Xiaomi style battery charger. Near disaster today – flames – when I put a battery in

Good to hear you weren't hurt. Most decent cells will take a dead short for a little while before they blow. I know first hand, more than once.

The problem with the listing on GearBest’s site is, although this is an Xiaomi “style” power bank shell, they’ve reused the copy from the real product. I doubt it has any of the safety features of the real one, as you have unfortunately discovered! Is it possible you inserted that battery backwards?

edit I see you are sure the battery was installed the correct way. If you have a multimeter I would try measuring the resistance between the + and - contacts to see if there is a dead short.

But the battery did never blow, still I have put in into my fireplace now, just to make sure.

No it’s was inserted the right way. The batteries has a plastic label with info, and with a + and - sign.

And here is a picture of the battery, and you can see thats the rear end that has been in the fire.

Something wrong here (besides GB apparently posting the real Xiaomi information along with their “Xiaomi style” cheap copy — which is really, really stupid.

Look at the questions on the page down at the bottom:

So —- the case you point to is not supposed to be taken apart, if that answer from GearBest is accurate (also not necessarily to be relied on).
(From the description elsewhere it’s not at all clear if they ship it with, or without, any batteries)

Why did you take it apart? Did it come with batteries in it? Did you remove all the cells first, then put a single cell in and it exploded?

The only time I’ve seen a power bank heat up like that was when TWO cells were put into it, one of them backwards, causing a dead short circuit.

It still has 4.20V when I use my multimeter. So the battery seems OK. But it smells burned from it still. But it’s not hot or something. But I have so many batteries, that I will never use that again, just to be sure.

Do you or any other know where (which store/seller etc) that ships to Norway, that have real Xiaomi empty power banks that I can use my own batteries on?
See several on Aliexpress, but don’t know if they just use real pictures from Xiaomi, or not. And in the Xiaomi store I can’t find DIY cases…(maybe I have overseen some?)

Look here, this is what I got from Gearbest.com from the page that I linked to:

I just put in the one battery, then it started burning right away.

If you wanna consider other diy power banks have a look at HKJ reviews. I bought some of the stuff he tested including Coolook PB-2000 diy power bank and its working very good.

The whole point is to get a cheap, but still quality, power bank, that I can use my own batteries on. If the price is $15 or more, with the price of 4 batteries, I will come better out buying real Xiaomi power banks (not DIY).
A 10400 Xiaomi PB costs from $17-21 on Gearbest, lower prices other places. Their 16000mAh PB cost $24. So maybe I just drop the idea making my own PB and buy real ones. It’s safer, and I can earn almost the same money on it.

The cell bank that caught fire could have shorted out with the case of the cell next to it. I notice that the current only went through that one spring. I think the cell next to it had popped up so that the negative case on that cell was toughing the positive terminal. Then when that last cell was in the process of being inserted, it shorted out through the case of the cell next to it. i would like to see the contacts of the case on the positive side.

There was no other batteries in the case. I had just opened the package and the PB, then I inserted the first battery, then it started to burn right away, or first it made a sound, got really red, and I throw it, in the same second it start to burn a little. As you can see from the damage, we are not talking about a huge flame or fire, but it burned, so when it landed under my pants, I had to do something really quick…

Here is the pictures from the other side, as you can see, no damage there. If I had put two batteries in, would there have been any damage on the positive side also?

I dont trust cheap chinese items.

I always prefer going with genuine devices.

I was thinking to buy that 18650 power bank box… but now… obviously not

I know you swear you put the cell in the right way, but to me it looks like you put that one cell in backwards and the positive and negative of the cell shorted out on the spring. I can’t explain the picture of the negative end of the cell. Can you take a picture of the positive end of the cell?

This was not a product I thought was bad, since I new original Xiaomi 10400 PB cost $16 with batteries, I was sure $6 was not a really cheap deal for a empty box, since 4 x brand name batteries cost from $2 - $6 buying on sale, or in packages of 50 from Alibaba.
The rest of the stuff I have talked about, was stuff I ordered before joining this forum, and before I was enlightening :wink:

About the battery the wrong way, you did see my picture?

As you clearly can see, it was inserted the right way. If you look at the pictures here… you can see there is no damage to the positive side, and that the negative side, was the side where I put the battery.

So you are saying that I lie? Or just want my money back or something? In this case, I will not ask for any refund or something. I have another order for 7 more on it’s way from Gearbest.com, so I will see if I try to use them or not. I have to say that I opened a second PB, inserted the same types of batteries (not the bad one) and it’s totally fine. Works 100%. So most likely there was something wrong with this one PB, or the battery, but since the battery still has 4.2V on it, and seems like it works (has not tried it in anything) there has to be the PB? Or?

It looks like a production fault with the battery voltage shorted. No protection in the power bank will help with that, except if they had put a fuse in the wire.

I doubt that it caught fire, it was probably just the wires getting red hot.

If the only damage is that spiral, you might have put the battery in the wrong way.


I will suggest you do a few tests on the battery before using it again:

If you have a analyzing charger, give it a spin.

See how much voltage it drops when laying fully charged for 24 hours.

+1

Here is some pictures of both sides, maybe the “crack” at the side on the top had something to do with it? Of course, that could have happened when I trow it in the ground to getting the battery out…

[quote=myhken]

That sounds like the correct explanation.

You are the real expert here, when you see the pictures here… and the rest I have posted. Do it seems like I put the battery in the wrong way?
My Multimeter says the battery has 4.2V still, but why risk it. I just trow it away. I have plenty others.

But really, you can see the melted plastic on the negative side on the battery, and that the positive side is perfectly fine. If I had put it in the wrong way, how could I get melted plastic on the back of the battery (then facing the positive side on the PB) when my pictures clearly shows that there is no damage at all on the positive side of the PB, just on the negative side, there the negative side of the battery was.

[quote=HKJ]

Thank you, if it was to me you wrote it.

Put it outside the house in a metal container (or in a bucket of water) and recycle it properly.

Yes, and one of the outer turns of the spring got a connection through the crack in the isolation on the battery.