most everyone here say’s to be careful, a lithium battery might vent with flame, etc. A quick search on both forums only shows a tiny handful of cases of that happening.
But in reality, how many of you have had ANY kind of problem with a lithium battery? (thermal runaway, flames etc…)
I would hope there aren’t as many people here who have experienced a li-ion “event”. Hopefully BLF directs people away from the more hazardous junk batteries, chargers & unsafe li-ion use.
You would get more reports if you ask in some forum filled mostly with irresponsible stubborn users. Does wickedIasers have a forum? :bigsmile:
Safety concerns aside, I would hope that people are buying decent batteries for performance reasons. I mean there’s no point in buying an XM-L/XM-L2 kit driven at 2.8A+, because it’s well-driven, and then powering it with a battery that can’t maintain a high enough voltage under load to even keep the driver in regulated mode. I bet there’s a bunch of people out there who only think they know what bright is.
To answer the question, I’ve never had a battery go bad. Not in this hobby and not in any other hobby that involves Li-Ion batteries/battery packs. It’s damned near impossible for quality Li-Ion cells (Panasonic/Sanyo etc) to experience thermal runaway with all the safety features they pack into the core design, and when you add quality protection circuits, quality chargers and good battery management to the equation, the risk factor approaches zero. It’s probably reasonably low even with the cheapest cells, but I just don’t like to push my luck. But then we’re back to the performance equation anyway.
Drop out of school and loiter on street corners? Nope.
Yeah, but they get amped up and things just spark off. Before you know it they are being charged and wind up in a cell.
I have had one Li Ion “event” aka a venting but it was because on my vaping rig I was using crap batteries (and I didn’t engage the firing button lockout…doh!)
Got hot…so hot I couldn’t hold on to it any longer, and when I dropped it in the yard it let out a rather decent puff of smoke for about 20 seconds…let it lay there for over an hour…went back out checked it…cold and the heat shrink wrapping had deformed, no physical bulge or explosive venting
Stopped using the **fire garbage and won’t use anything less than an Efest/EH in my vaping rigs and Samsung laptop pulls in my flashlights
Oh and saw the reports of others carrying Li Ion loose in pockets with change/keys…saw the result and learned from their mistakes and don’t carry my Li Ion batts loose, they ALL are in those cheap plastic cases
I had a battery go bad once…sent it to battery bootcamp…came back a changed battery 
hehe
It’s important to discriminate between Primary Lithium batteries like CR123A, which are absolutely dangerous in a lot of different ways; and Lithium Ion batteries, which are not quite as bad as CNN/FauxNews would like to lead you to believe.
LiIons don’t cause airplanes to crash, nor any other hype, although they most-certainly will send enough Current through whatever they touch to let out all the magic smoke therein contained!!! Since the fire from an attached circuit usually destroys the LiIon battery, the mindless talking heads on the news channels will bleat about the scary batteries, but there’s no such thing as a “fact checker” on the news anymore.
every report around me of a pissed off li-ion cell was some form of whateverfire or other noname.
we have what we call bsu day at the shop.blow s**t up day.let the smoke out of junk electronics.
it is surprisingly difficult to overcharge a lithium ion enough to make it go off nicely.
of course these cells were already junk.not into wasting usable cells in a shop full of vapers and flashaholics LOL.good ones might be more energetic when they go…
I once loaded 4 Panasonic PD’s into a carrier where one was oriented incorrectly (apparently)
The light (eye40vn) battery tube became extremely hot, the carrier was too hot to hold, and i just tossed the batteries onto my lawn and ran.
A bit later i came out and the batteries cooled down, volt testing showed one at 4.02, right about where the batteries all started.
The other three were at 2.3 and dropping, one at .96 and the other at a flat 0.00.
I was informed that the CID (current interrupt) protection had tripped and the batteries were recycled.
And i will never ever buy an off brand battery.
Here is my thread I started: Panny PD's safety question... inserted into carrier wrong by accident!
Nope, no troubles with li-ions ever except when I intentionally kept on pumping current into a lipo cell from a cell phone until it vented and started spinning in circles, but no flames.
I did get a bad TrustFire 18350 that read 2.3V, and refused to keep a charge.
I buy from junk to good , but all failures so far have been dying quietly, not holding a charge etc.
0 accident for me until now,i hope never occur though but never get careless 
Tons of Lithium & Lithium Ions and for some of my RC rigs Lipos. Knock on wood, never had a “Event”. I am very careful in my handling, especially the Lipos.
One fellow RC guy says I go to the extreme. But……I said, when handling these things is there such a thing as extreme safety??
As for lipos or questionable china batteries.
I charge them in special bags that sit inside a 30mm surplus ammo cans. I also do it in garage on a special ceramic tile pad I built. All of this is AWAY from any flammable liquids, gases, or solids. I also keep 2 types of NEW extinguisher devices with in a few feet. I keep a pair of Nomex gloves and safety glasses within reach. If things get bad, I can slam the lid on the boxes. I have a small cut out for the battery leads so they don’t short. Of course if things go bad with the china batteries I will be lucky to be alive.
Keep in mind, Lipos don’t heat up when you balance charge them properly. Well….at least they are’t supposed to!!! >)
I also stay around and watch the Lipos as the go. Usually takes about a hour.
No unintentional failures. But I have hooked up a few to 12v batteries or threw them in the fire for some excitement. I try to never over discharge any of my cells though.
I’ve had 10440 and 14500 Trustfires and charger for probably more than 7 years and have tossed a couple due to inability to charge. However, I also treated them quite badly by running them down to very low voltages and forgetting to put them on the charger for a long time, since I had other spares. None have exploded or even vented, but I am trying to be more careful with their use now. I’ve only started getting into 18650s in the past 3 years or so and the only failures had been generics that came with cheap lights. It’s only recently that I’ve gotten into higher quality multi 18650 lights and started to invest in Panasonic, Sanyo and Samsung cells so I haven’t had enough time to mistreat them yet. I’d have to say I’ve had more problems with leaky alkalines than Li-ions, but from I’ve come to understand, Li-ion events can be much more serious than just a broken light.
KuoH
Stay away from Ultrafire. I owned 10 but now remain only 1!
I’ve had a unprotected Panasonic cell go bad due to a shortage in one of my first builds. Tried several chargers and it wouldn’t hold charge after the shortage.
I just had a sanyo laptop pull go sour: it was at 1.1v when I pulled it out, charged it at .07a till about 3.2v, then tossed it in my normal charger. got up to 4.12v, then shot to 0v. I was confused until the thing got to be about 120+ degrees. dropped it in the driveway for a few hours, and it cooled off and now won’t hold ANY charge. It sounds like a crystal became big enough to puncture through one of the layers, shorting the whole cell. I now have a 18650 spacer :bigsmile:. I might just disassemble it to see If I can spot the short.
NOOOOOO!!!
When you’ve first charged it a little, when you measure the Voltage, pause & watch the DMM for a half-minute or so…
If it changes at all during that time (most of the dead ones I get, do), I don’t even waste my time with it.
(Most of us know you were joking about using it as a spacer, I just worry that some n00b might not. This hobby isn’t supposed to hurt!)
OTOH, you’re right that it’s a good dissection candidate! Pictures, please?
About 3 years ago an “original” - though dirt cheap - Samsung LiPo cell replacement managed to blow off the back cover from my Samsung cell phone. It abruptly popped off, letting the phone perform a remarkable jump. The cell itself didn’t blew off, but it was very thick and hot, looking more like a cushion. Needless to say both went into the recycle bin…