport if somebody ask.

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You can carry (2) 160wh and unlimited 99wh legally. For the 160 wh they will ask the carrier if they allow it. This is in US only.

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I thought I read somewhere about having 5x 99wh packs allowed :frowning:

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Depends on the airline I thought…

I did some research when bringing some lipo packs from US to Canada. What seemed to the be the case is 99wh of batteries per person. I’d also recommend bringing the documentation associated with your countries’ security agency, the documentation for the security agency that will be receiving you, and the documentation for batteries by the airline you’ll be travelling on.

If you were moving lipo batteries like I was, it was easy to pack them in a fireproof bag, have their product info sheets, and present everything to the agent while they swab your bomb-looking package for explosives residue (you will get pulled aside at every security checkpoint).

The big thing to remember is it’s a hell of a lot safer for them to just not let you on and not worry about it then let you try and talk yourself through it, so make sure you have the documentation to back it up.

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I just read the TSA laws. They state you can bring packs over 100wh if approved. And if you are approved, you can bring 2 packs per passenger.

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Remember to print that out and bring it to the airport with you whenever you do travel, better safe than sorry.

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Saving this for reference :slight_smile:

If you break up the cells into < 99whr parts you can technically carry them on.
I did this on my trip. I run on 4x 99hr lipos.

I have the FAA rules printed, whr calculation printed and I pull the whole thing out at the check point.
Some of the customs officer were informed enough to validate via voltage and MAH.
All cells were discharged to storage and were in lipo pouches. I got questions every checkpoint but no one gave me any trouble.

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If it looks suspicious they just won’t let you bring it.

Depends on the airline. TSA I think says 2 per person under 99wh but I have friends who’ve brought several more than that for camera batteries without issues. United Airlines wants none of it though, so be aware of that.

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I’m not sure what kind of camera batteries your friends had but I think batteries from recognizable brands and that have recognizable purposes face a lot less scrutiny than someone trying to cart a brick with wires sticking out of it or an obviously homebuilt collection of cells on a plane.

As an example, my laptop has a 97wh battery, but I brought that and another ~90wh worth of lipos on a plane and no one batted an eye at the laptop.

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Heres the FAA guidelines

I would print it out and carry with you
Large batteries >99WHR <160WHR there’s 2 limit and subjected to airline approval
Small batteries <99WHR limited to “personal use” and not redistribution

Again I carried 4 internationally through Boston > Hongkong > Taiwan then back

Don’t the battery has to be UN 38.3 certified for it to fly even bellow the 99 Wh limit?

I don’t care how well you or whoever built your battery did it, if it isn’t certified and you bring it on a airplane you are putting you and a lot of people at risk

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Just gonna put a detail here for everyone answering me :slight_smile:
I dont apply under FAA laws but rather TCCA (transport Canada civil aviation)
Montreal to Paris is a trip available with no detour by the usa

Can confirm. I had similar interactions when travelling internationally with lipos.

They asked questions at every single checkpoint that had an X Ray, but nothing further than that. In one instance they even took the batteries and brought it inside to ask the supervisor, but all was good after a few minutes of wait.

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Cool. Btw you coming to the track on Saturday?