One last thing, as I am new to lipos I’d prefer to charge them outside the immediate confines of my home (read garage) but I know there are lots of spells and incantations that go along with using, charging, and storing these power sources. Can I assume that ambient temperature is one of them? My garage is in southern Florida (which works out great because so is the home it is attached to) - this means that temps can get into the low 100’s for about half the year, particularly when closed. Is that an issue or is their room-temp limit at a higher threshold? I WILL get one of those fireproof bags, but I’d prefer to store that in the garage as well. This is a big problem for me, I married the fire chief’s daughter. If I burn this house down I’ll be in the doghouse for the rest of my life (hell, it would probably make the local paper). Tell me I don’t have to keep them inside under AC…?
I always have charged my Lipos inside the house. The trick is to use a good reliable charger. Money spent on an expensive charger is not money wasted. I have never had a Lipo catch fire while charging. still fire safe bags are not a bad idea if your taking the packs out of the board to charge them. And it’s best to keep an eye on them while they’re charging. So, are you gonna stay in that 100+ deg garage to keep an eye on your batteries? You know, if you catch the garage on fire, you can probably kiss your house goodbye as well. You could get a fire cabinet to store them in.
I agree with the buy a good charger. The money you spend on the charger is how dearly you care about your life basically. If you get a wonky charger, the chances of your batteries not being well charged/taken care of are much greater. Spend the extra $20-30-40 bucks. Hopefully no-one will ever have to use their home-owners/renters insurance. 
I charge them inside as-well, but I have a fire extinguisher within a arms reach. Also for storage I have a BBQ grill out on the balcony that I just pop open, put the box of lipos in and close that thing up nicely. If anything does seem to go boom, there are vents along the side of the grill shooting the fire out towards empty air from the 2nd floor.
Great suggestions already from @Namasaki and @wmj259, but i’ll add 2 more suggestions.
Fireproof bags are nice, but you can also use inexpensive pyrex dishes. I found a few used at value village for a few bucks total. And no itchy fiberglass or whatever is in those bags when they fray.
Temp probe!!! Seriously it makes it almost failure proof. For the 8-10$ you plug in a temp probe and set on the battery while charging. Before any sort of major failure the cells will get really hot - and if the temp probe is used it’ll shut down the charge automatically.
Love my iCharger 306B. The nicer high amp chargers need AC–>DC power supplies. You can get really nice ones, but i’d also suggest looking at some of the dell power supplies that are pre-modded for 12v (sometimes 50-60A output too) for a fraction of the $ of equivalent 350w power supplies w/ a ton more output.
You won’t really need the 30A output until you charge big batteries, or a lot in parallel. I like to charge at 1c, or even .5c to give better battery life. BUT it is nice when you want to quickly charge and ride after work…
GL!
This is the one I use or use to use until I went down the bms road. Now it spends more time in the closet than on the bench. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SZ1CBVC/ref=psdc_2234135011_t1_B00VOYR6MQ
Thank you both! I just feel like I’m playing with…,well, right.
I have used lipos since they first became available for RC models. Was really into the hobby before Eska8.
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Be conservative with low voltage. Try to never go below 3.5 because the voltage drops off a cliff past there. It will soon be at zero before you know it. Using the voltage alarms like above is really the best way as they monitor individual cell voltage not pack voltage. If you only monitor pack voltage one cell can drop below and you wouldn’t know.
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High quality high C rated batteries last longer, they start of with much lower resistance then low C batteries and will be less stressed during use.
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Using larger higher mah then you need will effectively give you a higher C rating and the batteries will be under less stressing during use.
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Balance regularly, Every charge if possible.
On several occasions I have had one cell in a pack drop down to 2.0 volts. I put them on the charger asap. Its still usable but after this but that cell is damaged and will discharge faster than the others so needs to be babied and balance every charge. (Not recommended)
I have only seen 3 cases where they can catch fire.
- Over charge.
- Massive over discharged amperage to the point of thermal run away. Would probably never happen to an esk8. More mild cases cause puffing of the pouches.
- Physical damage.