Youtube: "What's inside Eneloop and LIDL NiMh cells (fire, apparently)"

djozz · 2019-12-29T14:53:10.000Z

A bit slow video but the combustion bit was fun. And Clive’s accent makes all his video’s intrinsically entertaining

DB_Custom · 2019-12-29T15:44:36.000Z

I know there will now be people taking LIDL NiMH cells apart just to see the flames!

Thanks SB, very good stuff there…

Henk4U2 · 2019-12-29T16:01:36.000Z

IMHO that big guy should pick on a battery his own size.

brad · 2019-12-29T16:27:03.000Z

Very entertaining video.

thijsco19 · 2019-12-29T16:44:13.000Z

Always interesting to see what’s inside a cell.
It’s actually very simple, kinda surprising, but still complicated. (The chemical stuff)

hank · 2019-12-29T22:49:10.000Z

“Where is my explosion-containg pie dish?”

“Not something you want to toss in your bin, is that?”

“Yes, unexpected results ….”

Bursts into flame at 16:25

“don’t open NiMH cells, some of them — not all of them — can burst into flame”

So what’s the bottom line — stay with Eneloop and avoid the LIDL and is it ALDA NiMH cells, to avoid fire?

More BigClive:

at 12:31 “the battery pack’s swelling … and I can smell that characteristic smell …”

flightless22 · 2019-12-29T22:13:11.000Z

Jerommel:

Big Clive. :+1:

I knew it was him, just from the title. :laughing:

phouton · 2019-12-29T22:50:46.000Z

Thanks for sharing this, sb56637. Very interesting.

Here’s another neat video. A flashlight shorting mystery with what looks like a variant of a common headlamp.

hank · 2019-12-29T22:52:31.000Z

Scary to discover yet another self-igniting product is in use in the battery universe.
I wonder if the recyclers know about this yet.

Lightbringer · 2019-12-29T23:11:33.000Z

Should rename them to LIDLfire cells…

moderator007 · 2019-12-29T23:44:58.000Z

So what happens if you drop it and it barely cracks the case open to the air somewhere.
It catches fire?

hank · 2020-01-01T16:13:19.000Z

PS, thanks to SB for finding the video and starting the thread here.

I remain just appalled at the introduction of yet another self-igniting battery product to the list of risky products on offer.

And I’d just bet they’ll corrode in use like alkaleaks, but being pyrophoric, unsafely — rather than be safe to keep around over a long term like NiMH cells.

And is there a warning on them for the people working in the battery recycling stream?

hank · 2020-01-01T17:33:58.000Z

PS, a little googling turns up suggestions that all LiMH cells may be self-igniting if the case is opened, something used for the negative anode can catch fire.
This is just third hand opinion.

duckduckgo.com

NimH pyrdophoric at DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo. Privacy, Simplified.

Rexlion · 2020-01-01T17:57:38.000Z

This reminds me of high school chemistry class. Our teacher had some (more or less pure) potassium and sodium immersed in jars of liquid. Upon removing a small amount, exposure to air would cause spontaneous combustion. I’m trying to recall…. I think the potassium was stored in water, and the sodium had to be in an oil or something. Hard to remember exact details after 45 years.

That teacher was pretty cool. He also kept some other minerals around, like copper and lithium, and he’d sprinkle bits into a bunsen burner flame to show us the pretty colors they made when they burned. He also taught us how awesome carbon tetrachloride was for cleaning dirty potentiometers and stuff… good luck finding carbon tet nowadays, though, it’s not considered safe healthwise.

djozz · 2020-01-01T19:18:09.000Z

Rexlion:

This reminds me of high school chemistry class. Our teacher had some (more or less pure) potassium and sodium immersed in jars of liquid. Upon removing a small amount, exposure to air would cause spontaneous combustion. I’m trying to recall…. I think the potassium was stored in water, and the sodium had to be in an oil or something. Hard to remember exact details after 45 years.

That teacher was pretty cool. He also kept some other minerals around, like copper and lithium, and he’d sprinkle bits into a bunsen burner flame to show us the pretty colors they made when they burned. He also taught us how awesome carbon tetrachloride was for cleaning dirty potentiometers and stuff… good luck finding carbon tet nowadays, though, it’s not considered safe healthwise.

I work in secondary school as a teaching assitant, and most of that is still done. I do not keep a stash of potassium (too unpredictable) anymore, and no tetra, but we do sodium in water, and flame colours (strontium is the best: bright red), and many many other experiments.

captainkirk · 2020-01-01T19:33:38.000Z

Rexlion:

This reminds me of high school chemistry class. Our teacher had some (more or less pure) potassium and sodium immersed in jars of liquid. Upon removing a small amount, exposure to air would cause spontaneous combustion. I’m trying to recall…. I think the potassium was stored in water, and the sodium had to be in an oil or something. Hard to remember exact details after 45 years.

That teacher was pretty cool. He also kept some other minerals around, like copper and lithium, and he’d sprinkle bits into a bunsen burner flame to show us the pretty colors they made when they burned. He also taught us how awesome carbon tetrachloride was for cleaning dirty potentiometers and stuff… good luck finding carbon tet nowadays, though, it’s not considered safe healthwise.

Most likely both sodium and potassium were stored in kerosene back then. Both react violently with water.

hank · 2020-01-01T21:55:09.000Z

If anybody else disassembles a cell and wonders what’s inside it — I asked one of the professionals in the field.
Here’s his response (which I also cc’d to BigClive)

===
We have an x-ray fluorescence spectrometer that could identify it if we had a sample. As speculation, the hydrogen storage metal can contain rare earths. Mischmetal is typically used as a component in the alloy, and particle diameters are 10-20 microns, so that could be the culprit.

best regards
mark

Mark W. Lund, PhD Battery Chargers
CEO Bulk Cells and Custom Battery Packs
PowerStream Technology Custom Power Supplies
1163 S. 1680 West DC/DC Converters
Orem Utah 84058 Custom UPS
(01)801-764-9060 Battery backup
http://www.PowerStream.com Engineering, manufacturing, consulting

scintillator · 2020-01-02T00:56:43.000Z

Your Mission

Boaz · 2020-01-02T03:05:57.000Z

phouton:

Thanks for sharing this, @sb56637@. Very interesting. Here’s another neat video. A flashlight shorting mystery with what looks like a variant of a common headlamp.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9gkxCNjOhg

So this guy admits to having stuck the battery into the headlamp the wrong way first..... then comes to the conclusion that it's a flaw in the design of the light that shorted out the cell . Yeah sure that makes perfect sense to me ..

hank · 2020-01-02T03:45:33.000Z

“I can’t remember which way it goes in, which I guess is part of the problem …”

Uh huh. I’ve got one of those same headlights. The button end of the battery goes in to the tube, and the other end of the battery meets up with the spring in the tailcap.

I agree, relying on the anodization layer as insulation is, well, cheap from China.

I pulled mine apart to put an elliptical Carclo lens in it, which worked out very well.