My Imalent DX80 caught fire, vented smoke, almost exploded (replacement head arrived)

Wow that is crazy man. I wonder what caused it. Does anyone know what batteries Imalent used in their battery pack?

I doubt Imalent monitors these forums. You might have better luck contacting them directly or through the dealer you bought it from. Good luck.




:open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth:

Wow…. so glad it didn’t end up even worse for you or your property. But with that being said, this seems like wise advice:

Glad you survived! I think if one cell goes pearshaped, it’s going to be like a box of firecrackers! IMHO Imalent is is obliged to take very good care of you. After all, it’s a proprietary battery. They can’t hide behind the mantra that you did not handle some parts as well as you should have done. You can’t touch the innards. Maybe the Imalent people did not use well balanced cells. Be sure to make it the monkey on THEIR shoulder.

Seems they even have a Dutch website. Well, sort of. On the positieve side, the price certainly looks Dutch! But I seriously doubt if any Dutchman past the kindergarten age was involved. No contact info of any kind in the Netherlands. If something goes wrong, it’s going to be an RMA job.

this is horrible, but glad you are ok. Is this common with imalent lights?

wow crazy… think now that imalent will soon release the 100,000 lumens light… i cant imagine how bad that must be if something bad would happen that amount of power in your hands… :person_facepalming: imalent should get banned from making such power lights if user safety is compromised…

can u take some pics how it looks? what cells is the dx80 even use, samsung 30qs ?

Wow! Glad to hear it didn’t explode and you’re all right. :open_mouth:

You hadn’t used the light in a month? Maybe parasitic drain depleted the batteries in the interim. If the batteries in the battery pack depleted unevenly and are in series one of them may have ended up reverse-charging another one. Result is venting and fire. :confounded:

Doesn’t the DX80 use a proprietary battery pack though? It should have had circuitry to stop this kind of thing happening. Their QA seems a bit lax for a near $400 flashlight.

can you please contact Imalent here: sales@imalent.com

they are very interested what happened with the light...

your description directs into a faulty driver I think?

what's the voltage of the cell pack atm?

they told me the pack uses 30Q cells which are very safe in chemistry and unlikely to explode. Also there is of course a safety circuit in the battery pack.

If I’m not mistaken, the batterypack is 4S2P, and the safety circuit monitors each row of 4S cells, and not the individual cells.
Glad that DBSAR is ok.

the chemistry of the individual cells should prevent explosion in case the safety component is defect or something else happened.

but again: something bad happened in the head and not in the pack I think.

as long as the current drawn from the battery pack did not exceed the Amps it was designed for its okay at that end

Scary, glad you are OK and hope you get restitution fast.

The symptoms of failure do remind me of the very first generation DX80 before the major recall.

Glad you are ok.

Hot damn, DBSAR, dodged a grenade there. Glad it was only the scare and no real damage happened.

Aaaaaand now I have even less desire to purchase an Imalent, if that was even possible.

I have a DT70 and the batteries would discharge over a month or so. Because of this post I just went and checked that the batteries are not in the flashlight, and they weren’t :slight_smile:

I also have the DT70 and DT35 (love ’em both!). Big plus is that the batteries are parallel, protected, and you can monitor each battery as well.

Good to know

It sounds like maybe the batteries did not vent (I would actually be surprised with 30Q’s) but the driver seriously got on fire. But if so, I’m sure the pictures will reveal that.

Oh yeah, that’s for sure the driver.

I still remember when I killed my Haikelite MT01 driver.

Quite a bit of smoke from the inductor and the like.

Didn’t kill the LED at least.

Quality 18650s like the Samsung 30Q will not explode or vent without something physically triggering it, as the internal PTC would shut it off very quickly.

That means there was a driver short, as unused cells will not do anything if you just turn it on.

How the symptoms occurred reminds me of a driver short.
TLDR: Probably a driver short from a lack of QC during wire soldering.

Very glad to hear that you were able to contain a potential disaster! That could’ve ended up very, very badly especially if the flashlight developed enough pressure to break the threads and actually force the bottom battery cap off of the light. I too have a DX80 and the bottom battery cap is at least 8 threads deep. The pressure required to bust that open could’ve easily put the cells in a possible failure scenario and made this a catastrophe.

Glad you’re alright and hope that your house doesn’t stink too badly! Burning electronic smoke/stench is awful

PS- I’m 99% certain the DX80 is an 8x 18650 configuration not 6x 18650

UPDATE: it appears to be a driver fire, (and in a sealed light it pressurized the head)
The battery pack still shows 16 volts. but attempting to get the retaining ring to remove the driver its seems to be fused to the back of the driver and tries to turn the entire part. Have anyone had a DX80 take apart before?
Below are photos of the smoke-filled lens and smoke residue on the battery cap: