## WARNING - EXPLODING BATTERIES ##

simmo3801

I bought a pair of Ultrafire 18650 batteries from Deal Extreme for a SSC P7 torch. They arrived with the charger and torch. I charged them both and was amazed at the brightness of the torch. I left one battery in the torch and the other I put with the charger in my bedside cabinet drawer.

On Sunday morning at 07:55 I was awoken my a loud bang followed by some fizzing. This was mmediately followed by thick grey smoke pouring out of every available air space in my cabinet. I opened the drawer and was overwhelmed by thre amount of smoke coming from what was left of the battery which was rapidly melting the charger that it was resting on. i managed to juggle both battery and charger out the window.

BE WARNED!!!!!!!!!!

ademort

simmo3801 wrote:

I bought a pair of Ultrafire 18650 batteries from Deal Extreme for a SSC P7 torch. They arrived with the charger and torch. I charged them both and was amazed at the brightness of the torch. I left one battery in the torch and the other I put with the charger in my bedside cabinet drawer.

On Sunday morning at 07:55 I was awoken my a loud bang followed by some fizzing. This was mmediately followed by thick grey smoke pouring out of every available air space in my cabinet. I opened the drawer and was overwhelmed by thre amount of smoke coming from what was left of the battery which was rapidly melting the charger that it was resting on. i managed to juggle both battery and charger out the window.

BE WARNED!!!!!!!!!!

Did you inform Deal Extreme, if not then do so. I have the same torch and batteries, but luckily they work fine.Just as well you were at home and no damage was done.It could easily have set your house on fire. good to know that you are ok.
Ademort

Grimy

:shock: flipin heck, at least you woke up and tossed the bugger, could have been worse.

Still, thats the risk with Li-Ion cells. Never leave them charging unatteneded and check the voltage now and again with a meter and youll be fine. Its little wonder why there not comercially available in most of europe, theyd never pass saftey tests lol.

tlw1

Thanks for the heads up - won't leave them charging alone now!

alfablue

Yep, known risk with Lithiums (Sony and Dell had to replace tens of thousands of "exploding" laptop batteries).

I suggest

1) Never leave them on charge when out of the house
2) Place them on something like a kitchen worktop, not the carpet
3) Get a plug in timer (about £3) and set it for approximately 1 hour longer than the expected charge time. (I used to do this for my lead acid batteries for my Smart lights - they didn't explode but overcharging killed them).

ColinJ

Batteries get hot when you charge them so charging them in an enclosed space like your bedside cabinet drawer isn't a great idea.

grahamcp

Could the OP confirm whether the battery was actually on charge when this happenend?

I've been deliberating over whether to buy an SSC P7 for ages. The possibility of this type of incident has been niggling at me. I think I will avoid, it's just not worth the risk.

andy_wrx

simmo3801 wrote:

I left one battery in the torch and the other I put with the charger in my bedside cabinet drawer.

Err, I read this as that he charged the batteries, put one in the torch and stored the charger with the other one still in it in his bedside drawer.

Dunno why people are assuming he was charging it inside the drawer...



I've been quite careful with my DX 18650 charger and AA/AAA NiMh rapid/smart charger I got from them.
I first used them in the kitchen, resting on a breadboard, initially whilst I was in the kitchen cooking and then we were in the house and wandering through periodically.
I wasn't keen to switch them on for the first time and go to bed or out to work and leave them !
But, whilst they got a bit warm, they didn't get hot, smoulder or fizz so I've not been too worried.


I must admit though that I store my AA's in plastic cases, but that's really for convenience - they're not rolling around loose in the bottom of my camera bag, I can keep them in sets of 4 which are either charged or not charged, etc.

But I have heard of loose batteries touching together, shorting, getting hot, causing fires
- some airlines require you to carry batteries in your hand luggage because any fire there would get spotted quicking in the overhead locker rather than smouldering away in the hold
- and I was even on a Chinese Airlines flight where they hand-searched all our bags and took any loose batteries off us, any inside cameras or whatever were OK (they said they'd give them back to us at the other end, but we were on a photographic trip in Tibet and would have been b*ggered without batteries and most of us didn't trust them so there was much hiding of batteries in pockets or socks, etc - in the event though, we did get them back no problem)

Perhaps I'll stop storing my 18650's in the charger though...

simmo3801

Ok apologies I was in a rush at work when i posted the original so let me clear up a few points:

1. I was not charging the battery in a drawer!!!!!!!!????????
2. The battery was not left in the charger

As the original post said:

I left one battery in the torch and the other I put with the charger in my bedside cabinet drawer.

It was sitting on top of the charger not actually in it.
(Thanks to those of you who realised that)

I'm not sure if I can use any other type of battery in the torch if anyone knows a way of replacing 18650 batteries with anything else? I emailed the photon shop who said the grey Trustfire ones were protected (mine were the blue ones) but when I emailed back asking if that meant they wouldn't spontaneously combust I didn't get a reply so Im none the wiser really.

alfablue

The best protected and safest cells are generally regarded as AW rechargeables, they are more expensive but probably worth it for peace of mind. Available from The Photonshop.

andy_wrx

Ah, unprotected 18650's

Not sure about blue ones being unprotected and grey ones protected
This DX search returns a variety of Trustfire 18650's, different capacities, different prices, blue and grey (and black&red !), protected and unprotected
http://www.dealextreme.com/search.dx/se ... re%2018650