Sounds like alot of fun. Try not to breath the nasty fumes that come out.
I’d like to see if you can get one of the flashlights to explode like a pipe bomb. Every once in a while I hear about it happening to someone. It’d be interesting to see points of failure and such in a controlled setting.
its an open field gravel area on his farm. I wish i could do testing on the more expensive cells like 30Q or LG HG2s, but can’t afford the cost of those at the moment.
these tests will be done in an open field under a controlled setup, and camera recorded from hundreds of feet away. ( using a Go-pro Hero3 cam, a Nikon D5100, and a Canon S15-IS cam all from different angles.
Ok, I see. Thanks for any tests you perform to further our knowledge and simply to our entertainment
Three weeks seems like too little time - but here’s an idea for second round (if there will be any): maybe you should consider crowdfunding here at BLF for some things to destroy. I think many people would be willing to donate some old/unused/crappy/detested stuff to see it burn :smiling_imp:
It could be interesting as i have four 18650 lights I will sacrifice to the LiIon venting tests. (One for over voltage/charging, another for over heating (propane torch heating) and another maybe being shot
Your are very useful tests and follow the thread; but I do remember one thing: during a course, at the “School of War” (few decades ago) they made me one question: “if letting slip a grenade into the mouth of a mortar (120mm), nothing happens, what do you do?”
I said that I signaled and then abandoned the piece, though I was close to the enemy would put a trap; but by others I also heard answers like: “I try to pull the grenade” or “I rotate mortar down, and I slide off the grenade” (answers, clearly wrong and dangerous).
Well, if your experiment: the shorted battery inside a tube, or boiled in water, and nothing happens, what do you do? Prepare now for the right answer, because having, in those moments, the wrong answer, it is dangerous.
So i embarked on my 2600km trip for 4 weeks to the rugged east Canada. i packed all the cameras, gear, parts, tools, flashlights, batteries, lanterns, etc. to do lots of beamshot photos & comparisons, and to the testing of LiIon cells venting in a sealed flashlight, and out of flashlights. i plan to do videos of the testing and lost of photos.
UPDATES: - July, 3,2016
Today we performed some LiIon 18650 cell testing to attempt to get them to vent. We used 50 ft of extension cord, and a wood block with two nails as contacts wired to the cord to hold the cell. ( these tests were not inside of a flashlight) On the other end upwind we applied 12 volts directly from a RV Deep Cycle battery, first positive polarity, then after 5 minutes with no venting, we reversed the polarity, then still no vent! one of the cells got so hot it began to melt the wrapper. I tested four different cells, a Sanyo, a Sony, a LG, and a cheap ultrafire. none of the cells vented with 12 volts from a large battery connected. then we decided to try 120 volt AC from a large inverter, still no venting! they all got EXTREMELY hot, and one even arced the 14 gauge wire on the 18650 cell top to the point of welding the wire to the cell, but still did not vent. Tomorrow will try heating the cell with a propane torch remotely to try to get them to vent.
Appreciate your test, maybe the new imr and inr cells are safer then people think. It seems ICR cells vent easily. Do you have access to a welding machine? There is a video on YouTube where a guy hooks up 2 cells to 40amps. And it took about 30 seconds for them to explode. I believe they were ICR not 100% positive though
these four i tested wee older cells, 2 of them laptop pulls, one a sanyo with high IR, and a Ultrafire with the protection removed. They all got extremely hot, but none vented with the various overload of voltage and charging amps, or shorting.
I'm not surprised. We tried to vent a lot of different brands of 18650s via overcharging and shorting. All of the fail safes went off. The only way I got something fun to happen was lighting them on fire in a cup of flammable liquid.