Got home from work this morning, put my newish sanyo 3100’s on charge as usual, then noticed a red glow, next second the batts were literally WHITE HOT!!.
I rather foolishly managed to pull the adaptor out of the mains and threw the lot into the garden, fearing they would blow in the house.
I can only think, that being dog tired after my shift, I must have inadvertently put one in the wrong way round.
BE AWARE BLF folks, the raw power in batts is * AWESOME!!!
A lesson learned the hard way.
Wow! Did they catch on fire? Either way stay away from them they are extremely dangerous!
And what charger and what brand of batteries?
No scaru, but they were glowing like they just came out of a furnace.
Cheap charger, sanyo 3100’s
Glad to hear a disaster was avoided. Defiantly dispose of those batteries ASAP.
Do you have a link to the charger and do you know the voltage of the 18650s before you put them in?
So does this mean they are still sitting outside in your garden? I would recommend getting them and placing them in a ceramic pot so as to contain the fire if they do decide to ignite. Make sure you are careful.
I figure I might as well say it, do not use those batteries!
Don’t have a just a link scaru, just one of those cheapies.
Batts are still outside, but cold now.
Pretty sure it was my fault, reckon I reversed the polarity on one of them!
Yes, but a good charger will not cause that to happen. Sometime I'm gonna order one of those cheapies and test it with reversed polarity while I watch. I could probably get access to a smoke hood. :D
Are the batteries still in the charger? Can you look to see if one of them was reversed?
Protection should avoid any damage by reverse charging.
Or a good charger.
The more I think about it the more it surprises me that it happened. Should the PTC in the cell have cut off charging? A PTC is a device built into the cell (not a protection circuit) where the resistance increases as temperature increases. This should have cut off charging when it started to heat up.
They were well and truly nuked on both ends of the batts so can’t really tell, so going to be a decent charger on order now, lol.
Can you post a picture of it? With that I could probably figure it out. :)
If you're looking for a better charger I would recommend the Intellicharge I4.
Glad you guys are safe now.
Didn’t think of that, our rubbish was collected later the same day, so they went!!
Yeah zoom, scared the crap out of me at the time,lol, I did wonder if the fact that they were good sanyo’s, saved me from getting a faceful of batt, perhaps cheaper, crappier batts would have blown straight off!!
OOhhhh……In the trash?
Dont know the proper way to dispose of damaged cells but I think the trash is the wrong way!
Anyone have insight on their disposal? Got me curious.
Before disposing them, one should complete discharge them and tape the + and -. Otherwise you are putting someone else at risk.
Also, pics would have helped. Glowing, white hot.. the charger would have melted in fragments of a second.
Your in UK,Could it be a 240v issue? or an incorrect mains plug in location.I have a travel charger that can be plugged in incorrectly at the mains.Theory suggests it should then not work,but it will plug in the right way up and upsidedown.Only having two pins,if ya see what i meen.Should then trip the electric at mains if its wrongly connected,but if the house has old wireing or faults….red to red,black to black,blue to smitherines.
Most B&Qs have batt Bins these days,Maplin,and Boots also do.
Godd yr all ok
DON…
“Also, pics would have helped. Glowing, white hot… the charger would have melted in fragments of a second.”
“Your in UK,Could it be a 240v issue? ”
Nightcrawl………
Strangely, the charger was undamaged apart from some minor scorch marks on the charging terminals.
Don…….
That’s what I’ve been wondering, those batts went from cold to glowing in about 3 seconds!!, I don’t know if batts have enough power to do that even if shorted, so I thought maybe there was a short in the charger itself exposing them to mains voltage, the house has up to date wiring, and no breakers tripped.
There was no sound, and only a small wisp of smoke.
The other guys are right, I should have kept them for autopsy, and not dumped them.
But I was a bit freaked out!!.
Were they protected cells? The reason I ask is because it almost sounds like the protection circuit is what failed. The fact that the cheap charger didn’t turn into a puddle of melted rice-plastic suggests that the cells weren’t really all that hot. Yet you say they were WHITE HOT - I’m thinking that the foil that travels down the side of the cell connecting the protection circuit to battery positive might have somehow been what was WHITE HOT. It’s got far less thermal mass, and it could be VERY hot, make the cell look VERY hot, and yet not really have the whole cell be very hot…
Just a theory. The only reason I thought of it was because the charger didn’t turn into a puddle.
PPtk
In single-phase AC, there really is no ‘wrong’ way to hook it up. From a device’s perspective, it doesn’t know or care which wire is hooked where. AC is just that - ALTERNATING current. 49.99999999999999% of the time, one leg is at a higher potential than the other, and 49.99999999999999% of the time, it’s the opposite. For that .0000000000000001%, they’re equal.
There are some devices that care - but those devices are (for whatever reason; good or bad) “ground” referenced. 2 prong battery chargers don’t care and can’t even tell though…
PPtk
> should have kept them for autopsy
After a battery is damaged — crystal growth starts with the damage, and crystals get larger over time — the growing crystals may eventually break the membrane between the reactants.
Ever watched a crystal grow? It can take days.
After the membrane gets broken the reactants combine, heat up and vent toxic material, at least
— wherever the battery is by then — and may then catch on fire. Note the time lag possible.
http://www.nfpa.org/assets/files/pdf/research/rflithiumionbatterieshazard.pdf
That’s recent, long, detailed, well illustrated, and cautionary.
RTFM. If you read nothing else read pp. 19, 48-52, and 55-59.
Note the possible lag time — days — after a cell is damaged when it may heat up and catch on fire.