I ran across this article and video about a Tesla battery explosion and it shows just how destructive a Lithium fire can be , especially a large one.
Also another short article / video showing a guy that had a Lithium cell in his pocket that shorted out and exploded.
Just a short warning with that video……
“Don’t be this guy; don’t put a bare battery in your pocket. Always use a protective case for storage and transport of lithium cells. Short circuiting a cell like this against keys/coins/metal will cause a violent reaction as seen here.”
This one got me thinking too. I believe I read it in the specsheet of the 30Q, where the cell was tested under short circuit. Temperature rose quickly to 110 degrees Celcius (bit higher than boiling temp of water), and it was tested for about 2 minutes IIRC…. I was impressed with the robustness of the cell.
So before a cell explodes it becomes extremely hot for a certain amount of time I assume. Shouldn’t the guy have noticed way sooner something was wrong or not?
I just heard from a friend who manages backstage lighting and sound in a big city who’d watched one of the stagehands catch fire.
He’d put some kind of battery — guessing a depleted 9-volt out of an audio device — into a pocket with his keys and spare change.
Comment: “… not the brightest guy on the crew …”
Shades of my “Barbecued Buick” The C8 in my fire behaved similarly but with less force and duration of the sparks. Looking through my cells it seems I had a laptop pull in mine which might explain the difference.
I wonder if there’s something— titanium? — that could make a high-temperature fireproof chainmail bag around a multiple-cell battery, so it could vent and flame without the flying flaming cells going in all directions.
Alright. But how would a battery go from not even uncomfortably warm to a sudden burst of uniform sparks instantly? It doesn’t match the youtube videos I have seen of lithium batteries being shorted out as an experiment.
If there’s something in your pocket between cell and skin like keys or a Zippo, your first indication of trouble might be the smell of a burning pocket :person_facepalming:
Wasn’t trying to start any arguments with this guys , just thought it might be a good reminder that things CAN happen although 99% of us will never have a mishap with a lithium cell , as long as proper care is taken.
No problem. I was just a bit skeptical of something so fantastic happening in the center of the camera frame and then turned into a GIF. alpg88’s video looks totally genuine to me, so I guess I should accept the other is similar. I may have been overly skeptical of the internet on this one.
The C8 in my fire behaved similarly but with less force and duration of the sparks. Looking through my cells it seems I had a laptop pull in mine which might explain the difference.