TSA & L-ion Batteries

that made absolutely no sense to me. You can take a battery that is 8 grams Li but not 2? Um....whatever, no one will pay attention to this as usual.
 
Avotius said:
that made absolutely no sense to me. You can take a battery that is 8 grams Li but not 2? Um....whatever, no one will pay attention to this as usual.
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I think they differentiate between "Metal Lithium" and "Ion-Lithium". 2g is for Metal, 8g is for Ion and they mention "equivalent lithium". Probably the catch has to do with "pure" Lithium content (God knows why!) and Metal Lithium batteries have more per gram than the Ion ones...

Not that I care... :)
 
I can see this being enforced differently depending on where you are. It is getting to the point I'd rather FedEx my luggage than guess whether the TSA employees where I'm going know the rules.

As I've said elsewhere, I'd rather take Amtrak or drive.
 
The apparent reason for the new rule is a fire in an aircraft cargo section a year or so ago traced to a lithium battery. Looks like aircraft firefighting hardware can't put out a lithium fire.

The language on weight makes no sense, as does telling us to call manufacturers to find out the lithium content of batteries. If we don't know it, why would TA staffers know it? And, if the TSA does know it, they should tell us.

No doubt the rule won't be enforced uniformly, but I suspect that's deliberate.
 
Al Patterson said:
I can see this being enforced differently depending on where you are. It is getting to the point I'd rather FedEx my luggage than guess whether the TSA employees where I'm going know the rules.

As I've said elsewhere, I'd rather take Amtrak or drive.
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Unfortunately Amtrak does not go to Europe, nor does my car drive under water.

Gene
 
Artorius said:
How is this going to affect Pro Photogs;
http://safetravel.dot.gov/whats_new_batteries.html

I don't really understand the lithium weights, so if any of you do, could you pass it on to us?
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The TSA announcement says that most consumer "lithium metal" batts (AA's, AAA's, 123's) have less than 2 grams of Li per batt. If you dig around the Energizer Web site, you can find data sheets that confirm that -- AA's have just under a gram, a 123 has half a gram. So they shouldn't be a problem, as long as they're in your carry-on bag or are in their store-bought packaging. TSA says they'll remove any loose liths they find, if they're rooting around in your checked luggage.

The 8-gram limit is for rechargeable Li-ion batts, from cell phones (probably fine) to laptop batts to the M8 cell (see if the content is listed on the batt, other wise poke around your device's manfacturer's Web site.
 
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