Cheapo batteries explode

Those $20 2000 lumen bike lights with 4xbattery pack and charger have to be getting the bottom of the barrel batteries. I use single battery C8 style flashlight on the bars and a shorter barrel shaped one on the helmet. Single 18650 only flashlights thank you. Panasonic batteries, XTAR charger. I charge in the kitchen counter while I am in the next room watching tv where I can see the charging lights. I remove them from the charger when the light goes green. I do own a fire extinguisher.

And I don’t leave my laptop plugged in unattended either.

I’m glad this guy didn’t lose his house. Scary times.

I was under the impression that the gas cloud was highly toxic, but only Halo and Warhawk seem to have really picked up on this.

In case anyone else is looking at the pictures in the OP's post, I'd just like to say there is no way in hell I'd be in the same building with that cloud, let alone holding the leaking mess with bare hands and taking photos.

Simple ignorance or Darwin Award candidate?

Another factor not mentioned above is over-discharge. Crap cells, crap charger, probable overcharge + possible over-discharge in a crap light.

Yea, anyone who reads up on research into what li-ions vent would not likely be in the room with a cloud of that. The toxicity of all the gases and vaporized chemicals has not been fully established. A mysterious adventure with every cloud. :party:

Hydrogen fluoride (HF) has a IDLH (Immediately Dangerous to Life and Health) value of 30 ppm. In addition to HF there may also be some nice phosphorous oxyfluoride (POF3) which could be even more toxic than HF.

Reduce your risk by using panasonic, sanyo, sony, lg etc with quality seiko protection, tested quality chargers & charge in a metal box so that you can worry less about fire, more about the cloud.

Whoops! Well, minor detail. That stuff’s mostly harmless

“the big problem is how penetrating it is. As soon as it hits anything moist - like your lungs - it dissolves in the water and turns into hydrofluoric acid again. And that soaks into tissue very readily, with the acid part doing its damage along the way, and the fluoride merrily poisoning enzymes and wreaking havoc. The damage isn’t immediately apparent, and there are terrible cases of people who’ve been exposed and didn’t realize it for hours - by which time a lot of irreversible damage had been done.” Things I Won’t Touch (1) – Corante

Hammering on the point with explicit link — a good one — because sarcasm is wasted on the young, irony is dead, and people who wish to believe they’re not at risk will fool themselves about the risks.

I did 3 whippets of HF last night at the office thankgiving party.

That’s nitrous oxide (N2O).

And that’s the reason why when it comes to batteries and chargers I refuse to go cheap…

skip to 212 seconds here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkP-b1ADvbk&feature=player_detailpage#t=212

Looks like someone’s invented a new sport — battery races — as it jets off the table. Was it on fire when it launched?

iirc lithium primary(single use) are the worst when it comes to hf production during a venting event.
cr2 cr123 ect.
if there is even a tiny trace in the cloud and you breath it your lungs are toast due to it binding to water and going right to work as acid again.nasty!

I love this part….

Throwing physically compromised batteries (insulation burnt off, positive button top blown open, etc) into a tin pan is like using gasoline to put out a fire. Wonder if they used water too. :smiley:

Learned about toxic clouds in Hazmat training in the Texas State Guard (plus my NBC decon training in the USMC)…plus not to mention at any time if you sit for 10 minutes on a freeway you can count dozens of placarded bigrigs hauling HUGELY dangerous chemicals down I-10 where I live. (the most dangerous is the Walmart trucks…unplacarded but hauling hundreds of different chemicals in the back…)

Clouds of unknown substance can kill you in a few short breaths (Google Anhydrous Ammonia) It has happened before!

but walmart would never allow harm to come to anybody, they will prevent it at any cost but only if they are allowed to self regulate (sorry, i couldn’t resist)

Just for the record, a couple new reports

http://www.wect.com/story/30374818/man-seriously-hurt-when-e-cigarette-explodes

http://www.wect.com/story/30358520/e-cigarette-exploded-on-charger-man-claims

Odds are we’ll always see far more reports like this than of flashlight problems, because there are a heck of a lot more li-ions being irresponsibly sold to vapers than to flashlight users.

By the way, WTF?

Translation: They told him to Get a protected cell.

I would add, get a QUALITY protected cell

After poking around for a while I think we’re seeing the start of a big e-vape bot-posting pushback proclaiming the cheap batteries and chargers they sell are safe.
Just in time for the holidays. Check around for claims recently that they’re safe posted to blogs wherever the problem comes up, and see what you think.

Remember how the tobacco industry works, and most of the e-liquids are made from Chinese tobacco — and in China tobacco is a state-controlled industry. They know what they want you to believe. Dang.

And here’s the size of the battery market in the US:

CDC: Current, former smokers biggest users of electronic cigarettes

I don’t know why this dangerous trash is still allowed to be freely sold and imported into the US and Canada.

Vaping is huge compared to our hobby, and mods are very popular with them, so I expect the problems to increase and I expect that in time it will lead to more constricting regulations of our beloved power-house LIon cells :frowning:

The ideal solution would be mandatory standards and testing applied to LIon cells and chargers before allowing manufacture here or importation. That will raise our costs but it might be worth that to not see an outright ban and it would greatly reduce the dangers. _ As long as they can be sold, somebody will make cells and chargers as cheaply as possible with little regard for anyone’s safety _ I hate government regulation but beyond our own personal actions what else can we do?

Venting is not classified as an “explosion” (expansion velocity is too low) but it’s getting up there and it is dangerous no matter what you call it. If you’re unlucky enough to be around one venting or about to vent, it’s time to test out your tennis-shoe traction at least 90 degrees away from downwind without hesitation.

Phil